PRICE:
Frommer's Very Highly Recommended

This is the cafe you wish was down the street from your place instead of that Starbucks. The Kings Road Cafe has the perfect combo of everything you'd want in a neighborhood cafe -- sunny sidewalk seating along bustling Beverly Boulevard, excellent coffee served in big bowl-like cups, great people-watching, attitude-free service, the occasional celebrity sighting, a huge magazine stand right next door, and fresh, healthy, inexpensive food served in large portions. It's open from morning until night, so you can drop by anytime for such local favorites as their banana-pecan buttermilk pancakes, fluffy French toast, spinach and shiitake mushroom omelet, chipotle chicken salad, Baja fish tacos, blackened ahi with sweet mashed potatoes, and their signature panini-style sandwiches (the chicken breast with garlic aioli is my favorite). You can pretty much count on waiting for an outside table on weekends, but it gives you time to do a bit of inconspicuous star searching, pick up a few magazines, and check out the Kings Road Cafe Bakery next door (the black currant scones are wonderful).

Copyright: Excerpted from Frommer's Los Angeles 2009, (c) 2008, Wiley Publishing, Inc.

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