Plan

A small coffee bar on Cesar Chavez two doors from The Paramount, doing espresso alongside drinks built on cafe de olla, horchata and Mexican chocolate. The pastries come in from nearby bakeries and there are a few tables and a counter. It opens at seven and shuts at six, so it is the morning and afternoon answer on this block.

Mon to Fri, 7am to 6pm. Sat, 7am to 4pm. Closed Sun

A walk-up window on First Street that has sold the same bean and cheese burrito since 1966, with green chile if you ask for it. There is no dining area to speak of, just a sidewalk and a couple of tables, and the order comes back in paper in about four minutes. Boyle Heights Beat put the appeal down to not having changed anything.

Tue to Sun, 10am to 7pm. Closed Mon

A take-out window in the front of the old banquet hall at 2811 East Olympic, selling the small guisado-filled burritos of Jerez, Zacatecas on flour tortillas pressed to order. The birria de res is the one people come for and a single burrito is about the size of your hand, so nobody orders one. The hall's license means beer and wine to go as well.

Mon to Thu, 11am to 6pm. Fri to Sun, 10:30am to 6pm

The Lopez family cooks carnitas in copper pots on a lot off Soto Street, and has done since long before the storefront in Monterey Park existed. You order by the part you want rather than by the taco, and the buche and cueritos go before the maciza does. It is a yard with a tent, a plastic table and a long line of people who planned their afternoon around it.

Wed to Sun, 10:30am to 5pm. Closed Mon and Tue

A small storefront on Evergreen whose reputation rests almost entirely on flautas, fried to order and buried under guacamole and crema. It has been in the same family since the 1950s and the menu has barely moved. You order at the counter, sit at a formica table, and are out in half an hour.

Tue to Thu, 7am to 8pm. Fri to Sun, 7am to 9pm. Closed Mon

A family restaurant at Soto and Whittier that has been cooking lamb barbacoa since 2003, served with consommé, rice and the usual salsas. Weekends are when the barbacoa is at its best and the place fills with families eating before noon. It shuts in the late afternoon, so this is a daytime stop and nothing else.

Daily, 8:30am to 4pm

The Rojas family has been feeding this corner of Evergreen Avenue since 1942, when the place was called El Tupinamba. It is known for the Hollenbeck burrito, named for the LAPD division up the street, and for Manuel's Special, which weighs about five pounds and is ordered mostly as a dare. The dining area is small, covered in photographs of regulars, and the line outside moves at the pace of a counter, not a sit-down restaurant.

Mon to Thu and Sun, 6am to 7pm. Fri and Sat, 6am to 8pm

The original Guisados, open on Cesar Chavez since 2010, doing stewed fillings on thick handmade corn tortillas. You order at the counter from a board of about a dozen braises and the sampler plate of six small tacos exists for people who cannot choose. It is bright, loud and fast, with a patio out back, and it has kept the same format while the company added a dozen other addresses.

Daily, 9am to 9pm

Twenty-one acres around a lake, laid out in 1892, with a bridge over the water and the Golden State Freeway cut along one edge. There are pedal boats on weekends, a bandshell, and a steady crowd of people fishing and walking laps. It is the oldest park on this side of the river and it still works as the neighborhood's back yard.

Daily, 6am to 10:30pm

A panaderia on Whittier Boulevard running since 1952, where most people come for tamales by the dozen rather than for pan dulce. You take a tray and tongs at the door and pay by the piece at the register. At five in the morning there is already a line of people buying for a party later that day.

Mon to Sat, 5am to 7pm. Sun, 5am to 6pm

A full restaurant on Cesar Chavez with a tiled bar and a molcajete that arrives still bubbling. The waiters have worked there for decades. The menu runs long and covers mole, carne asada and seafood, and the margaritas are the reason a lot of tables stay past dessert. L.A. Taco treats it as the neighborhood's occasion restaurant rather than a quick stop.

Mon to Thu and Sun, 9am to 8pm. Fri and Sat, 9am to 9pm

A storefront lending library across from Mariachi Plaza, started by David Kipen in 2010, where membership is a few dollars and you can also just buy the book. The shelves lean heavily on Los Angeles writing and on Spanish-language fiction. After the city cut branch hours, this place extended its own, which is the kind of detail that tells you what it is for.

Tue to Sun, noon to 6pm. Closed Mon

A triangle of pavement at First and Boyle where mariachis have waited for hire since the 1930s, still in uniform, still negotiating by the hour. A kiosk donated by the state of Jalisco stands in the middle and the Metro entrance is built into the corner. On a weekend afternoon there are usually several groups standing around, and sometimes one of them plays.

Open all hours. Mariachis gather mostly in daylight and on weekend afternoons

The other shrimp taco on this stretch of Olympic, two blocks from Mariscos Jalisco and argued about in the same sentence. The tacos dorados come out of the fryer onto a paper plate with cabbage and a thin red salsa, and the tostada de camaron is the order if you want something cold. It is a stand with a counter and a few stools on the sidewalk.

Daily, 9am to 5:30pm

Raul Ortega has parked on this stretch of Olympic since 2001 and sells one thing people line up for, the tacos dorados de camaron, fried to order and topped with avocado and a tomato salsa poured over the top. There is a folding table and a wall to lean on. The line is usually ten deep at lunch and takes about as long as it takes to read the menu board.

Daily, 9am to 6pm

Six booths and a counter in a narrow storefront on First Street, open since 1956 and the last Japanese restaurant left from the era when Boyle Heights held one of the largest Japanese American populations in the country. The menu is teishoku sets, curry rice and udon, cooked by one person at a time. There is a state historical marker on the building and it is still a neighborhood lunch place rather than a museum.

Mon to Sat, 11:30am to 2pm and 4:30pm to 7:30pm. Closed Sun

A women-owned carnitas counter on Soto below Olympic, selling pork by the pound with tortillas, salsa and nopales to go with it. Most of the trade is people buying a kilo for home on a Saturday morning, and there are a few seats if you want to eat there. It opens at half past eight and is done by five.

Mon to Fri and Sun, 8:30am to 5pm. Sat, 8am to 5pm

A cash-only stand on the Olympic taco row, one door east of Don Quixote, doing beef and goat birria on handmade tortillas with consommé on the side. The goat is the reason to come and the consommé is rich enough to drink on its own. There is no seating worth the name, so people eat standing at the counter or in the car.

Mon and Wed to Sun, 8:30am to 4:30pm. Closed Tue

Two brothers from Oaxaca who cooked in Lebanese restaurants put both cuisines on one short menu, so a plate of hummus sits next to a tlayuda and the kebab comes wrapped in a handmade tortilla. It is a small storefront on Forest Avenue with a handful of tables and an order-at-the-counter setup. The name is Zapotec for thank you.

Tue to Sat, 11:30am to 7pm. Closed Sun and Mon

A plain bar on Whittier east of Soto with a pool table, a jukebox and beer at neighborhood prices. It runs to two in the morning on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which makes it one of very few verified late options east of the river. Cash is the safer assumption and the crowd is local.

Fri to Sun, open until 2am. Earlier close on weekdays, call ahead

A narrow bar across from Mariachi Plaza that opened in 2006 and became the place where the argument about who Boyle Heights belongs to got held out loud. Live mariachi turns up, DJs play through the week, and the karaoke nights are built around mariachi standards and Selena. A small stage faces downtown from the door. Some nights have a cover.

Wed to Sun, 8pm to 2am. Closed Mon and Tue

Raul Martinez started King Taco out of a converted ice cream truck in East Los Angeles in 1974, and this Cesar Chavez branch keeps the original format: a brightly lit counter with a salsa bar. Carnitas and lengua come by the taco. It is open past midnight every night and until three on weekends, which in this part of town is unusual. Cash moves fast and the line is rarely longer than five minutes.

Mon to Thu and Sun, 8:30am to midnight. Fri and Sat, 8:30am to 3am

The Boyle Heights branch of a Mexican bakery started by two friends from Mexico City, on Boyle Avenue just north of First Street. The case holds conchas and tres leches, with pan de muerto in season. The coffee is their own roast. It opens at six in the morning and stays open until ten at night every day, which on this side of the river is unusual.

Mon to Sat, 6am to 10pm. Sun, 7am to 10pm

A truck that parks on Olympic in the evening selling tacos árabes, the Puebla dish of pork shaved off a vertical spit onto a flour pan árabe with a chipotle sauce. It trades in Mid-City during the day and moves east at night, which is why the location is worth a check before you go. Everything is eaten standing up next to the truck.

Wed, Thu and Sun, 3pm to 10pm. Fri and Sat, 3pm to 11pm. Closed Mon and Tue

One of two Pioneer Chicken locations left in Los Angeles, on Soto at Whittier since about 1982, still selling the fried chicken and gravy the chain was built on after the Echo Park original shut in 2009. The sign is the original sign and the chicken comes in a box with a biscuit. It is counter service with a small seating area and a drive-through.

Daily, 10am to 9pm