I Love Food - Lunch At The Sunset Tower Hotel

I promised you I would share some of my favourite places in Los Angeles with you, so here goes… I had to start somewhere and because I spend so much of my time in Silver Lake I thought I would start there, but what do you know… I like to keep you on your freshly painted toes and so I will start in West Hollywood, more specifically in the Sunset Strip area at the historic Sunset Tower Hotel. The hotel went through several incarnations since its design in 1929 by Leland Bryant. It is possibly one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in Los Angeles (aside from a few buildings Downtown of course). Like many hotels in L.A. its penthouse is a veritable Hollywood history bible, having hosted guests such as John Wayne, Howard Hughes or Frank Sinatra in its glory days. Truman Capote also stayed there in the late 40s. Nowadays it is frequented by Tom Cruise, Victoria Beckham, Sean Penn… and Mamma Robot!

This trip, my mum and stepdad accompanied us to California and I really enjoyed showing them “my LA” and also discovering new places with them. The Sunset Tower Hotel is a place I had meant to visit for the past few trips but always ended up usurped by the Chateau Marmont (located almost across the road) because I am a creature of habit rather than anything, because to be honest, the Chateau restaurant isn’t all that compared to a myriad other places in town. To make sure we wouldn’t all succumb to my usual laziness, I made sure to book a table at the Sunset Tower Restaurant before we had even left London – I suggest you do the same if you plan on going there as it can get quite busy, I used Open Table and I didn’t even have to speak to anyone.

The setting is as magically wonderful as you can imagine, you can’t beat a building infused with classic Hollywood history. The old decor including plaster friezes of plants and animals lives in perfect harmony with more recent decoration touches such as amusing prints in the restrooms and other little details like that. We had lunch at one of the few tables by the pool, overlooking Los Angeles (this part of Sunset is up on a hillside). Lunch is very informal, with a modern Californian menu including dishes such as Seared Ahi, Grilled Shrimp and Quinoa and classic all-American options as well (BLT, Cobb Salad, NYC Style pizza). If you are travelling with kids, please note there is no specific kids menu (which means no cheaper option for the little ones) but there are many kid friendly dishes available – Mini loved the tomato & mozzarella pizza. Everything is prepared with great attention to detail, the ingredients are so fresh they are basically from tomorrow and even they make even the simplest dishes shine bright.

Lunch at the Terrace will set you back approximately $30-40 pp incl. tax and tip if you don’t go wild. If you go wild, the sky is the limit I suppose.

The Terrace at Sunset Tower Hotel

8358 Sunset Boulevard, CA 90069