Author: Kara McVey
El Chapin is easy to overlook. Located just a few minutes away from Occidental at 5010 York Blvd. (a couple doors down from Café de Leche), the restaurant and bakery is quaint and charming but not eye-catching.
The restaurant is casual — menu items are listed on a chalkboard behind the counter, a few scattered pieces of artwork adorn the walls and a handwritten “Cash Only” sign hangs under the register. A television plays Spanish telenovelas in the corner. Beyond a shelf of dry goods, the restaurant’s business papers are scattered on a desk. Given the informal setting and the low prices, the food is a delicious surprise.
The restaurant has been in business (in various incarnations) for about three decades. Owner Lourdes Palacios bought the rights to the restaurant in 2001, and, after a few years on the opposite side of York Blvd., El Chapin moved to its current location in 2004.
The restaurant is still owned and operated by Palacios, her husband Giovanni Palacios and their family. For the past decade, they have provided Highland Park with tasty, inexpensive and authentic Central American cuisine.
The family is Guatemalan, and the restaurant offers a range of different Guatemalan and Mexican items. The menu is short, but they are willing to cook things by request. They’re even willing to accommodate for special diets like vegetarianism.
All the food is freshly cooked to order, and the quality of the ingredients is readily apparent. The food is delicious, and, what’s more, it’s cheap. For five or six bucks, you can get a great meal.
The restaurant is not very well-known, so most days El Chapin is uncrowded, but online it’s clear that the restaurant is a favorite of many. On Yelp, restaurant goers gave it an average of 4.6 stars and wrote a number of rave reviews. The reviewers praise the food’s home-cooked taste, the owners’ friendliness and the prices. Many recommend the tacos, some going so far as to name them among the best they’ve ever had.
In addition to the restaurant, El Chapin also serves as a bakery and market. They sell a number of different Central American dry goods and a selection of imported soft drinks. The bakery offers fantastic pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread) for just 40 cents a piece, as well a slew of different cookies and rolls. For a very reasonable price, you can go home with enough fresh-baked treats to last all week.
El Chapin is small — the bakery consists of a single display case, and the market consists of a shelf and two industrial-style refrigerators — but for its size, it offers some unbeatable fresh and cheap food. Apart from closing early on weeknights, the one negative thing that could be said of the restaurant is that it has very little ambience, but, after tasting their food, it won’t matter. The avocado-topped bean burritos and warm, sugary pan dulce will dispel any of your qualms about the ambiance. With delectable food and great service, El Chapin is well-worth the trip.
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