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October 9, 2007
Late Night Eats: El Gran Burrito aka Midnight Tacos
Sometimes it's late and you don't need a full meal, you just want a taste of something, maybe just a little bite of something spicy. Something more for your mouth than for your stomach.
El Gran Burrito has big fat honkin $3 burritos, but for late night eats, we recommend the tacos. They're just a buck each, the pollo is tasty, the asada is savory, but our fave is the pastor. If you're feeling courageous the lengua seems to be the choice of most of the regulars.
Midnight Tacos is open 24/7. They have several different places to get your grub on, three on the outside of the building, one in the inside. Doesn't matter what time of day or night you go there, something's going on. One of the kitchens is being mopped, or someone's chopping meat, or someone's peeling vegetables.
The result of all the hard work and effort is a clean, friendly, casual eating environment, and delicious food.
Most of the time that you will be at El Gran Midnight Tacos it'll be night. You should might be there drunk or under the influence or in love. Therefore most of your memories about the place will look like the photo above.
Therefore here are some images of the joint in the daytime so you can see what you overlooked. Hey look at that burro. Or is it a kangaroo? Maybe it's a liger. A baby liger.
One nice thing about going to Midnight Tacos late at night is that no drug dealers are allowed. This sign actually repels them.
There's a lot of parking at Midnight Tacos. Probably more parking than any other straight-up taco place in LA. Although there are plenty of little cheesy rides for the kids and video games, etc., this aint no Family Dinning situation. It's a quickie little taco place. It has no business having so much parking.
There's so much parking that you could easily park your car next to the Swiss Alps, which borders the southern portion of the lot.
There's so much parking that they've hung photos on the planters so you can remember which part of the lot you parked at.
Our favorite time to go to Midnight Tacos is at 2:30am. Doesn't matter what day of the week, if you show up there after the bars have closed, everyone will be out in the back area. Something ridiculous will be on the tv in Spanish, and everyone will have bloodshot eyes and club clothes.
You'll see little Mexican guys and you'll say to yourself, "wow I never knew that guy was gay."
You won't hear any English pretty much.
And you will think, "wow, if the subway really ran 24/7 this would probably be as popular as the Pantry."
El Gran Burrito
Midnight Tacos
4716 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood
at the corner of Vermont
photos by Sonny I. LaVista for LAist
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oh hellllllls yes! their salsa bar is stellar, and the potato flautas and platanos make this the perfect vegetarian taco stop. VIVA MIDNIGHT TACOS
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they also have really yummy potato tacos that do an excellent job of soaking up the excess booze in your stomach! They have good quarter machines too if you like cheap plastic things.
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I'm hungry after reading this...I think I'll go check it out tonight!
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Thank you for this, I wanted to try this spot recently but was scared off by some citysearch/yelp reviews.
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Two words - Chicken Chimichangas
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I love this place. Not only because their food rawks, but because I bought my dog here for a thrifty ten bucks. To wit: http://blogging.la/archives/2007/04/angelenos_their_pets.phtml
I'm unsure of any connection between the food and medium-sized dogs for sale, but, er, I wouldn't think about it too hard.
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I like Gran Burrito better than Alejandros/Alertos.
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It's worth mentioning how to order in this joint, lest you end up standing around for your food forever, like we did on our first visit.
You order in basic form: '1 burrito, 1 taco regulares, 2 burritos mojado' etc. No details needed for the cashier.
Take your receipt and (this is where we got lost) give it to the cook, who will then ask what meat you want.
We totally were not aware of this on our first visit and ended up standing around for a good 20 mins before the cook motioned us over, asking for our receipt.
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yes youre absolutely right - it does seem like an odd way to do things. particularly because if you order inside you do it in the opposite way.
i also forgot to mention to avoid ordering "chips" - theyre super greasy and not even worth the effort.