Atla is a big-deal Mexican restaurant just by the nature of its name. The transplant from NYC—operated by the team behind Damian, Cosme, and Pujol—makes a lot of sense on Abbot Kinney. It’s laid-back, breezy, and full of attractive people wearing linen pants. It’s also the undisputable best Mexican restaurant on the Westside, with a menu of homie, simple classics, like quesadillas with epazote and an open-face al pastor gringa with sweet pineapple butter that drips down your forearm.

Inside Mercado La Paloma, a former factory turned Downtown community gathering space and food hall, sits Holbox, a family-run food stall that serves fresh, inventive seafood that’ll have you questioning all the other seafood you’ve ever eaten. Don’t you dare leave without getting an order of the scallop tacos - each one comes with four perfectly-seared scallops wrapped in a thick house-made corn tortilla before being topped with fennel, caramelized onions, and spicy chile sauce.

Run by the chef behind Cosme in NYC and Mexico City’s Pujol, Damian is an upscale experience, but if you’re looking to splurge a little, this Arts District spot more than backs up its high price point. The menu is filled with dishes like smoked clams with cucumbers, fish tempura tacos, and an extra-smoky pescado a la brasa served with tortillas. But perhaps the most impressive element here is the back patio complete with a mix of concrete walls and jungle-like plant arrangements.

Loreto in Frogtown is a particularly good choice for anyone looking to have a baller seafood meal. Get the butterflied whole fish that comes with rice, beans, escabeche, salsas, blue corn tortillas, and tiny quesadillas. The whole package—which costs somewhere between $60 and $80 depending on the day—will easily feed three adults. For a more casual entry point, stop by Loreto's incredible, daytime-only mariscos window Za Za Za.

106 Seafood serves mariscos that will reboot your tastebuds in a residential South LA backyard. Sure, the restaurant’s bathroom is technically located inside a person's home, but these dishes—like a shrimp ceviche punched up with tart green apple—have stuck with us longer than 90% of what we've eaten in restaurants with dedicated lavatories. (Not so surprising, considering the person in charge used to cook at Coni’Seafood.) Just bring cash and prepare to flip out.

La Casita Mexicana’s Jalisco-style menu has turned this neighborhood Bell restaurant into a true LA dining destination. There’s rich, chocolate-y mole and steak served over grilled cactus, but the dish that you must order is the chile en nogada. This giant green chile comes stuffed with beef, spices, dried fruits, candied cactus, pecan cream sauce, and topped with pomegranate seeds. It’s sweet, savory, profoundly herbaceous, and a dish we would happily eat as an appetizer, entree, or dessert.

Coni’Seafood in Inglewood (with a second location in Del Rey) is a neighborhood institution that’s been serving Nayarit-style seafood since 1987. This mariscos spot is particularly famous for its whole grilled snook that comes generously marinated in their salty house sauce, as well as with warm tortillas and caramelized onions served on the side. But our favorite thing here is their mighty tostaditos platter.

Owned by the same family as Holbox, this tiny vendor inside Mercado La Paloma serves traditional Yucatan cuisine. You’re going to want to start with the sikil-pac, a tomato and pumpkin seed-based dip, and end with their signature cochinita pibil, slow-roasted pork that’s been marinated in achiote and sour orange and wrapped in a banana leaf. It’s the perfect balance of sweet, sour, savory, and earthy.

Besides serving various dishes from Oaxaca’s southern Costa Chica region, Sabores Oaxaqueños has excellent tlayuda tortillas that are imported from Oaxaca every week. Their tlayuda mixta is a personal favorite and comes topped with the three traditional meats: Oaxacan chorizo, cecina adobada, and tasajo. The asiento provides a savory undertone that pairs perfectly with the creamy bean paste, and their spicy salsa roja offers great contrast to the tlayuda’s mild avocado and hearty meat toppings.

You won’t need to see a menu at this down-home spot in Boyle Heights. The specialty here is birria: earthy, tender Zacatecas-style goat birria prepared with a third-generation family recipe that's more prized than the Colonel’s eleven herbs and spices. Unlike some specialists that are only open weekends, Nochistlan serves daily. They do great birria tacos, but what you want is their birria plate served in a pool of rich, fragrant consommé.

It's easy to feel pampered during a meal at Ceviche Project. This stylish mariscos spot in Silver Lake is intimate, with only a few tables and a white marble bar where you watch owner-chef Octavio top oysters with housemade chile oil in a white suit. Everything you eat here has a surprising twist to it, like a "Mayan-style" octopus tostada with a punch of burnt habanero salsa, or kanpachi sashimi with ponzu and sweet bursts of diced melon.

Rocio’s isn’t big and you might drive past it the first time you go, but once you reach its Bell Gardens location, you’ll be treated to some of the best mole in Southern California. Chef and owner Rocio Camacho is nicknamed “Goddess of Mole,” and whether you order her rich, chocolatey Oaxaqueño or creamy, botanical-forward rosa santa prisca, it’s not difficult to understand why. You get to choose a protein for each mole and we recommend either the chile relleno or the sweet and mild mahi mahi.

Poncho's is the type of backyard cookout where you plan to visit for a quick bite, but end up spending the whole night (because the hosts know how to throw a party). Popping up on Friday evenings behind a community center house just south of Downtown, this outdoor Oaxacan restaurant sets up a few tables, a speaker for banda music, and a charcoal grill to toast up the only dish on the menu: tlayudas. These massive, crispy folded tortillas are arguably the best in town.

Between their rich, decadent mole and one of the largest mezcal collections in LA, there are a variety of ways a meal could go at this South Bay-based Oaxacan restaurant, but make sure yours involves tacos and memelas. The cecina and tripa are both stand-outs, but the coliflor with tomato, quesillo, avocado, and chiles is spicy, savory, and one of our favorite vegetarian tacos in the city. If you aren’t near Torrance, the Oaxacan restaurant also has locations in Palms and West Hollywood.

A meal at LA Cha Cha Chá isn’t complete without a few of our all-time favorite things: a rooftop bar with a great view, sipping on tequila in nice weather, and enjoying some top-notch Mexican food. And more than anything, we recommend their monumento tostada. It comes with charred octopus that’s tossed with juicy cherry tomatoes, cilantro, avocado, habanero chilis, and creamy cilantro aioli.

For being a tiny spot that shares a wall with a convenience store and recycling center, Birrieria Apatzingan whips up an impressive roster of dishes. The Pacoima restaurant has a huge menu that includes crackly tacos dorados, huge bowls of crimson red menudo, and a Michaocan specialty called morisqueta: fatty, cartlidge-y pork ribs coated in a spicy tomato sauce and cotija cheese over beans and rice. And whatever you do, save room for the exceptional goat birria en caldo.

A meal at Guelaguetza, a Oaxacan institution, involves multiple types of mole, tlayudas, and big plates of meat. All of it is phenomenal and best when shared. With its massive space and live music, it’s a great spot for a big group dinner or for entertaining out-of-towners dead set on drinking as much mezcal as their bodies will allow. Also, don’t forget to order some queso fundido - it’ll ruin every other queso you’ve ever had.

When you see a table of ten burly construction workers at a restaurant all ordering the same thing for lunch, you can probably guess the house specialty. At Carnes Asada Pancho Lopez, an always-busy Jalisco-style restaurant in Lincoln Heights, it's carne en su sugo. This smoky and savory tomatillo stew is loaded with tender beans, bacon, and chopped carne asada, and might be the best thing ever to eat on a rainy day.

Right off the main drag in East Compton, Antojitos Los Cuates is known for tostadas, flautas, and pozole blanco, made with a savory clear broth instead of the usual red. This Jalisco-style restaurant is about the size of an average dining room, so if you eat inside you’ll feel like a guest of the family that runs the place. Which makes sense, because this is homestyle cooking at its absolute finest: Our favorite item is the incredible tostada mixta.

Sometimes less is more, but not when it comes to the chilaquiles at El Huarachito. This old-school spot in Lincoln Heights serves what might be the best Mexican breakfast in LA, otherwise known as El Campesino (a.k.a spicy chilaquiles loaded with carne asada, a fried egg, and whatever else you could possibly want). Everything here from the frijoles to the café olla exudes comfort. If lunch is more your scene, prioritize their cheese-oozing chile relleno, taquitos de papa, and the guisado.