La Brea Bakery

Avoid this place like the plague. We went here bc it had a shorter line than Starbucks. The bagels are HORRIBLE and the breakfast sandwiches cost $ 10. The coffee tastes like mud and the service is bad. Better to just suck it up and wait in line at Starbucks… at least you know what you’re getting.

Probably the worst customer service I have ever witnessed on my entire life. Who doesn’t have butter for a bagel??? I’ll answer that for you! These people don’t. Wow is all I can say. I guess there’s a reason no one is in line and everyone is waiting 20+ minutes to go to Starbucks.

Used to be a GREAT option at the airport. Now it’s less than mediocre. Stay away. Far away. Guess the corporate buyout of a once great bakery and food option destroyed it. Too bad.

HAHAHAHAA, I feel so ripped off! But when you’re the only food stall, well you have a monopoly. I’m sure they don’t care if they have zero stars, where else are you going to go? I had an slightly boosie $ 3 sandwich for $ 12. Gouging that’s almost criminal.
Thumbs down, cause I didn’t Pass Go in this Monopoly game. But as always, let me know what you think.

$ 6.85 for a banana and a small bottle of water. I think that is waaaayyyy over priced.

Wow. Over $ 11 for a ham sandwich that tasted like it should’ve been $ 4 at best. Lesson learned: eat *before* you enter Terminal 2. Made me doubly bummed I couldn’t fly out of LGB back to SFO.

While waiting to catch my flight (terminal 2), with an hour to go and I got hungry so I decided to go with La Brea Bakery for breakfast.
Usually, while in this terminal I opt to go with Nate’n Al Delicatessen for Dinner, so Breakfast was out of the question for me.
Of all the eateries at the airport I chose this place as I usually frequent to the location at Downtown Disney for my morning meal and once in a blue moon I also go to the one that’s actually on La Brea Blvd (Miracle Mile).
Usually, La Brea does not disappoint but on this occasion it actually did. The food options are very low, and the taste was very mediocre. My choice was their breakfast sandwich. The sandwich seemed to be pre-​made so it surprised me that it took about 10 minutes to warm up and the taste was very bland. Worst of all the price was not worth the sandwich (Obviously to be expected as this is in an Airport food court). I also ordered a fountain drink, and the guy had charged me it, but forgot to give me the cup when I ordered. The guy then said I didn’t and I had to show him the receipt to show that I purchased a drink when my order was ready.
Normally, I really enjoy the food at the other La Brea Bakeries I mentioned above but was not really satisfied with the LAX location. If I knew this ahead of time, I would have just ordered some breakfast from Burger King next door instead.

The sandwich was not terrible — that’s my standard for 3 stars at the airport and with the lack of competition. Maybe I was just really hungry.
I’d usually eat elswhere but my plane was boarding and I needed something quick.
Yes it is expensive for what you’re getting, but again this is an airport, so overpriced food is a given.

Yes, it’s overpriced, but it’s the airport, so it’s almost to be expected.
However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be tasteless.
I got the chicken breast sandwich… Too much bread, not enough flavor. We should have just paid the little bit more and went to the restaurant instead.

Wow. Astonishingly bad. I literally paid $ 10.49 for a sandwich that had been premade and prewrapped who knows how many hours earlier, sitting in a refrigerator that chilled the bread, with lunchmeat slapped on (not folded or presented in any remote way). They don’t make the sandwich while you wait. Bagel, chips were pricey, too. Avoid at all costs.

Overpriced and subpar. Service wasn’t even friendly. At least they could hand me my sandwhich in a timely fashion.

Avoid. Truly insipid, lousy pastry, sky high prices. Unfriendly «service». What chutzpah!

Bought the vegetarian option — only 1 — which was a caprese sandwich on their ciabatta bread. The bread was delicious — moist & soft. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold up to the pesto sauce very well, got kind of mushy. The mozzarella tasted fresh but a bit salty, the basil leaves had strong pungent flavor, the tomatoes were out of season & only added «juice». Given the dismal vegetarian offerings at LAX, I’ll go back to La Brea next time I’m flying thru.
Friendly staff & quick/​efficient operations.

Ridiculously unfriendly
Gross
Cold clammy sandwiches
…for way too much money

honestly, with airport food, i feel like it’s hard to expect much (maybe it’s bc the prices are always jacked up). if you want something on the lighter side, this may be a good option as they have salads, soups, fruit, and sandwiches to choose from.
i ordered the chef’s salad which was somewhat fresh (the veges werent wilting but it still didnt have as crisp of a bite to it that i like) and i def appreciate how they add avocados to the salad, yum-​o. i also had a cup of clam chowder soup which was a good size and tasted pretty good, not very creamy but def had a good amount of potatoes in it.

I’ve been eating this stuff since La Brea went into this space, which means I fly too much and rely too much on habit versus checking out the options. Well, truth be told… there aren’t too many options except Ronnie and Puck.
Here’s my assessment:
1. Service — tends to suck. Nobody seems to be trained in hospitality and what is offered more often than not is the ghetto «Is that all you want» and «That’ll be $xx dollars» and «Here» (when change is offered). It is strictly a grab-​and-​go arrangement with little offered in terms of appreciation for paying their paycheck. Often they will at least offer a bag.
2. Food quality — mediocre at best. Who knows how long those sandwiches have been in the fridge. They seem to be made all the time but none are timestamped, and asking for a fresh sandwich generally leads to sneers and disappointment.
3. Taste — The Fresh Mozz sammie is OK, sometimes even good tasting. The ham sammie is OK but not special. The chicken salad sammie is disgusting. I won’t eat other people’s tuna so can’t say much about that.
4. Flexibility — Don’t bother asking for anything special. The either can’t (salads pre-​made) or won’t («We aren’t allowed; The sandwiches are over there» — pointing top the refrigerated case (which was interesting because the girl who told me that was making the sandwich I was asking about!).
5. Price — expensive, but typically LAX expensive so its not really a surprise.
6. Eatability — The sandwiches are generally quite dry, which makes them travel well but can be a challenge to choke down. The sandwiches are quite large and not cut in half making them messy to eat, especially when sitting in an economy-​class seat with the person in front of you fully reclined.

So my flight at LAX was delayed 4.5 hours because of a mechanical. No problemo! I decided to relax and get some kind of breakfast food because I was hungry (after getting up at 4:00 a.m. for an early morning flight). I looked at the McDonalds line (…thanks for the addiction, Lucy Y. & Brent S.) and it was about 30 people deep.
I remembered La Brea Bakery! Glad I did. I ordered the fresh Mozz sandwich, made with sundried tomatoes and basil, smothered in Pesto. DEEELISH!!! They got the sandwich and grilled it like a panini. The cheese melted and it was a delight to eat! Grade: A-​.
My only drawback is that this place has inflated prices! One sandwich: $ 10. OUCH! I realize the need for companies to make a fair profit. But come’on?!

Yeah, it’s expensive… but at least the food was good.
We spent $ 27 for two people — 2 water bottles, 1 grilled mozzarella, and 1 turkey avocado sandwich. Grilled stuff is made when ordered. My friend let me try it and I thought it was fairly good. I liked my turkey avocado sandwich quite a bit. It wasn’t dry and the avocado was fresh. So yay!
Sandwiches are also quite big so that’s a plus.
Seating is horrible though… might as well sit at your gate.

1 Star
Starbucks had a long line around the corner and boarding started in 15 minutes. I noticed La Brea Bakery didn’t have a line, so I grabbed a parfait ($ 5 – 6!!!). After the first bite, I realized why there was no line… I guess everybody else knew better.
The parfait was barely cooler than room temperature, and the fruit were definitely NOT fresh. I’m surprised I didn’t get sick on the plane after eating ½ of this garbage.
I’ve said it before… I hate to waste food… but ½ of this went into the garbage.

A few hours after the Unilocal Elite Holiday Party, I had to travel to Michigan for a few days. At LAX, I was looking for a breakfast spot since my layover in Denver was very short. It was early (5:00am). The first place I saw open was a McDonald’s (always overpriced at airports). There was a huge line and my plane was boarding in 20 minutes. I went a little deeper into the terminal (United terminal), and I stumbled onto a La Brea Bakery location (a little express sandwich option). Given that there was not much of a line and that the food was probably going to better (and better for me) than McDonald’s, I considered myself fortunate.
I’ve been to the original La Brea Bakery (located on, of course, La Brea) a few times recently and have enjoyed it. While their selection of sweets may be limited, they do have very good quality bread and cheese.
Located in the same food court as a Starbucks and a Baja Fresh, this La Brea Bakery at the airport is a cafeteria style offering. There is a little line with a railing to support your tray. You move from section to section to grab items or to identify what you want to order. Their first section is a cold open refrigerator that showcases bottled water, juices and pre-​packaged sandwiches to-​go. After that, their hot sandwiches are displayed – both lunchtime offerings as well as some breakfast sandwiches. Right next to the register, a display of baked goods appears, including breakfast pastries and cookies. The selection/​appearance of the baked goods did not wow me (though I did not actually try any of them).
I went for one of their breakfast sandwiches. They were a tad pricey at $ 10 each (standalone, no sides). The sandwiches were basically paninis. The sandwiches were pretty much ready to go. They just needed to panini-​them in the sandwich makers. I ordered one with bacon, egg and cheese.
The sandwich was a little mediocre. The bread was kind of a cross between sourdough and a country white toast. Thick and hearty, the bread was fine, but it was a little greasy on the outside. The cheese was a melted gruyère. The flavor was okay, but the melted cheese added to the greasiness and messiness of the sandwich. The bacon was limp and a little bland for bacon (also a tad sparingly used). The scrambled egg was a ready-​to-​go, pre-​scrambled square (similar to what you would get at a McDonald’s or a Burger King). The sandwich was good enough to just get some fuel in me, but it was not a good representation of La Brea Bakery’s usual quality.
It was easy to find a seat at the food court though I imagine it may be difficult during busy times. The service was friendly enough but a little unorganized. This was partly due to the customers since people were lining up everywhere to order the food or wait for food pick up; while the ordering line was clear, the pick-​up area was a little unclear. When sandwiches were complete, the La Brea Bakery staff did not call out orders by the receipt number. Instead, they would just say, «Who ordered the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich?» Since many customers were ordering the same sandwich, the person standing closest to the counter got the sandwich (regardless of when they ordered).
Overall, I was a little disappointed. I was hoping that this location would be a step up from the usual airport food. Unfortunately, this was all too similar to the other airport food court offerings (and slightly more expensive). If you have not been here (and are getting tired of McDonald’s – though the airport, like other McDonald’s, was featuring the McRib for you fans out there), I would suggest giving La Brea Bakery at LAX maybe one shot if you don’t mind paying slightly higher prices.