Los Cinco Puntos is a neighborhood carniceria named after the five points intersection of Cesar Chavez Blvd, Lorena Blvd, and Indiana st. Everyone knows and loves it. It's an East LA institution.
During the winter holidays Los Cinco Puntos sells a lot of masa and tamales. People line up out the door and go crazy for the tamales and orders are placed weeks in advance.
You can order meats by the lb and tortillas by the dozen or you can order single items prepared such as burritos, tacos and tortas. I ordered a couple of tacos(carnitas and asada) and noticed a pig nose in one of the cases of pork. I wanted to just ask for the pig nose in my taco. It wasn't a full snout, just the end of the nose. I should have asked for carnitas con el nariz de puerco.
The tortillas at 5 puntos are homemade and made right behind the counter on a large flat grill. After your tortillas are grilled they are topped with meats and then your choice of salsa. They had a pico de gallo, a guacamole salsa, and a salsa roja as well as nopales(cactus).
The tortillas were thick but not too doughie, instead they were fluffy,soft and perfect.They had griddled marks yet folded perfectly and held all the meat, and juice and salsa and nopales together. The carnitas was salted and juicy and the asada charred and spiced. What amazing tacos!
I sat on the hood of my car and went at it taking big bites and chugging down my lime jarritos. The roja had a chile guajillo taste to it and just the right amount of kick. What made these tacos was the fresh thick gordita style tortilla and how it held in all the juices from the meats and the salsa. Sabroso!
Tacos are $1.85 and worth every penny. My only regret(aside from not asking for the pig nose) is that I didn't buy some homemade tortillas and tortilla chips to take home.
3300 E Cesar E Chavez Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90063
Good to see you back and chewing, Bandini. You were missed.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah...Cinco Puntos...yummmmm. We used to line up there with our big cast iron pots to get menudo on Sundays. The fresh tortillas are legendary!
ReplyDeleteall I can say is mmmmmmmm'
ReplyDeleteI go there for a dozen fresh tortillas (they still do the whole soaking the maiz bit, not just from a maseca mix) some nopalitos, guacamole, and salsa: it's a perfect veggie taco.
ReplyDeleteOMG I AM SO HUNGRY!! ahh, late afternoon is bad time to check your blog. makes me too hungry.
ReplyDeleteAnd just think, in two years or so we can get here via the MTA Gold line:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mta.net/projects_programs/eastside/eastside_flavors.html
I went in on a hot Tuesday afternoon in August and saw two Hispanic women in line spending nearly $80 on a lunch order for their work. They said everything was fantastic here. The very friendly clerk asked what I wanted, and for some reason, I got the burrito! Wait, this is all about tacos! But the Carne Asada burrito was delicious! This place does great business, and the burritos are only $3.75,,there was another one on the menu called a Super Burrito, but that thing must require some special equpment to carry it out.
ReplyDeleteHANDY-ASS HINT:
ReplyDeleteClosed Wednesdays
HANDY-ASS HINT:
ReplyDeleteClosed Wednesdays
closed wednesday
ReplyDeleteTried the tacos on Monday. Wow!
ReplyDeleteGenerous and tasty. I can't stop thinking about them...I'm in love. Thanks so much for the info. I moved here from Santa Barbara and miss LSR. The tacos here are much better. But LSR has its own place in my heart.
What are their normal hours?
I went back yesterday (Wed) but closed....damn! (I see the posts now)
can anyone tell me if they still sell tejuino with the lemon ice outside of cinco puntos. all their food... damn good
ReplyDeleteOhhhhh helll yeahhh'z! This is down the block from my old pad and I'm missing it up here in Humboldt County. Danggg man!....Why you wann'ah make me so home sick? (;o)
ReplyDeleteSeriously. This place is..."Bommmb!"
...and b.t.w. You should have ordered up that snout! (hee hee hee.)
Oh helll yeahhh'z!
ReplyDeleteThis place is...."bommmmb!"...and just down the way from my old pad! Dang man...why you wanna'h make me so homesick! (;o)
Seriously....This place is great, I miss it lot's and lot's, and you really should have ordered up that snout! (;o)
My mantra as I freeze ass up here an hour from the Oregon border? "Summer break....4 more weeks!"
"Summer break....4 more weeks!"...."Summer break"....Well, you get the picture yeah? (hee hee hee!_
I just got a large carnitas burrito carryout -- really good! The tortillas held together all the way through for hand-held eating. Big chunks of carnitas! Beans and rice are sparing and even throughout the burrito -- not jammed at one end. Red sauce is thick, dark, just hot enough. Green is thick, flows slowly, not as hot. Cinco Puntos has the enduring top quality to compete in a neighborhood rich with taco, burrito, and flauta temples.
ReplyDeleteFrom time to time, I make the pilgramage to Los Cincos Puntos from Visalia, California, roughly a 3-4 hour drive but well worth it. Love the tacos with nopales. Oh yes, we have good carniceria's up here also but not like Los Cincos...
ReplyDeleteI will be done with finals at the end of this week and will have made my trip back down south by Sunday. Sooooooo.....that means that I will be standing in front of 5 points with my Menudo pot as well Ellen Bloom! ....Or should I just get the bommmmmb tacos?....Oh what the hell, I will be just down the street and because its been soooo soooo cold up here (Northern Cali.) I need the exercise! So yeah...two trips for me! (Or...three.....or four....or....!)
ReplyDeleteHi Uncle! Merry Christmas from your sister Irene's GRANDAUGHTER Denise. Im going to see Aunt Emilda for Christmas and my mom is here from Hawaii "Elaine". Hope you and your family have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!!! Love Denise
ReplyDelete"los cinco puntos" does have great corn torillas! but does anyone know where to get that great taste of homemade flour Tortillas?Growing up in New Mexico there everywhere and made in almost every kitchen, i miss that taste of fresh tortillas with some homemade beans and chili if anyone knows where i can find some fresh flour tortillas?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said,"I miss that taste of fresh tortillas with some homemade beans and chili if anyone knows where i can find some fresh flour tortillas?"
ReplyDeleteThere is a market just across the street from Los Cinco Puntos that makes fresh masa...Next time you go to get some grub @ 5 points hit it up! The masa is excellent there!!!!! You can also make some from mix which is nice as well...If you suck at making tortillas by hand (...like me! (;o) then you can also pick up a cheater tortilla press that will make some great looking tortillas for you. Ohhhh mannn!....I'm gonn'ah make a dozen right now after this coffee! It's Sat...urrrr....dayyyy, it's sat....urrrr....dayyy! Ah ohhh laa laaaaaa'h....and a'h chah chah chah. (yup.)
Wow this place is awesome!!! We love it, thanks to this webpage we found it and aint never gonna stop going. Kids love it, they always know what they are eating on Sundays!!!!! We go get raspados several blocks from there for dessert. Tamales everything is great, Well worth the drive from Wilmington
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said,"I miss that taste of fresh tortillas with some homemade beans and chili if anyone knows where i can find some fresh flour tortillas?"
ReplyDeleteThere is a market just across the street from Los Cinco Puntos that makes fresh masa...Next time you go to get some grub @ 5 points hit it up! The masa is excellent there!!!!! You can also make some from mix which is nice as well...If you suck at making tortillas by hand (...like me! (;o) then you can also pick up a cheater tortilla press that will make some great looking tortillas for you. Ohhhh mannn!....I'm gonn'ah make a dozen right now after this coffee! It's Sat...urrrr....dayyyy, it's sat....urrrr....dayyy! Ah ohhh laa laaaaaa'h....and a'h chah chah chah. (yup.)
Hi Uncle! Merry Christmas from your sister Irene's GRANDAUGHTER Denise. Im going to see Aunt Emilda for Christmas and my mom is here from Hawaii "Elaine". Hope you and your family have a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!!! Love Denise
ReplyDeleteThe taste of LA !!! Let us help you www.stvendors.com this seasoning will inhance the flavor of any taco.
ReplyDeletemy brother went to LA last week and he said the Tamales are good overthere...if yall are familiar with the movie blood in blood out the tamales were featured by Damian Chapa eating them and saying they are the best...so i guess he was right
ReplyDelete