- Los Laureles
- Our Story
The original on East Grand Avenue
Los Laureles Mexican Restaurant has served Jalisco and Michoacán cooking at 1518 E Grand Ave, Des Moines, since the early 1990s.
Next door to Iowa’s first Mexican grocery
The story starts with La Tienda Mexicana at East 15th and Grand, the first Mexican grocery store in Iowa, started by the late Eufracio Majorga. A few years later he opened Los Laureles in the same parking lot.
Before then, Mexican food in Des Moines mostly meant flour-tortilla tacos. Los Laureles brought the cooking of Jalisco and Michoacán: steamed corn tortillas, several salsas with the chips, carnitas, al pastor, tortas, pozole, menudo, ceviche and huachinango, with radishes and lime on the side.
Dozens of restaurants in town have since followed the same menu. CITYVIEW’s Food Dude still calls this one “the one.”
What we are known for
Carnitas, braised and then crisped, are still the dish people drive across town for. Enchiladas come in red, green, cheese sauce, mole or bandera. The chiles rellenos, tampiqueña and pozole are regulars' orders, and the mariscos list runs from coctel de pulpo to whole fried huachinango.
Breakfast is served any hour we are open, and the full bar pours margaritas. On Friday and Saturday nights the kitchen stays open until 3 AM.
Los Laureles now anchors La Placita, the Latino business district along East Grand Avenue, and it is still family-run.