Gjelina Take Away

I found this place a little confusing, I came with a friend, neither of us had been here befor and the person who took our order barked at us to wait outside without really explaining that the bit next door is where people can sit.
I ordered the banh mi, which came out very quickly-​great.
waited another 10 mins, my friends still hadn’t arrived. waited another 5 and then had to get started eating because I had to be at work.
my sandwich was kinda greasy and because I waited to eat it the bread was very soggy. banh mi should be really flavourful, but this one was kinda a greasy mess. I think it needed some more coriander and carrot to lift it up a bit. maybe I got a dodgy one ?
anyways I ended up having to leave my friend befor her food had arrived and head to work.
apparently her sandwich was not much better and the staff not apologetic about the wait at all.

This is such a «hip» place to eat. It is right next to the restaurant Gjelina. It might be hard to find, but look for a place with posters all over the wall and a black screen door. The food is amazing, their salads are so fresh and full of flavors and don’t forget the mushroom pizza!

Their staff seems to be getting nicer. Their coffee price went down, and I just can’t stay away. The egg sandwich is everything. I have a problem.

The mushroom pizza is on point. Expensive, but delicious. I would recommend calling ahead if you’re looking for true take out and know what you want, as there is a bit of a wait, especially for them to make full pizzas.
Cute little area around the corner for ‘eating in.’

I have such a soft spot for this place. I will come clean — one of my major guilty pleasures is coming in here on a random afternoon and getting a slice of their margarita pizza. It is really good. Thin crust that is a little chewy and crispy all at once.
Oh, and the egg sandwich in the morning is amazing!
There are lots of delicious pastries here as well as prepared salads.

Always a great time at Gjelina Take Away (GTA) and Abbott Kinney in general! Located next to Gjelina where Beyonce and Jay-​Z are known to have lunch dates, GTA is its lowkey and on-​the-​go counterpart. It’s a tiny space where you walk up and order, find a milk crate in the little alley to sit on, and wait for your food to come to you.
GTA has a wonderful array of pastries to choose from. I have had the carrot cake and some random ones I don’t recall. Pizza here is excellent. I highly recommend the Mushroom Pizza and Squash Blossom Pizza. They are a bit pricey although rest assured, they are made to perfection. My most recent food discovery here are the Shishito Peppers. Oh my goodness, TOO GOOD. They give you a plate and in my opinion you can share it amongst three people. It’s a simple yet great accompaniment to pizza.
This Abbott Kinney spot is the ideal place to hang out on those too hot LA days, out of the sun and into the shade. Parking is a headache though! Pray you get lucky, otherwise you’re going to have to scour the residential neighbourhood for street parking.

I finally stopped here after many judgemental stares at well dressed Italian tourists and local hipsters sitting on crates in a dirty alley like crevice eating pizza. It was a autumn weekend afternoon and Abbott Kinney was a buzz with Small Business Saturday shoppers. Before taking on the too-​cool-​for-​school crowd I popped in here for whatever they were selling. The space is tiny and it was a bit chaotic with lots of people standing in the tiny space deciding, pointing, asking, and paying. I finally made eye contact with someone behind the counter and asked if I could order a slice of pizza. It was so loud in there that I could not hear the attendant run down the options, so I just asked her to give me her favorite. She told me it would be about $ 7.80 and that they would warm it up for me and call my name. A few minutes of sheer shock after paying over $ 7 for takeaway reheated pizza later, they called my name. I took it and got out of there as soon as I could. I went against the grain and didn’t sit on the milk crates and decided to be a rebel and eat and walk…(for which I got many stares). Every bite was worth the $ 7+ I paid for the slice. I should also mention it was a gargantuan slice.
I’m sorry that I don’t know the kind of pizza that I had, but I hope this review helps you prepare for the experience that is GTA. Sceney, chaotic, expensive and delicious… oh, and don’t wear white bottoms if you plan to hang out on the milk crates.

The overall vibe and scene of this place is extremely cool. The prices are a little steep ($ 13 for a banh mi), but the quality of food is worth it.
I had the Brisket Banh Mi (beef brisket, picked carrots & onions, cilantro, aioli, jalapeño vinaigrette, on toasted baguette) which was not your typical Vietnamese banh mi, but boy was it tasty. Probably one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. The brisket was tender and juicy, while the jalapeño vinaigrette added some spice and tangy flavored.
Would definitely come back for that sandwich again!

I walked here to finish off with some sweets and coffee right after a phenomenal meal at Gjelina. Luckily the line wasn’t too long. I enjoyed sitting out in the sun while chatting up with strangers. It’s nice to see this place is dog friendly. 4 stars for not having their espresso machine ready and the dog’s hair that flew all over the place while sitting out.

If you don’t want to wait for Gjelina, I highly suggest you go to the take away option. The food is just as good and best of all, NO waiting! We went on a Sunday morning and there was a huge crowd waiting for the restaurant, so we opted for this choice. The entire process is really simple — you order your food at the cashier, get your food, and you can either eat it at home or in their outside patio off to the side (but there is very limited seating).
FOOD:
You can never go wrong with any of their pizzas. They are absolutely wonderful and made in house in their wood-​fired oven. Yes, there’s even one in the take away place. The crust is still thin and has a slight char at the bottom. We got their lamb sausage pizza which had a salty and meaty bite and surprisingly wasn’t overly oily. Good pizza is hard to find in LA and I think GTA has to be one of my top 5 favorites. And we only waited about 10 minutes for it.
We also got a kale salad, their side salad made of beets, tangerines, and avocados, and a prosciutto sandwich on a beautiful and crunchy baguette. Out of the two salads, I preferred the kale salad. The kale wasn’t overly bitter and packed a lot of flavors and textures. The kale was super crunchy and the dressing was light and refreshing. The avocado and beet salad was okay… I usually love beets but there was a lack of them in this! And the portion was ridiculously tiny. I was actually in shock when they presented me with it because I was thinking «…uh that’s it??» LOL.
But omg that prosciutto sandwich with roasted tomatoes was so damn GOOD. The baguette was unbelievably crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. Sometimes a really sturdy baguette cuts the top of my mouth but that didn’t happen here. They used great quality ingredients and it definitely shined throughout the sandwich. It wasn’t too heavy either despite how large it was. The bread definitely made the entire sandwich.
Overall, prices are a little overpriced here. But you are paying for the quality and you really can’t beat how quickly the entire process goes. If you are in the Venice area, I highly suggest you stop by here. Their pastries also looked so good!
PARKING:
It is always so hard to find… Strictly street or overpriced public valet for over $ 10.

I love this place. lines can get a little long, but they go fast. You order and pay at the counter and wait for them to call your name. Staff is super busy usually but they will take them time with you when you are ordering to make sure they get it right and explain everything properly. Everything is amazing. The pastries are very good, and so is the kale smoothie and coffee. The breakfast sandwich with hot sauce is amazing. The loaded bialy it incredible, bagel made in house. The pizzas are some of the best in the city. I really like the turkey plate, healthy and delicious, very juicy. Roasted chicken and brisket sandwich are also must trys.

Cute little place on Abbot Kinney. They have a super popular, super delicious sit down restaurant Gjelina right next door but this is a good spot when you want something quick and simple. Everything tastes really fresh and the service is really quick. I recommend trying one of their salads.

One of the places that represent the new Venice Beach with pride. This joint is all aces, kinda like a Mexican grandmother’s cooking you wish you had growing up… this is her kitchen. The food is above and beyond good. Try the succulent flower salad w yogurt sauce, the pork belly hot sandwich oozing w a ridiculously juicy semi-​spicy sauce and the open face prosciutto w burrata on a crunchy farmer’s bread.
…sigh…I’m in love.

The Beef Short Rib Banh Mi sandwich, how I used to love thee… I used to drive from Silverlake to Abbot Kinney just for this sandwich.
Sadly now it’s gotten small in size and small in taste. It doesn’t have the great flavor and spicy bite it used to have :(
I’m sad.

We were originally going to go to Gjelina itself for brunch, but my friend had brought her dog with us and they had a no animals policy. We decided to just roll with it and try our hand at the take out stand instead.
Firstly, whoa. How is everybody here so good looking? There was one girl at the counter who just epitomized Cali chic in her white button-​down, with her dirty blonde hair thrown up into an elegant bun and her blue eyes glittering as she took everyone’s orders. Then there was the Scott Disick look-​alike (think skinnier and much less-​douchey) handing out the food. I’m convinced there’s some sort of physical appearance quota in order to work here.
I got the turkey Reuben w/​sauerkraut on a grilled panini. I gobbled that up in minutes. I loved how it wasn’t too salty, with the perfect amount of crispiness in the bread so that it didn’t shatter upon impact or scratch the roof of my mouth when they toast it too much.
I also couldn’t resist ordering a slice of their carrot cake, which tasted every bit as amazing as it looked. None of that artificial junk. Probably added 1000 calories to my belt right there but it was worth it.
While we were waiting for our food, I totally fell in love with one of their songs they were playing. I went up to Scott Disick and asked him who the artist was and he actually took out his phone, flipped to the song, and told me to take a picture of the screen so I could find it later. So sweet!
I’m taking off a star though because it’s a little overpriced here ($ 6 for a tiny iced latte? Come ON, California). But it’s worth the trek.

J’ai été curieux de savoir pourquoi il y avait tant de monde devant le Gjelina. Curieux d’en savoir plus ce jour là, je suis entré dans ce restaurant en fin d’après-midi pour combler une petite faim. Le serveur m’explique le concept et me guide vers deux «modèles» de parts de pizza après lui avoir expliqué ce que j’aime. Quelques minutes plus tard je sors du restaurant, heureux et comblé avec mes deux parts de pizza en main, qui ont l’air délicieuses. Et elles le sont. Gjelina, c’est ce restaurant parfait pour manger sur le pouce tout en faisant du shopping sur Abbot Kinney Blvd. Si tu es une tortue ninja ou un grand fan de pizza, fonce-​y !

The food gets five stars.
Went there for breakfast – got the breakfast pizza which was wonderfully fresh and flavorful. Ham, swiss, baked egg and delicious tomatoes on a light crust. Also tried the traditional English muffin sandwich that was good, but not as good as the Pizza. And $ 7.5 for a really good breakfast sandwich these days is actually reasonable.
Right now their outdoor courtyard is closed, so there’s no place to eat it but in a little alley next to the restaurant, sitting on benches or milk cartons, not the best environment, so take away one star.
But when their courtyard is open again, this is a full FIVE STARS.

Go directly to GTA. Do not pass go. Do not collect $ 200. Go and try their incredible food. My faves are the pizza slices, the daily salads, and the banh mi. You can pull up a crate to sit outside and eat or bring it to the beach.
Yum.

GTA was pretty good. It’s a little claustrophobic inside and there’s not a great place to stand and wait for your food. The «line» to order is more abstract than real, but all in all the job gets done eventually.
The food takes awhile, so note that you might be standing there 10 — 15 minutes waiting for your order. Not the place to go if you’re starving.
I had the brisket bahn mi sandwich. To be honest, I’m not the most into Vietnamese sandwiches, but relative to the others I’ve had this one was pretty awesome.
Gf got a pizza that was mostly sauce, kinda burnt, and with little to no toppings.
I’d go back to Gjelina, but I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to. The food was good but not over the top crazy amazing. The experience was pretty medium.

3.5 stars.
PARKING: Abbott Kinney has free parking if you turn onto the street maps tells you to and then look to the left and right. If you can’t find spots there just keep going down the street and look for parallel parking. All free!
ATMOSPHERE: Don’t be fooled by Gjelina next door. It’s the sit down restaurant and has a nicer front. To the left is the take away. You enter, order and then wait while they make your food then they call your name/​bring it to you.
The seating is limited. They have a long board near the window and then two small boards that jut out from the wall where 2 people could eat. I really wanted to eat on one of the milk crates or stumps that are in the alley to the left of the restaurant but they were all taken up!
FOOD: Got the squash blossom pizza. It’s pretty pricey at $ 16, which is why I dropped it half a star. It’s expensive and it’s not like it’s THAT amazing. The pizza comes out super hot and oily that it was tough to eat at first. It has a good flavor and feels «healthy» with all the veggies on top. I don’t even know what was on there but lots of tomatoes that kept falling off. The crust was good though, like Pizzeria Mozza slightly chewy and crunchy.
The pizza has 4 slices, enough for 2 people but you’d probably still be slightly hungry so get something else or go somewhere for dessert.
Overall, good for pictures and not bad but i’m not sure the price is worth it.

Hark the herald angels sing
«Glory to Gjelina Take Away
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled»
Yas. Yas. YAS. The good: food is delicious. The banh mi and gruyère pizza (gruyère, caramelized onion, arugula) are absolutely divine. If you’re not a fan of thin crust, GTFO because we don’t want you anyway. The bad: there are no seats, hence, take away. There are some hipster-​borderline-​hobo reclaimed wood benches and plastic crates you can use to eat, but those were full when we got here at 9 on a Saturday. There are some small perches inside that you can use as well. If you can’t get a reso at Gjelina, I would highly recommend coming here. Unfortunately we didn’t get to try more because this was our second and a half dinner of the night. I WILL BE BACK.