Restaurante Juquila ~ 11619 Santa Monica Blvd. West Los Angeles, CA 90025 ~ (310) 312-1079
Juquila has been my spot for a long time. A loooong time. A long-duck-dong time! The food is great, but possibly secondary to why I love it. The vibe is pure community, it can feel like this neighborhood's hearth for the family, friends, cliques, posses, crews, and clans that call it a second-home. Breakfasts have always been a special time here, with sweetly spiced coffee, hearty, inexpensive egg plates (just $4.99), cantilevered-bosomed waitresses who enjoy my devotion, and tortilla chips and salsa at 9AM. I like lounging in Juquila so much, I even put off writing about it, for fear I would have to share it with others. I missed the episode of Sesame Street that promoted this virtue as a boy.
Then, a short while ago, McConaughey-style, Juquila turned things up a notch. Horchata got a frozen strawberry, beers got a michelada-style rimjob, and the chips got a hearty skeeting of tasty mole Coloradito on top. Juquila (named for a famous sancitfied Virgin in the Oaxacan town of Juquila that draws many pilgrims) does a reliably excellent job on standards; mean tortas at lunch, superior tacos and crisp tlayudas bearing top-notch asada and pastor, and excellent rellenos, plus a whiteboard full of daily Oaxacan specialties which are all mouth-wateringly titled. Nopales, camarones, and supposedly (tho' I've never seen it) even chapulines grace this impressive menu of morphing wonders.