Micheladas are intensely savory, somewhat spicy, and highly refreshing concoctions that will have you breaking a healthy sweat over your morning eggs. Made with varying ratios of beer, lime, Clamato, and salty condiments, this cocktail is a classic go-to for combating a tequila headache after a big night out. And because of LA’s thriving Mexican community, this city is one of the best for sipping on ice cold micheladas with a seafood tostada. Here are the best spots for micheladas in Los Angeles.
The Spots
Sometimes life has us feeling like Bill Murray in Lost In Translation: in the mood to sit alone at a bar, drink in hand, and be left alone with our thoughts. Silver Lake’s Ceviche Project is a Mexican seafood restaurant with a bar perfect for those types of “me” days, where you can order a salty and tart michelada full of shrimp stock and some secret ingredients. The mix is cut with cold Tecate over ice, but you can still taste every hint of spice and salt from the potent tomato elixir.
With three locations scattered across town, La Chuperia is known for making some of the spiciest, saltiest, and largest micheladas in LA. Some of their drinks are borderline meals, like the massive Chuper Michelada with all sorts of snacks dangling from the rim. It comes in a goblet dripping with chamoy syrup, filled with smoky Clamato juice and your choice of beer. The beer bottle arrives dunked upside down into the glass, where it sits submerged like a capsized vessel. You can snack on peeled shrimp, some cucumber slices, a spicy tamarind stick, and even lick the chamoy off the rim once you’ve run out of munchies.
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Friday nights at Xelas feel like coming across a neighborhood pachanga where there’s plenty of craft beer flowing—and instead of your aunt hogging the AUX cord at the block party (again), there’s a live DJ spinning reggaeton hits. This Boyle Heights bar makes a “chela-forward” michelada (a.k.a. more beer, less tomato): A pint of Mexican lager is mixed with “I Love Micheladas” mix to create a bubbly, smoky, and super citrusy cocktail. It’s simple, refreshing, and light enough to follow with a few more rounds.
Aside from the extensive mezcal menu, the main reason we like Las Perlas is its dimly lit interior that’s perfect for hiding from people you don’t want to talk to. But once you’ve found your little corner to blend into, we strongly recommend ordering a cold beer with a michelada add-on. The mix at this DTLA bar is on the spicier end of the miche spectrum, with plenty of vinegar-based hot sauce and Worcestershire. This cocktail packs the punch of a spicy sangrita shot, making it one of the smokier and more savory micheladas on this list.
This Highland Park truck has been parked at the same quiet public park for a decade, where you can grab mariscos to go or stick around for a long lunch if you’re looking to play hooky. A lot of the flavors in El Faro’s michelada reminds us of the tangy salsa roja found on the truck’s signature aguachile, which has a refreshing tomatoey, clam broth base we’re really into. These miches also come ice cold and are never too salty or spicy. It’s definitely more chela than mix, which is great for an afternoon at the park—errr, we mean lunch break.
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This Santa Monica spot makes an excellent margarita, but their Happy Hour is also the ideal setting for unwinding with a glass of spiked tomato juice. Mercado’s micheladas come with a dark, slightly brown mix loaded with salty flavor from soy sauce (and potentially other covert condiments like Maggi and Tabasco). It’s intense but goes down smooth with an ice-cold beer and generously salted rim. We’re also fans of the tamarind stick that takes us back to our piñata party days.
Angel City Brewery is a great spot to play a few matches of corn hole and order a craft beer you’ve never heard of before. But amongst the menu’s funny-sounding beers (i.e., the Zero Flocs Given) is a very good “srirachalada” that is light, tangy, and slightly spicier than you’d expect. The beer is flavored with the brewery’s own miche concentrate with lime juice, spicy pickled chiles, and a dose of savory Worcestershire sauce. It’s essentially a cold pint of ale infused with the essence of sriracha and it’s absolutely delicious, with enough chile flavor to leave your lips tingling.
We don’t head to Diablo in Silver Lake for tacos, but we will make a trip for their loaded pork belly nachos and some great micheladas. The miches are deliciously tart from the fresh lime juice in the mix, yet balanced by the vegetable flavors of Clamato. A more creative way to enjoy a michelada here is with their frozen Diablo pops, which are popsicles you dunk into your beer of choice—we especially love the refreshingly savory tomato lime flavor.
Miches de la Baja reminds us of some early 2000s beach bar in Huntington Beach that sells brick-sized burritos and plays surf rock on repeat. While this Torrance spot does, in fact, serve large burritos, we prefer their excellent micheladas instead. You can choose either sweet or savory: the salty michelada is heavier on the beer side with a thick chamoy and tajin rim, whereas sweet miches, like the Chamoy Piña, include a spicy, syrup-coated pineapple wedge and tamarind candy stick that doubles as your straw. Their peppery miche mix has some heat and pairs great with the cucumber and pickle toppings, making for a light snack.
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Guerilla Tacos in the Arts District is known for creative takes on tacos that involve things like pork belly in Oaxacan mole and sweet potato with feta cheese. However, their house michelada comes with some delicious twists, too. The roja michelada here has hints of soy sauce, lime juice, and roasted red chiles that bring a little smoke to the mix. We personally love the addition of olive brine that goes hand-in-hand with the Clamato broth and brings out the beer’s sour notes.
