If you’re a foodie in Los Angeles you have to stop by Grand Central Market. They have 40 vendors, most of which are food based that offer a ton of selection in one location. When I’m on a road trip, a food marker or vendor hall is my favorite way to get a taste of the city when I’m short on time. Andy and I stopped at Grand Central Market on one day in LA during my cross-country road trip and tried a few dishes and rated them below so you know what to get and what to skip.
Tacos Tumbras A Tomas
Birria Tacos – 7/10 – less if you hate cilantro
The service here is fast and everything looks delicious. I was really craving a birria taco, and only 2 places offered it but the other option did not look as fresh as Tacos Tumbras A Tomas did. The meat was pretty good, I was hoping for a more flavorful stew, so the star is the cilantro and onions. You can get the taco without cilantro and onions – they will ask you before they add it – but honestly it was my favorite part so if you hate cilantro, try a different menu option here.
Fat + Flour
Lemon Lavender Sugar Cookie – 10/10 – if you love these flavors this is perfection (and I hate sugar cookies!)
Triple Chocolate Cookie – 8.9/10 – best for bitter chocolate lovers
The service here was friendly and helpful. I love lemon and lavender, but hate sugar cookies, but I took a chance on the lemon and lavender sugar cookie anyways and I’m so glad I did. Fat + Flour is officially my only supplier of sugar cookies now (too bad they’re thousands of miles away!). I like dark chocolate, but I wish the triple chocolate had a better balance of flavors, maybe a little sea salt? Overall it was still a delicious cookie.
Lucky Bird
Thyme Lemonade – 9.7/10 – the thyme was subtle in the best way
Jalapeño Cheddar Biscuits – 10/10 – Easily the best thing here, maybe the best thing I ate on the entire road trip
The service here was okay at first, but got better as it went. The thyme lemonade was great, very refreshing and a wonderful pairing with our biscuits. I was getting full (and we still had to go to China town for dinner!) but I may have skipped every other planned meal just to eat 5 orders of these biscuits. The texture and crumb was perfect and you have to get a jalapeño in every bite. I can’t recommend these highly enough or do them enough justice. If I had known how good this would be, I would have saved room and tried a chicken sandwich as well.
Budgeting
In terms of budgeting for this experience, you’ll want to set aside $8-15 per dish. For example, it was about $5 for 2 biscuits, $14 for the chicken sandwich I wish I tried, $8 for 2 tacos, etc. My recommendation is to go with a friend and split, you may end up spending the same amount of money as you would going solo but you’ll get to try twice the food.
My final recommendation is to go during a popular meal time if you want the most variety – quite a few places were shut down because it was 3pm on a Tuesday when we were there. They either didn’t open until the weekend or they were closed between lunch and dinner. Of course if you want a less crowded experience where you won’t fight to find a table, 3pm on a Tuesday is great and we still had 15-20 options to choose from.
Have you been to Grand Central Market? If so, what is your must-try spot? If you haven’t been, check out their website and start planning your visit. Or, better yet, reach out to me and I’ll start planning your road trip and make sure this stop is included!
-Taysia