Aroma Cafe

Authentic Bosnian food, the only one in LA I found so far. If you like meat, you have to try their gourmet «pljeskavica» (burger) with «shopska» salad. The staff is friendly & welcoming, overall good service. A bit pricy for what it is, hence the 4 stars.

Great Serbian/​Bosnian food and Turkish coffee. the staff is very friendly staff. I even got a little Turkish coffee fortune reading, reminded me of my grandma, Will go here again, if I am in the area.

Good fresh unique foods. Pleasant staff.
Small neighborhood café feel.
Cevapi — ⁴⁄₅ — think «souvlaki» made with mild meaty sausage only better. Crusty bread made here.
Gourmet Pljeskavica — 4.5÷5 — think «beef sausage patty ‘burger’ with feta cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes»…only tons better. Same crusty bread, chewy on the inside. Very savory, delicious with the peppered chopped onions also served.
Plain Kefir — good
Tufahiya — ⁴⁄₅ — roasted and syrup-​soaked apple with whip cream and sugary ground walnut paste inside. There’s a unique flavor that evades naming. Chocolate syrup drizzled on top. Great presentation. Tastes as good as it looks.

I don’t have any prior experience eating Bosnian food so I’m not coming to comment on the authenticity of the food. However, the service was slow and minimal. We were served our food which was the vegetable sandwich and lamb sandwich and forgotten. There were no water refills nor were we checked on. The sandwiches were over priced– $ 9.95 for a small to medium sized vegetable sandwich and it doesn’t come with anything else. After we were done eating, we had to go up to the cashier/​waiter/​table bus service to get our bill.

Food was not authentic at all. I came to this place to have real Serbian/​Bosnian food. But it was all pre made meat that I could’ve bought from Walmart.
Big disappointment

Had lunch here today and enjoyed it quite a bit. Near as I can tell, Bosnian cuisine is a mélange of SE European, Turkish, and N. Italian cuisines. I had the lamb kebab which was done perfectly. Service was a bit slow, but they were quite busy, and the lone woman working both the register and table-​service was a bit harried. However, I will definitely go back and recommend it to friends. BTW, if you enjoy salads, those served by Aroma are excellent, and the ingredients are very fresh.

Great Bosnian food in LA. Aroma cafè is popular for a reason. When I was there it was a mix of Bosnians and Angelinos. The food was surprisingly authentic. The spinach pita was flavorful, spinach, hints of salty feta, all wrapped in a homemade phyllo dough. Perhaps not as good as in Sarajevo but as good as it gets in the States.
If you don’t know what to get and are a carnivore then get the čevapi. Čevapi are a Bosnian staple. A flavorful meat dish that puts a simple burger to shame. Ask for a side of ajvar. Vegetarians can stick to the pita (spinach, potato, or cheese) or the many salads.
They also have a collection of sweets, sauces, and sundry items from Europe. Things like ajvar (red pepper mixture) and Bajadera (chocolate/​hazelnut bites from Croatian company Kraš) that are worth getting addicted to.

Tried this for the first time. Very solid. Tastes like good home cooked food. It’s heavy on the meat, but thats more a reflection on the style of cuisine. Will be back to try again!

CEVAPI!!! Just like back home Serbian style great customer service mixed Serbian and English together but at the end of the couldn’t be any happier had to drive from San Diego worth every penny and miles ill defenantly come back

Simple and delicious. It’s not overly portioned or trying too hard. The flavor are simple but compliment each other so well. Definitely a gem

I was thinking whether to give 3 or 4 stars.
The place is overpriced, way overpriced. But it’s the only place in Southern Cali I can buy my Bosnian treats at. or at least the only one I know of.
I have been here several times and the food was good except for the last time. I ordered ćevapi, 2 bureks (beef) to go and 2 baklavas also to go and I bought some snacks and sweets, totalling $ 120. Ćevapi were fantastic, cooked to perfection and homemade kaymak was delicious. Burek was ok; they say beef but it’s more filled with potato than meat, they should mention that on the menu. Baklava was not fresh; it had that weird «fridge odor» as if it was in there for weeks.
For the reference, the people of Balkans, make baklava slightly different than the one you probably had at a middle eastern restaurant. It has more layers filled with walnuts or hazelnuts and its soaked in a heavy sugar syrup! So if you’re looking for that crispy «dry» piece of baklava, this is not it.
The service is ok. Typical European where you have to chase the waiter/​waitress around to get what you want. I don’t mind :). Those who know the owners, yell out with their booming voices or just go straight to the kitchen. That I do mind :/​.
I will stop by whenever I’m in the area, just because it’s the only place I know of that has my favorites.

This Croatian delight made us all happy. I actually found the place on Unilocal and picked up food for a dinner party I had with a Yugoslavian friend. She was so happy and touched that we made plans to go back this last weekend. Turns out she knows the manager! Small world.
I let my friend order and we really went to town. I had no idea what we were ordering except for the pictures o the menu. They do not sell wine but we brought our own. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The food is amazing. We tried almost everything. We plan on chiming back in the near future.

Amazing place! Very nice food and excellent Italian coffee! In fact this is the best espresso I’ve tasted in LA… Amazing, I come every day just to take a sip of expresso… And a bite of a Kinder Bueno! If you’ve got a sweet tooth and you love coffee. you got to try it. The sandwiches are delicious, specially the Aroma Sandwich! And the salads are good too. It’s reassuring to se a lot of Balkan people always eating there. They must know what’s what. And for the award wining sandwich. Well it’s ok, maybe it’s just me but it’s just «ok»

Zdrasti !!!
i love this place, they have great food, great Kaffe, the Employees are nice and have good energy. great Balkan restaurant… Hvala mnogo… as a pirate, i love Balkan and Mediterranean food ! olé ola ! much love from Valley Glen… i will come with my Balkan friends again soon… ciaooo haide haide ;-)
if anyone happens to stumble upon a European café or something of this nature, please let me know…

Great food and service. We ordered lamb plates, ćevapi, and burek. Second time here and we aren’t disappointed at all. Definitely we’re coming back.

Soothes the soul with more than just dearly missed food.
Of course, I go here for burek with cheese, ćevapi with kajmak, and šopska salad mainly. It’s my once every two months mandatory stop. Mainly because I can eat this every day but then I would have 200lbs easily. So gotta be moderate!
I also have tried sarma and gulaš. Great choices for when you want to eat «spoon» food but LA weather is not always for such choice as I find it easier to eat this when cold or wintery weather.
After my meal, even more mandatory is a full bag of Euroblok, Plazma, Jaffa biscuit, Cedevita, Domaćica and Jetrena pašteta that I take home and devour it all in less than a week! :)
Now you see why this is only once in a two month spot!
Been coming here since 2004.

Finally. A great Balkan restaurant. I could eat here every day.
People are complaining about the service. It’s European style service. If you need the waitress, call her over and let her know.
Shopska salad is great. Lepinja (a delicious type of bread) is as good as my husbands Baka makes from scratch. Ask for extra kajmak (soft cheese). Pljeskavica are well seasoned and remind me of the ones we had on the street in Belgrade.
Their sarma is slightly different than the one I make or my mother in law makes, but sarma varies from household to household. It’s still delicious. The cevapi are always well seasoned and delicious.
Bottom line? Looking for something new to try? Try here. Looking for good Balkan food? Go here.

If the service was better, I’d give 4 stars. The food is a solid 4-​stars. I have brought a lot of work colleagues here, we’re all big fans. A couple of staples we usually order:
Shopska salad — so fresh. Every time. Cucumber, tomato, feta etc… very, very good.
Pita bread with dip (their version of cream cheese) — the «cream cheese» not on the menu, we always ask for a side of it, but so tasty to dip the bread in. Also makes the main entrée more tasty… see below…
Combo Plate — (serves 3 men) 3 types of beef/​meat: patty, kebab, and shish kebab.
Making tiny little sandwiches with the meat, shopska salad, cream cheese and pita bread… the BOMB. Excuse me, I need to go have a heart attack now.
Turkish coffee for desert — so strong and good. We always order it when halfway done with the meal, because, well honestly, the service is very slow here. If you are in a hurry, do NOT come here. If you have time to have a slow relaxing meal, then this place is awesome. So close to my work, I would come here more often, but I don’t always have 75+ minutes to spend on my lunch.

Cute enough with a small, front dining patio. Service was minimal, but that paled compared to the food.
Stuffed cabbage ($ 14.50) — four, decent sized, rolls. Looked okay, but all the same. How unless the chef is a perfectionist? Canned. Seriously, the meat inside was nearly inedible, and why should I eat from a can?
I paid, and went home to eat a quesadilla. I really wanted to like this place. Sigh.

I did not like the cevapi. It wasn’t seasoned and seemed to be undercooked because it was red in the middle. I’ve never had this dish before so I may be talking out of my a$$ but it did not taste amazing. I expected kofta, instead I got oily, under cooked ground beef. It wasn’t salty at all, is that normal? I expected garlic in there too but no trace of that either. Also there was no char, just browning. Maybe I don’t like this type of cuisine. The bread was delicious. It was a lot like foccacia.
Also ordered a side of veggies. This was grilled perfectly. Soft yet crunchy. Nice char. Tons of olive oil (maybe too much). Not too salty. The veggies shined on this dish. However for nearly $ 10 it’s kinda pricey for a veggie dish.
Kind of overrated. Would like to come back again to try other dishes but it’s pretty pricey and it’s super oily. I have a hard time paying $ 14 for grape leaves when I could get the same stuff in East Pasadena for a couple of bucks.