LA's 103-Year-Old Mexican Restaurant Is The Oldest In The City (And Still Family Owned)

Los Angeles is full of historic restaurants, and one of the most notable is El Cholo, located in the Harvard Heights neighborhood, west of downtown and south of Koreatown. It's considered to be the oldest Mexican restaurant in the city, continuously in business since 1923 all within the same family — the founders' grandson runs it to this day. (The restaurant also claims to be the city's first Mexican eatery, although this is hard to prove and other sources don't make this claim.)

El Cholo started out as Sonora Café, named for founders Alejandro and Rosa Bosquez's home state in Mexico, and its current name came a couple of years after opening. The original location was near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and it moved into its current (much bigger) location in 1931. Early offerings included classic Mexican dishes like enchiladas, tamales, chiles rellenos, and beans and rice, helping introduce many Angelenos to Mexican cuisine during the early 20th century. One notable dish was the restaurant's Sonoran enchiladas, which feature thick fried tortillas swimming in a robust red sauce of guajillo chiles and tomato. Although the menu has evolved over time, the restaurant still serves long-time favorites like green corn tamales.

Part of that evolution involved the restaurant leaning more into some Americanized tastes, with some dishes being served less spicy than they would be traditionally. Tex-Mex also crept into the menu, for example, in 1959, when waitress Carmen Rocha began serving nachos, which were based on a recipe she knew from San Antonio.

Whether it's nostalgia or the hearty Mexican-American comfort food that keeps people coming back to El Cholo is hard to say, but in any case, the restaurant seems to have no problem filling seats, as it's reportedly typically busy.

Those diners' go-to is often the No. 1 combination plate, which includes a cheese enchilada, rolled beef taco, Spanish rice, and refried beans, one of El Cholo's best-selling menu items for decades. While there are still more Mexican-leaning dishes like fish tacos on the menu, it seems customers tend to lean more towards the Tex-Mex classics like chimichangas (deep-fried burritos) or fajitas; think of the kinds of dishes you'd get with a solid topping of cheese. You can literally see the restaurant's history as you read the menu, as dishes often feature a year next to them, denoting when they were added to the menu. Beyond the tamales and Sonoran enchiladas, those looking to eat historically can also go for albondiga soup or chili con carne, also both on the menu since 1923. Whatever you choose, pair it with a solid range of often nontraditional margaritas, like coconut, strawberry, or peach flavored versions.

El Cholo has expanded over time, so the original Harvard Heights location isn't the only place to dig in: There are five other locations in the Los Angeles area, spanning from Corona del Mar in Orange County, through to Anaheim and up to Santa Monica. If you're not around Los Angeles, you're out of luck with one notable exception — a Salt Lake City, Utah restaurant, which opened in 2023.