LAGuide

Where To Eat When You’re Hungover & Have No One To Blame But Yourself

Don’t eat a dry packet of ramen for breakfast.
Where To Eat When You’re Hungover & Have No One To Blame But Yourself image

photo credit: Andrea D'Agosto

There are hangovers, and then there are hangovers, those times when you wake up to discover that you may or may not have left your phone in the freezer. This is a guide for the latter. Because when the room finally stops spinning, you’ll need some food to regain your center of gravity. And while we can’t do anything about the regret soaking inside of you, or whatever you texted an old fling last night, we can tell you where to go when you’re looking to recover.

THE SPOTS

photo credit: Lowkey Burritos

Mexican

Long Beach

$$$$Perfect For:BreakfastBrunchQuick Eats
Earn 3x points with your sapphire card

The breakfast burrito, by all laboratory analysis, was created for battling hangovers. So when it’s Sunday morning, and you’re working through something brutal happening inside your head, you need to remember Lowkey Burritos. The Hollywood window serves an entire meal’s worth of food inside a flour tortilla, including tater tots, scrambled eggs, and bacon. But the real show stealer is the jalapeños cheese crust that gets wrapped around the burrito like the comfort blanket we need on dark hangover mornings. This burrito is greasy, rich, crispy, and everything our body needs. 

When you’re craving something greasy, crispy, and crunchy all at the same time, head to Carnitas El Momo to witness the “Aporkalypse”. This rich mixture of chopped pork shoulder, belly, and burnt ends on tortillas will tick all these boxes and soak up whatever toxins are currently ruining your life. Their tacos and tortas are so rich and juicy that they don’t need much seasoning or salsa, but they do call for El Momo’s “todo verde” agua fresca with lemon, mint, and cucumber. Consider this one-two punch a well-balanced cure.

Sitting in an infrared sauna with a jug of water is one of the best ways to detox after a night of drinking, but sometimes we don’t have access to said sauna. Instead, we go for spicy noodle soup: an equally sweat-inducing form of therapy. The soups at Mian in San Gabriel do just the trick and come in varying levels of tingling Sichuan spice. The spicy beef rib noodle is our remedy of choice with its tender meat, perfectly chewy noodles, and crimson red broth that has us sweating out last night’s tequila. Maybe leave an extra t-shirt in the car if things get messy. 

Some of the best hangover cures come from food trucks, but Mariscos El Faro goes the extra mile in hospitality. The mariscos truck in Highland Park sets up tables and stools so you can stay off your quivering legs and comfortably enjoy their fresh oysters, creamy mackerel ceviche, and shrimp aguachile with fiery chiltepín to get a healthy cleanse going. El Faro is also next to a quiet park, making the whole experience very relaxing. We also support bringing a picnic blanket and taking a nap at the park after––it’s been a rough morning.

A lopsided fast food burger and box of questionable nuggets is a hangover cure many of us know all too well, but plant-based diners no longer have to be excluded from this narrative. Mr. Charlie’s in Hollywood is here to provide a similar experience with a vegan twist, including the cheeky Frowny Meal with a Duble Duble burger, four nuggets, and perfectly salty fries.

If there was ever an all-star roster of hangover foods, pho would be a first-round draft pick. There’s just something about the mix of fragrant lemongrass broth, various herbs, and rice noodles that instantly brings us back from that next-day brink of death. It’s also why you’ll often find us at Golden Deli on Sundays. The iconic Vietnamese restaurant in San Gabriel is our favorite place in the world to escape and bury our heads (and necks and as much of our arms as possible) into warm, steaming bowls of phở tai served with so many fresh herbs, you’ll think they ransacked some lady’s backyard garden. We also recommend the #89b broken rice plate—a beautiful heap of rice, grilled beef, and two egg rolls. And to be clear, you really need those egg rolls. 

John O’Groats feels like that restaurant in your hometown that your family’s been going to for decades, where the owners still think you’re in high school even though you’re 32. And that’s exactly the kind of comfort you need right now. Everyone inside this West LA classic is either reading the newspaper, swapping synagogue gossip, or eating the Biscuits From Heaven until they can’t anymore. Yes, they’re actually called Biscuits From Heaven and yes, it’s a very accurate description.


When a dish is literally named “hangover soup,” you know it’s going to be good for what ails you. And at soup specialist Myung Ga, which has locations in Gardena and Arcadia, the spicy haejanguk—a crimson-colored soup made with bean sprouts, radish, cabbage, ox blood cubes, and beef brisket—is practically a life-giving tonic on days when that brain fog won’t lift. Alternate sips of the rich beef stock with bites of white rice and kimchi, and you’ll be back to your soju-sipping ways in no time. Be sure to ask for refills of their free iced barley tea, too—we’ll take it over a bottle of Pedialyte any day. 


Ggiata is a newer sandwich shop in East Hollywood, and yet, the reason we love it so much is just how old-school the menu feels. You’ll spot sandwiches filled with things like crispy chicken cutlets drenched in spicy vodka sauce, meatball parmesan, and tangy grilled balsamic chicken with roasted red peppers. Though there are a few traditional cold cut options on the menu, most of Ggiata’s sandwiches feel more like entrees on bread - and that’s a great attribute when you can’t keep your head upright for more than 15 seconds at a time. 

Come to Sawtelle Blvd. on a weekend and you’ll find nearly every ramen shop with a line wrapped around the block. Listen to your pounding headache, and go to Menya Tigre instead. This tiny noodle shop never has a wait and also specializes in something you can’t find anywhere else in the neighborhood—Japanese curry ramen. The broth is a rich blend of curry and salty chicken stock that’s topped with a slice of braised pork chashu and fresh, crunchy bean sprouts and green onions. When it all comes together with the chewy noodles down below, it’s a delicious, well-balanced bowl of soup that’ll go a long way toward breaking your migraine.

My Two Cents is a Southern spot, and, as Southern spots sometimes do, they take hospitality really seriously. The people behind the counter shout a welcome to you when you walk in the door, and before you even order, they’ll tell you about the massive case of cakes, pies, and cobblers—instinctively knowing you’re in need of one after drinking approximately 17 White Claws yesterday. This tiny spot on Pico also happens to make one of the best shrimp and grits in the city. Buttery, meaty shrimp pieces bathe in a Creole beurre monte sauce, then are served over a bed of creamy parmesan grits. 

Cemitas Don Adrian in Van Nuys has been around for decades and their giant cemitas only continue to get better. Their menu of 20-something sandwiches can definitely lead to some hangover-induced stress, so we’ll make things easier on you: order the milanesa de lomo de puerco. It comes with breaded pork loin, bright queso fresco, avocado, your choice of jalapeños or chipotle salsa, and stringy Oaxacan cheese (for an additional $1.99) - all sandwiched between a toasted sesame bun. The only thing that could possibly go wrong with your Don Adrian order is that you house your torta so fast while sitting in their parking lot that you accidentally give yourself another stomach ache. Sometimes it’s just not your day. 

According to leading scientists, there’s nothing that cures a hangover faster than a bagel and cream cheese - except for maybe a bagel and cream cheese and some of the best cured fish in Los Angeles. When we’re looking for that, we go to Maury’s in Silver Lake. Almost everything at this former pop-up pairs well with a Sunday afternoon and vague feelings of regret, from whitefish salad to labneh to traditional nova lox, but our favorite is the sable, which comes with buttery black cod, cream cheese, pickled onions, and tomatoes.

There are plenty of excellent bars in Koreatown, so it makes sense that there are also plenty of places to nurse a hangover. When we’re really in pain, we prefer porridge, and Bonjuk makes our favorite. It’s thick, hearty, and, according to the menu, healthy, including one bowl that’s supposed to cure weariness, and another that aids in detoxification. So basically, perfect for a hangover. We usually go for the pumpkin, the chicken ginseng, or the beef and mushroom - all of them come pretty unseasoned, which is good if you’re having stomach issues, but you can add in banchan to make them more flavorful.

Don’t be confused by the name - Sapp Coffee Shop is one of the best lunch spots not just in Thai Town, but all of Los Angeles, and an ideal place to make a vow to your liver to never drink again. Most of the things on their massive menu are great (we would eat the brothless, BBQ pork-covered jade noodles every day), but what they’re best known for is their boat noodle soup. The incredibly complex and cinnamon-y broth is filled with beef filet, tripe, tendon, pork skin, crunchy bean sprouts, and rice flour noodles, and if you still feel hungover after eating it, you might need to consult a medical professional.

Many of the hangover cures on this guide are going to include some sort of rice/protein/sauce combo, but to be honest, they all pale in comparison to the loco moco. Originally from Hawaii, this giant plate of white rice, hamburger patties, over-easy eggs, and thick brown gravy basically wrote the entire book on next-day recovery. There are a few places in LA that serve this GOAT meal, but one of our favorites is at Back Home in Lahaina. Located in Carson, this is also a great place for Hawaiian staples like poke on wonton chips and haupia (coconut cream custard) cheesecake.

Chase Sapphire Card Ad

Suggested Reading

undefined

The Best Brunch Spots In Los Angeles

The 16 LA restaurants where you should be eating pancakes, eggs, and chilaquiles this weekend.

The Eastside Brunch Guide image

Atwater Village

Your guide to the 30 best brunches on the Eastside, from East Hollywood to Highland Park.

The LA Bottomless Brunch Directory image

For when your one and only weekend plan involves drinking unhinged quantities of prosecco.

Infatuation Logo

Company

2024 © The Infatuation Inc. All Rights Reserved.

FIND PLACES ON OUR APP

Get it on Google PlayDownload on the App Store