Los Angeles Basin at Kelson Reviews Stuff

Coffee Cartel ★★★★★ Offbeat local coffee house with atmosphere that makes you want to hang out there.

The Comic Bug ★★★★★ Open, inviting, and kid-friendly, with friendly staff and a wide selection. Frequent artist/writer signings.

Doma Kitchen (Closed) ★★★★★ Used to be a great Eastern European restaurant. Bounced around the South Bay for most of a decade before closing.

El Amigo #3 ★★★★★ Great spot for takeout Mexican food. I particularly like their Chile Relleno. Dine-in, limited parking.

The Empanada Shop

The front of a low building with an extremely shallow gabled roof, right off the sidewalk, with room for two storefronts. On the full-height windows in white, and hanging from a smaller, red sign facing the sidewalk, are the words THE EMPANADA SHOP. Two small white tables, each with a pair of orange chairs, sit in front of the window, and you can see several stools inside.

★★★★★ Great selection of both meat and veggie fillings, plus desserts (the chocolate one is intense).

Entradero Park Loop

Small lake or large pond. At the near end is large pillar-type drain. A baseball field is visible at the far shore, next to some thicket of plants, unidentifiable from this distance. Beyond that, brown-green hills with houses on top and dirt trails winding along the hillside.

★★★★☆ Relaxing walk through scrub habitat around a basin with restored wetlands. Not much shade, good for spotting birds.

Hopkins Wilderness Park

Narrow dirt trail curving out of sight among green-leaved trees and smaller plants. A small metal sign can just be seen saying Native Habitat Restoration Area.

★★★★☆ A good place to bring your kids or just take a shady walk in something that feels like nature. Lightly wooded, some hills, trails, a stream and a duck pond, plus picnic areas and camping.

Lavender & Honey

★★★★☆ Good coffee and sandwiches, maybe a bit expensive. They also sell artisan honey and beeswax products.

Madrona Marsh Preserve ★★★★★ One of my favorite places to walk in the South Bay: the last remnant of seasonal marshes that once covered the western part of the LA basin.

Natureba

Small building painted green next to a sidewalk lined with palm trees. Dried palm fronds cover an awning, and two small round tables, each with a pair of chairs, flank an open glass door.

★★★★★ Tiny small business, great smoothies and tropical juices, plus Brazillian-style grilled sandwiches and Açaí bowls.

Neighborhood Grinds (Closed) ★★★★☆ This used to be a great local coffee shop.

Pure Bean ★★★★★ An indie coffee shop and roaster that opened in a space vacated by CBTL a few years back.

Taishi Hainan Chicken ★★★★★ Variations on chicken and rice, all of them good.

Two Guns Espresso

Stark black and white image of a sign painted directly on an outer wall. Wooden boards are visible next to it, and the top of a window frame below it. The sign reads 'How about a cup of' in cursive, and then in MUCH LARGER SANS-SERIF BLOCK LETTERS, 'JOE'.

★★★★★ Serious coffee. Small chain in LA’s South Bay that introduced the Flat White to the region in the early 2010s.

Union Pizza ★★★★★ Thin-crust pizzas are good, deep-dish pizzas are REALLY good. My favorite is the Classic Deep Dish (spinach, roasted garlic, ricotta and mushrooms) - and normally I don’t even like mushrooms.

Reviews Tagged “Los Angeles Basin”