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La Cabana has been one of my favorite places to eat in Los Angeles almost since the day I arrived four years ago. It's just about perfect for anything you need.
Want to show your East Coast parents "real Mexican food?" Check. Want to go on a good first date with some of the best margaritas in Los Angeles with mariachi music playing live - but not too obtrusively? Check. Want a nice girls night out? Or a late night drunken good ole "get your grub on" fest? Check check.
Of all the times I have been here, there is usually a slight wait; Friday and Saturday nights are definitely a longer wait during dinner hours. But you can always go back into the bar to get a drink while you wait for a table and eat some chips. The night I went, I was enjoying a girls night with a good friend of mine. We both have been working a lot of hours and traveling too much this past summer and so we just wanted a place to sit in a deep booth, relax, order drinks and food and catch up.
We both ordered margaritas to start. Mine - rocks, salt. Her - frozen and raspberry. Both
$5.25 a piece. They have over 10 types of frozen margaritas to play with and a wide selection of tequilas and both domestic and import beers. It was a cold and rainy night, so we both started with soup. Mine was Albondigas (Mexican meatball soup) and hers was their Tortilla Soup (both $4.50 for a cup or $6.25 for a bowl.) Their tortilla soup is the best I have ever had. It's homemade down to the chips and tastes like someone grandma made it. Then again someone's grandma probably did.
She had the Tostada ($8.95) for dinner which tasted very fresh and had good quality ingredients. I had the Comida Completa. It's a great deal because for $15.75 you get soup or salad, a choice of either a taco, enchilada and chile relleno or tamal, enchilada and chile relleno plus rice, beans and tortillas. Oh and a house margarita. So basically I had a flat rate while I was there and that's always nice. Drunk people don't like to figure out how much each person owes for dinner.
Their chile relleno is out of this world. You can actually taste the chile, unlike some places, where you just taste cheese. But no matter what you order you can't really go wrong. They serve their entire menu until 3AM and stop serving drinks at 1:45AM. It's not cheap Mexican food, if you want that, there is a cart down the street by the shoe store that has what you're looking for. And of course there is the Casablanca fan club that prefers the Mexican restaurant caddy-corner from La Cabana. But given a choice, I'd pick La Cabana every time.
La Cabana
738 Rose Ave
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 392-6161
Hours 11AM-3AM
Takeout and catering also available
All pictures taken by Sloane Berrent for LAist
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I was wondering if anyone on LAist has the telehpone # or email for "Mutts and Moms", the CA non-profit organization that took away the dog from Ellen DeGeneres.
It appears they don't have a listed number & there's a number of us on the east Coast who want to get in contact with this organization...
Thanks!
This place is great! Never been disappointed. I've taken friends there and all have enjoyed this wonderful place.
AnonEMouse, the info about Mutts and Moms (who are affiliated with Paw Boutique in Pasadena) that's floating around online is:
Mutts and Moms
Paw Boutique
523 S Raymond Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91105
626.394.0946
Email: pawboutique@yahoo.com
www.muttsandmoms.org [they took this down]
I tried La Cabana once and almost broke my tooth on the flautas. Not the best I've had. :-( A Mexican food place I definitely miss is Casa Carlos, which used to be in the Fox Hills Mall years ago.
I used to live a couple of blocks away from La Cabaña, on Rose Avenue. After I left Los Angeles, I would visit La Cabaña frequently in my dreams. Now I live in Guadalajara and I have an even greater appreciation of it.
First off, it's open later than most places in Mexico's second city, but beyond that, it holds up as authentic in many ways that might seem trivial but are oh-so-Mexican. The waiters' uniforms, the spoon in the salsa, the totopos that they make themselves from real tortillas...
Then there's the food. You don't order a side of guacamole, you have to order the guacamole salad. Dishes are garnished with shredded cabbage and radishes. They make their own tortillas. That's not common even in Mexico. Those are so tasty, they even make me forgive them for using cheddar cheese.
A trip to Los Angeles would be incomplete without a visit to La Cabaña, and whenever I am lucky enough to be introducing a friend to my favorite city in the universe, it's one of the first stops we make.
Nice post!
I ate at Casablanca again a few months ago and it has lost its shine.
La Cabana once made me so nostalgic for Mexico, a drunken night ended up in a spontaneous trip across the border.
Crispy - WOW! What a raving review. I have a friend who moved from here to Gilpin County (middle of nowhere Colorado) and has the same feeling of nostalgia for Gilbert's on Pico and 28th. She makes people bring her things from there when they visit!
La Cabana definitely does it for me. And it's been owned and operated by the same family since, I think, 1948.