Picnic LA

The food was good. But the helpings were tiny for the price you pay. $ 5 for a salad with 5 bites. $ 1 per bite! Yikes.
No wonder it was empty.

Decent café with fresh sides, entrees, and desserts that reminded me of tender greens and lemonade.
Super strong Japanese green tea
Fingerling salad: good would’ve been better warm ⁴⁄₅
Pork entrée: ⁵⁄₅ small portion
Market salad: fresh and delicious! ⁵⁄₅
Green dream salad: ⁵⁄₅ fresh and I loved the goddess dressing
Beet salad: ⁵⁄₅ awesome with peaches
Thai radish salad: ⁴⁄₅ not spicy or that flavorful but fresh
They have a cool selection of games
Friendly and nice staff!
Overall 4.5÷5 for this posh picnic café

I thought this place was great. Food was really tasty. I got the jidori chicken, beet salad, and the rice noodle salad. Delicious! They have Topo Chico. For those complaining about prices — I wouldn’t. You get a generous plate of organic food. Prices are totally fair for Los Angeles. Servers behind the counter were informative and attentive. They have all kinds of games! And encourage you to play them. So cute. The only thing I didn’t love was the rice pudding which was sad because its a gluten free dairy free dessert and those are rare. It was just a bit thick and not tasty enough :-(
There are some parking spots in the back and this place is nicely out of the way from the madness that can be Culver City proper. I’ll be back.

Other reviewers have already compared Picnic LA to Tender Greens or Lemonade and I totally concur. Not only do these three places offer that upscale cafeteria vibe but the atmosphere/​theme plays off of their names. For instance, Picnic LA integrates blue and white gingham in the logo, menu item cards, and plates.
The Korean BBQ Cauliflower was way tastier than I expected! So much flavor! I’m impressed!
The Roasted Beets had a great presentation even before they put it on the plate. I like the integration of citrus. I thought I tasted a distinct licorice flavor but it turned out to be shiso. My taste buds must’ve been whacked that day because shiso usually doesn’t taste like licorice.
The Farmers Market Fairy Salad had some fun surprises as well such as the mushrooms and snow peas. I like that they mixed in couscous too.
$ 15 for one entrée into sides. I would say that the price is worth it if my entrée were a meaty protein but considering that my entrée was a steamed (or was it roasted?) vegetable, I wouldn’t necessarily pay that much again. But it was a tasty meal so I’ll give them that! I also appreciate that there are tiny «VG» icons indicating which items are vegan. So 3.5 stars rounded up!
Another random cool thing, thick and soft napkins! I don’t usually check out the napkins at restaurants but this one caught my attention.
Lastly, there are a few parking spots in the back that are reserved for Picnic LA customers. Otherwise, it’s street parking.

The attention to detail in this place is pretty hard to ignore. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal which consisted of a cauliflower entrée 4/​5, beet salad ³⁄₅ (the oranges tasted funny to me) and green salad ⁵⁄₅ as a side. My girl got the cauliflower soup ⁵⁄₅ and spicy Thai salad ⁵⁄₅
Place is spotless. Food is seasonal and fresh. Staff are warm, inviting, and helpful.
Great experience! Can’t wait to come back!

Good, but soo expensive for what it is. Someone mentioned it as an upscale Lemonade which I would agree with. Cafeteria-​style food with labels for gluten, dairy, nuts (God bless California). I just didn’t find it worth it. Food wasn’t super memorable, but it was fresh /​healthy, and had a nice variety of grass-​fed this, and organic that. Portions were small, and I was left hungry shortly after. I ended up going to In-​n-​Out for a burger about an hour after. But then again, I’m a fatass.
Might be a nice place if you’re on a first date and want to avoid paying for the girl by having her go in line first, hahaha.

**HEALTHY LUNCH IN CULVER CITY**
ABOUT
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Build a meal around their salads, with or without an entrée.
Or choose a couple dishes for an a la carte.
Quick-​serve concept as Lemonade and Tender Greens.
PARKING
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There’s parking inside the building.
Or street parking.
AMBIANCE
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Nice natural light.
Picnic communal tables and some regular
tables near the windows.
Busy during lunch with Sony employees.
FOOD
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FARMERS MARKET SALAD
They rotate their specialty salads.
Ended up with OK greens with a too-​vinegary dressing.
RATING: ³⁄₅
MEATBALLS
Grass-​fed beef meatballs, San Marzano tomato sauce with Parmesan
were my favorite. But damn, that’s a lot of stinky garlic.
Husband was not happy when I came home with the breath.
RATING: ⁵⁄₅
POTATOES
Tender and delicious with herbs.
RATING: ⁴⁄₅
KEY LIME PIE BAR
Graham cracker crust and sour cream were solid.
Wish the crust was a bit harder.
RATING: 3.5÷5
BEVERAGE
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BAR NINE COLD BREWED COFFEE
Nice and chilled. Not strong enough for me
RATING: 3.5÷5
OVERALL
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Liked the space and the concept.
However, I prefer nearby Tender Greens or Café Vida.
RECOMMEND if you want more space and less of a wait.

It’s been open since November and we keep passing it. We were going to walk by again and hit something in Culver Blvd.
There was a delicious aroma coming from inside, do we decided to peek in and investigate.
After looking at the menu, we stayed…
I had the Lemon Chicken, Banana Potatoes, Vietnamese Salad, and Coconut Rice Pudding.
The flavours are good, I like more spice. You get a big portion for your buck.
It’s a good alternative when we don’t want to cross the street to the restaurants on Culver.
Say hi to Jonathan!

Last week I went back in to try again. I was in the area and it was close to my previous appointment. This time I opted to eat in. I had a chance to meet the owner and chat about the concept and sourcing of the food. That was really informative and gave some perspective.
This time I took suggestions on what things to eat. The food is plated cafeteria style on a nice blue checkered dish. I ate the rice and beans topped with pork, the dip and crackers, beets with citrus, and the little gem salad. Also, a key lime bar.
I quite enjoyed the food this time around. I’m not sure if it’s because I had the wrong things last time or because it was take away food.
Next time I’m in the area with friends I’ll come back, it’s nice to eat there and it’s better with others since it is picnic style.

My husband office is around here and we’re always looking for healthy, time efficient and vegetarian friendly lunch spots in the area. I absolutely loved the service and quality of food at Picnic! They were so vegetarian friendly and even had vegan options. I really enjoyed the chicken tajine and the kale salad!

I’d been eyeing this place for quite some time because I would pass it every time I went running. I finally got to check it out when I met with a vendor for lunch. We met on a Friday afternoon and it was fairly empty.
AMBIANCE (4.5): The décor is super cute and adorable. It has a clean and minimalist approach with a California picnic theme going on. I love the huge wooden board when you first walk in that’s cut in the shape of California.
FOOD (3.75): The food was okay. I like being able to view the options (similar to Lemonade) but because everything is pre-​made, who knows how long it’s been sitting there for. The kitchen is also on a different side of the restaurant, so they had people coming in and out of the kitchen to re-​stock the front display area. I tried the meatballs, beet salad, and thai salad. The meatballs were really good but the beet salad was a little flimsy and sad. They had definitely been sitting out for some time.
SERVICE (4): Service was fine. They were patient with my first visit and answered my questions. They also brought out a complimentary lemon bar during our meal, so that’s also nice :)
I’m a sucker for cute places so I’ll probably go back to see how they’re doing. They were fairly new when I first went so I’d go back for a second try.

Jidori chicken leg tagine ⁴⁄₅
Grass-​fed beef meatballs ⁵⁄₅ — Very good!
Fingerling potatoes ⁵⁄₅
Roasted beets ⁵⁄₅
Tuscan black kale salad ⁵⁄₅ — Flavors were awesome.
Little gem salad ³⁄₅
Chocolate pot de crème ⁵⁄₅ — Loved this.
Key lime pie bar ⁵⁄₅
Everything was very fresh. The portions were big enough to fill me up. Service was very friendly.

Came here for lunch on a Saturday and I really enjoyed the food. My significant other and I both had the entrée and two salads. We decided to order different things so that we could try everything. We shared the jidori chicken leg tagine, grass-​fed beef meatballs, fingerling potatoes, roasted beets, tuscan black kale salad, and the little gem salad. For dessert we had the chocolate pot de crème and key lime pie bar.
The roasted beets were really good and came with navel oranges and black currants. I equally liked the kale salad which was dressed with a pomegranate vinaigrette and kumquats. The jidori chicken tagine had nice moroccan flavors but it was not fall-​off-​the-​bone tender like a traditional tagine. The meatballs were served in a tomato sauce and were very filling. Everything tasted extremely fresh and I loved that that nothing was overly drenched in olive oil, which is often the case at other similar places.
Lastly, I’ve never had a good dessert at a healthy restaurant but Picnic LA definitely surprised me. The chocolate pot de crème was not too sweet and the coconut flakes gave it a nice texture and while I don’t usually like key lime pie bars I would actually order the bar here again.
I thoroughly enjoyed everything I tried and will most definitely be back!

This place is like a high end chipotle style restaurant. The quality of the food is good. I had the salmon that was yummy. Portion size was decent. The sides I chose were beets, the garden of little gem salad and the cauliflower soup.
The beets. I mean, come on! Really? Two slices of beets intermixed with oranges? Wth? Waste of a choice. I should’ve gone for the asparagus. They looked like they were on steroids.
The mini gem salad was good. Cute presentation and good dressing.
The cauliflower soup was very bland. Had to add salt and pepper to make it decent.
Not sure I will try this place again.

Picnic LA is a solid spot for healthy and organic food– I am typically not a huge fan of health conscious places, but I thought this was as good as Lemonade, if not better! It is located on the corner of the street and there is a small garage in the back where you can park. Most of the food comes chilled, and all of their dishes are really light which I enjoy. My friends and I decided to order a variety of dishes to try and share, and we loved everything we tried!
For appetizers, we got the roasted beet salad, thai chicken salad, chickpea salad, cauliflower soup, hummus, muhammara (similar to hummus), chinese broccoli, korean bbq cauliflower, iceberg salad, and arugula salad. All of the appetizers were delicious, and my personal favorite was the thai chicken salad as it was refreshing and crisp. My friends really liked the roasted beet as it was paired with a citrus fruit.
For entrees, we shared the beef meatballs, jidore chicken leg tagine, scottish salmon, and shredded pork. The entrees were fantastic; I was obsessed with the salmon! Although it was chilled, the salmon literally melted in my mouth and I could not stop eating it. The meatball was served with polenta and was also very flavorful and hearty which I also loved. For dessert, order the key lime pie! You will not regret it– I was so impressed at this pie I basically finished all of it to myself!
My friends and I were really impressed with the quality and taste of the food, we’ve never had such delicious healthy food! We finished everything that we ordered, and could not stop talking about the food after we left. Picnic is an up and coming restaurant that will be a huge rival to Lemonade; hopefully they will open a location closer to me!

We were hanging out in Culver City, spotted Picnic and decided to try it out. It’s a cool concept… a tad like Tender Greens on the opposite side of downtown CC in that it’s cafeteria style and there are very fresh salad and protein options. Anyway, you can decide to go a la carte or combo. It looked to us like the combo — one entrée and two sides — might be a tad more economical. I went with the Moroccan-​spiced chicken (good flavor), and sides of parsnip salad (excellent! my favorite of the items) and polenta (good but not amazing). My dining companion went with the bbq cauliflower as her entrée (she’s a vegetarian, said she appreciated something more «interesting» as a vegetarian «main»; I tried it, it was good, more of Asian-​bbq flavors), and kale salad (pretty good) and the polenta, as her sides.
One thing that struck me is we each had a different person put our plate together. For her plate, the gentleman took out a separate bowl for her polenta, scooped quite a bit in there, and took great care in adding the butter and cheese on top. Then as I went down the line, my server, just put the polenta straight on my plate — so I ended up with a portion about half the size, and was less deliberate with the topping. If we both hadn’t ordered the same side of course I wouldn’t have seen this, but the lack of training or quality control to insure everything gets presented the same way by each server I find to be a small issue. It was a Sunday evening and they were not very crowded, so it wasn’t a «haste» issue (they did tell us they are much busier during the week, which makes perfect sense as it’s a good option for lunch if you work in the area (see: SONY!) and also to pick up dinner to bring home on the way from work. Anyway, had the polenta been amazing I would have been really pissed off about the variations in portions, but as it was, I could live with it. Just if you order the polenta, make sure they put it in the soup bowl so you get the full portion! :)
Finally, it’s pretty expensive. The food all tasted very fresh and the flavors were good. The space is open and relaxed. Basically it’s a cafeteria with food on the gourmet-​side but the level of food and atmosphere don’t quite warrant the pricing… I’d probably have given them a 4 if I felt the value was a tad better… feels like it should have cost maybe 20% less than it did for two people.

Good clean delicious food. Right across the sony campus.
Arrived at 12:30 ish peak lunch… Beautiful clean space,. Pretty food on display.
Score (free parking in back of building just for the joint).
Seemed a wee bit disorganized to get our food, who was supposed to get what behind the counter. Not sure how new they are but that could have been it? There was only maybe 6 of us in line .
Anyways food was really delicious. I got the 4 salad option (im not a vegetarian) but when i see and smell seasonal stuff im down to go full vegi. Had:
–beet and citrus
–chinese broccoli
–chickpeas
–hummus and yummy pita chips (could have noshed a whole bag of these. They should just include as a side at no-​chg would be a nice touch!)
And the key lime bar. Delish!!!
Communal wood tables. Good for people watching.
Good job… Id come back and eat here again.

So my boyfriend and I decided to try this place again since they have only been open since Nov/​Thanksgiving and are still finding their way. And I’m SO GLAD we did. Last time, we enjoyed our visit for the great customer service and the high quality food (though we thought it was a little un-​inventive). This time, however, we ordered different things and they also had NEW items and there was SO MUCH DEPTH, FLAVOR, NUANCES, BOLDNESS, INVENTIVENESS, and UNIQUENESS to the food, it was a completely different experience. I was pleasantly surprised! I am already craving the food and must come back soon. So this is what we got:
Chinese broccoli — so last time, this was my favorite thing. It was still really good! Yet, everything else I ordered this time was so damn delicious all those things became my favorite! I will still keep this in «my rotation» though. Last time I ate this it was a 5/​5, this time, everything else overshadowed it that it’s a ⁴⁄₅.
Salmon — this is sushi/​sashimi grade salmon that is poached in olive oil to about 140 degrees, then the temperature is lowered back down. It was cooked to perfection. My mark of a really good restaurant is if it’s the best version of X item I’ve ever had… This is probably the best cooked salmon I’ve ever had. I was a bit skeptical about it being «not hot,» but I enjoyed it MORE that way. It wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t room temperature either. It was just barely chilled. I am totally craving this right now!!! It came with a mustard sauce which was good. With the salmon being so good on its own, I did not use the mustard sauce. I should have used it on the bread! ⁵⁄₅
Bao brisket — this was a new item/​special and they stored the buns in a rice cooker to keep them moist and the meat in heated sauce pan. They also put peppers and cilantro on top. The meat/​sauce was really flavorful and spot on in taste. I could have eaten more of these. ⁵⁄₅
Tuscan Black Kale salad — It had both citrus and pomegranate flavors and there were so many taste explosions in my mouth, I thought it was top notch! This is one of those dishes that when you first eat it, it tastes great, then a second or two goes by and you taste a different layer. And the dish is constantly revealing itself to you. ⁵⁄₅
Korean BBQ cauliflower — bold, deep flavors, I love cauliflower and to have such an inventive dish was really good. Another one of my faves. I had not seen this last time either. ⁵⁄₅
Farro and roasted brussel sprouts — my boyfriend hates brussel sprouts with an unmatched passion and conviction, yet he gobbled these up like you wouldn’t believe. I was shocked. That is another mark of a great restaurant, to make you eat and love what you normally hate. (For me, it was Spanish Mackerel at Jiro’s that blew me away). ⁵⁄₅
Royal Corona beans — again, another great surprise. I’m usually skeptical of any overly large item being flavorful or yummy because the ratio of sauce/​flavoring to said item seems it would be «off» to me and end up tasting bland (this is why I dislike certain shaped pastas). However, this was one of our favorite dishes as well! It has notes of olive oil, fresh lemon, anchovy, and peppadew peppers. ⁵⁄₅
We also got the key lime pie, which the crust this time was like normal pie and very soft. Last time it was a bit crunchy like saltines. We also got this Chocolate coconut thing, which my boyfriend ate since I don’t like coconut and he really liked it too. He scraped that glass jar so clean it looked like it had been washed. There was no chocolate residue to be found. ⁵⁄₅
We also got bread! The butter is crème fraîche whipped over and over again. Great butter, light flavor… I really like a lot of salt in my butter and also so much flavor I could eat gobs of it like cheese. This would be maybe like top 3 or top 5 butters I’ve had. I also wish they served the yummy bread and butter with some salt or even mustard. I should have used the mustard from my salmon. :) 4.5÷5
Towards the end of March they should be getting their liquor license. At some point they will start catering too. I am hoping in a year or so they will have a «main entrée special» everyday so for regulars there will always be something new on the menu they can try if they get bored of their favorites for lunch and dinner like Tender Greens does. They also source all their ingredients from local, organic places that I wish they would put up a little chalk board sign so we can see where it comes from. :) Perhaps they should also allow «tastes» or «samplings» of the food like Lemonade does or ice creams shops do for the items where it’s feasible (like their salads). Lemonade also does «half portions» so instead of choosing 3 salads, you can do half portions and get 6 flavors, but you get the same amount of food as if you ordered the 3 salad combo. Also, all the drinks should be on display or maybe I missed seeing them? LOVE this place! WORTH A VISIT! :)

Picnic LA opened up recently at the corner of Duquesne and Culver in Culver City. It’s a bit «off the strip» — less frequented by most diners at night. But locals and Sony employees are likely to notice it sooner or later.
They offer up fresh (seems like «farm to table») locally inspired, gourmet picnic cuisine. The food is served room temp including cooked meats, fish and veg.
They have timers so that the food never sits out too long and you always receive fresh food. I did ask about this as I was initially concerned.
Try out their salmon, veg and desserts — I especially liked their pineapple upside down cake because it’s relatively light but still very tasty. And the key lime pie was very tasty.
While it’s not cheap, if you order meat, drink, veg and stuff — the price can add up. But you’re also paying for quality ingredients. So I certainly appreciate what Picnic LA is doing.
Keep up the good work!

Don’t let the pictures fool you, this isn’t necessarily ‘picnic take out.’ It’s quick serve, just like Lemonade — except tastier and higher quality. You’ll pay a small difference, but it’s delicious. The meatballs were fantastic, so was the chicken. Each day there’s different options apparently, so coming back often would work without getting to bored.
Owners seem like good people too, let’s get out there and support this new artisanal spot, good for the ‘hood.