A pair of sisters from Guatemala's Caribbean coast have turned pizza-sized flour tortillas into a two-location operation across the San Fernando Valley, piling them with everything from carne asada to pickled cabbage and potato salad. Tortillas de Harina Chatias started as a temporary stand in Van Nuys in late July 2026 and has since grown into a full counter-service business with locations in Northridge and North Hills.
The restaurant is owned by sisters Janissa and Linda Urrutia, former teachers and generational cooks from Finca Yuma in Los Amates who built the business around the cuisine of Izabal, Guatemala, according to Eater Los Angeles. The name Chatias honors the sisters' mother, Arminda “Chata” Urrutia, and Linda Urrutia told the outlet her family also owns a restaurant called Chatias back in Guatemala. Linda handles the restaurant's social media marketing, work she previously did for Don Shuco and other Latin American restaurants around Los Angeles, while Janissa runs the kitchen.
Linda Urrutia said the sisters decided to focus on great food and putting Izabal on the map, per the Eater report. That focus shows up on the menu, which centers on Guatemalan port cuisine shaped by Garifuna cooking traditions from Livingston and Puerto Barrios. Izabal sits along Guatemala's border with English-speaking and Kriol-speaking Belize, and it's reportedly the only part of the country where rice and beans are called by their English name rather than a Spanish term.
What's Actually on the Griddle
The signature item is a regular tortilla de harina roughly the size of a medium pizza, topped with mayonnaise, meat, refried black beans, pickled cabbage, grilled potato, tomato salsa, and grilled green onion. There's also a rolled version, the tortilla de harina enrollada, and a jumbo option stacked with carne asada, carne adobada, longaniza, chorizo, pickled cabbage, potato salad, refried black beans, grilled potato, and plantains.
Beyond the tortillas, the menu includes Guatemalan enchiladas — tostadas topped with beets, curtido, hard-boiled egg, ground beef, and tomato sauce — alongside caldo de gallina. The restaurant also serves tapado, described as a creamy Garifuna mixed-seafood soup sweetened with green banana, plantains, and sweet peppers stewed in coconut milk, which comes with a whole fried fish, rice, and beans. Linda Urrutia told the outlet that in Izabal, tapado is traditionally eaten with bread, but customers at the restaurant ask for tortillas instead. There's also coconut rice and beans served with carne asada, carne adobada, or fried fish, plus macaroni salad and pickled beets.
Adjusting the Menu for a Mixed Clientele
Because so many of the restaurant's Guatemalan customers come from different departments and have never actually visited Izabal, some menu items are unfamiliar even to Guatemalan diners, Linda Urrutia said. In response, the sisters have made their sauces hotter and added more meat and side-dish options to suit customer preferences, adjustments reported by Eater LA. The restaurant runs counter service because of high business costs, and it's often busy with groups and orders while customers wait in line, per the outlet's account.
Tortillas de Harina Chatias is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week. The Northridge location sits at 8968 Corbin Avenue, reachable at 818-443-0443, while the North Hills spot at 15304 Parthenia Street can be reached at 747-379-0654. The Northridge location followed several weeks after the Van Nuys debut, while North Hills opened on October 9.
Part of a Bigger San Fernando Valley Scene
Chatias isn't the only outlet for Izabal-style rolled flour tortillas in the Valley. Churrascos Gualan LA is a backyard pop-up in Van Nuys selling the same style, Sabor de Mi Tierra runs a street stand in North Hills, and La Sexta, a weekend festival in Sun Valley with live music, sports, and food vendors, also sells the tortillas.
That cluster of vendors reflects a broader pattern: Los Angeles has the largest Guatemalan community in the United States, and Los Angeles County was home to more than 280,000 Guatemalan residents as of 2025, the largest Guatemalan population outside Guatemala itself, according to LAist. That community has supported long-running spots like Amalia's Restaurant in Koreatown, serving the neighborhood since 1994, and Puchica in Sherman Oaks, one of the few local restaurants serving tapado, according to LAist. Other Guatemalan businesses have grown from humble roots, too — Shucos began as a backyard setup near Jefferson Boulevard and 41st Street in 2020 before becoming a storefront in Commerce, and El Sabor Auténtico de Xela, a Chatsworth restaurant and bakery run by Adan Matul and his family, has carved out its own niche.
The wider Central American food scene across Los Angeles stretches well beyond Guatemalan cooking. An Eater guide counted 19 places representing cuisines from El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua, with restaurants scattered from East LA and South LA to the far reaches of the San Fernando Valley, according to food journalist Bill Esparza, a James Beard Award winner and author of LA Mexicano.
