Monterey Park: Cook's Tortas

After reading Carolyn's review on yelp (here) and seeing how they made LA Mag's "17 Great LA Sandwiches," Cook's Tortas was on the top of my list as one of the must try places. I was near the 626 for work one day, and Diana mentioned about grabbing a quick lunch here before I got back to the office so of course I jumped at the opportunity to eat something other than Asian in this area!

Cook's Tortas

1944 S Atlantic Blvd

Monterey Park, CA 91754

www.cookstortas.com

Selections of the day! Not really your traditional Mexican torta spot. They put a lot of their own spin to create their unique sandwiches. A modern take with different influences!

There's even salads! Apparently Taco Taco is a popular choice.

Agua Fresca! There are some really unique flavors.

Sides you can choose with your torta.

Some of the desserts. Hmmm... I could not stop staring at the cookies.

I ended up getting a cucumber-lime agua fresca. Their cucmber-lime agua fresca is just money. The drink is refreshing and not overly sweet but just enough for me. It helps cut into any heaviness from your sandwich. Who knew cucumber and lime go so well together?

Celery agua fresca. Yes. Celery. Very interesting but refreshing as well! Imagine the feel you get when you take a bite of celery with your buffalo wings. It's sorta like that... except in liquid form haha.

Carne Asada Torta. I truly believe you can rate a Mexican eatery by how good it's carne asada is, and I gotta say I like it. The marinade is there and the skirt steak is tender. The pico de gallo is great and it has a good amount of avocado in the torta as well.

For my one side, I chose the red fries, which is sweet potato fries. It's good but since it was served in a styrofoam cup, it got soggy near the bottom from the heat.

Diana's Grilled Veggie Torta. Veggies are great either grilled, roasted, or caramelized, and they certainly picked the right veggies for that. Grilled zucchini, roasted peppers, caramelized onions, and fresh tomato make up the sandwich with a delicious garlic spread.

Potato salad. Probably the best potato salad I've had anywhere. Good portion control of mayo just to make it come together and mustard for that little kick.

I couldn't resist so I got their huge Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookie and I'm so glad that I did. I love chocolate chip cookies and with the walnut, it adds this nuttiness to the cookie. I like how they bake it so it's crunchy. Kinda reminds me of Tartine's!

AHHH it just sucks that I work/live so far away or else I would totally add Cook's Tortas as part of my lunch rotation and try a different sandwich everytime. Lucky 626 kids :[