Backlot Deli

$ 18 for a stale packaged sandwich, a small bag of chips, and a Coke. Staff unfriendly. This terminal really needs more dining options.

Choices are limited in terminal 1 at LAX so I’ve given this place a few tries. On every occasion it has made almost every other airport restaurant I’ve ever eaten at look like a 5-​star gourmet restaurant. And I’ve had some very bad airport food.

The Backlot Deli is one of the few food options besides Starbucks in this part of the airport. It serves as a quick pick up and go, sit down, and bar option. Pretty good menu and a decent amount of seating. It does a pretty good job of taking care of travelers by providing a good amount of choices.

This place is horrible. Service is just as slow as Camacho’s across the terminal… with added pleasure of attitude and incompetence. The blank stare you get from the server as you ask for a hot dog is disconcerting. It’s impossible to tell if they heard you. Also… it took 15 minutes and three requests to get me check… then another 10 minutes to run my card.
Oh…and the food is blah. Maybe the turkey sandwich is ok. Potato chips are stale.
Do yourself a favor… eat at Gordon Biersch by security entrance. They are not perfect but at least they comprehend the idea of, «I have to catch a plane»

Screw the management here they wouldn’t let me sit down at a table with my bagel and cream cheese because I didn’t order food from them. The funny thing is I didn’t even know they served breakfast. I had WALKED by before stopping in at starbucks wanting to eat here but it appeared they didn’t serve breakfast! There was plenty of empty table’s for people to sit. It’s a freaking airport give me a break. Dont give your hard earned money to them! Screw this place!

$ 20 bucks for a sandwich, chips and water… sounds legit. :-/

The bagel was warm. The egg was well done but the key item which is the bacon was very skinny in slice thus not crunchy. Since the bacon was of thin slice the bagel was overpowered by egg flavor. The service was quick and the place was clean. An ok place for airport standards

Bad Food, Bad Service.

They receive 2 stars and those are for the server and the, well, the server. I’m not so delusional that I expect the bar at the airport to be a good deal. Also, I know I should have asked (because the prices weren’t listed) but 8.25 for 1 Sierra?! Umph-​NY bars are cheaper. Oh well, I was killing time and they had a big enough table for me to work at while I enjoyed my spendy beer.
When in Rome…

DON’T EAT HERE!!!
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
everyone knows airport food is $$$ but the quality (or lack thereof) of Backwoods Deli is not relative to the price.
2 sandwiches: $ 25.00
So dry I could clean the toilet with it. I’ve had a bloody nose with more flavor than the chicken pesto and turkey sandwiches.

Atrocious. Our flight was delayed by 2 hours, so my co-​worker and I plopped down here to kill some time. She ordered a coffee with Bailey’s, I ordered water with no ice, and we told the guy we wanted to share regular nachos. The coffee and Bailey’s took over 15 minutes to arrive, the water WITH ice came 10 minutes later, and stale tortilla chips with 4 cups of condiments (melted Velveeta cheese, a scoop of nasty salsa, sliced pale green peppers straight out of a jar, and guacamole probably squeezed out of a plastic bag) arrived. All this for $ 22. The chairs were hard-​backed and very uncomfortable, and it was located next to a garden that probably only gets watered every 3 months.

Located in the Southwest terminal. The place is expensive even for an airport. Ordered the Westphalian Ham and Swiss. It was good ham and there was a good amount. It came on Rye. With chips and a drink it cost $ 16.70. Wow. Sadly the sandwich was advertised to come with Grain and Dijon Mustard, mayo and honey. None of those condiments were on the sandwich but i was at 37,000 feet when I realised the error.

You know it really wasn’t that bad, it’s allot better than your CPK or Starbucks meal. The food at the airport is very limited, so not much of an option. I would have given this place 4 stars if it wasn’t so overpriced. For a panini turkey breast sandwich and chips, including a fountain drink came out to 16 bucks.
But I honestly didn’t feel like paying 10 bucks for McDonalds next door, needed some real food. If you are looking for something decent and okay coughing a penny more than usual, come here.
Food itself was good, not a fan of mayo, it went well with the panini. Would I come here again, yes unless they open up something better.

I can only review the pastrami sando because it was bad and costly enough to know that I will never, ever go back for anything else.
Two pieces of bread — at least it wasn’t stale and in between those two slices… A bunch of dried pastrami. Hardly warm and with no taste, it took a half a squeeze bottle of grey poupon and a cold beer to wash it down. 25 bucks down the tubes.
The only thing going for the place was the seating — it wasn’t crowded. No wonder.

The place only had 1 server to cater to the 15 tables in the area. Very slow service but I give credit to the server. He was busting his a** to get the orders in.
The food was just ok. Nothing special and it was way over priced. I purchased a chicken sandwich which came with potato chips and a pickle. The food definitely filled me up.
I would usually give 2 stars to a place like this, however I give them an additional star for the hard working server. Keep up the good work and hopefully you will have some help soon.

The typeface on the sign reminds me of the old Bob’s Big Boy sign. And please note, by «old Bob’s Big Boy,» I don’t mean the Bob’s Big Boy that ceased to exist sometime in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s; I mean the old Bob’s Big Boy, the less updated version of the one that ceased to exist sometime in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s.
(Megan might want me to mention potato pancakes, but Bob’s Big Boy didn’t have potato pancakes. That would be the Big Boys in the Midwest, or at least in vacation parts of Michigan.)
I was wary of this place for years. I still am. The seating area looks more fun than it is, but it’s still fun. And there is a movie type of theme, and it’s very cheesy, and it’s been this way for more than a decade, but it doesn’t look dated, just old. There’s a really big difference between dated and old. So big a difference, in fact, that understanding most of my reviews basically hinges on being able to detect and appreciate this difference. And there are nuances to it.
But I’ll continue the review by ending it: The food isn’t that good, and it’s expensive, but it’s not that bad either, and it’s exactly what you expect to pay, so you’re not going over budget.
I won’t get into casting couches and trailers rocking and all kinds of other ridiculousness. The people who work here are nice. The service is quick. You’re way better off here than waiting in line at McDonald’s, but if you’re the kind of person who would wait in line at an airport McDonald’s, then there’s basically no hope for you anyway, so why am I trying to save you?

You do know we all have flights to catch, right? So why in the world would you only have one (fairly incompetent) server waiting on everyone?
Amazingly, this two-​star restaurant is probably the best one can hope for in the Southwest ghetto known as Terminal 1.
Some argue that since Los Angeles is known for its amazing restaurants, that LAX should reflect that. But that’s kind of silly, since those of us who live here and are departing don’t need convincing, and those arriving aren’t going to eat at the airport immediately after deplaning.
So no, I don’t demand innovative fare from an airport eatery, but just don’t be as slow as snail snot.

I’m headed home from my first visit to San Francisco, I fell in love with that town-​deeply-​and the San Francisco Giants are up 6 – 0 on Detroit in Game 1 of the World Series. I’m not a Giants fan, but I’m a fan of these people, so tonight you can guess who I’m pulling for. And when I pull, however in the world I manage to do so, I observe how my fingertips are slathered in what must be pure butter that dripped from the bread of my Cuban manwich. There isn’t much to this thing, but the soaking of butter makes me overlook everything else.
Local drafts are out of service today, something I’ve read is somewhat common. Tables are small for two or three people, my laptop covers half of this one. Televisions pepper the walls, and there’s a tower of TVs in the center that appear to broadcast to… no one.
That’s all you need to know about this place: get the Cuban. I’m sure there are some other good finds but get the Cuban. Get the Cuban. Go Giants, Go Cuban!

When we’re at the airport, we all understand that we’re kind of trapped … actually, totally trapped… and we’re desperate for the basics of life (food, water, & alcohol) before getting aboard a Southwest death carriage to some place less exotic than L.A.
As Steve McCroskey would say, «Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking.»
In Terminal 1 at LAX, the options are limited. So, just accept that the beer will be over-​priced and the sandwiches will be sad-​wiches. Olivia Z. and I opted for the Backlot Deli Bar because … well, there was no reason. I wanted a drink and it was on the left.
My Cubano Sandwich with lunch-​meat Ham and «pork» was Meh Cubano Sandwich while a draft beer was $ 9 and almost cold. Only my wife’s pre-​packaged Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad was 3-​stars.
The bill was $ 37 and our flight was delayed. Hey, is that a different bar on the right?

For an airport eatery, for LAX, this is actually decent. There is table service and their are skylights/​natural light coming in that make it feel a little bit airy, which LAX and Airy combine for an oxymoron usually.
The décor is Back Lot themed, so sprinkles of movie set décor. Service is decent, too.
At least conscientious.
They have several sandwiches that are not your run-​of-​the-​mill, made-​this-​morning in a plastic-​wrap-​for-​hours type sandwich. So that is unique already.
Of course, you are going to pay airport food prices. Do you have a choice? No, so grin and bear it.
I had a Cuban styled pulled-​pork Sammie ($ 13.60) and Soda ($ 2.70).
The food was pretty good, the prices, not so much.
There is quite a bit of seating, so you may get lucky and sit down to eat at a table, in an airport!
That may just be worth the extra cost!