La Brea Bakery

I frequent La Brea almost daily when I am working. I have to say, out of all of the food establishments in Cedars Sinai, La Brea has the best service. Everyone is always super friendly and very, very efficient. I usually get the clam chowder or tuna melt. Both are great but my absolute favorite is the tuna melt. It is hot and crispy and has a more sophisticated flavor than your typical melt. Yum. They also have some pretty decent breakfast pastries. My only complaint about La Brea — and this goes for much of Cedars food venues — it is VERY expensive. A sandwich and soda will run you around $ 12. That’s kind of a lot for takeaway. Otherwise, I’m a fan.

Panini’s here aren’t bad. Everything is on the pricey side, but then again, it IS located inside of Cedars Sinai, so that is to be expected.
On a few occasions I’ve popped in to get some soup (always around 11AM-​12PM) and they’ve never had any ready. On one of those occasions (around 11AM) I was told they wouldn’t have any soup «for a while». So not sure when their soups are served or how they taste as I’ve yet to have the opportunity.
It’s good for a quick bite to eat on my breaks, but I really only come here if I don’t have time to go somewhere else or forgot to bring my lunch.
I am interested in trying their sweet stuff… but their price point has made me hesitant

Very disappointed. While it’s a beautiful space, whoever manages this place has no passion for the job. There’s no order system in place — orders are shouted out. One of the shelves to pick up orders is ridiculously far from the coffee person, and useless. The sandwiches are not made fresh. The prices are ridiculous, bordering on gouging. I got a pretzel that was old and stale, the latte tasted wrong, and the breakfast sandwich was several generations away from its ingredients. I’ve always appreciated the bread, but the country sourdough might as well have been generic store brand. The cafeteria has better food. I hope they find a good manager who can make this place worthy.

I love this café located conveniently near the ICU tower at Cedars. The staff is incredibly friendly and even knows my name and favorite drink (well, I guess that also tells you how often I have to come to Cedars for doctor’s appointments). Coming from someone who has been to many, many hospitals across the country, I can definitely say that Cedars has some of the best hospital food. I highly recommend the soups here (clam chowder is quite yummy, especially with some La Brea sourdough bread).

La Brea is a legendary bakery, known far outside LA for its breads. I have given the La Brea location at Cedars a few tries, and I have to say that I am not impressed. It certainly looks nice, with a classy backlit sign, and a bright, spartan interior that is impeccably clean.
The menu is relatively limited: you have 4 breakfast sandwiches, and 4 – 7 lunch sandwich options spread between those on the menu and those available in the cooler case. There’s also an assortment of bakery items that appear to rotate every few days, which adds a nice bit of variety.
So, why 2 stars? Because the food here is overpriced for the quality and preparation. The first time I ordered a panini, I was expecting that this relatively simple grilled cheese would be made to order. I asked to add tomatoes, present on several other sandwiches, and was told that they don’t have condiments a la carte.
I was a bit confused until I saw how the sandwiches are prepared: they open a refrigerator, pull out a pre-​made sandwich in plastic wrap, put it in a panini press for 30 seconds, and then blast it in a convection oven. Am I at the airport? All this prep space, and non-​existent lines, and you’re still serving pre-​fab sandwiches? Even if I hadn’t seen the prep with my own eyes, I would have known it immediately when I bit into the sandwich, which tasted old, and had that paradoxically crisp and soggy texture that can only come from being dessicated and heated directly from the cooler.
Other sandwiches in the case don’t fare much better. The ham and gruyère sandwich out of the cooler was a heap of dry bread encasing cheese that had dried out on the edges, and some sauteed onions that might taste good hot, but taste awful cold.
This could be a good lunch spot, but why pay $ 9 for a pre-​fab sandwich, when there are two places on the other side of the building that will make your food to order for the same price? Sure the wait might be a bit longer, but the step up in quality is undeniable.
As long as this location sticks to this model, I won’t be spending any more dollars there.

Not great. Prices are too high and they never seem to stock enough iced coffee. Go to either the Starbucks, or the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (rarely a line for the latter) for coffee, or either of the shops in the East Tower for food instead.

Sandwich ingredients are fresh and I like the iced tea. But employee told me they would be open until 7 PM, and I came back for something for my mother and they had locked the doors at 6:50 and wouldn’t let anybody in even though customers were still inside.

New bakery/​lunch spot near the Saperstein critical care tower at Cedars. Starbucks, there’s a new kid in town. We’ve all had La Brea bread, but this is a darling little shop that has pastries, salads, sodas, fruit, yogurt, and flatbreads. And don’t forget the sandwiches and salads too. Great staff and quick service. I fell in love with the dried fruit and nut scone and expertly crafted latte, so much that I returned. Comfortable seats and tables outside and a nice new option for some sustenance and restorative time on the busy medical campus.

Sorry La Brea Bakery, I wanted so badly to like you but Im not impressed :-(
The sandwich I ordered was good, but no worth the $ 10. The coffee was good but pretty much the same $ as Starbucks. Overall, high prices for mediocre product. I will probably only be back as a last resort.

hopeful when purchased $ 9.00 sandwich when starving
during vigil @ saperstein cardiac care unit at cedars-​sinai.
buffalino mozzarella with artichoke hearts, arugula & marinade.
later that night: food poisoning.
total bummer.
even more exhausted today than yesterday…
way to keep up quality control on this outpost of la brea bakery that opened but a few weeks ago.

Even more expensive than before it moved locations. It has limited breakfast selection now and doesn’t come with a salad or a free small coffee or tea like it did before… I paid $ 7.80 for a breakfast sandwich alone and it didn’t even taste good. Won’t be coming back.

The food and customer service is great but it always seems like they’re short one employee. Also, the soup is always gone after 12pm.
I suggest a soup sign that lists the soup of the day and if they run out because I always wait in a long line to find that there’s no soup!

Little bistro/​bakery on the plaza level of the Advanced Health Science Pavilion. As always, I’m excited for a new place to open up at Cedars to avoid the same thing day to day. The La Brea Bakery brings fresh deli sandwiches on their signature bread. I tried the turkey avocado and got it on rosemary bread. The ingredients were all really fresh and well paired. Great flavors all around. The sandwiches come with a small side salad as well. The sandwiches are all about $ 9 and they have 6 – 7 varieties.
Service was a little spotty, but I went toward the end of their operating hours so I’m sure it’s better closer to lunch time. They also have massive pastries available that look amazing and are reasonably priced. They serve Starbucks coffees.
This will definitely be my choice over the nearby sandwich bar!

Located in Cedar Sinai Medical Center; in the new Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion; located on plaza level. This bakery /​coffee place is already open despite the new Pavilion hasn’t officially open until in May.
I haven’t been to a La Brea Bakery before, so I don’t know how it is like compare to the other location. I have already tried the place twice already.
First time, when I went I got a plain bagel and a cinnamon bun pastry. Each pastry were HUGE! I didn’t eat the cinnamon bun myself, but had the bagel. The bagel close to 50% bigger than your usual size bagel. It just ok. I should have gotten it toasted. Each were reasonably priced to compare to the local places.
Second time there, I went for a quick bite for lunch. I got the pre-​made Turkey BLT sandwich on a pretzel roll. The sandwich come with a small side salad. The sandwich was surprising good for being pre-​made. I wish the pretzel roll was fresh though. (Making a great sandwich consist of fresh bread that is soft). The salad was a plain old side salad. The dressing that come with it was really good. I will have to find out what dressing they used.
I would go back since I do work at Cedar Sinai; and it’s a new place to eat around the area.