please help this new yorker during her first trip to LA

[edintern]

i am about to find myself in los angeles without a car or anyone to keep me company for one day.

i'll be staying on edris drive right off of west pico boulevard - please recommend a place within walking distance where i can enjoy a nice lunch by myself.

are there any can't miss-places near me? i wouldn't want to spend more than $25, but any cheap eats or food trucks in the neighborhood are also welcome.

thank you!

[edintern]

thanks for all of the great recs so far! a museum and food trucks seem like a good way to spend a day with myself. hope i can figure out the buses...

[aching]

The bus website - www.mta.info - is very easy to use to figure out what bus or buses you need to take. The problem with bus-riding in LA is that it's very slow - but since you're not on a tight schedule, you should be fine. It's a fairly short distance from your hotel.

[bad nono]

for public transit in LA I've found that the Google maps public transit option is much more serviceable than the MTA website.
The quickest/simplest way to go to LACMA would be for you to walk up a few blocks North to Wilshire and then take the 20 (stop at Ogden) or the rapid bus 720 (stop at Fairfax) both in the downtown direction. Be aware that LACMA is closed on Wednesdays.
Once at LACMA, I agree the food trucks across the street would be the best option. Pentimento is OK, but avoid the regular LACMA cafeteria. You can also walk down Fairfax and have Ethiopian Food in Little Ethiopia, it's about a block away.

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Little Ethiopia Restaurant
1048 S Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90019

[aching]

Here's what I would do - I would take the bus (or a taxi) to LACMA, spend the day at the museum and have lunch at one of the many food trucks that congregate out front at lunchtime. From there, you could also walk up Fairfax to the Farmer's Market for a fun (and delicious) LA experience.

[ipsedixit]

Ditto this, and the food at LACMA's Pentimento isn't all that shabby, but the food trucks are definitely the way to go.

[allyoucanet]

About a mile and a half to the west is The Apple Pan. (Being from New York you'll enjoy the walk.) Great burgers, fries and pie. Ask for well done on the fries if you like that. Here are the rules...stand back against the windows and wait until everyone who was there when you came in is seated. If you are by yourself, you may be able to grab a single seat sooner.

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Apple Pan
10801 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064

[Arthur]

I've never before heard anyone suggest that the fries at The Apple Pan might need to be more well done. That's always been more of an In-N-Out issue.

As for whether The Apple Pan is worth your time and money, I suggest you read the following and judge for yourself before taking that 1.5-mile walk: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/372510

[mc michael]

I always get fries well done at Apple Pan. And double cheese on the burger.

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Apple Pan
10801 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064

[mc michael]

This is THE answer.

[Briggs]

No. 1 - http://tinyurl.com/28plfkq

No. 2 - You'd probably want to visit The Milky Way, the dairy restaurant owned by Steven Spielberg's mom

No. 3 - You're not far from Rodeo Drive, one of the premier shopping streets in the world.

No. 4 - You'll be near the following delis: Factor's, Label's Table, Pico-Kosher, Nate & Al's...if that's your thing.

No. 5 - I personally think you should avoid Frida's, but that's my opinion. So you should know that there are probably as many people here who love Frida's as those who don't. Whether you enjoy it or not, one thing is certain: it is in no way representative of the Mexican food that most out-of-towners would be interested in sampling - whether street food, conventional tourist or gourmet. The best bet for Mexican in your area would be to take a quick bus (or 2) to the Farmer's Market and visit Loteria Grill.

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Loteria Grill
6333 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90036

Milky Way
9108 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90035

[estone888]

If you walk up Beverwill past Olympic where it becomes Beverly Drive, there is a fancyish Mexican restaurant called Frida (after Frida Kahlo) that has some excellent food. (At least it did the last two times I was there - although admittedly that was over a year ago.) It will have some Mexican dishes that you probably won't find in NYC, or at least if you do they won't be as good.

Frida
236 South Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA
[phone]
http://www.fridarestaurant.com/beverl...

[Servorg]

Right where you have asked for is the Fish Grill (this is a Kosher restaurant so not open on Saturday and closes early on Friday).

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Fish Grill
9618 W Pico Blvd Ste 508, Los Angeles, CA 90035

[Servorg]

One other place that is very close to your location is Yen Sushi. They have a lot of lunch specials at pretty reasonable prices. While I don't think it's the greatest sushi in LA it's serviceable.

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Yen Sushi & Sake Bar
9618 W Pico Blvd Ste 509, Los Angeles, CA 90035

[Peripatetic]

If you don't mind walking two miles, there's Clementine (across from the Westfield Century City Mall) that gets a lot of love on this board:

Clementine
1751 Ensley Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024
310-552-1080
http://www.clementineonline.com/
- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/742997

I wouldn't say it's "can't miss", but it's excellent and reasonably inexpensive. I've eaten lunch there on my own on several occasions -- it's definitely single-diner friendly.

[Peripatetic]

Servorg's post reminded me that you're right near the Beverlywood "kosher corrider". There's a pretty good blog post about it here:

http://eat-la.com/good-food-neighborh...

However it probably won't seem very exotic to a New Yorker.

[Peripatetic]

Another possibility would be Momed Cafe, about a 10 minute walk from where you will be:

Momed Cafe (opened Apr 2010)
233 S Beverly Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
310-270-4444
http://www.atmomed.com/

- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/701712
- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/707819
- http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/739854
- http://losangeles.grubstreet.com/2010/04/what_to_eat_at_momed_now_open.html
- http://dianatakesabite.blogspot.com/2...

[yogachik]

Are you staying at the Crowne Plaza? Easier for us to identify by the hotel, not the street name.

[edintern]

staying at the tower