Sinaloa Express’s Main restaurant entrance, off to the right a poster with restaurants specials (Photo by Celeste Hernandez)
Sinaloa Express welcomes everyone, but they also serve a specific taste of Mexico to their customers through menu items such as barbacoa, tamales, sopes, machaca, botana mixta de mariscos and mariscos. Like its name suggests, Sinaloa Express specializes in the dishes of the Pacific coastal state in Mexico.
“Lots of restaurants don’t have specific Sinaloa dishes the way that they’re cooked in the region. I think that’s kind of what takes me there,” L.A. TACO journalist and Food Critic, Elizabeth Lopez Beltran said. “It’s a very specific style of cooking, the ingredients are used in very unique ways.”
The restaurant’s owner and head chef, Luis Miguel Lopez, co-founded the restaurant in El Sereno with his father in 2013, and works alongside his younger brother today. The Lopez family are from El salado Sinaloa, a city that is well known for their pasta fria — macaroni salad.
Sinaloa Express’s owner Luis Miguel Lopez cooks traditional dishes like barbacoa, machaca and botana mixta. Lopez said machaca with vegetables is his favorite dish. (Photo by Celeste Hernandez)
“In 2013, we got a business with three chairs,” Lopez said in Spanish.
Sinaloa Express stayed in El Sereno until moving to South Gate in 2019 – where it stands today.
“I was so sad when they moved locations because I thought I’d never get to eat their food again, well, thankfully they didn’t move too far because their food does not disappoint,” one Yelp reviewer Maria, wrote in 2022. “Everything is super yummy!! I would post a pic of my sopes, but I cleaned out my plate.”
Barbacoa is one of Sinaloa Express’ most popular menu items. The dish is slowly cooked beef, either underground or over a fire pit. As the ingredients cook, a stew is prepared. The stew brings more flavor to the dish with hints of chili and other seasoning from the beef that is boiled down and released. The dish is served with a side of spicy beans, pasta fria and homemade tortillas.
Sinaloa Express owner Luis Miguel Lopez, center, prepares food alongside his brother Jesús Lopez, right. (Photo by Celeste Hernandez)“Every time you make a large stew like the barbacoa or chilorio, you have to do it from zero,” Lopez said in Spanish.
Lopez’s favorite dish is machaca with vegetables. A traditional northern Mexican dish, machaca is dried beef or pork that is rehydrated, then shredded and often served with vegetables like tomatoes, green chili and onions. Customers at Sinaloa Express are also served machaca with a side of spicy beans, a slice of queso fresco and homemade tortillas.
“There’s a process — with vegetables, know when to put the meat in, make sure you don’t put too much oil, make sure it’s cooked right,” Lopez said in Spanish.
For Sinaloans and customers, the restaurant’s interior reflects the authenticity of Spanish ranch life that exists in Sinaloa. Inside, the bright yellow walls are framed with wood— giving the room an open look. Its ranch-style decor includes wooden barrels, wheels and horse figurines. Art on the walls depicts rancho life.In one painting, a horse runs in a sunny field with tall grass, while another is of a house with flowers and a horse stable.
Sinaloa Express ranch style dining area has booths and tables for family guests. (Photo by Celeste Hernandez)
Sinaloa Express’ menu items such as barbacoa, tamales, machaca, botana mixta de mariscos and mariscos provide a sense of nostalgia and comfort for the Latin community in Southeast Los Angeles.
“Each and every one of us has a style of cooking food … a different seasoning in making the food… but everyone puts a different touch, it’s what makes my food different compared to others,” Lopez said in Spanish.
Claudia Felix, a server at Sinaloa Express has worked at the restaurant for four months but has known Lopez for more than 10 years. She is from Sinaloa and her husband is the head chef of mariscos– seafood — at the restaurant and agrees that Sinaloa Express is special to both natives and people from all over because it helps represent a small community in a big city.
Claudia Felix serves a dish to a table. Felix has known the owner for more than 10 years and said the restaurant feels “family-oriented.” (Photo by Celeste Hernandez)
“The people to recognize the food that’s traditional from Sinaloa,” Felix said in Spanish “that here [At Sinaloa Express] they get can it because we have the seasoning of Sinaloa.”.
