Loreto's Fried Turkey — Restaurant in Compton

Loreto's is a Compton take-out spot specializing in deep-fried turkeys and serving turkey dinners. The operation is contained within a small, modest space bursting with charm, owned and operated since 2003 by turkey prodigy Joe Loreto. Whatever category of place that Loreto's is, this is the authentic no-B.S. version of it; I know authentic when I see it, and I know B.S. when I smell it.

I saw a couple of the turkeys out, both monster birds with glistening copper skin that made me want to skip the rest of summer and bring on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I haven't got a time machine, and I'm not one to need an entire turkey in June. Fortunately, Loreto's also offers their delightful Cajun-seasoned fried turkey carved up on a plate as a turkey dinner, sliced and heaped into sandwiches, or chopped in tortillas as tacos.

Mr. Loreto is a friendly and avuncular operator who wears his chef's whites (including a toque blanche) while he's in his store. He'll speak transparently about his cooking processes and ingredients, not that you'll ever be able to replicate it yourself: Joe knows more about frying turkeys than I've known about anything in my life. He fries birds as small as 12 pounds and as large as 25 pounds, and always in peanut oil. While Mr. Loreto is chicano, his wife is black, and the recipes used here are a combination of his and hers, fusing the "soul food" of old Compton with the Mexican appetites and evolving culinary sensibilities of new Compton.

The "Turkey Taco" here is excellent. Where other turkey tacos in Compton and South L.A. are made with ground turkey that could just as easily be ground beef, Loreto's uses some of the best sliced turkey you'll have: luscious, savory, with a juicy texture and mouth-feel derived from a combination of white meat, dark meat, and skin. This taco has a warm, griddled tortilla with lettuce and chopped tomatoes in it, as most "black tacos" in this micro-region do.

Even better than Loreto's turkey taco is their "Turkey Taco with Soul." The tortilla and turkey are the same as used in the turkey taco, but without the lettuce and tomatoes and with the addition of a well-seasoned poultry gravy flavored with onions, garlic, and bell pepper mixed with a hot sauce. This is the best turkey taco I've had to-date, the best of the "black tacos" I've had to-date, and one of the eating highlights of my summer.

Eat...

My family and I wanted to try fried turkey for Christmas. So I immediately went to google search to look for fried turkeys nearby. Loreto’s Fried Turkey was the first to pop up. So I looked at the reviews on google as well as Yelp, and everyone had nothing but nice things to say about the food. So I decided to go ahead and see what the rave is about. I called a week before Christmas just to ensure I get my order in, because I saw that during the holidays this place gets really busy. Mr. Loreto himself answered the phone and he said come two days before Christmas to pick it up. As my daughter and I approached the turkey shack we could smell the aroma of fried turkey as we walk through the door. I immediately was hungry. He was a very nice and pleasant man and handed me instructions on how to reheat the turkey on Christmas morning. So on Christmas I followed the instructions and WOW!!! THIS TURKEY WAS SO GOOD AND MOIST AND SEASONED TO PERFECTION!!!! My family and I could not stop eating it. Needless to say that our Christmas dinner was a HIT! I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who loves FRIED...

Really felt sad after paying as much as we did for such a bad turkey dinner. Loreto is a great talker but the fried turkey compared to a fresh brined and seasoned turkey just is not comparable. This experience was a very bad one when everyone at the dinner table was expecting a delicious turkey dinner but instead was treated with a skinny dried out bird with terrible seasoning. I followed the directions as Loreto had stated😕 but so sad it tasted so bad. I’m sad I lost this years turkey dinner and I was embarrassed for what I had offered to my guest and paid 90 dollars but it is a lesson learned. Won’t recommend loretos as other people because I know good turkey and this was far from it and I believe if you put your effort and time to do it yourself you can make a delicious tasting bird. I feel duped I spend 90 dollars for a really unseasoned dried turkey. Please take my comments as just a warning because maybe not everyone will Feel the same but I will never return or...