I like this restaurant. The pollo asado is really good.
I also like this restaurant. I’ve been known to make meals solely of their panuchos and tamal horneados. Their whole octopus is fantastic, as are the majority of their specials.
I believe it’s “Chichen” (to make it more search-friendly).
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Really, really like the place! Even though the cochinita pibil gets the buzz, the chicharron tacos and salbutes are my favorite, but I haven’t tried the octopus yet, so I reserve the right to rejigger my ranking.
Chicharron:
https://www.instagram.com/p/96p7Ggg-nr/
Salbutes:
https://www.instagram.com/p/96klfxA-vf/
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I love octopus and yet to catch it on special. Love everything on the menu. A lot of times I’ll grab some ice cream from the Oaxacan place after my meal.
For a while it was on the menu but I think they took it off. If you give them a call, I’m sure they’d prepare it for you.
I ended up talking to the chef for 15-20 minutes about it because he was so excited that people were trying it. Evidently though, there wasn’t enough demand to keep it on the menu
Chicharron is a must order for me. I can’t not order it and the potato salad that comes with the tortas is oddly addictive to me.
Anyone ever get their longaniza? Or the papadzules?
It still boggles my mind that this place was featured on Diners, Drive-Inn’s, and Dives. To my mind it fits into none of those categories. I’ve always thought it was remarkably clean, refined cooking. Just because it’s not set in a flashy building beset by glass walls, with a Nordic polished wood interior, slinging some kind of Coxian concoctions instead of aqua de chayas in a mercado it’s supposedly a “dive”?..
So weird to me. I have no doubt the chefs have been made offers to do the same thing that Ricardo Zarate did with Mo Chica, but they choose to remain in their location; and given Zarate’s massive blow-up, it seems they are wise people. If only every community had such a splendid place.
Weirdly enough, despite it being probably the most “boring” item on the menu, I also love the pollo asado there. It always seems to be cooked perfectly, and since it comes with plantains which seem to be grilled to levels of obsessive perfection one would expect of a fine dining establishment, garnished with a whisper of their grilled habenero salsa, it is one of the most pleasant bites of food one can find in Los Angeles. I am not sure there is a greater contrast of saccharine and extreme heat in any other dish I’ve ever had anywhere else.
I had the Papadzules the last time I was there. They were good. the one minor quibble from my Yucatecan Wife is that there was more pipian than there should have been especially compared to the amount of tomato sauce in the dish. She says it’s supposed to be more 50/50. Though that just may have been someone with a heavy hand with the mole in the kitchen that day.
How does their cochinita pibil stack up to flor de yucatan’s?
They’re fairly close to one another, distance wise. You could easily do a back to back comparison and report back. I’d like to hear what you think.
Imo, far superior.
There also used to be a Chichen Itza on 6th street west of Alvarado. It was more upscale than the one at the Mercado but the food was similar and the people were great.
If you like to endure tongue numbing, they have some exceptionally hot sauce but I think you have to ask for it.
Thank you, I will do that. Do you recall how much it costs?
For the uninitiated, how does a Papadzule differ from an enchilada? Is it just the sauce?
The construction is similar however the sauce and fillings are very different.
Longaniza was good. A little dry, if I remember correctly, but I think that’s the style. Glad I tried it but there are many other dishes I’d rather order from there.
Been eatin’ there since before the (much delayed) opening and after the (lamented) closing of the 6th Street “upscale” location, and have always been a fan. Wish they’d manage to open a new uptown location, though in light of Zarate’s mess I understand why they might be hesitant.
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[quote=“Jase, post:14, topic:2444, full:true”]
I can’t recall, though I remember it, like most of their items, to be really affordable. Maybe low 20’s, maybe high teens? @Aesthete, do you remember how much the whole octopus cost?
Low 30’s for a 3LB octopus.
It’s still like $11-$12 per lb, which is insanely affordable when most of the high-end places around town serve a single tentacle for $18-$30.
Kind of makes me hesitant to order it anywhere else because of how bad the rip off seems to be after having it so cheap at Chichen Itza.