Zacatecas Raspados

Delicious shaved ice, and true fruit juices.
Arrived at 11am on a hot and balmy LA morning, only to discover they didn’t open their doors until 11:30am. With bated breath, we watched the server pull a cart laden with buckets of fruit nectar and syrups into the store.
We ordered the coconut and mango shaved ices and they were delicious. It’s made with coarse shavings from ice cubes — sort of like crushed ice, and very different from the soft shaved ice places around town. There is just way too much syrup to ice ratio. They basically sandwich the shaved ice between two layers of syrup. If you don’t mind things being overly sweet, go for it! Otherwise, would be good to ask for just one ladle. Ten minutes in, after the first few sips, I asked for her to pour some excess syrup out and replace with ice. Much better.
Half an hour later in the car, the ice had already melted, and my bf’s drink was way too saccharine.

Looking for a cool treat on this HOT LA fall day. This place is «aight» wouldn’t travel just to try it but if you happen to be close and want something cool.
We tried mango, strawberry, lemon, jamaica, & vanilla. The best (personally) I think is vanilla or lemon. The mango was too sweet. They have chunks of the flavors (strawberry or mango pieces). The size is decent but at $ 4.50 each ehh I rather some korean shaved ice.
The lady there was nice enough, asked to buy a cup of just ice (as the syrup was too sweet) we had to pay full price as she said the cups were counted… not cool.

Like for many other Angelinos, Huell Howser was our sherpa guide to all things Southern California so when he did his show on Raspados Zacatecas, we thought it would be a slam dunk. Unfortunately, we’ll have to agree to disagree with the late great Mr. Howser. The syrups, while made from real fruit and full of flavor, are just way way too sweet. We tried the vanilla straight and a coconut with rompope. The coconut/​rompope was bad. The vanilla acceptable but cloyingly sweet. The service was great, however! We weren’t happy at all with the coconut/​rompope so the cashier switched it for a guayaba/​vanilla with no problem. It was better but still a palate blowing experience. If you are a diabetic with a death wish, this is your place. Otherwise, quite skipable.

I was watching a Huell Howser rerun the other night and he came to this place. They’re specialty is snow cones aka raspados with real fruit juice syrups as opposed the typical high fructose corn syrups. They used an ice crusher so don’t expect the smooth snow like consistency of shave ice. Do expect a sugar rush and a nice change from the typical syrups. I’d come back but wish they had an ice shaver.

The raspados are good especially on a hot day. Try the nuez or any fruit. They are natural not artificial like others.

First off I had read a lot of good reviews about this place. My friend had been wanting to try it for a while now. So we decided to finally see what the hype was all about. We visited friday afternoon, a lady greeted us with a «ahorita solo hay raspados eh» we didnt mind after all that’s what we were there for. My friend ordered a coconut raspado and I ordered mango. We got our raspados, got to the car and took a sip. Mine was good, nothing special though. His in the other hand was horrible. At first we were thinking is this what a coconut raspado should taste like? but we honestly highly doubt it. I don’t know if it was just his raspado that could of been done better or if that’s the general taste. It had this dough plain taste. Nothing about it was sweet or tasty. We had to visit el mercadito right after which was totally a different story to this.

Amazing. Thank you, Huell!
Got the coconut walnut and it was so good. We had just been camping and this was the perfect thing to come home to. Really want to go back and try everything else! Yum yum yum yum!

Cash only.
Amazing service. Nuez with anything is amazing!!!
Been here often, first time reviewing. Love all flavors! Always a pleasure to be here.

What a hot day today is time for a nice cold raspado from the Zacatecas Raspados. I love to come here to get a raspados since I can’t remember. The flavors are really good including the fruit syrup they make it fresh daily. Summer is also near it’s going to be a hot summer I will coming to Zacatecas Raspados to get a nice cold raspado to cool me off..

I been going here since I was a kid, back when the Raspados used to cost 2.00. Yes the price may have gone up but always worth it for best stuff around. Always tastes fresh, with amazing perfect flavors that are so on the spot, never overly sweet. The best thing on a hot summer day. The ladies there are always too sweet.

pretty good raspado joint. I had the tamarindo raspado. That was actually pretty good. My wife tried their mango one, but we didn’t like the syrup they used. Too thick.
Not a big place. Parking either in front or across the street.

This is a must stop if you’re in the area, especially now: SUMMERTIME! We had lunch around the corner and just had to stop on by for a refreshing dessert! I usually get the Nuez (walnut) Flavored Raspado. I did the same but combined it with Cajeta (burnt caramel). It was very tasty. My sons enjoyed Pineapple/​Strawberry and lastly my mom really liked the Guayaba/​Rompope (Guaba/​Eggnog). I though it was an add combination but she said it was delicious. At $ 4.00 each, you can’t go wrong. No extra charge for doubling-​up on the flavors. Enjoy!

I had come to Zacatecas Raspados since the preYelp days in the early 2000’s, but stopped going a while back since it is certainly not anywhere near me, but recently a traffic jam on the Pomona/​Long Beach freeways made me take a non-​Frwy route. Lo and behold, I ended up on Ford, and a light bulb turned on in my brain that on this extremely hot and humid day, that Z.R. was only a stone’s throw away.
What is truly remarkable about Z.R. is the sophistication of it’s various «syrups» whether they are made from fruits or nuts. The syrup seems to be simmered a long time with lots of sugar and sometimes milk to create a full bodied flavour that is smooth and rich.
I always seem to order the combination of Rompope (rohm poh peh) and Nuez (new ehs) since to me they have a natural affinity for each other. Rompope is equivalent to our egg nog which has an eggy/​creamy heaviness, and Nuez literally means Walnuts or nuts in general and pieces of walnuts are simmered slowly in a sugar sauce so that the walnut texture is pleasantly chewy.
The syrups are extra sweet for a reason. The ice melts so it dilutes the general overall flavours. The sugar concentration seems rather excessive at the beginning, but mellows out as time progresses.
My only minor critique is that the crushed ice is a bit too big and gives a textural feel of small pebbles. I was first initiated into Japanese style shaved ice desserts found at Fu-​getsudo– & Mikawaya in Little Tokyo. The texture of the ice there is like freshly fallen snow… soft and fluffy. Hawaiian shaved ice is the offspring of the Japanese shaved ice style. I realize that shaved ice is technically more of a bother than just scooping up crushed ice from a frozen ice bin since creating fine snow ice takes time and equipment.
So there is a compromise on both sides. The Japanese shaved ice is superior in ice texture, but the fruit syrups are not anywhere near the savoir faire of the syrups at Z.R. If trying the Japanese shaved ice, choose the traditional flavours of Kintoki (keen tow kee) which is slow cooked Azuki beans in sugar or Uji (oo gee) which is sweetened Matcha powdered Green Tea. They are closer in spirit to the superior «syrups» that are slow cooked at Z.R.
If there ever will come a time of marrying the fine fluffy snow of Japanese shaved ice and the superior syrups of Mexican raspados ever comes together, that will be quantum leap for the next step in the evolution of ice desserts. My estimation of Zacatecas Raspados is 3+ Unilocal stars due to the pebbly ice, but the supeior flavours of the syrups make me want to round up a notch. Viva Zacatecas Raspados!
PS There is a free county owned small parking lot across the street, and the exchange of the realm is CASH on the head. Your debit or credit card is for naught. Also next door is Panaderia La Fama… check out the fruit filled empanadas which are better than most.

Bring cash and try this place. The coconut and mango juices are our favorites

I saw Zacatecas Raspados on an episode of Huell Howser and I had to check it out. Leave your credit card at home, it is cash only. I went on a warm summer day and it was busy. The raspados are big enough to share. At $ 3.50, they are pricey for a raspado. I had the tamarindo raspado. It was not bad at all, even though it was very sweet. I would like to try the other flavors, so I think I’ll be back.

Great hole in the wall location in East Los Angeles for some yummy shaved ice. I recommednd the «Tamarido» It is made with tamarind after it has been boiled in water, had its seeds removed, and has been liquified and combined with sugar or the «Guava» flavor is delicious. They have several favors for your palate.

Leaving Monterey Park after eating at Dorado’s Ceviche, I thought that a nice refreshing raspado would satisfy and round out my meal. The only place I would consider would be Zacatecas Raspados. I used to go in the late 90s and fell in love with them. Time goes on and this place faded from my memory, but now the 90s are back (Yay for Garbage & Shirley Manson!) and I found myself at Zacatecas Raspados.
I realized that I used to order these raspados in Spanish. People in front of me were ordering in Spanish and people behind were going to order in Spanish. And even though this place was featured by Huell Howser and is apparently one of his favorite places and you would logically and reasonably conclude that they too speak English, However, weak willed am I and I gave into the mob and decided I must rely on my high-​school spanish I was glad that I could say «Quiero un mango con chile y un tamarindo.»
After reading the other reviews, we ordered the Tamarindo. The tart is balanced with sweetness and has that distinctive Tamarindo flavor. I ordered the mango con chile, which looking back I should have ordered regular mango. My bf thought it was too sweet, but I’m all about it not being sweet enough. I’ll definitely be back and would like to check out their other flavors.

I haven’t had many raspados to compare this shop too. Flavor was good I got mango with chile and my fiancé got
Piña. Both had an immense about of sugary syrup !!! But once the ice melted it tasted alot better ! I’d go again but I wanna try a different place out too.

Be careful, syrups here are very sweet. Not sweet in flavor, just straight out sugar sweet. Luckily for me, I liked it. But I can see how others might be turned off by how sugary these are.
The Tamarindo: Nice tart from the actual tamarindo but the high sugar kind of balances that out. This might be the only flavor that can be tolerated by people who can’t handle the sugary taste.
The Fresa (strawberry): This one is very sugary. This one will be too much for some people. Strawberries are naturally sweet and tart, but in this syrup, there is nothing of tart. Straight up sweet.
The Guava: The high sugar level on this one worked well. I don’t know why. Maybe because the guava fruit is so naturally powerful in flavor? Don’t know but it was nice.
The crushed ice has some thick pieces mixed with fine minced ice, which is fine because that allows the ice to hold it’s texture for quite a long time. The syrups not only contain large amounts of sugar but they also have texture. They leave the pulp of the fruit in the syrups; like a fruit preserve.
Growing up eating raspados, here in the USA and in Mexico, these are the most sugary respados I’ve ever tasted. So if these don’t work for your taste buds, try other places and find the one that works for you. Because one should not live without respados!
p. s. cash only

The wife brought me here for a suprise after catching the Huell Howser episode. She knows I’m a shave ice fan, so as we were passing by, she told me to stop and park. The place is pretty unassuming, as there was no line to speak of… fortunately for her. (She told me later that she was emotionally prepared for the long line she might be stuck in, having brought me to such a popular spot. As luck would have it, the weather was quite cool the day we came here, so no line to speak of.)
Being a shave ice guy, I prefer my ice much finer, but nevertheless, I can be flexible for a good raspado. I had peach, which had a generous amount of fruit and syrup. I think we’ll be making return trips to try all the other flavors.
Besides being a pleasant suprise when you’re passing through the neighborhood, it’s also freeway adjacent, so even if you’re not passing by, it’s only a slight detour for a great treat!!!