The Brief

Empanadas have firmly earned their place in Los Angeles’ vibrant food community as a beloved savory — and in some cases, sweet — quick bite.

From traditional Argentine recipes to Venezuelan and Colombian flavors, these handheld pastries have won over food lovers across the city.

Here are five standout empanada spots we highly recommend checking out, each offering their own unique take on the South American staple.

Nonna’s Empanadas

Tomato, beef and veggie empanadas from Nonna’s Empanadas.

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Courtesy Nonna's Empanadas

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With more than 30 flavors to choose from, Nonna’s Empanadas offers something for every palate — from savory fillings like beef, chicken, and spinach to sweet ones like Nutella and apple. What I love about them the most is that they’re perfectly stuffed and oven-baked, just like the empanadas I ate as a child in Buenos Aires.

“I grew up with empanadas being a staple,” said Eduardo Ekmekgian, owner of Nonna’s Empanadas and son of its founder. “People like my family have one day a week where they have empanadas.”

The late Mario Ekmekgian, a lifelong entrepreneur, teamed up in 2010 with his business partner and longtime friend from Argentina, Graciella Boltiansky, to open Nonna’s first location at West 3rd Street and Holt Avenue in West Hollywood. Before that, Ekmekgian had been selling empanadas at farmers’ markets across Los Angeles.

“There were definitely growing pains in the beginning,” Ekmekgian said. “We only had about nine empanada flavors, and we were experimenting with tablecloths, ceramic plates, premium desserts, even choripans, Argentinian pizza and milanesas. We were just trying things to see what worked. But our foundation was always the empanadas, and as we added more flavors, we kept fine-tuning the brand and the business model.”

Ekmekgian and his family are of Armenian ancestry and lived in Argentina before moving to the U.S. in 1987. The name for Nonna’s was inspired by Ekmegian’s grandmother, but also the idea that “everybody has a nonna” that cooks for them or in his case made him empanadas.

“We started with classics like beef, which has hard-boiled egg and olive, chicken, spinach, and corn,” he said. “From there, we experimented a lot — Korean-inspired empanadas, Philly cheesesteak, and Latin flavors like carnitas. Empanadas are very versatile, you can take flavors from anywhere and put them in a dough pocket. That’s the fun of it.”

Ekmekgian said their savory empanadas remain the most popular, but they’re still experimenting with sweet varieties and planning to introduce new flavors.

“Beef has always been number one,” he said. “We’re working on new sweet flavors, like strawberry cheesecake and pineapple cream. Sweet ones don’t usually outsell the savory, because people eat multiples of the savory flavors, then maybe add a few sweets.”

Looking ahead, Ekmekgian said he’s often asked about franchising, but he wants to take his time before making that decision.

“There’s a process to growing the brand,” he said. “I want to fine-tune the model so every location is consistent and the quality and experience stay the same. My hope is that everyone tries empanadas for the first time and thinks, ‘Wow, I want this every week with my family or friends.’”

Rincon Chileno

Rincón Chileno's spinach empanadas (left) and beef empanadas, also known as empanada de pino.

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Marina Peña

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The classic Chilean empanada de pino (or de carne) is thick, hearty and generously filled. Unlike many other South American empanadas, which tend to be smaller, the Chilean empanada is large and immediately stands out. Juicy and substantial, it can easily serve as a complete meal all on its own.

Ricardo Flores, owner of Rincon Chileno on Melrose since 1973, immigrated to Los Angeles from Santiago, Chile, in 1972 and opened the restaurant with the goal of introducing L.A. to the empanada as much as to tacos or pupusas.

“I think the empanada competes with the best taco or the best pupusa, so I would love for it to become just as popular, for everyone to know of this food that comes from all over South America,” he said.

The restaurant is known for their empanadas de pino, which are filled with beef, onion, salt and pepper, oregano, a touch of cumin and garlic. The dough is made from flour, milk, eggs, butter and a mix of seasonings.

Flores credits the empanadas’ juiciness to the fat in the meat and the generous amount of onions in the filling. Adding even more richness is the pebre, a traditional Chilean sauce poured over the filling. Flores shared that their version includes jalapeños, cilantro, green bell peppers, salt, garlic, olive oil and onions.

“An empanada de pino with pebre and red wine is the perfect combination for lunch,” Flores said. “A single empanada will satisfy you.”

Sabor Colombiano

Chicken empanadas from Sabor Colombiano in Westlake.

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Marina Peña

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What happens when you take traditional fried Colombian empanadas and add a touch of L.A.’s Mexican influence? If you ask Dario Garcia, owner of the Colombian restaurant Sabor Colombiano, the result might just be the ideal empanada.

“The perfect Colombian combination is a chicken empanada with chili, rice on the side, and an iced coffee,” Garcia said. “And thanks to the Mexican-American influence here, our chili is spicier than you might expect.”

Garcia explained that their famous empanadas de carne are made with cornmeal dough and a filling of shredded beef and potatoes. They’re fried for four to five minutes, resulting in a crunchy texture similar to the empanadas you’d find in Cali, in the Valle del Cauca region of western Colombia.

“In el Valle del Cauca, restaurants offer a range of chili sauces, varying in heat, and we do the same,” Garcia said. “An empanada isn’t an empanada without chili.”

Another popular addition is the salsa rosada, a pink sauce from Bogotá made with mayonnaise and ketchup.

Garcia adds that part of what makes Colombian empanadas special is the way local people eat them — a tradition he encourages others to try.

“A Colombian takes a bite from the bottom tip of the empanada, then adds chili as they go,” Garcia said. “In Colombia, we say true love isn’t shown with a kiss or marriage, but by giving your loved one the bottom tip of your empanada.”

Fuegos

Fuegos’s ham and cheese, vegan beef and mushroom and spinach empanadas.

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Courtesy Fuegos LA

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At Fuegos, empanadas take center stage. The menu features eight oven-baked varieties, including ham and cheese, chicken, hand-cut beef, cheese and onion, caprese, vegan beef, spinach and mushroom and humita corn. The beef empanada, with its rich filling of onions, red bell peppers, and spices, delivers a smoky warmth that recalls the flavors of Buenos Aires.

“What differentiates us from other Argentinian restaurants in L.A. is our attention to detail, the quality of our ingredients, and our service,” said Federico Laboreau, the co-owner of Fuegos. “The ingredients are simple, but we make sure they’re high quality.”

Whether you enjoy them fresh at the restaurant, take them to go, or bake one of their frozen 12-packs at home, their empanadas won’t disappoint.

After more than a decade as a production designer in Hollywood, Federico Laboreau and his partner Maximilian Pizzi took a bold turn in April 2024 and opened their own Argentinian restaurant in South L.A. The shift came after work dried up for them following the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and Writers Guild strikes.

“After the strikes, we took a trip to Japan for my birthday, expecting Hollywood to be back in full swing by the time we returned and that we’d be busy with work," Laboreau said. "When that didn’t happen, we asked ourselves, ‘What do we do to get our economy going again?’ So we started making empanadas. We started making them at home, and from there, all our Argentine friends started buying from us.”

Whether you enjoy them fresh at the restaurant, take them to go, or bake one of their frozen 12-packs at home, their empanadas won’t disappoint.

Pao’s Pastries & Cafe

The salteñas at Pao’s Pastries & Cafe, the Bolivian café in Van Nuys.

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Marina Peña

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The first thing to know about the empanadas at Pao's Pastries & Cafe — one of the only Bolivian places that shows up in the L.A. area on Google Maps — is that while they may look like empanadas you’ve had in other countries, in Bolivia they aren’t actually called empanadas at all — they’re salteñas. Salteñas are a uniquely Bolivian baked pastry with a rich interior that almost resembles a portable stew when you bite into it.

The name “salteña” comes from the city of Salta in Argentina and is tied to Juana Manuela Gorriti, an Argentinian writer who was Bolivia’s first lady between 1848 and 1855. She helped popularize the dish in her adopted country, and over time the name shifted from meaning “the woman from Salta” to referring to the pastry itself.

Salteñas are known for their distinctive repulgue, the finely crimped seam that runs across the top of the pastry like a little crown, sealing in all the juicy goodness. They’re typically bigger than Argentinian empanadas, smaller than Chilean empanadas but just as generously stuffed — and with Pao’s you’ll definitely feel full after just one.

At Pao’s, which opened in 2015, the salteñas are filled with a savory blend of tender meat (often chicken or beef) and vegetables. They carry a juicy broth inside the filling, giving them a soupy texture in the center.

The salteñas take about three to four days to make, compared to maybe a couple of hours for Argentinian empanadas. The meat and vegetables are cooked and then refrigerated before adding them to the dough so the pastry holds its shape and structure. The filling typically includes meat, potato, peas, and carrots — all seasoned to balance savory richness with a hint of sweetness.

Beyond salteñas, Pao’s also serves other Bolivian favorites like silpancho, (a breaded and fried beef steak) hearty soups, cheese empanadas, and sweet treats like alfajores (sandwich cookies)— making it one of the few spots in Los Angeles where you can savor the range of Bolivian cuisine without hopping on a flight.

This story first appeared on The LA Local.

Traffic around Dodger Stadium is notorious.

During 81 home games a season, lines of cars inching toward the stadium lead to gridlock on local streets in Chinatown, Solano Canyon, Echo Park and Lincoln Heights. The problem is a simple numbers game — the reigning World Series champs attract an average 50,000 fans per game for a parking lot with 16,000 spaces. Most fans drive, as the 300-foot climb into Chavez Ravine from nearby streets makes walking or biking impractical. 

Fans and residents can now weigh in on a survey launched by the L.A. Department of Transportation (LADOT) to ease stadium traffic and identify ways for fans to get to the stadium without their cars. 

The survey features questions about fans’ transportation patterns and preferences, where they commute to games from around L.A. and Southern California, feelings about personal safety on the way to the stadium, and comfort using different modes of transportation. Residents who complete the survey will be entered for a chance to win a $50 gift card. 

Residents can also provide feedback in person at three events through mid-July: 

• Kick It in the Park at Echo Park Lake on June 26 from 11 a.m. to  8 p.m.
• Park-to-Park Open Streets Community Event at Wilshire Boulevard between MacArthur Park and Lafayette Park on July 10 from noon–5 p.m. 
• Community Open House at the LA Lotus Festival at Echo Park Lake on July 11 from 4–7 p.m. 

The department will publish its recommendations to ease traffic in the fall. The effort dovetails with nearby transit and pedestrian improvements as part of the Sunset Boulevard and Cesar Chavez Safety and Mobility Project. 

Why now — and where the gondola project stands

The transportation study is a direct response to the proposed 1.2-mile gondola system, officially called The Los Angeles Aerial Rapid Transit (LA ART). Spearheaded by former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, the project was pitched as a way to reduce traffic congestion and offer free rides to ticket holders. District 1 Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez introduced a motion in 2024 directing the city to pause any action advancing the gondola project until the department completed an assessment of traffic around Dodger Stadium. The City Council approved the motion with an 11–2 vote. 

In November 2025, the L.A. City Council voted 12–1 to formally oppose the project, a motion that went unsigned by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. Despite opposition by the council, the gondola project continues to work through the approval process from local and state agencies.

In December 2025, the L.A. Metro Board voted to recertify the project’s environmental impact report at a meeting attended by hundreds of opponents and supporters of the project. The council will wait for the completion of the transit study before taking any other formal action.

Community organizers of the Stop the Gondola coalition say the project would negatively impact parks and neighborhoods around the stadium, uprooting trees and obstructing the sky along the way. Members of the coalition also point to a UCLA Mobility Lab study which found that the project would only decrease traffic by less than 1%. 

Separate from LADOT, Los Angeles State Historic Park published a draft of amendments to its general plan in May, which would allow the gondola to go over the park. Residents can provide feedback on those amendments through July 22 via mail and email. A virtual open house to learn more about the project is also available on its website.

Take LADOT’s survey before July 13

• Fill out the transportation study survey before July 13.
• Email any questions about the study to dodgers-stadium@lacity.org.

After years of construction, the California Science Center’s expansion in Exposition Park will be open to the public on Nov. 13, officials announced Wednesday.

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center is a 200,000-square-foot addition to the museum and space shuttle Endeavour’s new, permanent home.

According to officials, it’ll be the only place in the world where guests can see a complete, authentic space shuttle system displayed in launch position — just like it would look before it blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Endeavour spans about 20 stories tall in the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery, one of three main galleries that will be filled with hands-on exhibits and authentic aerospace artifacts. The center will be free to visit.

Preparing for the public

The Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center finished construction around Endeavour earlier this year, after each of the space shuttle components were lifted into place in the construction zone.

The roughly six-month process of attaching the flown orbiter — Endeavour — to twin solid rocket boosters and the last remaining flight-qualified external tank was called “Go For Stack.” Museum officials said the complex process had never been done outside of a NASA facility.

The space shuttle has been hidden from public view for more than two years since Endeavour reached for the stars one last time in the “Go For Stack” mission — at least until now.

The space shuttle Endeavour "soft-mated" in its permanent ready-to-launch position in the construction zone for the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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People watch as Endeavour orbiter is being lowered into its ready-to-launch from the construction zone for the new building.

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Makenna Cramer

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A close-up of the orbiter as its slowly but surely lowered into its "Go For Stack" position next to the external tank and twin solid rocket boosters.

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Makenna Cramer

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As its name suggests, Endeavour is the centerpiece of the Samuel Oschin Shuttle Gallery. It was the last gallery to be unveiled by the California Science Center, months after offering sneak peeks of the Korean Air Aviation Gallery and Kent Kresa Space Gallery.

The shuttle gallery shows how the first reusable spacecraft helped humans live and work beyond Earth’s surface in low orbit, according to the museum. Officials said it preserves a critical part of space exploration — Endeavour was the last orbiter to join the shuttle fleet, traveling more than 122 million miles on over two dozen missions.

Beyond the historical significance, it’s designed to inspire the next generation of explorers, scientists and engineers by offering "unparalleled" views of the space shuttle, according to the museum.

The finishing touches

The California Science Center still has a lot of work to do before the first guests walk into the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in around five months.

With Endeavour and many major pieces in place, including the front of a Boeing 747 and jets suspended from the ceiling, attention turns to adding all the interactive exhibits that will make the space come to life.

The first of many artifacts have been installed in the Kent Kresa Space Gallery, including a space shuttle main engine (right) and a solid rocket booster segment.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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Walter Cho, chairman of Korean Air, celebrated the first aircraft installed in the Korean Air Aviation Gallery, including the front of a real Boeing 747-400 that was built for the airline in 1993.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The roughly 20 aircraft that’ll be displayed — some already suspended from the ceiling — were selected by the California Science Center for the engineering principles they can teach.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The exterior of the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in November 2025.

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Makenna Cramer

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LAist

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The California Science Center is still looking to raise more toward its $450 million fundraising goal. You can learn more about the EndeavourLA campaign here.

If there's room for agreement on anything in Washington, it's that lawmakers need to do something to make homeownership more affordable. On Tuesday, legislators on both sides of the aisle clinched the final vote in the House to pass the largest piece of housing legislation in decades.

The bill, called the 21st Century Road to Housing Act, passed 358-32 in the House. The Senate approved it Monday with similarly overwhelming bipartisan support. It now heads to President Trump's desk for his signature.

In an interview with NPR, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a co-sponsor of the bill, said housing affordability has become a priority for Congress.

"Every time every member of Congress goes back home they hear how urgent it is to bring down home prices. And that's what the bill does," she said.

A number of factors have made homes out of reach for many U.S. buyers. According to the real estate broker Redfin, a family needs an income of about $117,000 a year to afford the typical home on the market, almost $30,000 more than what most U.S. households earn.

Mortgage rates have also risen over the past several years, and that boosts the monthly cost of ownership. Rates had been falling earlier this year, but the war in Iran raised the cost of borrowing, and the nationwide average is now about 6.5%. Families also have less purchasing power, as inflation has outstripped wages.

But the main issue this bill tries to address is that the U.S. does not have enough houses to keep up with demand. Realtor.com estimated that last year the U.S. was short by more than 4 million housing units.

"Supply is the key problem here," said Jeanna Kenney, assistant professor of economics, finance and real estate at Villanova University. "Anything you can do to make supply easier is going to be helpful in the long term."

Ban on corporate investors that buy hundreds of homes

Rather than making a single change, the bill is a hodgepodge of provisions designed to either encourage housing construction or make it easier for home seekers to buy. The flashiest part of the package is a ban that prevents corporate investors from buying up more single-family homes to rent out. If one of those groups already owns at least 350 houses, it won't be able to buy others.

This provision was one of the most contested as the bill worked its way through the legislative process. Some politicians endorsed it as a move to stop corporate landlords from being able to outbid families and buy up large chunks of local housing markets with cash offers.

But nationally, these investors make up only about 3% of the single-family rental market. And some experts warn the ban could actually limit the supply of available homes, because investors often buy and fix up homes that would otherwise fall out of the market. "It chills investment, and we need more investment in housing stock, not less," said Ross Marchand, executive director of the right-leaning think tank the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

Still, Warren hailed the investor ban, pointing out that investors are buying up a large slice of the market in some parts of the country, such as Atlanta. "If you don't live in a neighborhood where private equity has already moved in, believe me, you're on their list," Warren said.

Streamlining regulations for homebuilders

While the legislation doesn't provide new federal dollars for homebuilding, it streamlines some of the regulations homebuilders must follow to get existing federal financing.

For example, it allows builders to skip the environmental review when a housing project is going up between two buildings that have already gone through the process.

A different provision creates a grant program for communities to develop "pattern books" of preapproved housing designs, so builders won't need as many approvals to get up to code.

Another is aimed at making manufactured homes more affordable by getting rid of the rule that those houses must have a permanent chassis, or a steel frame that makes them movable. Manufactured homes are often installed onto permanent foundations, and housing policy experts say that removing the chassis requirement could cut $5,000 to $10,000 off construction costs and allow for designs that could more easily incorporate a second story or basement.

"Not having that chassis immediately wipes several thousand dollars off that price — and this is already a type of home that is significantly less expensive than a traditional stick-built home," said Kate Wood, a lending expert at the financial advice website NerdWallet. (Stick-built is a real estate term for wooden homes that are constructed on site, rather than prefabricated.)

The bill also encourages local governments to speed up the homebuilding process by giving more federal dollars to places that build more housing. "If you don't build more housing, you should lose those incentives. And they should go to the places where you're building more housing," said the bill's co-sponsor, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., on the Senate floor Monday ahead of the chamber's vote.

What federal legislation can't do 

Washington lawmakers have a limited role when it comes to homebuilding — local governments have a much bigger say over construction. So do private builders, who are facing external challenges like the high cost of labor and supplies.

And Congress doesn't get a vote on mortgage rates. With rising inflation, the Fed might actually raise interest rates later this year.

But this is still the largest housing affordability bill to come out of Congress in decades, and researchers and those in the housing industry say it could help make homeownership more accessible.

"Honestly, the dream of homeownership is simply just that — a dream for so many Americans," said Amanda Crist, the vice president of member engagement at Greater Nashville Realtors. She said that anything that helps improve affordability "is absolutely necessary."

Sen. Warren put it this way: "It has just been more than 30 years since the federal government has done anything but sit by and say, 'Damn, the price of housing sure has gone up.' Finally, we are actually moving."
Copyright 2026 NPR

The Los Angeles City Council decided Tuesday to put off the full effects of a major new state housing law by allowing low-rise apartment buildings in some neighborhoods where such housing has long been banned.

All council members voted in favor of those plans except for Traci Park, who was absent from the meeting.

California’s Senate Bill 79 is set to take effect July 1. The law overrides local limits on housing development by allowing apartment buildings between five and nine stories tall near train stations and rapid bus stops.

However, cities are allowed to postpone those changes until 2030 by developing their own incremental plans for more housing. L.A. elected leaders have chosen to delay. They’re doing so through the city’s new Low-Rise Ordinance, which aims to allow buildings up to four stories tall in 57 neighborhoods near transit lines.

Why it matters

L.A. lawmakers have tried many approaches to bring down L.A.’s high rents. But they have consistently voted to stop apartment developers from encroaching on the nearly three-quarters of city residential land reserved for single-family homes.

Pushed by state lawmakers, city leaders are now having to accept some changes in single-family neighborhoods located near public transit lines.

The reaction

Some local officials and homeowners have expressed frustration over new state limits on their ability to stop development in low-density zones. But advocates for more development said the council’s decision will help address high rents by allowing more housing in areas that have long been off-limits to new apartments.

“The City Council voted to open up high-resource single-family neighborhoods near transit stations,” said Scott Epstein, policy director with Abundant Housing L.A. “This reform is long overdue and will help build a future where Angelenos of all incomes can find homes in the neighborhoods of their choice.”

Where will the projects be allowed?

Officials with the city’s planning department said residents can see whether Low-Rise Ordinance projects will be allowed in their neighborhood by clicking on this interactive map and making two selections from the “layer list” menu: “Opportunity Station Sites Eligible for Low Rise” and “Sites Eligible for Low Rise Outside of Opportunity Station.”

The map shows that some of the areas eligible for new apartment buildings under this plan include Westside neighborhoods within a half-mile of the E Line’s Westwood/Rancho Park station, pockets of the San Fernando Valley near G Line stops, and parts of Eagle Rock along Colorado Boulevard’s planned North Hollywood to Pasadena rapid bus line.

Is this a done deal?

Both plans — the decision to delay full SB 79 implementation, and the new Low-Rise Ordinance — now go to Mayor Karen Bass for final approval. Council members are also considering some tweaks they say would help Low-Rise Ordinance projects get built.

Those changes would include letting developers build denser projects if they reserve more units for low-income renters, as well as rules that would let developers build ground-level parking instead of costlier underground parking. The council’s planning committee voted Tuesday to forward those suggestions to the full City Council for further debate.