Yxta Cocina Mexicana

Great ambiance with an eclectic mix of people during lunch. Food is beautifully presented and is delicious. Try the guacamole!

I absolutely LOVE this place! The food is AMAZING! The Yxta salad is an absolute must. I can’t wait to try their drinks, they look so good.

This place is great. The drinks are made very well. It takes a little while for the bartenders to make the drinks, but that’s probably why they are so good. The food is a little pricy but it is very good. I ordered the carne asada and it was cooked a perfect medium and seasoned to perfection. My Gf ordered the molè and it was a little more bitter than sweet but still very good. The service was great just sitting and getting a drink at the bar took quit some time.

Went here on a Friday night with the wife and another couple. We were seated right away and they took our drink orders right away and drinks came right out.
Our friend Norma had a cucumber margarita and said it was very good. The rest of us just ordered basic cocktails and all were ok.
As far as food goes I ordered the dos gringos and thought they were just ok. My wife ordered the chile relleno and it was flavorless, I thought it would be amazing especially since it was $ 16.00 for one chile relleno and a little rice.
Our friends ordered the shrimp tacos and the dos gringos as well. We thought overall the food was just ok. The service was spot on and there was always someone making sure we had everything we needed.
What we really needed was a discount on the check. We had 6 cocktails and what I thought equated to 4 appetizer plates and our check was $ 140. For a place of this caliber I’d expect to pay a little less. I would however give it 5 stars if I was rating service alone.

I love this place for lunch or cocktails! The guacamole is my favorite ever, and I highly recommend the carnitas! The atmosphere and décor is super cool, too.

Sam is great and will get you served quickly and with amazing attention to detail! If you see him behind the bar, SIT AT THE BAR!

A great place for Happy hour food and drinks.
First off I see all the raves about the guac, and I have to agree with everyone else that its pretty amazing.
The bacon wrapped scallop was super good and moist with good flavor.
The Ceviche tostada was really good. The fish and flavors were on point and delicious.
The tacos al pastor was the surprise of the night. It was so well marinaded, and moist. Def will be getting this again.
Bread Pudding was alright
Margaritas were good. I’d go for the Yxtaca Maragaritas instead of the other options on the menu.
I plan on going back, but its a bit pricey. $ 90 for 2 ppl during happy hour seems like a bit much

More of a 3.5 but i rounded up.
Good food and margaritas (blood orange & tamarindo were both great) but there were a few things I couldn’t overlook…
3 things I didn’t like:
1. Valet guy was an asshole upon picking up car to each person in our party for a different reason each time. Not to mention he treated his employee like shit which further pissed me off.
2. Server at the bar wouldn’t let me transfer our tab to our table. Instead she let us stand there for 10 minutes figuring all that out & totally killed our vibe.
3. Gratuity that is automatically added for a party over 6 was hand written in. It looked so cheap & tacky.
Also, pretty sure that’s illegal unless it’s disclosed somewhere.
In regards to the good, the guacamole was delicious. Loved the pepita seeds in it. Tortilla soup was also great but my hard shell shrimp tacos were just ok. I wish the regular, soft corn tortilla ones were available (only a lunch item apparently).
Overall, I would go back but find a different place to park (or über it).

One of my favorite places! Never disappointing just wish they where open till at least 11 or at least bar part cause such a great place for good drinks

I came here earlier today for happy around 4:30pm. When we arrived, there were about 8 customers/​table. I’m thinking to myself, yes we arrived early to beat the rush and we’ll get serviced pretty quick. Boy was I wrong. Let’s say our waiter took about 5 mins to take our drink. Water, orange blood margarita and a virgin margarita. I threw a bit of a fit when they wanted to charge me $ 12 for a virgin (non-​alcoholic) margarita which was the same full price with alcoholic. I asked why I was being charged for no alcohol, finally agreed that they will charge me happy hr price which was $ 5. Then we waited about 10 – 15 mins in hopes our waiter would come back to take our order. Nope, I had to get up and look for our waiter. Mind you, the place was still empty but it seems our waiter and the other employees were busy socializing. After he took our order, everything went through pretty quick.
The only positive thing I can say is that their bacon wrapped scallop was delicious (Yep it was singular) which priced at $ 7. I ordered another cause it was that good.
This place is not cheap for a Mexican restaurant. A party of three, our bill was around $ 80 incl tip. We had 3 alcoholic drinks and 4 happy hr plates. These are not happy hr prices at all.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this place and would never go back again. Not worth the trip, time, and money.

This is one of the best Mexican restaurants I’ve been to in L.A. The service is great, food is amazing, nice atmosphere, but the parking is, how do they say, extremadamente malo! So, I’m knocking off one star for that horrible parking situación you put me through every time I come here!

Not sure how I feel about this place. I was really thirsty throughout the day after coming here for lunch. Still thirsty now as I write my review. despite all the water I drank.
What I Ordered
— Guacamole
— Enchiladas de Mole
Chips, salsa and guac were on point! Chips were fresh, crispy and warm! Not sure if this was the reason why I was so thirsty… too much salt from the chips? Or MSG? I don’t really know. The Enchiladas de Mole were okay. A little on the sweet side. Would not get this again. The chicken filling was a tad dry. My coworker raved about them for daysssss since we came here specifically for her birthday. I should have went with my gut and ordered the Mahi Mahi. My other coworker ordered that and devoured it completely! Oh well! I will be back in a few days so hopefully the second time will be better. :)

Their guacamole — sooo good! Probably the best guac I’ve had at a restaurant. Their chips were good but I didn’t love the salsa. My faves were the carne asada, squash blossoms, guac, and potato tacos. The handmade corn tortillas are excellent. I would skip the fish tacos as they were on the bland side.
They have decent deals on their happy hour menu, and some exclusive food items as well. I didn’t try any of the drinks but they looked good as well.
The space is large and conducive for groups, with outdoor seating on the patio in addition to indoor. I would consider holding a birthday party or other group celebration here.
Free parking is available on the street or in the adjacent lot (although I think it may be valet sometimes).

This place really delivered.
The rajas poblanas were damn good. We also had al pastor tacos which were excellent.
I also liked their chips and guac.
I would definitely go back. It has a private lot. If you are driving there at night you will drive through parts of skid row which doesn’t bother me but some people may be put off by that. I didn’t feel unsafe (but I’m from LA and familiar with the area).

This is a part of downtown I don’t frequent but I will definitely return here.
After checking out an art show I wandered around the arts district and made my way over here. There are a lot of factories and it’s a little shady but more boring than concerning. This was early evening on Saturday so the strip mall it was in looked pretty empty and there looked to be plenty of parking but of course they had to have valet there because… actually I don’t know. There looked to be plenty of parking.
I arrived during happy hour (yes, even on Saturday) so a few extra bucks were shaved off my bill.
I kept it pretty standard so I could evaluate them on things I would normally order and not get too adventurous.
On the HH menu I got the Dos Gringas, Tacos de Carnitas and the Callo de Hacha. The pastor (Gringas) was great. A lot of flavors going on and all very fresh. I always order carnitas and if there was a complaint it was that they did such a great job of throwing so many flavors into the pastor that the carnitas didn’t have as many, but it didn’t need it. Any other place I would be excited to get such an offering. The carnitas was tender and moist and made for full bites with the guac and cilantro/​onion on top. Finally the scallop was a beast and filled me up to the point of busting a seam.
The chips, guac and salsas were also fresh and had subtle differences from your average joint that lent another unique quality to this establishment.
Then there were the cocktails. There are an array of possibilities that the staff can put together for you but margaritas were in order. The margarita is not a difficult cocktail but many places just get lazy with it and easily ruin something simple. Here they take the time to use fresh ingredients and put out something that will not only get you a little loosey-​goosey but are enjoyable to the palate.
On top of it all the staff was fun and engaging and made for a pleasant experience. I recommend this establishment and it is a welcome change to an area that is thin on fun dining.

One of my colleagues put it best, «The happiest time is at 4pm…»
This place was a big hit for our staff’s 4−6pm happy hour to kick off the weekend.
This place is delightfully hidden in a triangular strip mall plaza covered in soft layers of evergreen leaves.
There is an outdoor patio area that you walk past in order to enter the restaurant. Yesterday, was too hot to sit outside in the 98 degree heat so we sat inside by a long elevated communal table that aligned parallel to the bar.
This resto was already sizzling with buzz with all the other company happy hours starting to kick off around us as well.
The service was great and I even found free parking on one of the streets that hug the triangular plaza strip mall and avoided paying the $ 3 valet cost.
There were plenty of ATMs in case you had to resort to paying the valet with a Well’s Fargo ATM in the plaza and a Bank of America building just adjacent across the street.

Review is based off of happy hour menu :)
I was in the mood for Mexican tapas style food in Downtown and stumbled upon Yxta. When I first saw their food menu and pictures it was very similar to Mercado. As we got to the restaurant I saw behind the menu the logo of Mercado. So not sure if it’s the sister restaurant or same owner, what ever the case the food is very similar, some dishes were the same as Mercado.
We had an early dinner reservation for 6:15 so there was plenty of street parking. Now it’s not the best neighborhood, as it’s close to skid row, it’s in a plaza and seems a bit unappealing to the eye but don’t judge a book by it’s cover. As you walk in there is a big outside patio with pretty lights hanging on the top. Looks better at night. When you walk inside their is a bar on the left, along with the kitchen, and lots of dining tables. Safe to say it’s a pretty spacious. As we sat and looked at the happy hour menu we ordered a few things from there since it was till 7. As we ordered we all ended up pretty full after a few tacos so decided to just order off the happy hour as we got a little to excited before we even decided to order from the actual entrée menu. Portion are pretty good, I would say tapas style would be a good way to go.
_​Yxta Margarita ($ 6) I’m usually not one to drink but my gf recommend we share one, and it sounded and looked great. Plus I was under peer pressured haha. This was a pretty good drink. Although it was a bit strong, it still tasted refreshing and a tad sweet. The rim was nicely salted, and when you lick the salt and take a sip it just seems like that perfect taste of summer nights :)
_​Guacamole ($ 6) Hass avocado, red onions, cilantro, serrano. Similar to mercado, can’t complain. I always get this as an appetizer as it’s a must. Creamy but also a tad chunky, salty and acidic, I can eat this with everything! The chips were good, but it did not taste that fresh. It came out a bit cool/​room temperature and I had a chip that was super stale white the others were crisp.
_​Tacos de Carnitas ($ 7) Slow-​cooked pork, guacamole, onion-​cilantro mix. I liked this a lot. My other friends agree as well. They pack a lot of perfectly cooked and tender carnitas in the taco. Nice dollop of guacamole and the tortillas were a bit warm and soft. You can tell they were handmade. I would get this again. It’s pretty filling after one taco. Each taco comes with 2.
_​Tacos al Pastor ($ 7) Marinated pork, pineapple, red onions, cilantro. The pork was very juicy, sweet, and acidic. I wish they added more pineapple instead of just 1 small piece. I don’t know why all places do that. I always get that perfect bite in the middle from the pineapple but the first and last bite is missing that sweet pineapple factor.
_​Tostaditas de Tinga de Pollo ($ 7) Pulled chicken with chipotle, black beans, savoy, crema fresca, queso fresco, avocado. For this the taco was more of a tostada, hard shell. A bit different for presentation and taste compared to your regular chicken taco. I actually liked this, it was different and packed with great flavors. It was a bit hard to tell exactly what taste was what as there was a lot going on but it all worked together. The chicken was moist and a bit of a nice kick from the chipotle but not spicy at all. This will definitely fill you up.
_​Chef Jose’s Flan. So I have decided that flan is just not for me anymore. This is based on personal preference. I have tried some flan and always find it to be overly sweet. But I tried it at Mercado and of course here since everyone raves about it. Yes, it is one of the better ones I’ve had. It’s creamy, milky and soft. But I just find it too sweet. I’m not a huge fan of caramel which may be the reason but I find it too be way too rich and sweet from the caramel sauce. And I like texture in my dessert so eating soft flan makes me wish I had some type of cookie or churro. But I can see why people love flan, especially here.
I would come back here to try their regular menu but would not mind coming back again for happy hour. Service was also good.

Overpriced Mexican food… not my jam. The food was definitely fresh but I’d prefer Bar Ama over Yxta for a fancy Mexican dinner. The restaurant itself is very nice and big– I was quite impressed when I walked in. Their drinks menu has an extensive list of tequilas so if that’s your thing then this might be the place for you.
The location isn’t that great as you get closer to Skid Row and of course the empty parking lot has a valet which should have been my first clue to an expensive night. $ 40+ for some tacos is not exactly what I had in mind (with no drinks) but it is what it is.
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Parking:
Valet is $ 3. You will find street parking but wary of the Skid Row folk that wander the streets around here.

What I like the most about Yxta is its versatility — I’ve visited for lunch with coworkers, with a large group for a birthday celebration, and with a friend to catch up. Despite the varied occasions, my party has always had a good time.
Located in the more industrial area of downtown, the first time I visited I almost drove right past it. It’s in a small strip mall with perpetually crowded parking; luckily they offer valet, although you can try finding parking along the street behind restaurant.
The interior is bright during the day, dim in the evening — my favorite part is the high ceilings that make the space feel larger and also a little more gritty and modern; the large windows allow for a great amount of natural lighting during the day.
The service has been generally attentive and friendly; however, when I visited in a group of 12 they definitely had trouble keeping up with our table. Luckily we were there to celebrate and I didn’t pay much attention to their inattention.
Everything I’ve tried off the menu so far has been delicious. Their flan stands out the most in my food memories; it was rich and creamy, with perfectly sweet caramel pooled around the bottom, inviting you to have just one more bite. Their Mexican Kale salad is hearty, flavorful, and filling. The cotija-​pesto croutons were a really interesting spin, and something I had never seen before. I also really like their calabacitas, a perfect mix of creaminess, cheesiness, and spice! And of course, their handmade tortillas are amazing. I wish more restaurants offered them — it really adds so much to the overall quality of the meal. I only wish they offered a few more entrée options for vegetarians, but either way I always visit knowing that I’ll have a great meal.
Yxta delivers on its promise to provide a modern comfortable space with both traditional and contemporary Mexican cuisine.

So, when the hubby was looking for a spot to host his graduation dinner, Yxta was at the top of our list.
They easily accommodated our group of 14. No qualms about having everyone there at once, the menu, filling out paperwork ahead of time, credit card issues, etc. (all things we have experienced at other restaurants when hosting big-​party dinners). Everyone in our party, every single one, had nothing but good things to say about their dinner. Thats 14 out of 14. 100% satisfaction. Nice!
Our final bill was about $ 500, which averages to $ 35 a person. That includes tip, appetizers, dinners, desserts, and drinks (including shots). Not bad.
Thank you, Yxta for accommodating our large group and making our experience a very pleasant one.

I tried the flan and let me tell you it was delicious the food was great i loved it there was great service.