LAGuide
The Best Tortas In LA
photo credit: Andrea D'Agosto
The torta is the king of sandwiches because it’s never boring. This Mexican classic pushes the limits of what can fit between two slices of bread. Want hotdogs, eggs, breaded steak, and an entire roast pig inside a telera roll? A torta stand in Los Angeles can most likely do that for you, and chances are it’ll be incredibly delicious, too. Between the sheer amount of vendors and regional style, there are a lot of tortas to eat in this town, but these are the 11 that you should prioritize.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Sylvio Martins
If Jacques Pepín cared about tortas the same way he cares about French omelets, he’d open something like Fabby’s Sandwicherie. This tiny sandwich counter in Downtown fills its tortas with things from a French bistro menu, like pommes puree, mushroom coq au vin, and snappy escabeche. The bread, though, is the best part. It’s a chewy, Jalisco-style birote toasted on a hot press until grill marks form. Fabby’s has a short menu of six sandwiches, and our favorite is the beef bourguignon with wine-braised short rib, creamy mashed potatoes, and melted Oaxacan cheese that glues it all together.
The “super” in this food truck’s name is warranted, simply because these tortas are genuinely supersized. Located in South Central, Super Tortas DF makes sandwiches on huge, fluffy telera rolls and fills them with an entire meal’s worth of food. Our go-to is their famous Cubana stuffed with ham, hot dogs, scrambled eggs, pork leg, milanesa, avocado (yes, there’s more), tomato, jalapeños, and a generous amount of quesillo. It’s as jaw-stretching and gut-heavy as it sounds, but you don’t go to a place called Super Tortas for a light lunch.
photo credit: Matt Gendal
Do not wear white to this restaurant, and do not eat these sandwiches at the office. This Montebello spot makes delicious tortas ahogadas, or pork sandwiches drenched in spoonfuls of spicy, tangy salsa roja. It’s drippy, messy, and flavorful, with the bright salsa soaking into the chewy, salty birote and juicy carnitas tucked inside. These tortas also come topped with pickled onions for bite. We suggest dining in to eat it fresh—just roll up your sleeves and maybe have an extra outfit in the car if you’re headed somewhere afterward.
photo credit: Andrea D'Agosto
Most people come to this Boyles Heights truck for the excellent tacos árabes, but the cemitas are just as good. These Puebla-style tortas come on crusty sesame buns, with our favorite being the cemita de cecina—a huge beef sandwich that is 70% steak and 30% bread. The grilled meat juts out like a pool diving board, and there’s a pile of quesillo in the sandwich that gently melts. There’s onion, cilantro, and avocado to lighten things up, plus citrusy papalo that cuts through the steak.
East Hollywood’s Tlayuda LA is a Oaxacan restaurant known for its excellent tlayudas, vegan tacos, and homemade moles, but do not skip out on their torta Oaxaqueña. Compared to other tortas, this sandwich is simple and effective. There’s a lot of flavor packed into these soft telera rolls, including well-seasoned frijoles, mayo, melted quesillo, a thin slice of asada, and, the star ingredient, a pile of ground chorizo. The spicy, smoky pork stains everything bright red and makes your car smell like a five-star Mexican breakfast, which is never a bad thing.
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 make ordering lunch unnecessarily stressful, so take our advice: 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 $2)—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 in their parking lot that you accidentally give yourself a stomach ache. Sometimes, it’s just not your day.
photo credit: Andrea D'Agosto
When you’re craving something greasy, crispy, and crunchy all at the same time, head to Carnitas El Momo to witness the “Aporkalypse”. That sounds like a lot for a midday sandwich, but wait until you catch a glimpse of this thing. Chopped pork shoulder, belly, and burnt ends are stuffed into a soft bolillo roll with onions, cilantro, a dash of salsa roja, and just the right amount of glorious carnitas fat. It’s those caramelized drippings that tie the flavors together and make this a torta we crave whenever we’re recovering from an eventful weekend.
This roughly 7-foot by 10-foot operation has been around since the ’90s and makes some of the best Mexico City-style tortas in LA. The South Central truck presses its tortas on the grill until the telera rolls get extra crispy, and they stick to classic fillings such as milanesa, pork leg, and sliced hot dogs. If you’re going big on meats, the Porky torta is our favorite with its trifecta of slow-cooked pork, spicy chorizo, and carnitas, plus all the usual accompaniments like avocado, mayo, lettuce, and frijoles. They also offer meat-free options too, like the Veggie with a blend of mushroom, onions, and bell peppers that get a nice sear on the plancha.
Chichen Itza is a Yucatecan food stall inside Mercado La Paloma near USC that makes truly spectacular cochinita pibil. The slow-roasted pork is marinated in achiote and sour orange, and just as delicious eaten on its own, folded inside tacos, or tucked into one of Chichen Itza’s housemade pan frances. These bread rolls resemble a softer, wider cousin of the baguette, which means all of the tangy marinade soaks into the roll while remaining sturdy enough to hold in the mattress-thick layer of pork, salsa, and pickled onions.
photo credit: Tortas Chingonas
This torta shop has a cheeky name (a Mexican abuelita would not approve), but that’s part of the charm. This Paramount shop makes unapologetically huge tortas, so big they’re comical. And the sandwiches’ names lean into absurdity, too. There’s La Mamalona (expletive beep) that manages to fit grilled hot dogs, chorizo, ham, milanesa, and steak into a modest toasted telera roll. This meatpalooza spills out the sides and hangs into the bread by a thread of melted cheese, forcing you to eat this sitting down (and maybe wearing a bib.) Is it a bit much? Sure, but it’s delicious, especially with their spicy curitdo and punchy salsa roja.
Cook’s in Monterey Park does things a little differently. Their warm housemade bread is closer to ciabatta, and there are plenty more filling options than the traditional milanesa and asada (although they have those, too). At this casual sit-down spot, a torta can come with blackened cajun fish, BBQ pulled pork, or salty bacalao (cod), which tastes like the best-ever version of tuna casserole. The menu includes nearly 20 options, but the unique bacalao—which pops with roasted garlic, sauteed peppers, and olives—might be our favorite.
