Four a.m. Breakfast

[DaveG]

What's the best place in L.A. to have breakfast at 4 in the morning? I mean the whole shebang: food, coffee, waitstaff, and hopefully an interesting crowd, not a cricket convention.

[iknowfood64]

Ordonez in Montetbello is open 24 hrs, and they serve brealfast 24 hrs. If you like a nice Mexican style breakfast with rice, beans, tortillas and a good salsa, I highly recommendt this place. I always order the letter B because it is a nice full plate. It carries a good sized portion of chilequilas, three eggs (any style), beans, carne asada, and tortillas. It also has a interesting customers, it is right off the 60 fwy Garfield exit, and is a common stop for the late night crowd who want to eat or have a cup of coffee before going home after a night out.

[SauceSupreme]

Alright, I'll be the one that recommends Canter's.

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Canter's Fairfax Restaurant
419 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036

[noshie]

Whatever happened to Gorky's?

[David Kahn]

It definitely passed the OP's "interesting crowd" test.

[CostcoWater]

Hidden Gem Located in Koreatown

You feel like getting some KBBQ on 4 in the morning??

Check out Nam Dae Moon

http://ktownlove.com/search/detail.ph...

Nothing like some fresh bacon "sam gyup sal" at 4 AM

[alienade]

I second Fred 62.

The other place if you want to run into the post-party crowd is Swingers. Andy Warhol cow wallpaper and waitresses in fishnets. There's one in West Hollywood, and one in Santa Monica. I think Fred 62's got better food, though.

http://www.swingersdiner.com/

[Fru]

Mmm, Pacific Dining Car for Eggs Sardou and Eggs Blackstone! Dupar's has an interesting crowd http://www.du-pars.com/contact.html. Believe it or not, IHOP.

[Rachel529]

Norms is always open 24 hours a day. Not sure what part of the city you're in but here's a link

http://www.normsrestaurants.com/p5loc...

[ipsedixit]

Ditto Norm's.

At 4 a.m. in the morning I'm really not interested in a fancy breakfast (Pacific Dining Car), or something that's trendy and overpriced (Fred 62 and Standard). At that hour of the day, I just want basic grub, cooked up quick, and served without any fuss.

A close second would be the Pantry, but at 4 a.m. one is not always sober, ahem, I mean coherent enough to get to downtown LA conveniently.

[Servorg]

Norm's is sort of a "default" place for these types of situations (4 am and just wanting some plain old everyday breakfast - POEB). Another handful of possibilities for POEB are Dolores on Santa Monica Blvd. just west of the 405 Frwy or Izzy's on Wilshire at 15th or Jerry's Deli or even Du-par's at the Farmers Market on 3rd and Fairfax.

[Das Ubergeek]

As I've said before, I wouldn't feed Izzy's food to a rat I was trying to kill.

If you're ever in OC, you can stop and get one of the best Vietnamese sandwiches you'll ever have, for $1.75 to boot, at Banh Mi Cho Cu, on the SE corner of Magnolia and Hazard in Westminster. They open at 0400.

[Servorg]

I don't find anything wrong with Izzy's breakfasts. The rest of their menu is hit and miss, (mostly miss) but for bacon and eggs it's a safe middle of an all night alternative to Norm's.

[Frommtron]

Honestly, I'd have to add Dolores and Norm's to that "kill" list, too. Dolores used to be decent many years ago but has steadily declined to the point of being frightening. It kind of sad since I used to enjoy going there after-hours.

If Norm's actually fit ipsedixit's description of basic grub then it could pass but, while edible, Norm's food is slop in the very worst sense of the word.

Now Du-par's has some redeeming qualitites. Particularly the date bread with cream cheese.

[Servorg]

Same thing I said to DU above regarding Izzy's. For breakfast Dolores does a fully acceptable job, especially if you are considering Norm's as your other potential choice.

[Frommtron]

Fair enough. As I said, Izzy's is just not to my liking in the extreme and, while I used to love it, Dolores served up some really poor meals the last several times I went.

They're worthy suggestions, I just thought I'd offer my perspective.

[Servorg]

It's just that it's a fairly limited pool of candidates for that 4 AM boiler stoking, and I since I get up to exercise at 3 AM I have become pretty damn familiar with the existant offerings on the westside. During regular business hours these would be some of the very last places I would go.

[ZoeZ]

There is Norms and then there is NORMS; the SM location is just a miserable spot both in ambiance and food but the Pico Blvd location really stands the test of time - newish decor, truly edible food and certainly the best French toast ever. Lunch isn't half bad either and I love the broiled whitefish. Waitresses have been there for years too.

[SilverlakeGirl]

Pacific Dining Car on 6th Street ... in the actual dining car. Top notch service and food for breakfast.

Their breakfast menu is linked:
http://www.pacificdiningcar.com/break...

[nosh]

It tells a LOT that the Pacific Dining Car breakfast menu does NOT mention prices...

[rednyellow]

It ain't cheap, but it's the best breakfast in town.

[monku]

PDC Menu
http://www.menupages.com/partnermenu....

[Will Owen]

Page expired! Yikes!

[monku]

Don't know why it expired...just tried it and works now....
http://losangeles.menupages.com/resta...

Otherwise Google "pacific dining car menupages"

[David Kahn]

Agree completely. And the price to value ratio is much better than their other meals. Superb top sirloin and eggs, and their Swiss eggs and scrambles are rich and delicious. One warning, however -- their biscuits are pretty much inedible.

[Servorg]

David, did you think their biscuits were bad? I had them twice in the last month and thought they were pretty good. The biggest problem I had with them is that they fall apart a bit, but that seems to be a general biscuit defect.

[David Kahn]

I've only ordered their biscuits once, and I thought they were awful. Doughy instead of flaky, cold, and not good tasting. Could just have been a bad day, but I haven't wanted to risk it again. To give you a sense about my tastes as far as biscuits, I think John O'Groats and Quality Food & Beverage have very good biscuits (and oddly, in each case, the rest of their menus seem just okay to me).

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John O'Groats
10516 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064

Quality Food & Beverage
8030 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048

[Mel Gee]

I've eaten at the PDC regularly since 1982 and have learned that you can get an excellent meal if you order carefully. At breakfast, for example, I avoid the great-sounding scrambled eggs with herbs, because the kitchen tends to over-herb and over-scramble, and at 3 in the morning I'm not in the mood to overspecify a meal. My favorite is the wonderful breakfast filet and eggs, and when I can get there as early as 1:30 a.m. or so (which is not often), I'll have a quick adult beverage followed by breakfast. Usually I arrive between 3 and 4 (in the a.m.) and order the filet about 90% of the time. Other hints: After 2 a.m., especially during the week, request fresh-made coffee if yours tastes stale. Also in the wee hours (this doesn't work for lunch or dinner): be sure to call ahead and request that all boring, profane, loud-talking customers currently on-site be removed from the restaurant before your arrival. After 4 a.m., you can ask that they be banned from the city (Santa Monica location) or the entire state (downtown). As they say, trust me on this one.

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Pacific Dining Car
1310 W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90017

[rednyellow]

I usually get the Creole Benidick or eggs Sardou and a side of sausage. Always love it.

[Servorg]

http://www.fred62.com/

or the Standard (either downtown or on the Sunset Strip).

http://www.standardhotel.com

And if you might be in the mood for something completely different:

Hodori Restaurant
1001 S Vermont Ave Ste 102
Los Angeles, CA 90006-2770
Phone: [phone]

[Frommtron]

Hodori is great for Korean fast food/cafe fare. GREAT recommendation!

[wilafur]

hodori is best had when inebriated.....otherwise the food is exceedingly mediocre.

[ns1]

There are only a handful of reasons to want breakfast at 4am. Being hammered is definitely on on that list.

[Foodandwine]

The Pantry. I like the egg dishes, ham steak, bacon, home style potato well done, sourdough toast ( dry ) ham and chese omlette etc... Always someone there at any time of day.. At that time you will like the crowd as well. I will take this over the Pacific Dining Car ( another option )

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Original Pantry Cafe
877 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90017

[monku]

Gotta ask for their home made salsa for your eggs and potatoes. Coffee is included with your breakfast too!

Used to always get the combination omelette easy....but now I've switched to bacon and eggs with sour dough French toast.

Now they serve breakfast all day and night.
http://www.pantrycafe.com/