Los Laureles Mexican Restaurant

Los Laureles is a Mexican restaurant on East Grand Avenue that has served Des Moines since the early 1990s, cooking Jalisco and Michoacán dishes. It is best known for slow-cooked carnitas, along with enchiladas verdes, pozole, chiles rellenos, tamales and seafood cocteles like the coctel de pulpo. Breakfast is served all day.

The restaurant takes dine-in guests and online orders for pickup, and it can cater office lunches and parties from trays of enchiladas, carnitas and fajitas. Weekday lunch plates are available on weekdays until mid-afternoon. It stays open late, until 3 AM on Friday and Saturday nights, and has a full bar. Vegetarian options include veggie fajitas and mushroom quesadillas. It sits in Capitol East, a few blocks east of the Iowa State Capitol.