El Tepeyac Cafe
Mexican restaurant · Boyle Heights ·
Massive burritos & homestyle Mexican fare since 1955
Massive burritos & homestyle Mexican fare since 1955
"A cornerstone of L.A.'s Chicano burrito tradition, the place established by Ramon Manuel “Manny” Rojas (originally opened by his father in 1942 and relocated in 1952) popularized outsized burritos — most famously the five-pound Manuel’s Special — piled with rice, beans, guacamole, cheese, pico de gallo and chile rojo, with an extra ladle of chile rojo on top for a drippy, savory, blue-collar masterpiece." - Eater Staff
"At Boyle Heights’s famed El Tepeyac, the gigantic Hollenbeck wet burrito—an example of the stewed-meat sauces typical of Mexican American wet burritos—is highlighted as a contrast to EK Valley’s mole-based approach." - Matthew Kang
"In East Los Angeles, you can drive anywhere and get homemade tortillas. At El Tepeyac, they are next-level, paired with real Mexican food. I don't drink, but every time I go in, the owner is always like, ‘Hey, el cholo!’ and gives me a little shot of whiskey or tequila. Once he walks away, I give it to somebody, so everybody likes to sit next to me."
Adam can't be in Los Angeles without sampling some of the country's best Mexican food. At El Tepeyac, he'll attempt to stomach the five-pound Manuel's Special, designed to feed two to four people.
"An iconic Boyle Heights Mexican restaurant operating since the 1960s and run as a family dynastic business in which children grew up helping—doing homework, playfully taking orders, and eventually stepping into leadership—yet the restaurant still enforces limits (such as prohibiting staff from bringing kids during shifts) for practical reasons like insurance." - ByLydia Kiesling