Best places to eat and drink near the L.A. Coliseum
First-timers visiting the 35,000-square-foot Mercado La Paloma, take heed: The line likely trailing out the door and into the parking lot is specifically for Holbox, the most decorated and popular among the market’s seven food vendors. Chef Gilberto Cetina’s mariscos creations are revolutionary in their freshness and jigsaw-intricate flavors. Tuna tostada, scallop aguachile, coctel mixto and smoked kanpachi taco number among must-try dishes. Other wonderful options in the mercado await without the Holbox queues. Begin at Komal, where Fátima Juárez’s quesadillas and tacos, as beautiful as they are delicious, showcase the earthy-fragrant masa she crafts daily from heirloom corn varieties, and Chichén Itzá, where the Cetina family serves lush, orange-scented cochinita pibil and other specialties from the Yucatán. The mercado is such a vital sanctuary for the city that fellow critic Jenn Harris and I ranked it number one on our recent guide to the 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles.