At lunch, large crowds descend on Gorditas Aguascalientes’ budget-priced menu, and on weekends, entire families pack the dining room. Some days the entire restaurant will be consumed by a soccer match, while on others, you may come across an accordion-wielding mariachi and an albino singer who also plays washboard, a rare and entertaining sight. Once in a while you’ll see the family that runs the restaurant assemble in the dining room as they take care of business, sometimes peeling a huge mound of garlic by hand. After midnight, you’re likely to find the parking full of police cruisers, as the boys in blue meet regularly here to get their nightly fill of homemade Mexican food.

Order your meal to go and linger by the front door, so you can watch them prepare your meal, rolling out flour tortillas by hand, and cutting off slabs of masa and turning them into delicious huaraches, sopes, and gorditas (less than $2 a pop). Grilled quail is wonderfully tender and pink, served with onions and tortillas. Pitch-perfect Mexican breakfast plates are served any time of day and include some of the best chilaquiles in town.

Also, the kitchen’s open late and serves great pozole and menudo, making it the next best thing to a 24-hour pharmacy.