Dining at the La Morenita Tortilleria and Bakery in Cypress Park is like having a meal at a market in Michoacán or Jalisco. You’re surrounded by food: great trays of fresh bolillos and pastries, racks of lovingly decorated cakes, freshly made tortillas and coolers full of juices and soft drinks. And like the market “loncherias,” La Morenita serves great food at great prices.

Some restaurants are focused on dinner and others are perfect for a brunch get-together. Very few eateries do both especially well. But over the past seven years, Camilo?s has evolved into the Swiss army knife of Northeast L.A. restaurants, a high-ceilinged bistro that provides reliably good quality and a flourish of culinary style, from breakfast omelets to (relatively) late night desserts.

vspace="6" hspace="8" align="left"
When it comes to comfort food, it’s hard to beat the pizza and pasta staples of southern Italian cooking. And since 1968, Folliero’s Pizza and Italian Food has been a beacon for all those in need of those simple comforts. More than just a good pizza place, this salt-of-the-earth restaurant offers a solid red sauce-based menu with a good range of lunch and dinner options for both meat-eaters and vegetarians.

Bright, airy and spacious, The Good Girls Dinette comes to the heart of Highland Park with the concept, “American Diner Meets Vietnamese Comfort Food,” and lives up to its billing as a relaxed dining experience with healthy choices and an interesting take on Southeast Asian flavors.

There’s just a touch of an eastside accent to the sushi and Japanese fare at Mia Sushi, now in its third year as our only nearby sushi bar and Japanese restaurant. The slight eastside inflection turns up in the cilantro that accents the miso soup, in the lingering heat of the spicy Firecracker Salad, in the signature Mia Roll, a California roll topped with avocado.

Set in a corner of the Cypress Park section of North Figueroa, butted right against Nightingale Junior High, Maria’s Restaurant and Pupuseria is an informal family spot with no pretensions. The Salvadoran food is good and homemade, the service is fast and friendly and the prices are suited to budget dining. And you won’t find a better pupusa north of the El Salvador-Guatemala border.

Mexican food is blessedly plentiful in our neighborhood and people tend to be as partisan toward their favorite Mexican eatery as, well, all those other things about which we tend to be partisan. Despite the competition with a plethora of nearby Mexican restaurants, few neighborhood places inspire such affection and loyalty as does the venerable La Abeja.

Restaurant Review: Señor Fish Revisited

The York
5018 York Avenue
Highland Park
Open seven days for dinner. Brunch on weekends.

With its exposed brick walls, stained concrete floor and 20’ft. ceilings, York, which opened last summer, has the feel of a stylish downtown loft and is tasteful addition to the new crop of bars, cafes and restaurants sprouting along York Avenue’s booming Eagle Rock to Figueroa corridor.
Though dominated by the bar that bi-sects its enormous industrial-chic space, York’s kitchen produces excellent quality and surprisingly diverse food choices, featuring dinner seven days a week and brunch on weekends.