Hi
I am travelling to Los Angeles on sat 15th May. Any recommendations for good 'budget' restaurants. I am staying in the Downtown area.
I also wondered if anyone can tell me how far Norwalk is from Downtown - is it a busride away or longer.
Help please as cant find it on the map...
Anything else you might think useful for a newbie to the States would be gratefully appreciated.
thanks
Lily

If you are staying downtown you really should eat at the Pantry. It is an LA landmark. It is opened 24 hours, and they serve old fashioned comfort food, including a big tray of carrots, celery and radishes as starters. They also serve the best coleslaw in LA. if you like big breakfasts, this is the place to go!

Another uniquely LA place is Phillipe the Original French Dip, on Alameda near the law library. They say they invented the French Dip sandwhich. Perhaps they did. They used to have coffee for 9 cents a cup, they probably still do. They have the hottest mustard in town.

I also like Ciudad, right on Figueroa at 5th St. It is not so much budget, but not seriously overpriced either. It is owned by the Two Hot Tamales, who also own the Border Grills. Great eclectic Latin menu, Cuban and South American influence. They have a happy hour.

Also, Chinatown (Hill/Broadwat area) and Little Tokyo (3rd/Alameda) are in the downtown area, if you like Asian food. Hop Louie is always a good and inexpensive choice for Chinese. Ocean is another good choice.

Olvera Street is the site of the original puebla, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula, which is now known simply as Los Angeles. On Olvera Street you can find Mexican food on the cheap, and take in some history while you are at it. You can get tacos from a cart or eat at any of the restaurants there; they are all good, but I must give props to my friends at El Paseo.

There are lots of budget food choices in downtown proper during the day, but at night the city goes home and most of the places close up. There has been a revival of downtown in the last few years, and I have been pleased to find more things to do at night. 7th and Fig, the shopping area at 7th and Figueroa is open at night and there is a California Pizza Kitchen.

Here is a great website for the downtown area. It includesd a calendar of happenings.
http://www.downtownla.com/

Norwalk is about 20 miles SE of downtown The Metro rail Green Line runs to Norwalk. You could go to Union Station and take the Red Line to the Blue Line to the Green Line. I'd think that would be much less messy than trying to work out the bus system, but I have never gone from Dowtown to Norwalk on the Metroline and I could be way off base. There may be an express buss that will take you right where you want to go. If you go to mta.net you can enter in your start and destination and it will give you suggested routes.

I am also visiting LA soon and am searching for decent but budget priced lodging- preferably a B&B or funky hotel- any ideas? Also is there any way to stay cheaply on Catalina Is- is it worth going there?

I'm still shuddering that someone would come to the LA area and make any effort to get to (uggh) Norwalk....

hbehr: You're asking a lot. The LA area is huge, and you haven't indicated what you want to do & see while you're here. Where do you want to stay? What is your maximum per-night rate? And Catalina's hotel rates are what that little market will bear-- I've never seen deals myself.

Well irishgirl34 you asked for suggestions and my suggestion is that you do not stay in downtown Los Angeles.

Veronica: I'm with you, I just didn't want to come out and say it...!

Once again, without knowing anything about a poster, her questions are answered by someone telling her not to do what she has planned. She didn't ask where to stay, she asked where to eat.

Veronica, how can you tell her not to stay downtown without knowing why she is staying there? Perhaps she is there for business, or for other reasons.

And, rjw, perhaps she needs to get a marriage license while she is there? Visit friends? None of my business?

People commute from all over LA into dowtown everyday. I did it myself for years from various locations around the San Gabriel Valley. I went to MTA's trip planner and entered info from downtown to Imperial Hwy and found that this can be done in one bus, the 362 that leaves from 5th and Grand, in about an hour.

here_today: Point taken. However, the OP says that she's a "newbie to the States". Although it's entirely possible she's heading downtown on business, I fear that she's made travel plans to see LA as a tourist, sight unseen, without researching the area. Let's face it: for your average tourist, downtown LA is just NOT where you want to stay for the first trip.

I love downtown and since my daughter was young, downtown LA has been one of her favorite daytripping desitinations. You have the Ahmanson, Mark Taper, Dorothy Chandler and now the Disney. Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Olvera Street, Staples Center, Convention Center. Pershing Square! Ice skating in Pershing Square, LA Shakespeare Festival under the stars, afternoon concert series, all in Pershing Square. Angels Flight (you can still see it, not ride it though). The Biltmore, the Edison, the Bradbury and Olviatt Buildings, the Examiner building, the Library, the Orpheum and the Palace, the Central Market and art deco and zigzag moderne for days! The Water Grill, Pinot Grill, R23, Ciudad, Checkers, Cicada, the Pantry and Phillipe's! MOCA, MONA, FIDM, and Our Lady of Angles (not a typo, have you seen that thing?) And let's not forget Macy's, 7th+Fig and the garment district.

While there are no theme parks or movie studio tours on this list, in downtown you have a better chance of seeing an actual filming than anywhere else in the city. Anyone who saw Independence Day will recognize the Second Street Tunnel, and the LA River and the 6th Street Bridge will be familar to movie and TV fans instantly.

I always took friends and family who were visiting downtown as our first stop on the the grand Southland tour. Downtown can especially be appreciated with a good guidebook, like Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, or with any of the walking tours from the LA Conservancy. Explain to me again why downtown is not a good choice for a first visit to LA? It may not be EVREYONE's ideal CA trip, but there may be those who are looking for architucure, history and even some culture amongst the suburban and strip mall sprawl that is now considered Los Angeles.

we will be in glendale/burbank for 3 days for a family reunion. would like to find a hotel/B&B close to the coast for 1-2 nights after that. we love architecture, plan to probably see the Getty Musuem for sure. we love art as well. do you recommend any guide bk such as fodors or others? we only have 2.5 days to sight see- not interested in the studios or themeparks though.

here_today: Your points are all valid. The architecture and history of downtown LA is very rich indeed, and the area is well worth a day of touring. My issue is still with STAYING downtown for the typical tourist. I think you would agree that after-dark activities, improving as they might be, are limited downtown.

hbehr: Since the Getty Center is on your list, the closest coastal city with plentiful lodging will be Santa Monica. A reasonably-priced and charming hotel right on Ocean Ave. is the Georgian, which is a carefully-restored Art Déco gem. No restaurant on-site, but there are way too many great choices in the area, so no worries.

here_today has given some great suggestions for hitting architectural highlights in downtown LA. In fact, there are great buildings throughout the area, from the Greene & Greene Arts & Crafts gems in Pasadena to the swoopy Theme Building at LAX (the last work of the great architect Paul R. Williams), from the quirky Schindler House in West Hollywood to one of the last Irving Gill treasures in, of all places, Long Beach. Beverly Hills is in danger of being overrun with those faux-Tuscan weeding cake houses that are spreading throughout the flats like stuccoed cancer, but you can look past the monstrosities to find great buildings. Frank Lloyd Wright has a couple of representative buildings out here; Frank Gehry has private homes & public projects scattered here and there throughout LA County. If you like Art Déco, there are remnants all over the metro area.

I wish I knew of one book that pulled all this disparate info together. You could do an Amazon search, I suppose.

If you like art, there are the usual suspects-- LACMA, MOCA downtown, the Norton Simon (possibly the best)-- but may I recommend a great gallery collective in Santa Monica called Bergamot Station? Several small galleries and the Santa Monica Museum of Art (very small) in one place. I always find it exciting to see new works by area artists.

If you want to drive way down the coast, Laguna Beach has always had a reputation as a little artists' enclave. In the summer months it runs a huge arts festival; their Pageant of the Masters (tableaux vivants) is world-famous. The downtown area has a concentration of art galleries, including that of Weiland, the "whale artist" (his preferred subjects are whales) and the late Chuck Jones (Warner Bros. cartoon genius). Might be worth the drive.

Two very good books on LA history and architecture are "L.A. Lost and Found, An Architecural History of Los Angeles"; and "Looking for Los Angeles." They are not guidebooks per se, like a Fodor's book, but they will give a real feel for the city and it's modern history.

The aforementioned Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles is another fun way to discover L.A., especially for literary fans. I liken it to Hemingway's Paris.

here_today: Thank you!! I've heard of the first book-- and I work around the corner from a good art & architecture book store (Hennessey & Ingalls), so I'll look for both of them. (I've also got my eye on some Charles & Ray Eames books, so it may end up being an expensive trip!!)

One other book you might want to look at is called something like "LA Architecure: The Four Ecologies." I have it in storage (recent move left many things in packing/transit/limbo), so I don't have the exact title. It looks at how LA grew up around the four "ecologies": freeways, beach, the foothills, and the flatlands, and the cultures that have developed around each of the four. Really cool book.

I have the "Museum Companion to Los Angeles" which is a great book listing all of the museums in greater LA. May be a bit too detailed for a tourist but it is a great resource for gardens, museums, monuments and historic buildings.

here_today & rjw--
thanks for all your replies and info! i am going to check out the hotels you suggested. any great restaurants (good but not too $$) in santa monica that you recommend?

hbehr: You may want to start a new thread on the topic of "reasonably priced Santa Monica eateries". There are many such places-- give us a few parameters (max price, cuisine preferences), and you'll get plenty of suggestions.