Provecho: Luxury Tacos With Grandma Wisdom

Of the many high-end Mexican restaurants to open downtown in the last few months, Provecho is the most recognizable as, well, a Mexican restaurant. This isn’t to say that your grandmother would mistake it for El Torito or anything. There are the requisite $35 tequila shots, foie gras whatevers, $10,000 lighting fixtures and booths stuffed with the impossibly beautiful young. The full roster of ceviches (yellowtail with jalapeño, lobster with tequila, charred octopus with kumquat-habanero salsa) is closer to L.A.-style sashimi than to the catsup-flooded concoctions flung out of local taquerías, and the pricey milanesa is made from Kobe beef. But ex–Republic chef Gabriel Morales is a local guy who just happens to have a decade of classical training, and I suspect his taste memories of al pastor were formed at bootleg carts on the Eastside and his concept of machaca at his mother’s knee instead of from books. Which means that his tacos may be stuffed with duck confit or rillettes instead of beef head or pork stomach, but they are tacos to the core.

Location Info

Map

Provecho

800 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Category: Restaurant > Mexican

Region: Downtown

0 user reviews	Write A Review
	0

Related Content

• End of Week Agenda: A Brimming, Ripe, Juicy Calendar
  May 15, 2009

More About

• Gabriel Morales
• Mexican Food and Cooking
• Food and Cooking

Like this Story?

Get the Squid Ink'd: Sign up for our weekly food newsletter, which features top local food news and events, plus interviews with chefs and restaurant owners, dining tips and a link to our print review.

Make sign up easy with:

Provecho, 800 Wilshire Blvd., downtown; (213) 489-1406 or www.provechorestaurant.com.