El Cholo — Restaurant in Los Angeles

The building is beautiful. I love the atmosphere. They should retract the ceiling more since they have such a cool location. Drinks are wonderful. The coconut margarita is amazing and my go to drink every time I go. I always order with 2 shots to give it more of a kick. Chips and Salsa taste fresh and the taquitos are great. I have never ordered dinner here since it was always a quick stop for drinks and appetizers. I finally did yesterday and was so excited to taste the food. I can say my family and I were a bit disappointed. I ordered a hard shell taco and chili relleno. The rice and beans are not the best. Very bland. The meat in the taco was so dry. They also didn't fry the taco shell long enough so it was soggy They don't fill up the taco either. The chili relleno tasted sad. Cheese is not the best quality. My boyfriend loves carnitas and was so disappointed. I could tell as soon as it came out it was extremely over cooked and very dry. It was not good. My daughter loved her taquitos its probably one othe best items on the menu. But hated the rice and beans. That is unusual for her since it's the first thing she cleans from the plate when we go to mexican restaurants. Bottom line if you are going for great drinks, appetizers cool location then great place. Food does need to be improved to eat a full...

Started in 1923!! Billed as one of the originals in the Mexican restaurant world, they have several locations now throughout the area.

The building has Old Spaniard flair and architecture. There was also ample parking, but today was a Metro trip, so a parking spot was not needed.

Inside, the decor and ambiance is pleasant and the location is definitely bigger than it looks. There was a large group celebration going on and it didn’t feel cramped.

The food was delicious! They start off with the typical chips and salsa; and while they were good and we finished them all, it was noting to yell home about. However, there was something deliciously additive going about the salsa. Very good.

We got taquitos as appetizers and the tortilla was fried to perfection. 3 chicken taquitos, and all were juicy too! Not dried out like some taquitos can get. The sauce they served with it was just as good. It was something like a lime-cilantro.

Main courses were a Southwest Chicken tostada and a combo plate and albondigas soup.

The soup was just a cup, but man was it tasty. Also has three good sized meatballs.

The main courses were very good and flavorful. And larger portions than I was expecting. Service could have been just a little more attentive, but all in all, a good recommendation and will...

Hadn't been to El Cholo in a long time and was looking forward to enjoying dinner at the DTLA location with my family. We walked in with our reservation and were not greeted at all, just led to our table without a single word; it was so strange that it was almost eerie. Luckily, our server was absolutely lovely. But she was the single bright spot of the night. Chips were greasy. Guac was slimy and tasted pre-made. My dinner mates said their tamales and burritos were good, but I wasn't sure if they were just being polite. My enchiladas were serviceable, but the tortillas were stale and hard around the edges. At $15-16 a plate, it wasn't an expensive dinner, but it was definitely not worth even that much. Ambience is OK in the courtyard, but more so if you're there for after-work drinks; this is definitely a loud drinking place more than a kick-back-and-enjoy-good-food kind of place. As an added bonus my daughter said one of the toilets was covered in vomit. Food was awful, but I can't give this place just one star because the ambience (vomit notwithstanding) was a solid 2, and our server...