Bill's Taco House on MLK

On my way to this years Central Avenue Jazz Festival, I saw this place and returned for lunch after the Jazz Festival. It's been there since 1949 but the current owner has been in charge since the 1970's, certainly a legacy restaurant.

It's a Mexican "style" menu. I ordered tacos which came with a salad and beans. It's very interesting to eat here, you're in a kind of time machine. The interior is nostalgic and so is the meal. The red sauce reminds me of eating TV dinners with my brother at home those many nights we were by ourselves in the apartment while our parents where working at the restaurant. This was before microwaves so we were little kids heating up these frozen dinners using the oven.

The red sauce. I don't know of any other place that still uses it anymore. Here we are in 2023 and the red sauce is being sustained at Bill's.

I think we have so many authentic Mexican food options today in Los Angeles that this place is at first dated and perhaps antiquated but it's amazing they are still alive and well. Eating here is like watching a pop movie from the early 1970's. You might cringe at some scenes with the politically incorrect banter but hopefully you can appreciate the film for when it was created and not judge it against todays standards.

 219 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90011-2628