La 27th Restaurante Familiar Nicaraguense
🇳🇮 NICARAGUA / HISTORICAL: The key word in the name of this Pico-Union mainstay is familiar, its tables always full of multi-generational families enjoying food together.
🇳🇮 NICARAGUA
📍 1830 W. Pico Blvd.,
Pico-Union, Central Los Angeles.
🅿️ Small lot behind building
🥤 Bottled beer, wine by glass
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📆 Original Article 27 February 2019
Outside of the wonderful country, is there a more Nicaraguan place in all the world than this Pico Blvd. restaurant? The rhythms and sounds and spirit inside all ooze with love for su país.
The colors are a little overwhelming when you first walk in, but once your eyes adjust everything feels so good and warm. The walls are covered with paintings and pictures of the land, the food, and of course Toña, the beer. On most days everyone in the place was a Nica.
"Do you like Nicaraguan food?" asks a lady at the next table very happy to see foreigners on a recent visit.
From information gathered through other customers, the name of the restaurant originates in the fact that the family here used to sell food from their house down on 27th Street. Eventually popularity led them to open this restaurant, which from all accounts is massively successful as far as transporting folks back to their country of birth goes.
Come in the morning and many of your fellow patrons will be feasting on the nacatamal ($7.50, above and below), a Sunday tradition back home but here eaten every day of the week.
In addition to annatto-rubbed pork, this distinctly Nicaraguan tamal is filled with potato, tomato, onion, spearmint sprigs, olives, and chile congo. They serve it here with a wonderfully light and soft bolillo (bread roll) and you would be wise to add a café con leche to make it a threesome. It appeared that most diners of this ordered their own and that was sufficient to fill them up.
Press further into the menu though if you come for the first time. Another wonderful breakfast option is tajadas de platano maduro con queso ($7.50, above), a mixture of salty cheese and fried sweet plantains best served with a side of Central American style crema. A jar of pickled peppers sits on the table, and this may be a good time to start experimenting with that as well.
If you are having a Nicaraguan breakfast and do not have some buñuelos ($2 each, below), you may be doing yourself a disservice. Nicaraguan versions are unique from other countries, made with cassava, eggs, and cheese before being deep fried and served with a cinnamon-laced syrup.
When lunchtime rolls around, there are soups and seafoods and all manner of massive grilled meat plates that we started to see others enjoying with rounds of Toña bottles. Viva La 27th!
UPDATE NOV 2020: Shown below is the massive grilled meat plate of fritanga la 27th ($19.99), which is served with a heaping portion of gallo pinto, plenty of tajadas de platano, platano maduro, and fried cheese.
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