El Indio Mexicano Restaurant

Specialties

Authentic Mexican food. One of the main traditional recipes are the carnitas from Michoacan, this is the pork meat in their own style. They are cooked during five hours, until the fat has cooked so long that it has melted. All this cooked with special spices to penetrate every bit of the pork meat. The famous Carne Asada (charbroiled steak) and Pollo Asado (charbroiled chicken) are marinated in our special spices one day before, then charbroiled and chopped for whatever it is you want your meat in. Not to mention the famous Burrito #9, this is our #1 selling burrito, it is any choice of meat (which in this case, mostly Asada) with everything on it; beans, cheese, guacamole, fresh salsa, and pico de gallo (chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro). Our other very popular burrito is the famous «wet burrito“and Nachos #4, enough to feed 2 people!

History

Established in 1975.

El Indio Mexicano Restaurants was established in1975 by entrepreneur Gonzalo Tejada, when traditional Mexican food was only found in Mexico.

At that time the Mexican food was very much Americanized. This is how the idea came about to introduce the authentic and traditional Mexican food not only to the natives living here but to the American public, we knew that once they would get educated about the real Mexican food, and they would prefer to eat at these kind of restaurants. Not only that, but the idea was also to introduce for the first time a full meal, a complete Combination Plate to go, in a fast food place. People were used to fast food places mainly for a quick bite; a Taco, a Burrito or a Tostada, for a more complete meal you would have to go to a formal restaurant which was more expensive and took longer. At the time there were two locations, one in Pacoima which no longer exists and the other one is in Northridge, still running and working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Meet the Business Owner

Gonzalo T.

Business Owner

Gonzalo Tejada’s passion for new business ventures has led him on a varied and interesting path during his working career.

A native of Bolivia, he didn’t know how to cook when he came to the United States more than 30 years ago, but he did know how to hire talented chefs from Mexico and start a small chain of fast-​food Mexican restaurants called El Indio Mexicano. As his restaurants began earning great reviews, he recalls, he began purchasing the properties he had leased. In five years, he was then able to rent the businesses to the employees to operate.

While collecting his rents, he was able to move on to other projects, including a medical/​dental school he started with a partner in Long Beach in the 1970s. He also saw a strong market coming for Spanish-​language films, he says, and found an opportunity to convert a movie theater in Hollywood that showed English language films into a Spanish movie house.

Today, Gonzalo, a Toluca Lake resident, is still collecting rents from restaur