Spanish Restaurant Near Me in Harbor City: La Española Paella Saturdays

Some of the best answers to spanish restaurant near me in Los Angeles are not restaurants in the usual sense. La Española Meats, at 25020 Doble Avenue in Harbor City, is a Spanish food importer, a sausage factory and a deli, and every Saturday it turns into one of the South Bay's most loved paella lunches. The family business has cooked paella on Saturdays since 1995, and locals plan whole weekends around picking up a pan before the rice runs out.

The story starts with Juana Gimeno Faraone, known to customers as Doña Juana. When she moved to Southern California, Spanish groceries were hard to find, so in 1982 she founded La Española to import them herself, and the company has brought products over from Spain since 1983. She also launched her own label, Doña Juana, for Spanish-style sausages made locally, so homesick Spaniards in the United States could buy the chorizo and morcilla they grew up with.

What makes La Española different from a restaurant is that the kitchen and the factory are the same business. The company makes its charcuterie in its own USDA-approved plant, using recipes from Spain, and can turn out about 1,000 pounds of sausage a day for restaurants and shops across the country. So when you eat a plate of chorizo here, it was cured a few steps away. That closeness to the product is the reason chefs and Spanish expats keep driving in.

Saturday is paella day, and there are three individual paellas, each about 16 ounces and meant for one person. The house paella, Doña Juana's original recipe, is $13.99 and mixes mussels, jumbo shrimp and squid with chicken, pork loin, several sausages and green beans, butter beans and peas. The mixta costs $17.50 and is a more counted plate: two mussels, two jumbo shrimp, squid, two pieces of chicken and pork loin over green beans, butter beans and peas, with no sausage. The seafood paella, at $16.50, brings mussels, jumbo shrimp, clams, squid and scallops with green beans and peas.

Paella is the draw, but the tapas list makes a fuller meal. A cheese and charcuterie tapa built from the shop's own meats and imported cheeses is $9.99. A slice of tortilla española, the potato and onion omelet, is $4.50 for a portion of about 4.4 ounces. Croquettes come three to an order for $3.99, either codfish or spinach with raisins and pine nuts, and marinated Manzanilla olives are $1.75. Every bocata, the Spanish sandwich on split bread, comes with a side of those olives.

To drink, La Española stocks Spanish wines from regions such as Rioja and Ribera del Duero, plus beers that Spaniards actually drink at home, including Estrella Galicia, Mahou and Alhambra. That makes Saturday lunch here feel closer to a casual meal in a Spanish town than to a restaurant dinner. For dessert, look for tarta de Santiago, the almond cake from Galicia, fig bonbons from Extremadura, or churros with chocolate, all listed on the shop's Saturday menu.

Timing is the most important tip. Paella is served only on Saturdays, and the shop is open that day from 9 am to 5 pm. Arrive by late morning or lunchtime, because the operation has grown from cooking for 10 or 20 people in the early years to about 150 on a busy Saturday. The paella website lets you book and pay ahead, which is the best way to make sure the pan you want is waiting for you.

Weekday visits are a different experience. From Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 5 pm, La Española works as a shop and deli, so you can stock up for a home paella or a tapas party. Chorizo Bilbao is $12.49 for six links, sobrasada is $16.99, pre-sliced lomo embuchado is $18.99 for 8 ounces, and morcilla de cebolla, the onion blood sausage, is $8.59. The shop is closed on Sunday, so plan a Saturday or weekday trip.

Paella beyond the three Saturday versions is possible, but only in volume. Other rice dishes are made for a minimum of 10 servings, which makes La Española a strong choice for a birthday, a graduation or an office party where one big pan feeds everyone. Order ahead and pick it up, or eat with the family at the shop on Saturday. Either way, the paella is cooked by people who make their own chorizo and morcilla, and that flavor shows in the rice.

The shop is built around the product. Serrano and Ibérico hams, Catalan butifarra, Pamplona and Soria chorizo, salchichón de Vic and Mallorcan sobrasada fill the deli case, and the shelves carry Spanish olive oil, saffron, bomba rice, canned seafood and quince paste. This is a casual counter operation, not a dining room with a host stand. The paella website puts it plainly: you can take your order home or eat with the family at the shop.

La Española has collected press over the decades. The Los Angeles Times wrote about its long-running paella Saturdays in 2014, Time Out Los Angeles listed it among the city's best Spanish spots in 2019, and the shop appears in Cathy Chaplin's Food Lover's Guide to Los Angeles. In 2019, Local Food Eater profiled the second generation of the Faraone family, who carry on Doña Juana's recipes while adding new imports and an online store.

Make the drive worth it with a stop nearby. Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park, with Machado Lake and its walking paths and birdlife, is also in Harbor City and makes a good walk after a heavy plate of rice. Continue south to San Pedro for views over the Port of Los Angeles and the coast at Point Fermin Park, where the 1874 Point Fermin Lighthouse stands above the cliffs. Both make a full Saturday outing with paella in the middle.

Practical notes: La Española Meats is at 25020 Doble Avenue, Harbor City, CA 90710, email info@laespanolameats.com. Hours are Monday to Friday 8:30 am to 5 pm, Saturday 9 am to 5 pm, and closed on Sunday. Paella is only on Saturdays, and online booking is at paellasaturdays.com. It is casual and family friendly, and it suits anyone who wants real Spanish home cooking at market prices rather than a formal dinner out.