CaCao Mexicatessen
Mexican restaurant · Eagle Rock
1576 Colorado Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA
Highlights
Creative Mexican eats, duck confit tacos, signature hot chocolate
Creative Mexican eats, duck confit tacos, signature hot chocolate
"Great Mexican food. It’s easily one of California’s top five attributes; prized is an understatement. So when family-owned restaurant CaCao Mexicatessan started serving up Baja California inspired Mexican dishes with attention to quality ingredients and a more foodie approach, we were ready. Carnitas de Pato: duck confit tacos with handmade tortilla, avocado, vinegar onions and radishes - yes. Mission Fig Mole Poblano: free range chicken with mole and Marcona almonds - also yes. Other favorites include Korean style BBQ short rib tacos and mole fries. Open for breakfast on the weekend. Lunch specials as well as happy hour Tuesday through Friday." - Hype Type Studio & Steph Ashmore
"Cacao Mexicatessen in Eagle Rock is known for going a little wild with its tacos, like their signature duck carnitas or the minced Oaxacan chorizo taco topped with a bird’s nest of crispy potato strings. Their Ensenada fish taco, while it may read pretty standard, is a must-order because it’s just as impressive on all fronts. It comes with a tennis ball-sized hunk of fried fish that you’ll initially struggle to get your mouth around until the filet collapses after the first chomp. You get big mouthfuls of flaky meat in each bite, and the crema and pickled red onions on top keep things sharp and moist." - sylvio martins, arden shore, garrett snyder
"Cacao is a Northeast LA staple for margaritas, $5 beers at Happy Hour, and inventive tacos you won’t find anywhere else in this taco town. Their signature is the beloved duck carnitas taco: a mouthful of sweet, fatty poultry that melts into its blue corn tortilla. You also can’t go wrong with the Ensenada fish with its tennis ball-sized hunk of fried fish and the crispy guisado de pato that’s a mix of duck crackling and nopal stewed in a savory chile arbol salsa." - brant cox, sylvio martins
"Cacao Mexicatessen doesn’t just have one of the most phonetically satisfying words in the English language in its name (Mexicatessen is our personal "cellar door"), it’s also a Northeast LA staple that has been serving delicious and inventive tacos for over a decade. The famed duck carnitas here are a must-order, with its sweet, fatty meat soaking perfectly into a warm blue corn tortilla. We also love the Ensenada fish tacos, which come with a giant piece of golden fried fish topped with cabbage, crema, and pickled onions (add sea urchin if you want to go big), as well as the sesame-topped Korean short rib and the guisado de pato, duck cracklings and nopales stewed in a savory chile de arbol salsa. Order at the counter and then sit in the large adjacent dining room with TVs and a cocktail menu if you want to hang out." - sylvio martins, garrett snyder, brant cox
"This Eagle Rock restaurant scores highly in our books for a handful of reasons: their 10/10 name, excellent duck carnitas, and fig mole sauce decadent enough to make a piece of cardboard look appetizing. They happen to make an excellent pozole verde, too. Rather than chunks of pork, there's a giant shank capsized in the center of the bowl, with generous amounts of meat to tear off the bone. The broth itself is well-balanced, with tart tomatillos, onions, and fresh cilantro cutting the pork-fat richness. This pozole also doesn’t hold back on the chiles either, so expect some open sinuses and minor mouth-breathing between spoonfuls." - sylvio martins, brant cox, cathy park
