La Brea Bakery Café

I had brunch here for the first time. All I can yes is it was absolutely delish!!! Everything was so good, fresh squeezed orange juice, crab cake eggs Benedict, stuffed French toast, and the baked goods. You need to go. Also the service was amazing!

Almond croissant is delicious. Breakfast food is decent, the usual. It’s on the pricey side and the wait is too long for my taste. I’d go back but only to get pastries to-​go or if there is no wait.

Delicious pastries and great coffee. Very nice ambience and friendly place. But cinnamon roll was tasty and not overly sweet. I’ve always wanted to try this place and it didn’t disappoint.

Just had the best first time experience here! I walked in and was like whoa! The baked goods, salads, all look fresh & are tempting, the store’s cleanliness was impressive, and the music in selection and volume level were perfect. A great, relaxing and modern atmosphere! But the best part, was a young woman, Curty, who explained how each side of the bakery worked (sit down vs to go, the menus, etc.) She was attentive, genuine & sincere. She made the best impression ever for a first timer, and now I’m a fan of the bakery. There were two other employees who were also warm and welcoming towards the end of my time there. And I just want to say thank you Curty, you made me feel special, and welcomed! The squash and goat cheese yum, and the yam chips that are made there are a MUST! I’ll be back soon and bringing the family & friends!

Great reputation for a place that can’t even make coffee. Large Americano was like coffee and tea… I threw it out. Watery and no taste… just weird. Chocolate crossaint had barely any chocolate and was not good.

This is for the café section of LBB. Pricing is pretty good. Cookies/​pastries are good. Coffee was meh for the price. Barely any seating though nor was there wifi. Pretty chill spot in general.

Sunday morning and it was raining outside. I opted to go and have breakfast at La Brea Bakery. I like to come here and buy bread on a regular basis and it has always been good.
Unfortunately this has been the worst experience ever. I got to restaurant and opted to sit at the bar. It was rather quit and it was me and one other person already eating at the bar. About 15 min passed and no one had come by to see if I wanted anything to drink.
I finally flagged someone down and requested a cappuccino. Another 15 min passed and again I had to find someone to order my breakfast. I love there bread so I decided to do a bread basket in toasted of course because there bread is so yummy. I feel bread only needs to be toasted if it is not fresh b
My bread finally came with butter, preserves, honey and cinnamon sugar. When I went to grab the baguette I noticed it was not fresh. It felt like it was cut the day before and left overnight. I felt the other pieces and it all felt old and stale.
I immediately called over the waiter and informed him of the situation.
The bread was removed and 20 minutes letter I got new bread. The baguette was better. However when I grabbed a slice of the nut bread it had what appeared to be avocado on it. At this point I just gave up. How could you have this type of cross contamination. I ate up my fruit which was not ripe but some what edible.
This truly was my most disappointed experience EVER! This really was not acceptable.

It’s my favorite place on La Brea for breakfast or lunch. I used to go to la Boulange and now that they’re no longer there I’m pretty much going to la Brea most of the time. Their new executive chef Henk is awesome. He made the right changes to the menu so there’s more yummy new dishes on the menu. I love the mushroom frittata or the chicken apple sausage frittata. Their French toast is yummy and they have goooood coffee. Love their pastries and their new location is beautiful with parking in the back. They have great seating at the bar, dining room, tables outside in the front of the restaurant and in the back by the parking lot. You won’t be disappointed, if you’re in the area definitely give it a try.

Slow as hell. Totally disorganized. They take customers out of order of how they arrive. So it can take forever for you to get helped. Lame.
Expensive.
Corporate owned.
Coffee is bad.

Love this place! A nice walk from our apartment. Sit down brunch is great, but I love the option of over the counter Order when my son has no patience. Great coffee and I love that their pastries aren’t too sweet.

Love this place, and I am very sad it’s no longer open for dinner. It’s clean, has a very casual but nice vibe, there is a take out counter area with an array of fresh salads, vegetables, and sandwiches, the bakery section, (the breads are like art work and the pastries are fantastic). (For a special treat, get that chocolate cherry bread, toast it and put on a little bit of cream cheese, oh my gosh!)
For lunch, it’s hard to pass up the pizza, done in a wood fire oven with the best crust ever, the beet one is interesting and good, but I love, love, love the simple but elegant margarita pizza. The salads, especially the kale, are excellent. The basket of breads with butter and jam are a must have. Their tomato soup is creamy and good, get it with the grilled cheese sandwich and it becomes decadent. Perhaps the best thing there is their roasted half chicken, it is out of this world good, like something from the provincial French countryside.
The wines are a nice assortment of close to local California wines, many from Edna Valley, lovely.
If they lit the place up and looked open in the evenings I think dinner would be very popular, trouble is it always loved closed up. Put our a little board with todays specials or wine specials and turn on some lights and give it a go, we wold love to come back for dinner too!
Oh there is parking in the back, a small self park area and a valet.
PS We have always been treated so nicely there, whether at the salad and coffee take out bar or getting table service. Kudos to a fantastic service staff.

How have I not heard about La Brea Bakery’s wood fire pizza! I had the prosciutto pizza and it was spectacular! I was so impressed by the quality of their pie, and I highly recommend it. The staff is friendly and will talk for days about the different varieties of bread they serve. I thought the old location was pretty cramped and uncomfortable, the floor plan of the new spot is wide open and very welcoming. If you’re looking for a good place to eat in LA put La Brea Bakery near the top of your list.

Pretty good place for breakfast and brunch especially for weekend and it’s near my place. Great ambiance and good service. A bit expensive but hey it’s LA!

Very creamy latte delight and majestic do it again I have a great way for me I was in my room for a long way in which a little too hard and fast food place for me I was a little too hard and fast silverback thank you very much! Very understanding server. The fact I can get it right away with the new!

The food is good but since they moved to this new location what made this place great has been totally lost. What used to be a quaint and charming neighborhood stop now feels like a commercialized business. I understand businesses want to grow but this was a disappointing shift all around and I only go there about 10% as much as I used to, if that.

Definitely would recommend the breakfast and the herb chicken. Great service and really friendly servers here. If the main chef Hank is around he will give you great advice on the menu as well.

La Brea Bakery is known for their bread, but I’m writing to rave about their excellent coffee. I love going there for breakfast/​brunch and getting their vanilla latte (iced in the summer; hot in the winter). Sometimes, I go there just to get coffee. I think they use that Silverback Coffee from Rwanda, which they sell at the store, and it’s very high-​quality coffee that is robust yet mild, and not bitter. It’s better than the coffee that I’ve had at most cafes.

The food here is so fresh and the ingredient quality is awesome. I ordered the panzanella salad and breakfast croissant sandwich and it’s definitely one of the best croissants I have had (buttery and flakey like words cannot describe). Oh ya did I mention the other breads here are exceptional!

The best bakery in the town every day fresh and best place to get coffee and food taste highly recommend this place enjoy

I swung by this morning to a place I thought was going to be filled with people only to find one person waiting in front of me ordering food to-​go. Well, after choking on meny prices, I decided to order a turkey avocado sandwich $ 9 and a carrot cake. Coffee is about average and one can’t deny that the pastry counter is memorable and service is primo as long as you get lucky like me and do not get a busy line ahead. I was encountered by a young lady by the pastry department who took care of me with a smile wished me a great day and had me in and out of the morning rush in less than 5 minutes. I’ll be back for the Turkey Avocado, not the Breakfast crouissant which is $ 14.

It was our second time at La Brea Bakery Café, but we agreed never again. This review was mainly based on the 2^nd visit.
Both times, we were planning to go to Roscoe’s for Chix & Waffle, but there was no parking and line was long.
The Parking at La Brea was okay, you had to double park sometimes and leave the key with the attendant. The second time we were there, the attendant does not even make eye contact with us, and he was just rude when he finally decided to talk to us. I know it’s new year weekend and he probably does not want to be there, but there is no need to be rude.
We put our name in and the hostess said 5 to 10 minutes wait. Not that bad. Since the waiting area is really tight by the hostess stand and there were a few groups of people already, we walked away to look at merchandises on the bakery side. 3 minutes later when we returned, everyone before us were seated and the hostess seated at least 3 groups that came after us. Couple minutes later, another hostess asked «(inaudible) …ask… table… do you mind sitting at the counter???» We never asked to sit at the table, nor the first hostess never asked if we have a preference. They had to move a couple at the counter who came after us but got seated first to move over to make room for us. Now we were sitting in front of brick wall.
No server approach us for a good 10 minutes, so I decided to move my chair back in hope of getting some service. A few more minutes passed and our server finally introduce himself. His up sell was really obvious to push BF to order large OJ instead of small one. His services throughout was okay. There were at least two managers on the floor, but overall service experience was just not acceptable.
This time, BF ordered the Short Rib Hash (he also ordered that the 1^st time), I had the Crab cake Benedict. (the first time I ordered French toast? but they brought out the wrong order and gave me the bread basket. I had to say the bread were pretty good tho) I did not see any meat in the short rib hash, and BF said there wasn’t any. The food was not worth $ 18 a plate. And to quote BF «The Chef needs to put some effort into plating his food», my Benedict looked okay but then the potato that came with was just sadly scattered next to the Benedict, the short rib has just look blah.
They also have two cooks working behind the counter making sandwich, pizza and etc. BF commented «If you have someone working at the front, shouldn’t you have someone good to show off? and shouldn’t there be some sort of guard between the customer and the food handler?»
Overall, the food is overpriced for the quality and service was terrible. Hence, we are not going to return.

George is probably the most charismatic person I’ve met at a bakery. He was getting all theatrical and jokey about his co-​worker, it was nice to watch people having fun at work. He also fed me six thousand samples while I only asked for one, and upon learning that I am from Russia, told me to come in on Tuesday because I could bond with a Russian on their staff team. :-)
All the food I tried at the café counter was fantastic. I’ve always loved the bread from this bakery you can sometimes find at grocery stores. There is also a restaurant, I assume it’s delicious and the service must be good — the atmosphere suggested a really positive management situation.

La Brea Bakery has a good reputation. I have come here many times on Sunday for either breakfast or pastry and americano. This review is for their pastry section.
I stopped in to get some pastries on my way to meet up with co workers. Chocolate croissant had a decent amt of chocolate, was so dry. I tasted the apricot pastry. Not an abundance of flavor and was dry. I stopped in the morning so these items shouldn’t be SO DRY. I paid a pretty penny for these goods and I could tell my co workers were excited because they saw where they were from but I didn’t get a good feedback.
I will say this. LaBrea bakery was purchased years ago so I have nothing to gauge because I didn’t have the hayday breads. Did the good recipes from the 90’s change? Has it gotten so big and corporate so all proper rules are watered down and quality is out the door? Perhaps it is this… we all know the story, there’s a great baker. People ask for the recipe, but the baker will leave out something important or change it so they sabotage it. Is that what is going on here? I mean, the place is really nice inside, the pastries look great, the prices are high but everything is so DRY and nearing stale level. Come on. Is someone too scared to tell the plant and owner that things are bordering on tasteless and too dry? I have had this conversation with friends and we all agree. Love the place, some of the people are so nice and the display is great but it all ends flat. I’m so sorry it’s like this because I want there to be a great place to frequent but am contiually disappointed. I know my husband will say we need to stop spending our money at places with hype and can’t provide.
This also inlcudes a stop earlier 2 weeks back. I stopped in to get some things to go with a friend. The people behind the counter offered to help me and being my friend was on a separate order he stood there for a bit. He got help after a frustrated amt of time. I picked up Americano and some bread, pastries to bring home. They don’t have seating outside now. My husband and I had almond croissants. Dry, and didn’t have the traditional taste of almond paste. We shared a plain croissant and it was dry. I know there is some sort of dryness to croissant but the inside of these croissants is brittle dry. They are expensive. I know what proper croissants should be. I have done a fair bit of traveling abroad. Size is fine but texture is so brittle. My americano, well, you can tell the staff is not trained to pull a good shot of espresso so it was flat no crema. I don’t care for their beans they use. It would be great if they used italian espresso beans. The bread loaf was dry.
The people that worked there seemed nice to me. It’s confusing where to pay for your items at the pastry counter. I have been asked to pay right where I ordered but also been asked to move down to the register.

What a great place to come for breakfast or lunch. They great selections bakery items that you will love. From cookies to pastries. I love large selections of items they for breakfast to lunch.
If you are a person who enjoys great bakeries then you are in for a real treat. They have excellent breads to select from French to hole wheat. The service here is excellent from the minute you arrive to the minute you leave.
Whatever you are craving you will enjoy what you order. You have street parking or private lot parking.

Hmmm not sure how I feel about this place. I came here to meet up with some of my girls for brunch. When I pulled up to the valet I asked him about parking since there were no really clear signs. I mean there is a valet stand but it doesnt say how much and the attendant was off sitting with some people. He came up and pointed at this lot next to their lot and said I could park there. Didnt even attempt or offer to valet. Ummm ok. wtf
Went inside and the hosts kind of had attitude. Like I am just asking you for a table calm the hell down! Shade and side eyes are not necessary. They told me it would be a wait although I saw several open tables. Whatever fine. Eventually the hostess sat us down at a table.
The service was fast but forgetful. I mean our waiter never really checked on us. One of our friends showed up a little later and it was hell trying to flag him down to get her order. Other people were providing us refills and checking up on us. I got the 2 eggs any style with the chicken apple sausage. Pretty Basic. The sausage didn’t have any kind of apple flavor. Super Generic.
The jam and butter that came with the bread was super tasty.

The place is very clean and spacious for business meeting. The customer service great and prompt service when we arrived at business.
The menu little bit over pricey and food is great. i will definitely visit next time. you earned a customer with your service.
My only difficult to get a free parking for this location.

I didn’t know that they had built a full on beautiful restaurant with the best bakery in LA. My bad.
But, we went yesterday and had breakfast and it was very good. Coffee was hot and rich, the yogurt with granola was huge and tasty. But the days winner was the special French toast. Filled with cream cheese and topped with fruit and walnuts, it was decadent.
The four star rating is for the price, $ 16.00 for French toast! Please… I know it’s la brea bakery, but c’mon its breakfast.
Service was on point and nice, parking in on La Brea and not too bad.
The bakery is on the side of the restaurant and has the most amazing display of bread-​muffin-​other starchy things on the planet. Maybe start there, because the toast basket was only $ 5!!! And had lots of toast.
I’d be back for sure.

I am a big fan of this place especially after the remodeling. Love their brunch menu. Especially their ricotta blueberry pancakes & their Eggs Benedict. Also their fresh pastries and selection of salads are awesome.
Service has also always been on point. The general manger Alex is also so personable and so pleasant. It makes me love this place even more because I believe that good service is key to keep your customers wanting to keep coming back.
Their tuna salad and turkey sandwich are on point. Try it with their side of fries or yam chips. Nomnomnom!!!

ambiance and service is SUPER nice! I would definitely recommend for when you’re having a meeting or just a really nice, comfortable meal during the day! but i guess in terms of the food that i ordered, it was just OK.
I ordered:
–the GRANOLA ($ 9): a HUGE plate of granola with fresh fruits and a chunk of yogurt underneath this enormous amount of granola. as a granola noob, this dish didn’t WOW me or really have me craving for granola. it was just OK
–BREAD plate ($ 5): an assortment of bread with butter, jam, honey, and cinnamon dip. the bread was definitely fresh but didn’t AMAZE me either. maybe it’s because I expected more from just word hype?
NEXT TIME, i want to try their french toast (apparently this dish is really good).
PARKING:
went on a Saturday morning and it’s free valet. (probably accepting tips)

Le French Toast Brioche était bon mais un peu sec malheureusement. Le café est excellent. Le comptoir pour les commandes à apporter est alléchant, difficile de partir sans y commander des croissants ou des brioches pour apporter.

Picked up lunch and opted for the trio of salads. I love variety, so it was right up my alley. The three I had were very good. One was an apple and fennel salad that was the perfect creamy consistency. The second was a snap pea salad with chilled, grilled pineapple and strawberries — interesting combination and I wouldn’t necessarily say that «it worked» but I did love the grilled pineapple. The third was a beet salad, which I enjoyed a lot. All three were over a bed of spinach.
My friend got the California chicken sandwich, which I can’t vouch for, but the herbed fries did look amazing!

We sat at the bar facing the pizza oven and watched the guy make the sausage mushroom pizza from scratch right in front of us. It was really tasty. Their tomatoe sauce goes perfectly with the sausage that had a bit of a spicy kick to it. The thin crust was not too chewy or dry.
I was also surprised by their lamb burger. The patty was not too gamy and had just enough herb. It goes well with the brioche bun.
Latte was pretty alright. Slightly better than starbucks.
I went on Memorial Day so it was pack and service was slow but the people are friendly and welcoming.

excellent breads… nice restaurant attached… reminds me of nappa valley type of rustic food… pricy le campanile