Chef Jaime Martin del Campo and Chef Ramiro Arvizu both grew up in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. In 1998, they opened La Casita Mexicana in the small community of Bell, just seven miles south of downtown Los Angeles. The restaurant is dedicated to the memory of their grandmothers’ traditional food. Today they are world-renowned chefs, hitting the television circuit, publishing cookbooks, and competing on culinary competition shows.
Subtle flavor and flavorful sauces set this restaurant apart from other Mexican restaurants. Instead of a traditional chips and salsa appetizer, La Casita Mexicana tempts the palate with chips drizzled over with three signature mole sauces. Three moles enchiladas and three moles flautas also introduce diners to Mexico’s rich mole sauces that come in a tremendous variety of flavors, which at La Casita Mexican includes a traditional mole poblano, as well as a red and green chili pumpkin seed mole.
Inventive and unique, Martin del Campo and Arvizu are open to experimentation with their popular mole sauces; blackberry and white chocolate versions have appeared on the restaurant’s innovative dessert menu in the past. Another signature dish is the chile en nogada, a traditional Jaliscan appetizer consisting of a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with sweetly spiced ground beef, dried fruits and candied cactus, which is covered with a pecan cream sauce and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds.
The restaurant has gained an enormous following since its opening. In 2013, Martin del Campo and Arvizu purchased a neighboring barber shop that doubled their capacity to more than100 seats. A tiendita within the restaurant sells homemade moles, housemade chili powder, and their famous café de olla, a spiced coffee with cinnamon and piloncillo. It also sells souvenir shirts and hats, as well as traditional Mexican artesanías, or handicrafts.
Subtle flavor and flavorful sauces set this restaurant apart from other Mexican restaurants. Instead of a traditional chips and salsa appetizer, La Casita Mexicana tempts the palate with chips drizzled over with three signature mole sauces. Three moles enchiladas and three moles flautas also introduce diners to Mexico’s rich mole sauces that come in a tremendous variety of flavors, which at La Casita Mexican includes a traditional mole poblano, as well as a red and green chili pumpkin seed mole.
Inventive and unique, Martin del Campo and Arvizu are open to experimentation with their popular mole sauces; blackberry and white chocolate versions have appeared on the restaurant’s innovative dessert menu in the past. Another signature dish is the chile en nogada, a traditional Jaliscan appetizer consisting of a roasted poblano pepper stuffed with sweetly spiced ground beef, dried fruits and candied cactus, which is covered with a pecan cream sauce and a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds.
The restaurant has gained an enormous following since its opening. In 2013, Martin del Campo and Arvizu purchased a neighboring barber shop that doubled their capacity to more than100 seats. A tiendita within the restaurant sells homemade moles, housemade chili powder, and their famous café de olla, a spiced coffee with cinnamon and piloncillo. It also sells souvenir shirts and hats, as well as traditional Mexican artesanías, or handicrafts.