Boyle Heights

Things to know

• The best food here is on trucks, in butcher shops and behind counters. Several of the places in this guide have no dining room at all, and at least one is cash only.
• The Metro E Line runs through the neighbourhood with stations at Pico/Aliso, Mariachi Plaza, Soto and Indiana — this is one of the easiest places in Los Angeles to reach without a car.
• Most of these kitchens close mid-afternoon. Mariscos Jalisco shuts at 5:30pm, Birrieria Nochistlan at 4pm, Los Cinco Puntos at 6pm. This is a lunch neighbourhood, not a dinner one.
• Mariachi Plaza at 1st and Boyle is where mariachi musicians have gathered for hire since the 1930s, in full charro dress. It is a working labour exchange, not a performance — do not treat it as a show.
• Gentrification is a live and angry argument here in a way it is not elsewhere in the city. Spend money at the long-standing family businesses, which is where the good food is anyway.