A mouthwatering, crusty delight: LA’s thriving empanadas scene

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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LAist

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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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LAist

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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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LAist

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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.