Barra Santos

You’ll need to jockey for a seat and fire the whole menu for a full meal at this ultra-tiny wine bar, but the tasty Iberian cuisine—and the fact it’s one of the only places in L.A. serving Portuguese food—make Barra Santos a great place for a light dinner or an afternoon snack if you’re near Cypress Park. Chef and co-owner Mike Santos draws upon his mother’s recipes and Portuguese American upbringing to bring us the city’s first real taste of piri-piri chicken, bacalao fritters and pork bifana sandwiches, with plans to expand the menu and add seasonal specials down the line. Though the Northeast L.A. spot—brought to you from the same folks behind Found Oyster—doesn’t take reservations and gets quite busy, especially on the weekends, the wait might be worth it if you’d like nothing more than to sip on sherry and watch delicate slices of iberico ham get shaved right before your eyes.