El Rincon Criollo
4361 Sepulveda Blvd
Culver City, CA‎
(310) 391-4478‎

El Rincon Criollo is the quintessential hole in the wall Cuban restaurant serving up some of the best Cuban food on the West Coast. It’s been quite a while since my last visit (I just don’t have enough time on my visits to LA to eat everywhere I want to), but El Rincon Criollo is high on my lists for a repeat. Something about hole in the wall Latino and Hispanic restaurants shout out good food as though “the worse the ambiance, the better the flavour” is a secret to their cuisine.

I first heard about El Rincon Criollo while randomly looking for something different to eat on some internet search site like CitySearch and it was pretty highly reviewed so I gave it a try. Before then I had usually gone up to Mercedes Grill in South Venice when I had an itch for Cuban but I had started turning cold on them after a couple of pretty terrible meals of over overdone Stuffed Chicken Breast and super salty Ropas Viejas. Finding El Rincon Criollo wasn’t too difficult to find and parking was way better than trying to get a spot in Venice although the neighbourhood wasn’t quite as nice. Culver does have some charming streets full of LA salt boxes and California Bungalows and some of the oldest standing trees in LA if you have some time to drive around. El Rincon Criollo looks like the stereotypical family owned Cuban restaurant and it just felt right to be eating there. The staff working were really friendly and gave some excellent recommendations from the hilarious menu.

And what a menu it was. A whole bunch of Spanish words I didn’t understand was the first good sign and the awful translations of the Spanish cemented the deal. I came to the right place. I started with Deep Fried Yucca served as one big crispy chunk and accompanied with a big bowl of sour garlic dipping sauce. Delicious! For such a simple dish it can hold its own with appetizers twice as complex and three times more expensive. The sauce was the best part and if I knew the recipe I’d use it on absolutely everything. For those that haven’t had the chance to try Yucca, Cuban cuisine has the best preparation deep frying it in large chunks and there’s not much that tastes better than that. For my entree I had the well translated “Fried Chunks of Pork” which came out sizzling, a little crispy, and bursting with flavour. Somehow American’s forgot how great pork can taste, probably after breeding all the delicious fat out of the suckers. When will Americans learn that fat isn’t what’s making them fat? But I’m happy to report that Cubans did not forget one bit and the Fried Chunks of Pork was fabulous. To wash it all down I had a tall glass of Guanabana Juice, my favourite of the Cuban drinks from the giant list of fruit sodas, smoothies, and juices at the bottom of the menu.

Cuban food is a simple cuisine with a lot of rice, beans, plantains, and pork and like all simple cuisines the most important factor to a good meal is the soul of the cook. Most South American, South East Asian, and African food revolves around poor ingredients and it comes down to the family recipe and care of the cook to produce fantastic food. El Rincon Criollo excelled in its preparation and I loved every bite. It was also a good deal and I left completely satisfied. I have to admit I haven’t eaten at a huge amount of Cuban restaurants in California, but of the ones I have tried El Rincon Criollo is easily my favourite. Next time I’m in LA hit me up and let’s make a comeback.