AMMO

Located in the courtyard of the Armand Hammer Museum’s second floor.
Am pretty much in agreement with the other recent reviewers. The setting is peaceful, lovely, tranquil in the middle of the city. The rest.. . overpriced food, woefully lackadaisical service, lack of clarity on how it works when you first arrive.
The food, once it came, was tasty, but it will still way overpriced for the totality of the experience. Never received ketchup for the fries despite asking. We weren’t checked on until we were pretty much done with our food.
Ate every crumb of the rosemary-​seasoned fried because the dish was so costly. ;-)
My nephew’s grilled cheese sandwich with kale and grilled onions featured bitter kale. He pulled most of it off, despite having paid for it. It really wasn’t palate pleasing.
One glass of lemonade is all you get. And forget about receiving water you request.
Lacks management participation /​oversight. Such a waste of a beautiful setting!

I’m not sure why this place has such a low rating, I had a delightful experience! I came here after work for their happy hour. It’s inside the Hammer Museum, and an outdoor bar so the ambiance right off the bat is pretty nice! Plus I have yet to ever see it crowded. I was promptly greeted by the lone waiter, and offered a menu. I snagged their only non-​IPA beer and waited for my friend.
Once she arrived she grabbed a beer and we also snagged the wild mushroom flatbread to snack on. The pizza was decent. Not very filling and a little pricey for what it was (4 slices, and a very thin crust, but they were loaded with toppings). But the beer was only $ 4/​draft. The one downside is that they close earlier than most bars (I believe by 8pm they were all locked up) so it’s really only a good place to visit if you’re coming right after work.

Like many reviewers, I wish I could give this place props for great location, nice atmosphere, and relatively decent fare. But the service is so abominable that it will in future keep me away. I’ve tried for about a year now to love it and steer others to patronizing it, but it’s not worth the humiliation most nights. Too bad, because the Hammer remains the premier contemporary art venue in L.A. and I consider myself a stakeholder.

The location is truly a hidden gem — a peaceful oasis in the middle of Westwood. The menu is limited, but what they offer is appealing. I ordered the minestrone soup and a Cobb salad. The soup arrived cold and was sent back. Reheated it was fine, but it did take more than a few minutes to return to me. The Cobb was tasty, and I did enjoy the lemon vinaigrette dressing, which was quite good. I’ll definitely give it another shot.

Lovely café! I recently began attending weekly meditation sessions at the Hammer and AMMO is the perfect spot to grab lunch beforehand. The food is fresh, outdoor patio is very nice, and the service is excellent.
My friend and I stopped in last week and both enjoyed our experience. We had a great waiter who was very friendly and attentive throughout the course of our meal. I ordered the special salad of the day with fresh figs, arugula, lemon dressing, and added chicken. The salad was extremely fresh and I loved that they used fresh figs over dried. My friend went with the cobb salad sans bacon and he said that it was also very good.
The only downside of the AMMO is that food is on the pricey side, but that’s to be expected at museum cafes. I heard they have happy hour Tuesday-​Friday from 4 – 7:30, which I definitely plan to check out in the future. If you’re visiting the Hammer I recommend giving AMMO a try!

Two and a half years later, I had my second meal at Ammo. The food continues to be tasty, but holy cow does the service SUCK. I can’t really express adequately how awful our service was, and sadly the servers themselves didn’t seem to have anything to offer but blank looks.
Deets:
Two of us arrive around 12:45 for lunch. There are many open tables, and we are directed to seat ourselves. Menus take 10 minutes to arrive. Lunch order taken another fifteen minutes after that. Still no water for my dining partner, who’s asked twice. Meals arrive — they look, smell, and taste very good, by the way — black pepper is offered and accepted, but another 10 minutes elapse by the time the server who offered returns, and now the soup is cold and sent back for reheating.
No checking in on our meals. «How is everything today?»
No offer to refill our original drinks, which were gone in 20 minutes.
No real effort at all to make sure we were happy — from two different servers.
No chance I’m ever going back to this place. Lunch at Ammo should be a treat — not a freaking treatment.
I gave you guys 2+ years to improve service, and somehow, it only got worse.

Love the patio eating. But seriously, $ 45 for two salads and two waters? I know it’s Westwood, but I was still hungry after. I would will back to sit and drink coffee and relax. People watch. That was cool.

I’d actually genuinely love to give this place 5 stars but am so frustrated by it each time. The setting is really lovely just about any time of day. We come here often and it is peaceful and lively all at once. The food while overpriced, is genuinely pretty good. Agree with someone else’s comment about the great rice dish lacking in flavor but the ingredients are healthy and it springs to life with color and perfectly cooked tofu.
But the service makes me crazy and I can’t understand it. There will be 2 – 4 people there sometimes and the wait staff, while generally very sweet, is somehow just never around or on top of it. If you’re not sitting right under their nose, (and even then) you’ll pretty much have to wave to get their attention any time you want anything like a menu, milk for your coffee or the check you already asked for. And whoever it is, seems consistently surprised by any question (what kind of muffin/​scone do you have today? …Uhhhhh, let me check) lost or scattered at the prospect of being a waiter so I’ve come to think it must have something to do with the training or hiring process. They’re really sweet so it pains me to say this but I genuinely hope they’ll up their game because it’s such a great spot and I’ve always liked their Ammo counterpart on Highland. And when the scones and special crème finally arrives, it’s delicious. Just slightly less so when you’re fed up with waving and asking for basic things a few times.

We had lunch here last Friday while visiting the Hammer. I think this is so much better than the typical restaurant inside museums. No fried or junk food. The have both indoor and outdoor tables and the food is decent. They also have a pretty good wine selection (I had a Château Latour with my lunch). Wish they had some music though as it was oddly silent except for diners’ chatter.

Basically impossible to make a reservation, not because they are busy or popular, but because no one answers the phone. Either answer the phone, or PLEASE sign up for OpenTable Ammo. It’s 2015.

Came here for brunch last Sunday and loved everything!
Fist of all it has this amazing patio with big beautiful shade tree. The bloody mary I had was the perfect kick of spice and garnished with olive, cornichon’s, cucumbers and bacon!
I had the salmon benedict and my friend had the waffle with berries
Everything was so tasty and the server was super sweet and took great care of us.
The best part is the museum is free! so great brunch then free afternoon of checking out the museum.
This is my new go to brunch place when my friends and family are visiting LA!
Still want to come back for lunch sometime

Tasty food, a little on the pricy side for the portion. The courtyard is very serene. Good selection of alcohol.

The setting is quite pleasant, however in mid February it was very very cold inside. In addition, the waiter reassured me several times that my dish was gluten-​free, and it wasn’t. I suffered through two days of intense pain because of his error!

I am going to be brutally honest here, so brace yourselves. First, my daughter and I arrived almost 3 hours early to see Joni Mitchell at the Hammer, so we thought we’d get a bite to eat at Ammo. The server was nice, but maybe waiting tables isn’t his strong suit. Here is a list of what happened:
1. My water glass had 2 clearly visible pink lipstick marks on it. I sent it back.
2. When the waiter returned with the glass, which I had hoped was new, the 2 lipstick marks were still there. I sent it back again.
3. My wine glass had something splattered on the side that had dried. Looked like some kind of yellow sauce. I sent it back.
4. The wine (red house wine) was actually quite good.
5. They ran out of fries more than 2 hours before the scheduled event.
6. They ran out of all food about an hour before the event, much to the dismay of the hungry patrons. (Remember, this event had been scheduled far in advance, so they had time to prepare.)
7. The «salad» consisted of several whole lettuce leaves (that had been tossed with a lovely lemon dressing) in a small pile on the plate. That was $ 9.
8. My daughter ordered 2 veggie «burgers» ($ 4 ea) that were actually «sliders». See pic for the nugget-​sized patty typical for this item.
9. I ordered a hummus plate that I had to ask for 3 times over a 45-​minute period before it finally arrived at my table. The hummus was dry on top, which indicated that it had been sitting in the kitchen all that time waiting for the server to bring it to me.
10. The hummus plate had cut veggies on it which looked so bad, I figured these were the items they pulled out of the scrap pile (as they were running out of food). See photo. The «baby carrots» had been poorly peeled, leaving dirty stripes where they didn’t peel it, dirty roots at the end that weren’t cut off, and rotting bits at the top of each where they weren’t properly cleaned. A prominently visible piece of celery on the plate had so many dark brown spots, I was shocked that anyone let it leave the kitchen, let alone that someone served it to me.
11. The server – who had graciously apologized for all the early mishaps with the dirty glasses – was not available most of the time we were there. 4 appetizers and a glass of wine took us 75 minutes to get through (with the long delays in service).
Overall, I’d say avoid this place at all costs. (I would call this the worst restaurant food I’ve ever had, except the next day I had the misfortune of being served even worse food.) It seems to me that a place as prestigious as the Hammer ought to be able to get a decent café in there.

[Review #90]
Our department had a guided tour followed by lunch at Ammo Café. We loved the open space & peaceful atmosphere in the courtyard.
While we had a price fixe luncheon, our server was friendly & knowledgeable as my colleagues & I had some questions about how the ingredients are prepared & where some of them are sourced… the Burrata’s delivered fresh daily as were the heirloom tomatoes. Yum! You can taste the creamy cloud of sweetness & the tomatoes overflowing with juicy goodness.
The chicken & organic tofu with farmer’s veggies & rice entrée was very bland & lacked basic seasoning. To compensate, I dumped a lot of Cholula hot sauce to give it some flavor. I loved the fresh berries in crème fraîche & chocolate chip cookie, a great ending to the meal. I mixed my own Arnold Palmer (more tea than lemonade ⁶⁰⁄₄₀ ratio) from the pitchers on the table. Their lemonade had more bite so it was the perfect blend.
The only uncomfortable thing, which I would not have noticed until my co-​worker mentioned it, was these performance artists composing moves/​positions while we ate. I initially thought it was interesting, then it felt slightly disturbing by certain poses. :-X It was like a car wreck that you can’t help but be a looky-​loo, & I normally don’t look. LOL This may be atypical in the courtyard?
Since we had a prix fixe menu, their regular lunch menu may have different options, which is standard from the catering aspects so I can’t tell you what it’s normally like during lunch. From chatting with the server, Ammo supports local farmers, which is an A+ in my book. They just need to work on giving bigger, bolder flavors to complement the big, bold works of art on display.

It’s a shame to give two stars to a café with such a cute courtyard, but maybe the owners will feel compelled to change things around if they get more of these. It looks like I am not the only one who got lousy service and less than mediocre food. The setting is very pleasant, however, and it looks like it could be a good spot for work and study since they have a free WiFi here with good signal.

I come here often only because I work nearby and it’s sometimes the choice of my fellow co-​workers’ lunch rotation, although, this would not be my first choice. What I do love is the atmosphere sitting outside in the peaceful courtyard. It’s a good thing it is such a nice atmosphere because the service is a bit slow, so I wouldn’t recommend this place for a quick bite. I have ordered three different dishes here.
Roasted turkey breast with smoked mozzarella, bacon, avocado, tomato, lettuce and aioli on sourdough — This is a cold turkey sandwich that is served with dressed lettuce. I opt for the fries, the fries are actually quite good.
Orecchiette with caramelized cauliflower, spicy rapini, gaeta olives, breadcrumbs & parmesan — It’s decent, but no flavors stand out.
Alexander’s brown rice with market vegetables, red onion, jalapeño & chicken or organic tofu — Although I feel guiltless eating this dish the downside is that it’s almost flavorless. I have to douse it in Cholula to bring some type of depth to this dish.
The options here aren’t cheap, and the food lacks in flavor, depth and originality for me to justify the cost. Since I have been coming here my order has been messed up twice and I have witnessed my co-​workers get their orders messed up on different occasions, so I can’t say that the service is spot on. However, I will keep coming back as long as my fellow co-​workers want to spend their money here.

I finally got to eat here after working in Westwood and eating in the Hammmer courtyard for the past 5 months. It looks so classy and nice, and I’d just watch longingly at the patrons who look like fancy businesspeople or trendy working professionals. idk ANYWAY, my boss lost a bet and had to take us out to lunch. My supervisor had raved about their sliders, and I was devastated when I found that they no longer served those (maybe it’s on a seasonal/​summer menu).
I got the grilled chicken sandwich. It was huge and delicious, and it comes with a salad. Everything looked pretty good but not too special, I guess. A couple coworkers got the lemonade, which was pretty good. Hmm. but otherwise, nothing really special to report.
That being said, it’s really expensive here! I probably wouldn’t come here on my own unless I had a coupon or something (I don’t even know if they would have coupons). Service is pretty good and it’d be really nice to eat here in the spring (it was still a bit chilly when we came).

Cute little café in the center of the Hammer Museum; partially indoors and partially outside. (Though the outside was in the shade when I went.)
Recommend: the salads.
Skip: the grilled cheese. It’s not a typical grilled cheese; one tiny slide of cheese, and mostly whatever the green vegetable was. I ended up scraping most of it out — didn’t taste so good hot — so was left with two slides of bread, and not much cheese.
It looks like they do refills on the tea and lemonade (we saw a server with a pitcher), yet we were never offered any.
I’ll give it another go and will have a salad and stick with water; that looks to be the way to go.

Expensive prices, decent food, lovely setting, horribly slow service (in a nutshell).