Puchica Guatemalan Bar & Grill

First time here on Thursday day night celebrating moms birthday and we decided to give this place a try. Meat was took dry but I can say the appetizer plate made up for it. There service was the best the two waiters that were there that night were the best treated every single one of us being a party of 12 great. will be going back again

Ok so my co workers and I wanted to try something new down the block from work. We decided to eat here.
The parking lot is metered parking paid for at a pay station. The business has a few open spots right behind but the rest is metered.
I have never had Guatemalan food so this was quite an experience. It’s a family business, great service. I ordered the devil shrimp which is usually a shrimp in a very spicy red sauce. However this was not the case here. I mean I get it there are different styles but I tried one and did not eat anymore. It was not shrimp a la Diablo. Which I’ve had a dozen other times. My coworkers ordered other menu items and decided that their food was Ok. One of my coworkers is Guatemalan and suggested I try the horchata because they make it the authentic way m, so I decide to give it a try and I didn’t like that either at all so all I really enjoyed here was the water.
I’m always open to experiencing new foods, spices, and tastes this just was not the spot. I don’t think I’ll be visiting again and my coworkers were not wowed enough to return by anything other than the service.

Ordered delivery. Seemed like it would’ve tastes great if the meat wasn’t so overcooked, dry and tough. I had the puchica plate. So sad that it required so much work to eat. The rice and beans were good though!
Also had the queso dip. The queso had hardened by the time it was delivered. Couldn’t «dip» the chips anymore. They just broke because the cheese was so tough.
Anyway, I’d been wanting to try this place out. Safe to say I’m not interested in doing it again. :(
Maybe we just caught them at a bad time?

Very excited to eat authentic guatemalan food. Meat was great tasting and nice and tender. The Puchica plate is enough to to share for 3. All juices are freshly pressed or squeezed and taste fabulous. Chirmol that comes with meat was great as well. Service was very friendly. Parking in rear.

I have never tried Guatemalan food before but noticed this well-​reviewed gem in my neighborhood through Unilocal.
Started with «margaritas» made with soju — hibiscus and tamarindo. They were sweet, sour and absolutely refreshing!
We ordered way too much food but had no idea. We shared the antijitos puchica — a mixed appetizer platter that was HUGE. I highly recommend this dish as there is such a variety to the components and it gives an overview of Guatemalan specialties (garnachitas, enchiladas, taquitos, chuchitos, tamalito de chipilin and fried plantains). We also ordered the sopa de gallina which was a soul-​satisfyling bowl of chicken soup with vegetables, a chicken leg and thigh on the side, accompanied by homemade rice, salad and half of an avocado. Plus fresh tortillas. Phew — this could have fed a small army!
This was the type of meal you feel is made by a friend’s grandmother. In Guatemala. You feel transported. I cannot recommend it enough. Great service, too!

This place is amazing, fun, friendly, and delicious! I took my mom and family here for Mother’s Day. We had a blast! My mom and I danced to the Marimba. The food is true authentic Guatemalan food. Simply delicious and the drinks were tasty! I will be recommending Puchica Guatemalan Bar and Grill to everyone I know.

Came here with my Guatemalan in-​laws to see how authentic the food was. What a delicious meal! Very authentic Guatemalan food that has to be tried. We all ordered different entrees, along with their big sampler plate. Everything was delicious. The only issue I had was with their service. Friendly, but incredibly SLOW! After being seated it took the waitress almost 30 minutes to take our order and there was only one other table of 4 at the time. The food took about 15 minutes to prepare, which wasn’t bad. When we finished, it took another 30 minutes for the waitress to bring the check. So make sure you leave yourself an hour and half for lunch.
Also, they were setting up a DJ for the afternoon, who started playing Happy Birthday for the other table. The volume was incredibly loud. So much so it was hurting my 1 year old child’s ears. You could not even hear the person sitting next to you. We had to yell to each other. It was ridiculous. The noise, combined with the crappy service speed is why this place misses a 5 start review because the food is excellent..

Everything here is so delicious and bursting with flavor!
Came here with my boyfriend who is from Guatemala and he said the food here is the best he’s ever had that reminded him of home.
Things we ordered:
Chuchitos (chicken) — very good; the sauce on them made them even better.
Chicken tamales– love how the Guatemalan ones are wrapped in banana leaves so they don’t taste dry at all; these were good but were a little bit too soggy actually (the ones my boyfriend made were so much tastier). Next time I’ll probably go for the tamales de chipilin.
Kak ik soup– one of the best soups I’ve ever had at a restaurant! The spices in the broth were so delicious and there were HUGE chunks of turkey in it that were perfectly tender.
Carne asada plate– the meat was well cooked and seasoned just right. Even the sides of black beans and rice were so tasty. Plus the fried plantains yummmmm.
Pollo guisado– the guisado tomato sauce on this was excellent.
They also serve the tomato sauce as a dip with their complimentary chips!
And of course I can’t forget about the famosa beer. Loved it.
The restaurant is decorated with tons of bright colors and beautiful photos of Guatemala are hung on the walls.
When we dined here, there was only one server working: a man in his mid 20s — early 30s maybe. We took a while to look at the menu and decide what to order; he was very patient with us and kind.
I honestly CANNOT WAIT to come back here! It’s not very often when you eat out at a restaurant and actually feel like you’re eating an amazing home cooked meal.

We LOVED this place so much I cannot wait to go back and have some more food.
My daughter ordered some breakfast that included scrambled eggs, frijoles volteados and platanos fritos. They were perfect, just perfect. My boyfriend ordered a tamal and also breakfast and even though he hasn’t had a lot of Guatemalan food he really enjoyed his food. I ordered the plate of longanizas. The longanizas were topped with their traditional tomato sauce and even though I’m not a big fan of tomatoes, this sauce was just perfection. The plate also came with frijoles negros and rice -(guate style) and guacamole. We had horchata and a jugo de pina and they were both super refreshing and good tasting.
I will be bring my parents here so they can enjoy some traditional, true Guatemalan food which is not so easy to find nowadays. Check them out!

Easy parking in the rear of the building.
The service was excellent, our waiters were very personable and polite.
The Micheladas were probably one of the best I had in a while, it was just right!
We had the queso to start, the cheese was melted and it was topped with some mushwooms, onions, and pepers… You cant go wrong with this appetizer
As our main course we had the carne asada. It tasted home-​made and fresh just as we expected. The platanos were perfectly ripped. The rice and beens were like grandma’s. Tortillas made to order.
The restaurant was clean, and we didnt have to wait in line or anything.
The only downside was the music. When we first got there they were playing good music. 5 min after we sat they played this saddest music a i ever heard. It was like the music people play in funeral.
We had a good experience overall

Casi y casi y me recuerdan a los Shucos que me pasaba comiendo en la Reforma con mis Mejires amigos Luis aquino y Christian Castro Morales en la Reforma despues del F-​15. Eso si riquizimos como toda la Comida aca en Puchica y no se diga la excellente attencion de Mirna y Fernando.

Hoy tuve el deseo de visitar este restaurante pero tuvimos una mala experiencia los plátanos bien crudos y un mal servido y demasiado caro y no hay parqueo no lo recomiendo

Primera ves en esterestorante, y la verdad no me agrado. El servicio no muy bueno el menu nada que ver. A diferencia del amalias en virgil y melrose ayi si calidad servicio y comida

Really liked this place.
The shrimp with coconut sauce is a real surprise. And very good. So is the diablo. Was very pleased.
Had a hibiscus margarita. Friend had a beer and nachos .
Good place to walk across from the galleria if the movie sucks (like in our case).
Galleria food is quite bad /​mediocre. This is only a few min walk .
Will go back ! Already craving the coconut shrimp again!

I had promised to come back here to try a more traditional dish and kept true to my word. Must say, second time around was the charm in this case.
First off, I actually talked to the owner, a lovely, very gregarious woman. She was there on my first visit, but for whatever reason, we didn’t speak much. This last visit, I engaged her in conversation about the menu and found out that my main server both times is her daughter. Both are very customer friendly with wide, warm smiles. This place is definitely family owned and operated.
On this second visit, I ordered the Sopa de Res, the beef and vegetable soup. I expected it to be good. It was not — it was outstanding! It is a very much a broth based meal and here they nail it. The broth is perfectly seasoned (you will not need to add salt). The beef is melt in your mouth and all of the vegetables (squash, cabbage, potato, corn) are al dente and not at all mushy. I ate the whole bowl, adding perfectly buttery rice to it, and thought my rib cage would burst! They put a half an avocado on the plate with the rice and I could not finish it. What a satisfying meal.
This may very well become my new favorite spot for awhile. After all, I have lots of other dishes to try here.

Excelente service … food is great. … you need to try the chapin breakfast is so good and delicious. …
Coffee is fresh … the hand made tortillas and the and the black beans … excelente. …

First the service it was bad. la orden de mi hijo incluia papas y estaban crudas le dije a la mesera y lo unico que hizo es pedir disculpas… El plato de carne adobada wasn’t good at all it was dry and didn’t taste like carne adobada. So disappointed

Éste el mejor restaurante chapin: tamales shuck o lo mejor voy a regresar pero lástima q vivo asta glendale o el fianbre sabroso

It is safe to say I will be coming back to this Guatemalan restaurant.
Tried:
ThePuchica Platter
Highly Satisfied with the Chille Relleno, Adobada, frijoles negros.
The horchata was AMAZZZZING :)))
Pass on the tamales and rellenitos i wasn’t impressed the tamale was too salty and the rellenitos tasted too sweet.
Atmosphere was excellent will be returning soon for my chile relleno and horchata!

Puchica vos esta muy bueno este lugar! Brought my whole family and we were all satisfied with the food. It’s a bit far from us but totally worth it!
Garnachas, enchiladas, mojarra, asada, longaniza, platanitos, camarones guisados, taquitos, tamales de chipilin, chirmolito rico… horchata…everything was delicious!
Highly recommend this place.
We also pre-​ordered fiambre for November 1^st.

I really really wanted to love this place. Reviews seemed to hold this place high above other Guatemalan restaurants but it felt short of the mark. Up to this point I haven’t found a Guatemalan restaurant that meets the standards I’ve come to known. I am from Guatemala and travel there every year so I know.
The puchica plate was mostly bland. They only two things that were above average were the adobada steak and the black beans (but who can’t do beans?). The adobada had some similar spices I’ve come to adore back from Guatemala and I’ve had true adobada pork steaks from zacapa, xela and capital.
The one thing that brought back memories and was truly special I even ordered two, was the horchata. A true replica of a Guatemalan horchata. It’s a bit sad since horchata is not even originally from Guatemala.
I want to go back for breakfast and see if they can impress me. Breakfast at the end of the day is another Guatemalan specialty.
I would also try their shucos but I hope not to be disappointed there either.

Bored from the usual Thai spot we usually go to, my man & I decided to eat here after finding it on Unilocal solely based on its rare name, «Puchica.» We’ve never really had Guatemalan food so we can’t attest to its authenticity. but it was freakin’ good!
We started off with the Garnachas appetizer $ 8.50 and a pork tamale $ 3.50. The Garnachas are 6 little tostada-​like things that are topped with ground meat and served with pickled veggies. Although I think that this plate was extremely pricey for the amount of food you actually get, I have to admit that it was delicious. Especially those pickled veggies, they made the dish and were great.
The pork tamale was great as well. I loved that the tamale was soft unlike Mexican tamales which are a lot firmer.
We also got a Plato Puchica $ 25.50 to share just to try a little bit of everything. My favorites from that plate were the carne asada, pork and platanos. I didn’t really like the chorizo sausage (kinda strong herb flavor) or the refried black beans (really thick). All the salsas that were served to us throughout our meal were really good too.
Service-​wise I think was fair, everyone was really nice but I don’t think patrons should have to ask for beverage refills or even the check, especially when the place isn’t very busy. Even after getting the check we had to wait for a while for someone to acknowledge we were still there to take our card.
Overall, we liked it and will be going back to try different things since their menu had a lot of interesting dishes.

mi esposa y yo fuimos a cenar en esta jollita buscando comida mejicana y buenas margaritas. no las encontramos allí, pero sí que nos hallamos en un oasis centroamericano. la comida aquí es riquísima con sabor auténtico guatemalteco. tiene un menú de margaritas de sabores únicos, cuya combinación me dejó en un estado nostálgico por cultura latina. el personal es atento y amable. el ambiente es limpio con un carácter encantador.
vaya: no se decepcionará por nada

Puchica (pooch-​eek-​a) is an adorable 2 unit wide place, filled with only colors that Guatemalans can offer. Located in a small strip of mostly restaurants in an odd/​hard-​to-​get-​to parking, for a first-​timer that is. 6 or so free parking spaces behind, and a paid lot by the hour if they are filled up.
It has a small and manageable menu: 14 breakfast items and 15 lunch/​dinner items, 20 beers and a dozen wines by the glass, and 6 or so cocktails (made with Soju and on the rocks only). I like the feel, the service, the colors and design, and the music (salsa & mambo) are all excellent. The food was prepared beautifully, but a few things were not so good. Let me elaborate:
1. Yuca con Chicharron appetizer ($ 9): Fried and tender chunks of pork were excellent; no bones. Yuca were also fried, but should have been much crispier. Served with cabbage and a mild salsa. (4.0 stars)
2. Hilachas ($ 14): Shredded beef cooked in a rich tomato sauce. Amazing sauce that I dipped and relished with fresh tortillas, but the beef was much to be desired. Shredded in long strips, it was rubbery. When I asked if this was normal, I was told it may be the animal. Huh. Served with rice (with carrots and peas), black beans, and sweet fried plantains. (2.5 stars)
3. Carne Adobada ($ 15) — 4 medium pieces of marinated pork in adobada sauce, like tender boneless porkchops. Served with the Guatemalan rice mix, black beans, and sweet fried plantains. (4.5 stars)
They don’t carry Gallo (number 1 Guatemalan beer), but I went with a Famosa lager (good!) and had to have Pina Colada… I just had to!
There are many things great about this place, and transporting to another place in the world for a couple of hours is always welcomed. It’s a little pricy for this food that can be found in the streets, but worthy.

Recomiendo el queso fundido. Esta fantastico. Los nuevos platillos del menú se convierten en la excusa perfecta para regresar

My friends and I met here for brunch on a Sunday.
Warning about parking: I wasn’t able to find parking for this location. They are located right by the 405 freeway entrance and I ended up accidentally hopping back on the freeway. After a 10-​minute detour, I stayed in the left lane and found street parking near Whole Foods across the street.
The space is cute — very mom and pop shop. The service here was nice but so very slow. One of my friends is Guatemalan, but raised in LA. She said the leisurely pace at which the food came out was very much her culture. We arrived at 11:15am and didn’t leave until 2:30pm. Some of that, we were sitting around but we waited a VERY long time for our food, the quality of which can is really the reason for this one-​starred review.
Upon being seated, we had chips and sauce places in front of us. The chips were decent. One of the sauces was a delicious and rich tomato sauce which my friend said is traditional. She said Guatemalans don’t do spicy. :) The other was a spicy green sauce that she said was more Mexican than Guatemalan. We ordered a couple of breakfast orders with eggs, plaintains and beans ($ 8.50). One of my friends asked for her eggs fried but they were so runny that she barely touched them. We also ordered a hot dog appetizer which looked interesting ($ 6.25). I didn’t have any of it.
I had two glasses of Horchata. The first was really delicious but a little watered down. The second was super sweet and the bottom of the glass (or mason jar) had some chunky things in it. I wasn’t so happy about this inconsistency at $ 2.75 per glass. For my entrée, I ordered the carne abadoba which was a beef dish marinated in a red sauce of sorts ($ 14). The dish also came with fried plantains and a serving of black beans. Aside from taking a super long time for the food to come out, the greater problems were the following: 1) the food was barely warm (nowhere near hot) and 2) the meat was so overly marinated that the protein was practically breaking apart. I really did not enjoy it at all. The cut of beef was bad with lots of connective tissue and other inedible parts. The serving was relatively small, too. The beans and plaintains were edible but so unremarkable.
Some of the tortillas tasted undercooked and they were so dry. They broke like bread and tasted like undercooked dough. We ordered a bread-​pudding-​like dessert that wasn’t that good. It was supposed to be seasoned with cinnamon which we could barely taste. For $ 5.75, I expected more. The only compliment for it is that while it was soaked in a syrup, it wasn’t overly sweet.
Overall, this visit was a real disappointment. I was surprised by the high rating on Unilocal.I previously had Guatemalan food in South LA that was so very good. The experience here vs. there was just night and day.
Our total bill was $ 55 before tips. Not worth it at all.

un excelente restaurante. una comida muy deliciosa y higienica. un servicio personificado muy amable y sobre todo precios muy accesibles.
excelent restaurant. delicious food and very clean.
good prices and excelent service!!!

Wanted to try a new restaurant with my family tonight and after reading the great reviews we decided to check this place out. It is easy to miss at first if you are on sepulveda coming from ventura. If you go past it you will end up turning onto the freeway, so it is important to turn on the side street right after ventura, there you will find a small parking lot behind the restaurant.
The ambiance and décor of the restaurant was quite nice. Seeing as it was a Monday night after Easter and during Passover, it was very quiet and there were only three others eating there. However, they apparently get quite busy on the weekends so we were told to make a reservation after 6pm.
The service was great. They were very accomodating and happy to make substitutions. I swapped my rice out for some plantains (at no charge), which I must say were delicious! They brought out some complimentary chips with a green sauce (spicy) and a very tasty mild orange sauce.
Three members of my family ordered shrimp, while another ordered a beef stew type dish. Everybody was very happy with their meals. I ordered shrimp with garlic, parsley and asked for a hint of lime. There were 8 or so large shrimp! Everything was delicious and the corn tortillas were amazing and great for putting the avocado, salad, and shrimp in. My only complaint about my shrimp dish would be that there was definitely too much garlic for my personal taste, but overall I really enjoyed my meal. I tried some of the black beans that came with my brothers beef and those were great as well. Honestly, this place has the best corn tortillas and black beans i have ever had. The tortillas were very soft and the beans were very flavorful. Also, the potato wedge that came with the meal was delicious! I wish there were a couple more of them as I would have gobbled them right up!
We all took notice of the bathrooms very modern touch, and admired the guatemalan dolls on the bathroom door (instead of the typical men/​women sign.)
The dessert menu looked incredible but we were all so full we just ordered two flans to go. We were quite dissapointed when we arrived home to see a plain piece of flan in the box. We expected to have a flan with chocolate sauce and berries like all the other flan pictures posted on here. We assumed they would pack the flan to go the same way they serve it at the restaurant. It was very good and i put some of my own strawberries with it, but it was still dissapointing after seeing the beautiful pictures posted on Unilocal.
Overall we were very impressed as the restaurant has only been open for two months. We really enjoyed the food and the service, and we will definitely be returning. Great prices too!