Villa Moreliana

Give great samples while you wait in line for Eggslut. Has pork fat mix in, which I normally don’t like fat, but it works and is delicious!

Delicious tacos that were STUFFED with meat! We were walking by and the employee gave both my girlfriend and I a sample taco for free. Great service and food at a really low price. I’ll definitely be back.

If you like pork, this is the way to go. Just get the taco with everything. It’s just really tasty, well cooked, and low on pretentiousness unlike some stand next door. Oh and by the way, dear Americans who are unused to eating all parts of the animals they slaughter, this stand, like most of the rest of the world, uses lots of different parts of the pig, so if you get a taco with everything you might get some pork belly, skin, or an ear. All delicious. It’s not «mystery meat.» Get over it.

Juicy, moist pork carnitas! You can taste the subtle flavors of he orange citrus throughout the meat. There is just the right amount of fat incorporated into the meat, which helps keep the meat juicy and moist. Wrap this meat in a tortilla, top it with the condiments of cilantro and onions, voilà. The best tacos!
Highly recommend trying this place.

Nobody does it like Nick.
I have walked past this place numerous times. It always smelt amazing, but knowing there’s so much in this plaza makes it hard to choose this place go eat at.
Initially, we (Vy and I) planned to try EggSlut but the line was ridiculously long. While we were contemplating on waiting in line, we stared at the butcher creating plates of fabulous Mexican food. Nicholas, the butcher, felt our locked-​in eyes and offered us samples.
The samples changed our minds. It was so delicious, so moist, and just perfectly seasoned as well as cooked. We just had-​to have more!!!
Highly Recommended! If you’re near or reading, order now!!!

I do love their carnitas tacos. I have not tasted anything like it. They do give you a free sample as you walk by.
I would recommend two tacos because these are huge tacos.

This is BY FAR the worst quality meat I’ve EVER eaten. I had the carnitas tacos and a carne asada taco (the carne asada was fine) and the carnitas was pure fat. My Husband, who has much lower standards for quality of meat, even tried it and refused to eat a second bit. It was seriously just rubbery fat, no real meat in there at all.
Later that night, I was not feeling well at all and my bathroom and I got to know each-​other a little better.
I do not, under any circumstances, recommend this place.

Another one of my lunch adventures at Grand Central Market.
I wanted to grab something quick and saw this Mexican taco place. The worker offered me a sample when I was reading the menu.
This is the sample? The sample is one whole taco, filled with a generous amount of carnitas.
Ordered pina aqua fresca, crispy brain taco and carnitas soft taco.
Pina aqua fresca ($ 1.75): kinda refreshing and not too sweet.
Crispy brain taco ($ 1.75): I love brain, but this one tastes funky.
Carnitas soft taco ($ 2.75): no wonder they gave me a generous sample… one regular order of carnitas taco is HUGE. It was okay at first, but I got tired eating it.
QUICK TIP: THEY GIVE YOU ONE WHOLE TACO AS A SAMPLE. THEY CHARGE YOU A CREDIT CARD FEE.
3 stars!
Villa Moreliana is almost yummylicious!

This review will be short and simple. The best carnitas you can get your hands on. I’ve tried many carnitas from Mexico and this place either equals or trumps that. The carnitas is so moist and tender it’s unreal. I don’t even recommend putting any salsa on it. All you need is the
Carnitas and a warm homemade tortilla which serves as a perfect vessel to shovel into your mouth.

The best pork tacos I’ve ever had! I tried the carnitas and the costilla (rib) tacos and they were so on point. The flavor and the tenderness is all there! Highly recommended!

Excellent food. Great tacos.
If you are around here definitely try their pork tacos, which is awesome.

Located right off the Broadway entrance to Grand Central Market. This is how they do it back in Mexico and they are doing right, here in gentrified GCM. Skip the long line to EggSlut and order yourself a ½ pound of carnitas. Your order of meat comes with all of the accoutrements you need for a good lunch — tortillas, salsas and garnish.

Yummy. This made my jury duty worth while, just to able to go to Grand Central Market and discovering this place. On the first day, I had walked by and the guy behind the glass offered me a sample. Since I had just finished lunch, I turned it down. It looked so good that I went back during my second day.
I had the taco plate and it was pretty filling. The meat was tender and greasy, just perfect carnitas! I’ll definitely go back.

These guys work HARD! This is the place you want to eat at the market! All the meat is so juicy and flavorful! I loved pork tongue burrito, but they have an array of meats to try from. If you feel adventurous, try some hearts, pig feet, ears, liver, etc. The guy who made our food was super friendly and helpful, he even hooked it up with samples.
The tamarind juice was super refreshing and yummy!

I ran late to a Grand Central Market lunch date with my friends Tomas L. and Sergio P., and by the time I showed up, they’d already grabbed a small table near the Broadway side. I blurted my apologies, and then my eyes immediately went to the giant mountain of meat in the middle of the table. I sat right down and started eating.
They’d bought a pound of carnitas at Villa Moreliana for $ 10. This was an enormous pile of pulled pork, and it came with plenty of tortillas, onion, cilantro, lime, and salsa. We made and devoured taco after taco, and supplementing with a couple of pupusas to share from Sarita’s, the three of us had a feast of a GCM lunch without even looking at an Eggslut. Those carnitas were so good, juicy and tender and perfect rolled into tacos. I don’t know how Villa Moreliana makes any money selling it with tortillas and condiments for $ 10 a pound.
I’m guessing the prices will have to go up as GCM continues to gentrify at an alarming rate, and I would happily pay the mark-​up in the future. Sharing a pound of juicy, delicious shredded pork meat – that’s just a wonderful way to eat.

Underrated spot with one of the best carnita tacos I’ve ever tried! I was a lil sketched trying it out at first but I really enjoyed the sample the guy behind the counter gave out. More times than not in the past carnitas I’ve ordered tend to be on the dryer & bland side. The pulled pork here was so tender & tasty (with no salsa needed) that I ended up ordering more after having a bite being that impressed. I almost think this place rendered their meat in lard because it did have that nice fatty good flavor!
If u want fast, authentic Mexican street tacos, come here. It’s cheap, menu is simple, & the establishment is decent in cleanliness. I still ate at the bar off to the side standing & they’ll clean your trays after. Great place for tacos on the go with no line, I’ll definitely be coming back soon!

OMG. Tacos in the morning is sooooo good!!! Seriously, if you come here, there is not a line. Well at least not when I went sunday morning. The carnitas tacos are to die for! The seriously just grab the meat off and it just pulls apart. It is so tender that it melts in your mouth. I wanted more but my friends and I were restaurant hopping in the area so we just had one taco each! Must try! Samples available too!

I was referred to this place by several of my Latin friends, and when Mexican foodies tell you a taco is good, you better believe the taco is good. It is located right at the main broadway entrance to the Grand Central Market and frankly I’m surprised it doesn’t have more reviews.
The taco meat is prepared fresh, made to order (you can usually tell by how moist the meat is, since diced meat dries out pretty quickly). When stopping by you immediately notice them being cooked in giant cauldron pots behind the cashier and counter. They are then removed and given to the butcher at the counter and he begins separating and dicing up all the meat.
I had 3 carne asada tacos (2.50 ea) and they were quite generous with the meat. At first glimpse the taco is just a plain-​jane asada taco, but once you spend several minutes at the salsa bar, you have a messy meaty, salsa-​y, masterpiece. At first bite you’ll noticed that the meat is nice and moist, and the salsa (the green being more popular, there was less of it left than the red sauce) had just the right kick to it. Squeeze some lime to add that extra acidity and give it a go, delicious.
Avoid getting alcohol here since something like a bottle of Modelo Negra costs about 4 bucks for 12oz, which is pretty pricey.
These vaguely remind me of Mexican street tacos I would gouge down when south of the border and that is a good thing. Grab a few and wash them down with some horchata. Or maybe grab one to snack on if you’re planning on waiting in the long eggslut line, you wont regret it.

This stand is a must. You get a taco for about 2.50 $. It’s cheap street food.
The meat is moist and tender. They pack your tacos with loads of meat. Once you receive your tacos you can place your own fillings. They provide their customers with pickled onions and flavorful salsa. I must warn you their red salsa is extreme spicy. And I mean burn your mouth spicy. The spiciness of the salsa is a lingering burn rather than an initial burn. So be wise with that (unlike myself, I made a mistake on the one.)
This place is a great pick me up while you roam the market. I highly recommend this stand.

During my first ever foodventure at the Grand Central Market, I was trawling the aisles of restaurants deciding what to eat, when what to eat found me. On unsuspectingly approaching Villa Moreliana, a taco serendipitously entered my hands.
Call it a cunning ploy, but Villa Moreliana was giving away free tacos in the hopes of luring in customers to buy more. And yes, those who actually get reeled in and purchase more may be surprised at the price: $ 2.50 per taco.
But the price, along with their clever selling tactic, is completely justifiable.
The pork they were using was some of the FRESHEST taco pork I’d ever tasted. I mean, it was like they were pulling the pork fresh, right at the shop. I, like many others, was drawn in and ended up placing an order for one pork taco. They had several other varieties using various parts of the animal, but I wanted one more of the same variety. $ 2.50 gets you one double-​tortilla taco with so much pork packed in that you almost need to spread it over the two tortillas (as I did). This means you end up with THREE tacos (including the free one) for $ 2.50.
Aside from the freshly steamed, piping hot tortillas and amazing shredded pork, they also have an unbelievable salsa counter.
And even if you don’t purchase, there was absolutely no guilt or pressure to buy after receiving my complimentary taco. I can’t say for sure whether the taco giveaway was something they always do, or something special they were doing that day, but I can say that I’m glad they did, because it has made me a fan.
For better or for worse, I’ve been living in LA for over 2 years now, and this experience, if nothing else, has forged my reception of tacos. In spite of this, I can say with confidence that these are some of the freshest I’ve had.