Maria’s Cafe

Does anyone know if a
Angie and her family have opened another restaurant? Please keep us updated.

Good was really good. Waitress helpful but too busy to attend to us. Clean place inside the bowling alley. They have good good specials and is reasonable.

R.I.P. Maria’s
Atrocities being committed in my neighborhood!!! They got rid of the bowling alley which Maria’s was located in. If they bulldozed it to make way for a Crate N Barrel I’m going to go mental. That stupid Loewes that recently opened nearby did nothing for the neighborhood except block everyone’s ability to turn left onto Pico from Rimpau. The new shopping center is ridiculous. It’s got a Starbucks whose parking lot is complete inaccessible to the residents who live north of it. The people who live south of the area probably have more pressing needs than to spend $ 5 on a cup of joe. Oh, and Panda Express… that place is a real treat anytime I want something that resembles Chinese food and makes me want to hurl afterwards. Leave my freaking neighborhood alone!!!

Maria’s Café is one of those precious Jewels that make Mid-​City the wonderful part of L.A. that it is. I recently found out that World on Wheels, the Mid-​Town lanes bowling alley, and Maria’s will be closing their doors for good soon. With that bit of knowledge, I decided to come in for lunch as I don’t know when the next time I’ll be able to come back before June 23^rd. I’m not sure how long Maria’s has been around, but I’ve been coming in and out since the mid 90s when I was in high school.
I am really going to miss Maria’s Café once it closes, and really hope that Maria’s will be able to re-​locate or come back once whatever new place will be built here. Never the less, I’m going to miss not only the food, but also that late 50’s early 60’s nostalgic look inside the café.

Every neighborhood in Los Angeles has a Chipotle, Panda Express, and a Starbucks but an independent restaurant like this is not allowed to exist. Midtown Shopping Center Associates bought the land and is forcing the closure of Maria’s Café and the attached bowling alley and roller skating rink. James R. Young, the new retail developer owner, says he wants to add family restaurants and a fitness center. That exists there now but it is not the corporate chain garbage that the public is indoctrinated to accept.

Love this place, sad to hear they’re closing along with the bowling alley.

We went here on a whim, as usual. I thought that it was a pretty alright place. Service was good, pretty timely and pleasant. Food was good; I ordered the porkchop meal wanting to splurge into some comfort food from back home and I expected a small plate of food. My meal came on 4 different plates and there was enough chops to feed three. I left there hating myself– but the food was good.
It’s next to the bowling alley, so it is a nice place to grab a bite after a game.

Love this place! I love small diners for breakfast and I love that it is inside a bowling alley. It adds great character and I like to pretend that it’s a «secret» place for great breakfast.
I love the waitresses. They’re so sweet and very generous with the coffee, and lord knows I love coffee! Definitely going to be a regular.

This is a gem to me! I have lived in NY and LA and this is a great spot. I use to live over on Rimpau and was over there all the time, I’m so sad to not have a spot like this around the corner anymore! Best breakfast for under $ 10 in ALL of LA!!!

If you like breakfast but not the $ 20+ price tag it costs to eat in Larchmont Village these days — then check out Maria’s Café (where Venice Blvd and San Vicente Blvd intersect). I don’t know how I missed Maria’s all these years I’ve been living in West Adams, and griping about not having a good breakfast joint. Friendly service, hot coffee, eggs, grits, pancakes, homefries, and blue vinyl make Maria’s my new favorite breakfast joint. There’s no espresso but for a mere $ 2.99 you can get a plate of homemade buttermilk biscuits and gravy to die for. So if you’re looking for a no-​frills, down home cooked meal Maria’s is your ticket. And if you eat a little too much you can burn it off by stepping next door into the attached bowling alley.

LOVE this place!!! Everything they make is so fresh and home made. My husband and i went to check out the bowling alley and noticed there was a cute lil dinner in there. We went back another day for breakfast, then again for lunch and have been going there ever since. The staff is super sweet too. Veg burger is the bomb!!! plus they make awesome fresh cut french fries sooooooo good!!! i never really cared for flan but my mother ordered it so i thought id try it. damnnnn that was good i ate most of it and have been thinking about it ever since, nom nom nom.
if your in the area Marias café is def a spot to check out… i havent had anything there i didnt like yet.

We absolutely LOVE Maria’s !! All the servers are nice, and the food is the bomb!!! We don’t even live in the area anymore, but we come here when we are in the area!

3.5
I like to come here to have a nice long breakfast. When I come with friends, I tell not to expect anything special in terms of the food. It’s simply a cool old place to sit where they don’t rush you.
When I’m with someone and they ask «what’s good?» I tell them the breakfasts and sandwiches are exactly what you think they are. Nothing more, nothing less. The only thing that stands out is the fresh squeezed juice options.
The food is nothing great, not bad either, but totally fine. The place is convenient and relaxed.
IF I really wanted a super tasty breakfast, this isn’t the place: there are a couple of diners with really good food within a five minute drive. However, trying to find a meter, waiting for a table, then being rushed to pay after eating gets annoying.
Here he booths are comfy, usually no wait, your coffee shop flavored coffee is always being topped up, the staff is friendly and does’t rush you (on weekdays anyways), and lots and lots of free parking because of the bowling alley.

I LOVE IT HERE! Breakfast for 2 people is $ 23.00 and that’s expensive compared to the other selections they have on their menu.
There are specials everyday and the service is friendly with a smile. I prefer the 2 by 4 (2 eggs and 4 pancakes) for less than $ 6.00.
Please be aware that their credit card system is old so they cannot add the servers tip to the bill. Please bring enough cash to tip the server otherwise they don’t get a tip and they definitely earned it!

My friend lives right up the street from this spot so we decided to try it one morning. It had a diner vibe to it but everyone eating there and working there just seemed depressed to me or something. It wasn’t very lively. So we waited a little bit and we got seated right next to the kitchen, and it was not a pretty sight. It looked really dirty and not where i would particularly like to see my food cooked. But we were already seated and starving so i didn’t make a big fuss about it.
I ordered the omelette with jalepenos, bacon, and avocados (forgot the name) with a side of country style potatoes and sourdough bread. I got my food last, which somehow always happens to me, and it looked appetizing. The omelette was alright and nothing out of this world, and the potatoes had a LOT of burnt leftover scraps which i had to brush to the side. The bread was smothered in butter so i barely touched that. My other 3 friends did not have rave reviews for their food either. One of them ordered the fresh squeezed orange juice and said it was really sour, as if the oranges weren’t ripe.
The service was good. Basically, i do not plan on coming back here again.

great food with a classic café atmosphere.
want to know what to order? get what the regulars get.
i tried the meatloaf.
can’t wait to try the other stuff

I like Maria’s, especially the various sides, like greens and yams, as well as breakfast items like huevos rancheros, greek omelet, biscuits and the juices. However, this is the kind of place that when you order something with «jack cheese,» they put some kind of white American processed cheesestuff on it, not actual jack cheese. Also, the coffee is just bad (they don’t have real half and half, but they will bring you real milk so you don’t have to use coffee mate, though). So, I like this place, but the quality is a little low for my taste.
FYI, cash tips only.

Josh C. is CORRECT. A hidden gem!
They are friendly and good food. Service is fast except for refilling our water.
I ordered the oxtail it is The Best and it does fall right off the bone. So good but I’m so not a fan of the dressing & gravy. The hubby ordered the pork chop it was delish also. The mac & cheese was great.
It wasn’t busy for a Friday night but the majority of the customers are the bowling league.
If you want some comfort food you have to try the food here. It’s yummie and great.

This joint is just OK. Located within a bowling alley. That threw me way off. I walked in a set of double doors. And, wham you’re in the middle of a bowling alley. Came here for breakfast the other day. It’s a bit small. Felt like their was more bar stool eating areas than booths. Ordered a french toast combo with a cup of coffee. The combo was served with eggs and bacon.
My meal was just OK. Refills on the coffee were constant. The atmosphere isn’t all that great. Just an alright place I guess.

I’ve been coming to Maria’s for several years now. I sat in Maria’s the morning Barack Obama was sworn in as President. It was a moving experience to be amongst the mostly Afro-​American patrons (I am white) on that occasion.
That said, I usually come here for two things: The blueberry pancakes or one of the soul food dinners. I recommend the meatloaf or the pork chops, though most every dinner is decent if not exceptional. With every dinner you’re given a choice of three side dishes; classic soul food staples such as stuffing, yams, black-​eyed peas, greens, etc. Maria’s also has first-​rate bread pudding. And the coffee is not that bad for a diner-​type place. Maria’s is a restaurant serving a cross between Mexican food (the staff is universally Latino) and soul food. In other words, it’s pure L.A.
Others here have mentioned that Maria’s is located in a bowling alley; that the sound of the balls rolling down the lanes adds «character» to the place. That may be true, but how could they not mention the awesome classic soul music pulsing out of the alley’s sound system? I’ve paused many times on my way out of Maria’s to savor the awesome fineness of James Brown or some lesser known but no less essential soul artist.
The wait staff are a group of wonderful young Latino women who are super friendly and fully bilingual; who refer to the regulars as «Mister Jackson» or «Miss Evans.» Maria’s and the bowling alley are, apparently, something of an institution in L.A.‘s African-​American community. Someone could write an ethnographic history of this place!
The only thing I do not like about Maria’s is this one guy who seems to live there. He’s a little bit nuts and says inappropriate things to anyone sitting near him. He usually sits at the counter and occasionally will randomly bang on it. You get my drift.
Just avoid the counter and you’ll be fine.
A major plus about Maria’s is its location at the intersection of San Vicente and Venice boulevards, the significance of which translates to a massive parking lot with gaga parking — a rarity in the city built for the automobile in which parking space is an afterthought.