Tucked away in a hidden alley, this casual spot offers elevated Mexican street food from chef Enrique Olvera, featuring standout tacos, flautas, and churros.
"A fantastically realized back-alley taqueria offering tacos for two." - Rebecca Roland
"Enrique Olvera’s semi-camouflaged back alley taco stand began its story in Los Angeles at the end of 2020. Since those uncertain first months, Damian and Ditroit have become finely embedded into Los Angeles’s Mexican, and specifically Chilango, oeuvre, shaped by a chef who changed the dining landscape in Mexico City before bringing his specific lens to Los Angeles. Ditroit’s lineup of tacos, flautas, and quesadillas have reshaped Angelenos’ conception of what Mexican street food can be: think cornflower-tinged quesadillas filled with melty quesillo and epazote; tacos with smoky suadero, crispy-edged carnitas under seedy salsa roja, or lightly battered eggplant; and the fish flauta, which packs machaca-style fish, cabbage, crema, and salsa verde into a fried corn tortilla. Visitors can’t go wrong washing it all down with a Mexican coke, or punctuating the experience with its soft serve of the moment, especially during hotter summer months. — Nicole Adlman, cities manager" - Eater Staff
"While Enrique Olvera’s Damian is always an excellent choice for dinner, sometimes an evening splurge just isn’t in the cards. Luckily, Damian is home to a taco window in its back alleyway where one can get a taste of Olvera’s cooking in a more casual setting. Though tacos run a little more expensive than what would be found at other taquerias (around $8 each), they are well worth it. Fresh corn tortillas are topped with heaping piles of salty suadero, or rich pork carnitas, balanced by cilantro, onion, and a squeeze of lime. The crispy fish flauta is a popular choice, along with the daily vegetarian taco, and rotating tamale. Cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages are available to enjoy on-site at a handful of shaded tables." - Eater Staff
"This tiny taco window is the more casual sibling of Damian, and it happens to be located in that restaurant’s back alley. It's concealed by a parking lot, foreboding gates, and dusty industrial lots, but when you find it, you'll get a standout lunch full of super-elevated (albeit pricey) taqueria staples. There are crispy "daily catch" fish flautas, cochinita pibil tacos that ooze with citrusy juice, and a palo santo-cucumber-yuzu agua fresca that you'll want to sip poolside. The combination of these delicious things will run you close to $30, but oof, it's good. " - brant cox, nikko duren, garrett snyder, sylvio martins
"That first bite into Ditroit’s fish flauta fresh out of the fryer makes a good case for why this semi-hidden Arts District spot is a destination lunch. The fish-filled cigar is piping hot, never greasy, and stuffed with plenty of fish. It’s crucial that you design each bite with care. Squeeze a little lime down the hatch, proportion out the finely shaved onion and cabbage, drizzle a drop of crema, take a chomp, and repeat. Ditroit is Damian’s daytime alleyway taco window, and Damian is one of the Best Mexican Restaurants in LA because they’re masa and fish savants. So you know this is no ordinary flauta. " - sylvio martins, arden shore, garrett snyder
