El Mercadito — Attraction in Los Angeles

Beware: I wrote this after the first year of the pandemic. I visited the last Sunday of January 2021 right after food serving restrictions were lifted. While everyone was masked and security enforced masking and hand sanitizing, there were too many people here for my taste and difficult to keep socially distant. But everyone including children were delightfully observant of masking rules. Food merchants were open, many were relocated outdoors, as many spaces inside the merchant mart were closed or shut down. Due to COVID an adjacent parking lot was repurposed for merchants outdoors. But beware that food was offered and served under socially tight conditions outdoors, but not really conducive to health safety.

I’m an Angeleno for 10 years who’s never visited El Mercadito until now. I collect certain kind of toys as a hobby, and looked here to see if I could find any. A fun friendly family environment with lots of merchants that have reasonable prices in a wide selection of goods to sell. Plenty of food, toys, artwork, clothes, shoes, and souvenirs made in China or locally, but representing the Mexi-LA experience to take home. For a tourist who wants to get a true shopping flavor of what Los Angeles is like off the typical tourist trap, this is one of the places to go to experience the natives and goods for sale. Brush up on your Spanish, but everyone is respectful and friendly. This is what LA is truly like.

While there is plenty of security and parking attendants to help you try to find a space, parking is atrocious and a bit of a wait, particularly on weekends since a parking lot was used outdoors for COVID restrictions. Better off taxiing or Ubering here. I parked my car blocks away and made a five minute walk, but it was worth it to skip the aggravation of waiting, then getting a tight space for parking. There’s a wait coming and leaving.

Highly recommend El Mercadito despite health restrictions, especially if you’ve never visited or come from out of town, and want to get a true flavor of what an LA neighborhood and its people are like. Better off during the weekdays and recommend double masking and...

I grew up in the neighborhood and shopped here all my years there. It's an ethnic experience that's in a "market place" setting. Mexican eateries, Mariachis on weekends, spices, sweets, street food vending of sorts, leather goods, Caballero hat shops and snake skin boots (tailor made to order), refreshing Mexican aguas frescas (fresh fruit waters) Mexican pottery, toys, novelties, moles in dry form or paste. Desserts and bakeries. Eye brow threading booth, embroidery booths with all your crafting needs and a beautiful array it rich colored threads and yarns. Fresh meat counter. Novelty Silk screen t shirt shop where you'll have a laugh or two reading through all the funny frases on these shirts from every part of the humor spectrum. From witty and stupid- to downright, vulgar. But funny all the same. Get you a sarape and sombrero then take a siesta upside a nopal, and don't forget to stop at the makeshift shrine/chapel of the Virgen Guadalupe in the parking lot. Plenty of parking out back with attendants waiving you through, don't be intimidated navigating your way through. Your in good company here. Us Mexicans aren't BAD HOMBRES. We've got a lot of heart and you'll learn that here. Don't forget to thank the hard working parking attendants out there in the sun all day....

This is a place for touristic attraction n appreciation. Even a good place to bring the kids and show them a little taste of Mexico. I'm very Great full this place is available for the people SPECIALY GREAT FULL that the PARKING IS FREE!! How ever you should know that most of the stuff they sell are HIGHLY OVER PRICED. You are better off buying such idems at a SWATMEET. UNFORTUNATELY TO SAY I found a rosary that cost me 1$at the inland center mall and here they wanted 10$ buks. Also there fake gold was over20 $ and up which it look so cheaply made that I'm pretty sure it was something you could get at the 99cent store. But you do you. Just saying. You have been warned. Also I would not recommend you eating inside any restaurant speciali EL GALLITO BECAUSE There food is OVERPRICED N THE FOOD WAS COLD AND bland WITH NO FLAVOR and the rice n beans are old and the chips are HARD AS A ROCK & the salsa is too HOT TO ENJOY. Instead try the corn and other small deserts and peanuts they are very good. My dad has been coming here for over 30 years just for the roasted peanuts n the corn so I recommend it . Other than that it's a nice place to get yourself out of the house n see a little...