Villa Moreliana — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Villa Moreliana is a legit Michoacánan carnitas stall on the Broadway side of DTLA's Grand Central Market.

You'll know you're in the right place if you follow the trail of mind-melting hype for "poached eggs over mashed potatoes" to the prolonged line for Eggslut, filled with the kind of suckers who call themselves "foodies," and then, in the adjacent stall, you notice enthusiastic cooks briskly chopping and serving mouthwatering carnitas to another line of people who actually know and love food for real. Make the right choice, not that I'm judging you or anything.

During my recent visit, I ordered a "Carnitas Taco," which was quite filling -- perhaps moreso because the gentleman serving the carnitas graciously gave me another carnitas mini-taco as well. I had asked for the "carnitas mixtas," sometimes referred to as "carnitas surtido" at other carnitas joints, both terms synonymous with "your best option" and "a mix of everything."

Carnitas in the U.S., at its best, is a combination of crispy ends and squishy, fatty meat. Here at Villa Moreliana, with the carnitas mixtas, the squishiness is achieved not by fat as much as by using softer parts of the pig - snout, hearts, stomachs, jowls, trotters, kidney, and simmered cueritos (soft skin). Of course, the mixture also includes more traditional pork such as shoulder, rib meat, and pork belly -- some pieces fried golden and crispy -- not to mention pig ears for an occasionally nice snap. This is truly nose-to-tail cooking where no part of the pig is wasted!

The meat is chopped with a cleaver and blended together just before being piled onto plates, tortillas, or into tortas. Each part of the pig brings a different texture, and a different flavor, and you get all of these textures and varying flavors of pig meat and offal in a single mouthful of transcendent pork. Villa Moreliana is perhaps my favorite stall in Grand Central Market, and it should be yours too.

Now go eat...

Old meat, rice and beans. This Mexican restaurant is located inside of the famous Central Market and facing the Broadway. I thought that all Mexican restaurants inside of the Central Market must be famous and good, since so many people come to this historical landmark to visit and eat the authentic Mexican food. However, I was very disappointed about this crowded Mexican restaurant inside of the Central Market! I ordered a pig tongue burrito. It is about 15 dollars. I was shocked to see that they just took out a cold tortilla, then put some wet, precooked pig tongue, which was cut into small pieces, then took some old rice from another warmer, plus some old, over cooked beans, then wrapped them up, without any kinds of vegetables and cheese, or sauce, and called it a burrito! The whole piece was soft and old, very simple and salty! I think that it is a total waste of money to go to try Mexican food inside of the Central Market. Why? They are not fresh made, but sitting on the warmer for a long time, so all the original taste and textures have changed into old, and wet, salty, cold piece of burrito. I certainly will not come back to this restaurant again. Instead, I rather to go to a regular Mexican restaurant and sit in a clean and quiet room, to enjoy some fresh made Tacos...

Amazing food and service. Carnitas is some of the best in town. Service is awesome too. Couldn’t decide on what type of lengua (beef or pork) I wanted on my taco and he suggested mita y mita (half and half), how perfect. This was actually my second time eating there the same day. Was in a small group for carnitas and cueritos which was amazing, so wanted a few tacos to take home. A little disappointed that the run out of items in the middle of the day, like the cuerito and buche, but happy I was able to get the carnitas and lengua, as well as experience the service first hand.

They used to give you free samples which was basically the size of a regular taco anywhere else. Must have stopped because of Covid, but the ones you do pay for are huge so factor that in. They are $5 each, but you can literally make into two tacos. I can barely finish 2-3, so factor that in. Make sure to give them a try.

Sorry, only took picture of what’s left of the group order which was a pound of carnitas...