Great vibes and friendly people. As far as actual cookies go, I got the Walnut Chocolate Chip and…read moreRocky Road. I know Levain pioneered undercooked cookies. Personally, I don't like that style, I was hoping the original would change that for me! Long story short, I didn't like the Walnut Chocolate Chip. I personally just don't like that style still, so I'll chalk it up as a "me" problem. The cooked part was good. The Rocky Road was cooked through. It was an amazing baked good with good flavor and add-ins. Between the roasted almond slices and fudgey chocolate chips, I was enjoying it immensely. A highlight of my day for sure. If you love underbaked cookies, Levain is your cookie shop! I don't and they had something for me too!

The Venice outlet used to be my go-to, but since I moved the Larchmont one was more accessible…read more Parking's always tricky and might require bit of extra walk when not available. It's relatively busy but the line moved swiftly. The Larchmont store was pretty lively with the crowded and colorful wall deco! It's pretty fun to see that they came up with more seasonal items lately and most of them nailed it well when they came to cookies. Previously the lemon one and the most recent was the Raspberry Pistachio which I was impressed by as I just fancied sweet and refreshing combo of white chocolate and raspberry. The pistachio added more texture to it for sure. Same as any Levain cookies, best enjoyed warm and fresh out of oven. The Cookie Milk Latte was actually the main reason bringing me here, yet I was bit let down by it as I was expecting more malty cookie flavor in the drink. I felt it tasted not much different to regular cream top latte with some cookie crumbles in it.

Definitely my favorite bakery in LA. period!…read more from creative to quality to everything else in between! thumbs up for all of it.

Sweet! Now this is…read morea spot that lives up to the HYPE! We got there a bit later in the morning and had to wait in a small line. The pastries were fantastic, gooey, flaky, fresh, authentic and house made. I would love to visit again if I was in LA. I got a variety I split with my brother and enjoyed them. Our favs were probably the Passionfruit or the Elderflower Rubarb. If you have never had fresh, non industrial/store-bought croissants these are going to rock your world. The prices and freshness are fantastic. I expected to pay more than what we did and these are reasonably priced. There isn't really a lot of parking so be prepared to park elsewhere. The inside is small and fills up fast and there isn't much seating inside or out. They have other things like matcha and other items as well. I encourage you to try a few items as some were better than others, but I have no major complaints!

I had already made purchases from Cinnies and Donut Man in Grand Central Market, but when I saw…read moreOkayama Kobo, I couldn't resist stopping in and picking up more! I had been to the one in Laguna Niguel and this one in Little Tokyo is more spacious, with an area where you can eat. I bought an oyako pork shumai, curry pan and spicy curry pan. The shumai was like dumpling filling in a bun. My faves were the curry pan, which were super flavorful and vegetarian. The spicy curry one does have a kick (great for my husband), while I prefer the regular curry as I can't handle spice. Wish I had one closer to me!

Okayama Kobo Bakery & Cafe is one of my usual stops whenever I'm in the LA area. A friend…read moreintroduced me to it, and highlighted the fish panini. Just like her, I'm now hooked on that. It's like a fancy filet o fish without the soggy bun, packed with amazing fried fish and tarter sauce. I'm just disappointed when they don't have this in stock, but sometimes they would make more, and that'll just be an extra wait. Downside is that I first tried the fish panini years ago and it was a bit better then, but it's still good currently. Other pastries I've tried here have been pretty good. They had some various buns with mochi inside, and those were great. Another one of my fave is their mentaiko salt bun. Great flavor, though I wish they would stuff the thing with more mentaiko. Their curry breads are good too. I took my daughter here and she got one with cute emoji drawn on, and she said the custard filling and the bread was tasty as well. I've tried some drinks here and they were alright. A friend was into their banana matcha when they have that in stock. Pretty simple layout here. Get in line and see the goods, then you reach the cashier and order and pay.

We accidentally came across this place while we were out, and I'm so glad we did! The pastries are…read morelike little works of art. The box is also super cute! There are a few tables if you'd like to enjoy your food there, but we decided to get everything to go. The staff told us the pastries could stay out of the refrigerator for up to an hour, so we were worried the cakes might melt on the way home. Thankfully, they stayed in perfect condition. We especially loved the croissants. They were incredibly flavorful and surprisingly large, so I'd recommend getting a few different flavors to share. My favorites were the almond and Parisian croissants. They gave some free macarons at the end!

Background On Shop/Owners: Artelice Patisserie was founded by two brothers Farid and Saeed back in…read more2017 who wanted to share their passion for desserts and pastries. With their unwavering dedication to their customers and their commitment to using the best ingredients on the market, Farid and Saeed have raised the bar for quality seeking foodies in Los Angeles. By constantly challenging themselves to create the most delicious works of art, they have taken their love for the craft to a whole new level (From their website). Background On Visit: I was primarily going to RWT (Pokemon Card Shop) Collective on the second floor of the plaza, Something about the line and a average of 5 stars on their yelp page made me want to patronize the shop. So I did. Credit Cards: They're accepted. Restroom: Didn't see a restroom. :) Wait Time: Can be long. Luckily, I didn't wait long when I patronized the shop. Location/Parking: Located in a plaza on the NW corner of Sawtelle Blvd. and W. Olympic. There's a couple of shared 15 minute parking spots in the parking lot, paid parking structure, or meter parking along Olympic, Sawtelle, or surrounding streets. I did find a secret place with free 2 hour parking on the NE corner of Purdue Ave. and Olympic Blvd.. :) Ambiance/Decor: Neat ambiance with a few modern furnishings to sit, eat, and enjoy ones company. Service: Service was great! Tera (staffer) was very nice, attentive, offered great suggestions, and was quite informative about the shop. She also informed me that I was able to get two complimentary macarons. Patisserie Of Choice: 1) Blossom: Consisted of vanilla mousse, pistachio/red berries insert, pistachio crunch, and pistachio sponge. It was too pretty to eat, but I ate it anyways. So good and soo yum! 2) Roche: Consisted of hazelnut mousse, house made praline combined with soft caramel, hazelnut sponge. Taste like a Ferrer Rocher! It's very dense and sweet, but great to eat. Not something I'll have all the time. Macarons Of Choice : I got the Cookies and Cream and pistacio. They were both good. Artelice Patisserie For Thought: Wouldn't mind coming back. I'm coming for you almond croissant.

Delicious to go/handheld food and fast service. We tried:…read more 1 tres leches - 10/10 perfect. light and airy with so much milk soaked to the top. i got this last year and bookmarked the location because this and their food is so good. Taco man - Reminded us of taco bell seasoning. 10/10 Niku - 4/10. Expected more pork, too much veggie. at first i thought they gave me the mushroom and veggie because the mushroom flavor was so strong. Pizza - Tomato sauce and pepperoni with corn throughout. 10/10. Curry Man - 10/10 so yummy There were more options in the middle casings including hot dog buns, $4.25 medium size pizzas, and other sweet and savory baked goods

Tons of cute, delicious, and affordable pastries! They have both sweet and savory treats from…read moredonuts, to cakes, and steamed buns. They also have a wide variety of freshly baked bread. Line can get long but moves fast! Also very affordable coffee. Cheapest you can find in Little Tokyo. Stopped by here day zero of Anime Expo and stocked up on breakfast for the week. Employees are the sweetest bunch you'll ever meet.

This Korean-style bakery has a great variety of breads and traditional pastries, like red bean…read morebread and rice sulgi. They're also very on-trend, whenever a Korean dessert goes viral, they usually have it here. Recently, they even started selling butter tteok, and I heard it was one of the first places to have it in K-town. I highly recommend the salted bread. Honestly, I think it's even better than the famous spot everyone talks about. My favorite is the corn cheese, it's especially delicious when it's warm. I also tried the Korean chamoe (melon) smoothie, and it was very refreshing. It tasted like they used real melon, since there was a slight natural tanginess that made it even better. There is free parking, though the lot is a bit small. They also have both indoor and outdoor seating, but the seating area is somewhat limited too

We walked into Coin De Rue and were amazed by the selection of pastries they had. They were…read morestarting to run out of some early afternoon but what they had there looked incredible. There were endless selection of salt bread and different flavoured buns which all looked delicious. As we were browsing and deciding, the lady at the counter was kind enough to offer us a sample of the butter rice cake. The butter tteok tasted pretty good on the spot so we bought a pack of 5 back home along with a hot and spicy salt bread and corn soboro. The butter rice cakes were already cold and hard when we got home, the inside was dense and chewy in a bad way. I didn't want them to go to waste so I tried reheating them in the over for a few minutes. It was warm but the texture never recovered, everything just got more dense and hard. The hot and spicy salt bread looked like a winner, but when we bit into it, the bread was just crunchy and overly buttery without a lot of flavour. The inside did not have the soft pillowy texture you'd expect from salt bread. The filling was a budget hot dog and some corn mixed with mayo. We cut the bread in half and my boyfriend said his piece had way too much mayo and mine barely had any. I grabbed the corn soboro thinking it would be delicious since it was corn season but was the most disappointed by it. I reheated the bread again to get the cookie top to crisp up. The soboro top didn't have a lot of crunch or flavour, it was just a layer of sweetness with no texture. The corn cream filling was not good, the corn was dehydrated and had no flavour at all. It honestly tasted a bit like canned corn that's over baked, I ended up scooping it out because the bread was better without it. Maybe it's better to go earlier when the baked goods are fresh and eat it there instead of taking it home.

Their banana pudding is definitely the best thing to buy here. Their carrot cake banana pudding was…read morethe perfect level of sweetness and I loved it a lot The staff here are very pleasant and outgoing. They complete drink orders very fast and keep the lines moving.

I should have read the reviews first - then I might have ordered the banana pudding. Instead I got…read more3 vanilla cupcakes (1 for me, 2 for my teenagers). I bake a lot. So do my kids. And I know that vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting is pretty easy to make, but sometimes I'd rather just buy baked goods than make them for myself, especially when I'm driving past what I thought was a popular (and presumably good) bake shop. I expected a high-quality cupcake. The cupcakes looked cute, but they were as dry as the Sahara. They should have been labeled as white cupcakes as I didn't detect any vanilla in them. I suspect that the "buttercream" was made with milk and margarine and powdered sugar.....so much powdered sugar. It was sickeningly sweet, and it was dry too. And a true bettercream doesn't even use powdered sugar. So not only were the cupcakes terrible, they were not even what they purported to be. This is like calling a cut of meat a filet mignon and serving a hamburger. Von's, Ralphs and Albertson's make better cupcakes than this for a fraction of othe price.

I dined in on Saturday at the bar. Loved the vibe and the food was delicious. The LA Passion…read morecocktail was the best! Bartender and Manager was attentive and provided excellent service. Thanks Matt and Karina for an awesome night! Definitely will be back!

I really just wanted to give credit where credit is due and Eva the host/Maitre D at the front desk…read morewas amazing and she was able to charge my cellular device while I was enjoying an early dinner at the venue. Such a hospitable and inviting vibe that she offered and Eva literally is the epitome of hospitality as I understand that Santa Monica Blvd can get a little turbulent with organic customer traffic - so I really appreciated her authenticity in every way of the word - and the upper Mgmt team should be thrilled that she's a part of their team. Thx Eva! -Forrest