The 10 Best Eats On LA's Eastside

El Tepeyac Café embodies everything great about the Eastside: simplicity, community, and friendliness. The decor at El Tepeyac Café is unpretentious, and seating is close and intimate. Manuel, the restaurant’s owner, is a local legend, famous for his hospitality and his larger-than-life personality. You might recognize El Tepeyac Café from the Travel Channel’s Man Vs Food, so it’s safe to assume that portions are generous. Try the Hollenbeck de Machaca, it’s pretty massive and comes with shredded beef, sautéed onions, tomatoes, jalapeños, eggs, melted cheddar cheese, rice, beans, and guacamole topped with tangy ranchera sauce.

Mole poblano is more than just the national dish of Mexico. As a blend of Old and New World ingredients, it’s a symbol of Mexican culture as a whole. Moles La Tia specializes in Oaxacan and poblano moles including passion fruit, tequila, and coffee mole. Moles La Tia prides itself on cooking with organic and fresh ingredients and using more than 15 kinds of chilis and ten different spices and seeds. The restaurant itself is bright and airy, and the décor is characterized by traditional ranchera pastel colors.

It might seem a tad eccentric to go to Boyle Heights for Japanese food when Little Tokyo is just a couple of miles away, but once you’ve eaten at Otomisan, it will make perfect sense. Otomisan is as unassuming on the inside as it is on the outside, but it is a wonderful relic of Boyle Heights’s diverse past and a time when it was home to many Japanese Americans. The dishes are simple but uniformly excellent, inventive yet familiar. Come for the delicious food, but stay for the unique, colorful, and warming ambiance.