Not sure when you tried to go, but traffic is always murderous from Barrington to the 405 from 5:30-7PM. I imagine yesterday was particularly bad b/c of the holiday. If you can wait until 7:30PM to try to cross, you may find it only takes about half the time.
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Westside living in general is, kind of absurd in a certain sense. I recently met with a friend coming from OC (me coming from WLA) to meet in DTLA, and he beat me there by about 15 minutesā¦ I guess I wonāt meet anyone before 8 pm in DTLA anymore.
Today, Friday, noon. Waited about 20 minutes (moves fast) spent an hour inside. Iām off flour right now (torture inside this place) so got a Caesar salad from the Fraser salad counter with chicken from the rotisserie. Good, but salad was too dry. Croutons look fantastic but alasā¦
Got lots of bars of Venchi chocolate which was the purpose of the visit.
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Yep, thatās the time and i know better but i am always hopeful LOL!
But itāll take 20 minutes on SM Blvd to go from Federal past the 405. Thursday is the worst day. And you canāt go south in that area either. When did this all happen? I used to live In Brentwood and it was never like this. Holy hell.
I need to heed your wise advise!
Around the time they installed the bus-only lane, ironicallyā¦ 
What really annoys me is that I see so few buses using the lane at peak hrs!
I work part-time in Encino and need to be in West LA (near the Federal Bldg) on Thursday evenings. Oddly enough, it takes roughly the same time to hit WLA from Encino (10 miles) as it does from Brentwood to WLA (3 mi). Truly terrifyingā¦
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I just moved from Encino and getting to Santa Monica at that time is indeed a breeze by comparison.
@ yogachik - how was the rotisserie chicken? And what do you mean that the salad was too dry? Not enough dressing? Itās usually the opposite problem at take-out places where I have to tell them not to overdress the salad.
And Iām still not willing to wait 20 minutes to get in the door at lunchtime. Although I often like to delay my lunch to 2āish, so I may check it out next week around that time when presumably all the Century City minions who are clogging up the place at lunch are safely back at their desks.
Rotisserie chicken was moist (a little too, for me, because the skin was not crisp and an unappealing yellow color). But ā I didnāt get the chicken that is one of the choices as add-on at the salad bar (they make it but you build it), I got a portion from the Rotisserie counter because I wanted breast, and the salad bar is mostly dark meat (mix).
Salad definitely underdressed, but tasty.
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Iāve already checked it out at that time. Still a line.
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You mean on Wilshire? Donāt believe thereās a bus lane on SM Blvd and driving east past the 405 has been miserable the entire 10+ years Iāve lived in LA.
Correct.
Iāve been living west of the 405 for ~6 yrs. My recollection is that SM Blvd has always been bad heading east at night during that time (and, ironically, heading east in the morning, too). I recall Wilshire and Sunset being slightly better b/f the widening and retrofitting (for Sunset). The additional bus lane really IS an additional lane (I think the street was widened), so itās not that one lane was taken away. My (very limited) understanding is that only congestion charges actually reduce traffic, soā¦ Public transport simply gives an option to having to deal w/ the traffic yourself.
Iāve only tried the Halal Guys in DTLA. I consider it awful. It may be the worst Middle Eastern chicken Iāve ever had ā so dry and pointless. Marouch, Carousel, and Zankou Chicken are all overwhelmingly better to my tastes. Even Spitz is much better.
Halal Guys loses a lot in translation IMO. The entire magic is a giant plate of tasty enough food for $7 after midnight.
You donāt get that in LA
Been to Koreatown or SGV?
Referring to halal guys, not some other $7 plate of food.
ipse mean that thereās a Halal Guys location in K-town.
Itās weak in New York too, imo. Never understood the appeal of these guys or their food. I also used to live right by where a lot of the street vendors kept their carts. It was not reassuring.
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Itās a popular drunk food, nothing more nothing less. Itās not good. But in the right frame of mind, the mix of the creamy white sauce, spicy red, meat, and rice will just hit the spot.
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Anyone been to Eataly on a Sunday night yet? Wondering what it will be like in terms of a wait.
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Some brilliant entrepreneur is going to roll it all up in a tortilla and the halal chicken burrito will become king of the pushcarts.