Hi All...
Arriving NW Terminal 2 at 7pm on Saturday.
Departing QF Terminal 4 at 10:30pm on Saturday.

Do you recommend the shuttle or is walking an option?


How long of a walk is it?

Also..looking for a full service (that means it has to include a bar !) restaurant that will still be serving at that time of the evening.
Can you recommend which terminal will give us the most options for dining?
Couldn't get any details from the lawa website on the restaurants.

Last question...any recommendations for the smoker in our party...are there any smoking options at LAX inside or outside?

You can walk from the terminal if you have that much time. Encounter restaurant in the middle of the airport is a full service restaurant and bar. There are outside smoking areas in the terminals at LAX.

Hi Deborah..
Okay..hate to sound like an idiot..went back to the lawa website...used the flash map and clicked on all of the terminals. Looked at the restaurants and never found Encounter.
When you say the middle of the airport..is there a way to be more specific?
Also..do all of the terminals have outdoor smoking?
Thanks again!

Walk out of your terminal, look straight ahead until you see a building that looks like a spaceship. Walk across to it, that's ENCOUNTER.

Gordon Biersch Brewery in terminal one is good, too.

Encounter is the spaceship looking building in the middle of LAX between the parking garages in the center. It is halfway between terminal 1 and 2. It's the building you always see in the movies when they show LAX.

Try this link:http://www.iflylax.com/lax_encounter.html

I checked out the Gordon Biersch website and they don't show a LAX location. Weird.
Does anyone know if they still serve dinner after 7pm...
Also..any ideas what the price range is for meals at both Encounter and Gordon Biersch?
Thanks!

There is also a Daily Grill upstairs in the Tom Bradley International Terminal that is pretty good (for airport dining). The do serve alcohol. TBIT is a little past halfway on your walk from Terminal 2 to Terminal 4. It's one of the few restaurants outside of the secured areas in LAX.

Also, check out www.encounterrestaurant.com for the menu at Encounter.

As clarkgriswold said, Encounter looks like the spaceship in the middle of the airport. It actually is quite nice.

Here is the link to the other restaurants at LAX.

http://www.lawa.org/lax/food.cfm

You must consider that most of these restaurants are in separate terminals and if you don't have a ticket for an airline in that terminal, security may not let you pass. As far as smoking goes, I don't know about ALL of the terminals, but I do know that there are some patio areas in some of the terminals I frequent that you access from inside once you pass security to go smoke. I hope this helps.

Thanks...you guys have been a huge help.
Deborah...never occured to me that we might not be allowed to enter one of the terminals if we're not ticketed with a carrier from that terminal.
Maybe we should just plan on Encounter.

Do you think a reservation will be necessary on a Saturday between 7:30 and 8:00 pm?

There is also The Proud Bird restaurant which is easily accessible by taking the Shuttle to Parking Lot B. The shuttle lot is within walking distance of the restaurant. Try googling for more info on the restaurant.