Looking to dine near Disney Hall

Cafe Society
1

We are going to the LA Symphony next Saturday the 7th. It will be my first trip to see the magnificent Disney Hall. The symphony starts at 2 PM, and we want to have a nice light lunch beforehand.

I guess we are talking about Grand, 1st and 2nd Avenues. I’m looking for your suggestions for a place to catch some lunch and relax, nothing fancy, no big steak and Martini place. We like Italian, Californian, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, almost anything.

Has anyone been to an event at Disney Hall and had a yummy meal in the neighborhood (preferrably walking distance to the hall)? Or is this an area where everything closes up shop on the weekends, as is the case in some big cities?

Thanks, beckwall

2

I used to live a mile away from the Disney Concert Hall. There’s not much near there, but this place is pretty decent:

Ciudad, it’s a couple of blocks away from the hall.

3

Personally, I’d go to the Chinatown/Placita area. Ocean Seafood on N. Broadway is pretty good (generally catering to tourists), with higher prices. There’s another place, whose name escapes me at the moment, further up, that’s good, reliable, and not so pricey. Also there’s Phillipe’s, which has cheap “French dip” sandwiches. And the Placita has so-so but acceptable Mexican food in an interesting environment. The walk is farther than from places you find in the area (such as Ciudad), but you won’t be paying Financial District prices. You might also consider Little Tokyo for Japanese or Korean food, though it’s even further, and mind require a short taxi ride.

4

Sorry

5

Ciudad looks great, sadly their lunch is only M-F. We may just grab a really light lunch on the way in from Palm Springs, then do dinner after the symphony. Thanks for these suggestions. Is there any public parking in the Placita area? I guess we are tourists (shakes head sadly).

6

Many of the nice restaurants in the area have shuttles to the music center area; I know they run at night, but you’d need to ask if they run during the day. And, having looked at the websites for some of my favorite restaurants, it appears that many do not do lunch on weekends. That said, in the immediate vicinity of the music center I’d recommend Kendall’s (used to be Otto’s); looks more chi chi than the food is, but it’s also very good. More seafoody. They’ll also make sure you get out in time to make it to the concert. Of the restaurant’s I’ve looked at, it appears they’re actually open, so they have it over, for example, Tesoro or Noe.

Ciudad is okay, but I find the food only so-so and the service generally poor; it’s gone down significantly since it opened. It’s also quite a hike away from the music center. If you’re going to venture that far away, I’d recommend the Standard[ restaurant over Ciudad; better service and cheaper.

If you want to consider exploring Little Tokyo, Chinatown, or Olvera Street, consider the [url=http://www.ladottransit.com/dash/routes/downtown_wkend/schedule_dd.html]DASH](Downtown LA Restaurants near Pershing Square LA | The Standard,); they run limited lines on weekends, but they have something called the “Downtown Discovery” which loops through Olvera Street, Little Tokyo and Chinatown. It’s 25 cents a ride (a bargain!), and runs every 20 minutes. So that’s an option too. You could park at the music center, take the DASH over to Little Tokyo, and then take the DASH back after lunch.

But – if you’re planning to do dinner afterwards, please consider:

Engine Co. No. 28, which is maybe my favorite downtown restaurant. They advertise as “American food,” and my favorite is the vegetarian chili. A friend goes there for the chicken fried steak. Some of the servers are great; a few are real assholes. But the food makes up for it.

Takami, good sushi and a great view as the lights of the city come on at night. (Warning: website has really annoying music.)

Cicada, amazing service, great food (Italian). When I say “amazing service” I mean not only that the servers are nice and helpful, but they’re friendly as well. I really like Cicada, but it’s more upscale than Tesoro. If you were hankering for Italian food, I’m not sure which one I’d recommend, as I think they’re both great (but different).

There are, of course, tons more, and so it’ll depend on how far you’re willing to go from the music center. LA recently began an experiment permitting taxis to pick up passengers on the streets (previously, you could only get into a cab at a cab stand, you couldn’t “hail” a cab), and I’m not sure if the experiment is ongoing (it was kind of a failure because they didn’t advertise it so we didn’t know we would actually hail cabs). So if you want a cab, you should be able to get one at the music center; cab ride to one of the restaurants is about $5. You could also drive – downtown LA isn’t bad on weekends, and the restaurants generally have valet parking for $5-7.

7

Nonsense. I drove a cab in L.A. for nearly two years in the 90s and it was perfectly common and legal to pick up fares as flag-downs. Maybe they eliminated that in the meantime (because of the computerized screens and dispatch systems in many cabs), but in either case, it’s not an experiment. When I drove, if you were in queue for a particular area, and someone flagged you down, you just took your number off the queue.

8

I’d go to Daikokuya or someplace else in Little Tokyo.

9

I should add, that it was illegal for cabs to pull over in red zones (for buses, etc.), but that wasn’t really enforced anyway, as most DOT rules aren’t. You could always just walk up to any cab waiting at a red light and get in.

10

Maybe we’re both right. LA Not Used To Hailing Taxis NYC Style. I was talking about downtown LA. While hailing a cab may have been legal elsewhere, not in downtown. I can’t cite the signs posted downtown, but during the “experiment” there were signs posted on lightposts downtown announcing that it was legal now to hail a cab.

11

The law was an attempt to prevent taxis from causing congestion in certain areas (downtown and Hollywood), and it applied to red zones only. The idea was to prevent them from interfering with buses and cars trying to make right-hand turns. Maybe a taxi lobby pushed them to reverse the law, or they realized that this happens so rarely that the law is more of a nuisance than helpful. Cab stands are typically only found at big hotels and popular tourist places, or places like 3rd and Grand where high-priced lawyers suddenly need a ride.

But there’s never been anything from stopping a cab driver from cruising around, and stopping for someone at a place that isn’t a red zone. But gasoline, and the belief they might get ticketed–which is pretty unlikely, judging from my knowledge of the L.A. DOT–has led more and more drivers to simply park their cab at a hotel and sit around waiting. Why do they do this? Because they’re usually the stupid drivers who think some tourist is going to take their cab to Disneyland or some other far-off place. That rarely happens; such tourists usually just rent a car. It’s the same thing at LAX. All these drivers are waiting around for “the big ride,” which they seldom get.

But if the OP is in or near Chinatown, and can’t get a taxi, and doesn’t want to walk, he/she can get on the Metro at Union Station, exit at the Civic Center stop, and walk the two blocks to Disney Hall. But really, it’s not much of a walk, and s/he can check out the cathedral and other things on the way.

That LA Times article makes it seem like the law has changed the way taxi drivers work, and that they all now choose to just stay at taxi stands. But that’s nothing new. The Biltmore stand is always four or five cars deep.

12

If you mean free parking, sometimes it’s difficult. That is to say, you have to drive around the side streets. But on Saturday meters aren’t running, so it’s not so bad. But it’s certainly better than around Disney Hall.

It might be worth your while to park in a paid lot.

13

Well, guizot, it sounds like your experience driving a cab in the 90s is different from my experience currently downtown. All of which is irrelevant to the OP, so I’m sorry I even mentioned the difficulty hailing a cab, since it led to this hijack.

beckwall, enjoy the Disney center, and I hope you’ll report back about how it went!

14

Whenever I’m downtown, I go to lunch at Grand Central Market. It’s a huge covered European-style marketplace, with produce, spices, bakeries, and tons of food options from around the globe. It’s a very casual dining experience, with tables set up here and there. It’s also walking distance from Disney Hall.

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Yes, that’s a good recommendation.

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Grand Central Market looks great. It closes at 6, but that shouldn’t be a problem. We have a reservation for Engine Co. 28, Mr. beckwall has actually been there before and loved it. Lots of options, thanks for the suggestions.