The Downtown LA Lunch Guide
As much as we like to imagine ourselves hanging out on some quaint streetside patio enjoying a latte and a sandwich, lunch in Downtown LA is more often than not a matter of necessity. Either you work in one of those tall buildings, you got called for jury duty, or you’re looking for something comforting after getting lost in that weird Target on Figueroa. The good news is that DTLA has great lunch options for any occasion, as long as you know where to look. We’ve got you.
Ambiance isn’t Café 2001’s forte, but this quiet all-day bistro at least shines where it counts: serving an elegant Japanese-European menu that’s sophisticated enough for a proper sit-down lunch. For a place that serves elegant dishes like beautifully marbled terrines and pork tenderloin sandos with rosy cross sections, Café 2001 is speedy like a fast-casual restaurant. Everything arrives within minutes, so you can be in and out before your post-lunch meeting, but we recommend carving out time for Café 2001’s creative coffee drinks and a slice of one of its excellent fruit tarts.
Tokyo Fried Chicken
There’s a lot of great fried chicken in this town, but nothing quite like the golden-brown birds at this counter-service spot. The extra-thick crusts on Tokyo Friend Chicken’s juicy poultry locks in its soy-ginger-garlic marinade, and the Southern-Japanese fusion sides like curry creamed corn and dashi-braised collard greens are all winners. Order a six-piece bucket for two (even if it’s for one) because the crunchy skin on your leftovers will hold up the next day.
Erin Mavian
There are so many smashburger spots in LA that we felt compelled to rank them, but if you’re going to have one, you might as well (spoiler alert) eat the best one. For The Win’s gooey cheeseburgers with crisp, lacy edges are our favorites, and their stall inside the Grand Central Market has an L-shaped bar counter where you can grab a stool and eat a double stack at its best: straight off the grill.
La Pupusa Urban Eatery
LA is a pupusa paradise, but there is only one “La Mamasota.” That’s the name of La Pupusa Urban Eatery’s famous pupusa pizza that easily feeds you and half of the HR department. The sturdy crust on this giant masa cake holds ten pounds of molten cheese and tender chicharrón, and each order comes with a bucket of curtido. And, if you’re looking for something smaller or don’t care for lunchtime gimmicks, order one of the palm-sized pupusas which always hit the spot.
We love a few simple tuna handrolls for lunch, but sometimes we crave extra flair. That’s exactly what Temaki Society specializes in. This tiny, counter-service spot has 12 handroll varieties and each one is more dressed up than a member of KISS. There’s salty soy-marinated shrimp mixed with kimchi, a “banh mi” roll with fish sauce-coated albacore, and the “bossam” with a pickled perilla leaf stuffed with mackerel. These elaborate rolls are on the pricier side, but we’ll pay for some extra flair every now and then.
Fixin’s Soul Kitchen
Located next door to The Novo theater in LA Live, Fixin’s Soul Kitchen is a popular option for weekend brunch and pre-concert chicken and waffles, but lunch is the easiest time to slide into a booth for some excellent soul food. Fixin’s massive dining room is less crowded, so you can hear yourself think as you eat shrimp and grits, black-eyed peas, and pork chops smothered in roux-brown gravy and pickled onions.
Jessie Clapp
There are subs, and then there are the cold-cut behemoths you get at Ghost Sando. This deli stall tucked away in the back corner of Grand Central Market bakes its crackly, slightly sweet dutch crunch in-house, and stuffs each 8” roll to the brim with meat, cheese, and their delicious housemade sauces, like the BLAST that tastes like smearable pepper jack.
Broad Street Oyster
Broad Street Oyster’s Grand Central Market stall might not have its Malibu location’s ocean breeze, but it offers other luxuries for a leisurely lunch: whole seafood towers and warm lobster rolls with massive hunks of claw. The fish and chips arrive still hot from the fryer and with a housemade tartare sauce that tastes like half a jar of capers were blitzed into it. Broad Street’s DTLA location also has a long wooden bar that runs along the side of the stall, which means that even on busy days, you shouldn’t worry about wasting much of your lunch break looking for a seat.
Daikokuya is a bit of a chain these days, but a visit to the original Little Tokyo location for one of their traditional bowls is a pilgrimage every ramen disciple must take. The lines can get long—this isn’t necessarily a “quick lunch”—but Daikokuya’s tonkotsu repays you for your time with tender pork belly chashu, a jammy soft-boiled egg, and a generous sprinkling of green onions. All of that pork fat-infused broth might put you to sleep afterward, so hit the office coffee machine on the way to your desk.
Nikko Duren
Cheese Superette is a tiny cafe-grocery store that feels worlds away from the tourist chaos at Grand Central Market. It has a couple of dreamy window tables, a washed-out indie playlist, and a deli counter lined with imported cheeses and salty cold cuts to bring home for a BYO charcuterie board. We suggest prioritizing the lunch counter in the back. The smallish menu features buttery toasted sandwiches (the BLT with melted mozzarella is a standout), classic soups, and giant salads. Stop by when you need some reprieve and a bit of dairy in your day.
Pane Bianco is a lunchtime-only sandwich and slice shop from the Pizzeria Bianco people. At lunch, Pizzeria Bianco offers just whole pies, so as great as its pizzas are, if you’re looking for a solo lunch at Row DTLA (or a quick meal that can fit in your lunch hour), Pane Bianco is the better option. While we liked the mortadella sandwich we tried, the New York-style slices should be the priority here. Our current favorite is the green slice topped solely with a delicious spinach cheese sauce that tastes like a dip we’d eat too much of on Super Bowl Sunday.
Afuri Ramen
If you’re excited about the idea of eating ramen for lunch, but don’t want a bowl of rich tonkotsu broth to lull you to sleep at 2pm, head to Afuri in the Arts District. Everything about a meal here is refreshing, from the windows pouring tons of natural light into the industrial space to the yuzu-infused shio ramen with enough acid to cut through the salty, fatty chicken stock. Said ramen is always our order, here. Its thin noodles spring back against your chopsticks, chashu melts away, and the entire bowl is light enough to leave room for some karaage or gingery gyoza.
Jessie Clapp
Pine & Crane’s DTLA location is the rare casual spot that makes you want to stick around for a long sit-down meal. Not only does the breezy, open-air restaurant have one of our favorite patios in LA, but they also serve excellent Taiwanese dishes. We especially love the bowls of steaming wonton soup with chewy housemade noodles, the beef rolls with salty-sweet hoisin sauce, and doughy pan-fried pork buns. You could hypothetically be in and out of Pine & Crane within an hour (most of the food arrives in a matter of minutes and costs less than $15), but we suggest coming for lunch with an ambiguous end time to properly enjoy the all-day menu and cocktails.
Holly Liss
Bargain-hunting for great lunchtime sushi is not for the faint of heart (or the hangry). We’ll make it easier for you: go to Sushi Gen. If you go for lunch and don’t get the $26 sashimi platter, you’re doing it wrong. Just arrive early—lines from well before opening.
Garrett Snyder
Full disclosure: you won’t casually stumble upon this Arts District taco window because it’s concealed by a parking lot, foreboding gates, and dusty industrial lots. But when you do find Ditroit, you’ll get a quick, standout lunch of high-end (albeit pricey) taqueria staples. There are crispy “daily catch” fish flautas, cochinita pibil tacos that ooze with citrusy juice, and a palo santo-cucumber-yuzu agua fresca that you’ll want to sip poolside.
Taylor Bescoby
Gumbo Boys is a walk-up window that serves every Cajun-Creole comfort food you can imagine. Focus on the menu’s delicious fried things, like baskets of hush puppies, catfish nuggets, and a whole softshell crab looking pretty on a mound of fries. If you’ve got room, tack on an order of their andouille sausage gumbo—it’s smoky, full of snappy sausage, and a lot spicier than you might think.
There’s usually a line outside Little Tokyo udon specialist Marugame Monzo during the lunch rush, but once you try their thick, bouncy housemade noodles, you’ll understand why. The famous dish here is the uni cream udon, made with just enough sea urchin to give it an ocean-y punch. The truth is you can’t go wrong with any of the cream-based udon (the miso carbonara version tastes like a warm hug) or the cold udon with shiso and ume. Fill out your lunch with a side of tempura as you watch the kitchen cut and roll every massive noodle by hand behind the counter.
Located in a Fashion District food court, this Thai takeout counter works well for a quick to-go curry. The menu is full of staples you’ve probably had before, like pad kee mao and gra pow, plus some you haven’t (like yellow curry rigatoni). Either way, the food at Holy Basil features bright and bold flavors that make dishes here taste like you’re eating them for the first time. If you’re looking for a good place to start, get the tom yum soup with roasted chili jam, lemongrass, and galangal. If you’re eating on-site, expect a minimalist set of outdoor tables and stools.
If you know you’ll be eating solo lunch at your desk today, you better find something good to shove into your mouth. That’s where Dune comes in. The tiny Mediterranean cafe in the Fashion District offers a few outdoor tables where you can eat some of LA’s best falafel, but it also functions as a well-oiled takeout operation. Everything from the enormous falafel sandwiches to the hummus plates with lamb, flatbread, and marinated cabbage is excellent, but our go-to is the chermoula-drenched fried chicken shawarma sandwich. It’s one of our favorites, even if some would quibble if it’s a wrap rather than a sandwich.
Jakob Layman
Broken Mouth is located in the middle of the chaotic Fashion District, but it’s the kind of calm, high-quality lunch spot this part of downtown could use. You’re coming here for fantastic Hawaiian and Filipino food: the garlic shrimp plate is simple, buttery goodness, the teri chicken sandwich is huge and juicy, and the bread pudding is worth saving room for. Plus, everything falls at or below the $20 mark. Broken Mouth offers sit-down service, but the place is quite small, so “full team lunch outing” this isn’t—use it for takeout or a solo meal.
The parking situation near Sonoratown isn’t great, but these legendary housemade flour tortillas are worth walking a few extra blocks. These buttery tortillas melt in your mouth, and the smoky carne asada tucked inside these tacos is tender with the right saltiness. The standard asada tacos always hit the spot, but our move is the caramelo, which is about double the size and comes topped with pinto beans, jack cheese, salsa roja, avocado, and diced cabbage.
KazuNori Hand Roll Bar
This casual hand roll-only sushi concept has been around for a few years, but because of the Sugarfish name and its quality sushi, Kazunori is as popular as ever. Come any day of the week and you’ll find people waiting to eat the best-priced sushi Downtown. The service is quick and efficient, ensuring you’ll get back to the office in time for whatever meeting is on your calendar.
Garrett Snyder
Guzzu Bento-Ya is the dictionary definition of “under the radar.” This casual Japanese lunch spot is housed in what looks like an industrial building from the Eisenhower era, but inside you’ll find a chill cafe with movies projected on the walls. The menu revolves around double-decker bento boxes. On the first level, you’ll find rice, pickles, a cured egg yolk, and your choice of protein (we love the salt-cured, grilled mackerel or crispy pork katsu) and, on the second, a rotating variety of tasty little salads and roasted vegetables. Each of these gorgeous bentos costs around $20, but the fully loaded setup makes them feel like a deal.
