Bakery cafés in Los Angeles

Chinatown and Little Tokyo

Wonder Bakery, at 943 North Broadway, has been baking in Chinatown since 1973; its counter runs from egg tarts and BBQ pork buns to almond cookies and mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival.² It opens at 10:00, is closed on Sunday, and stays until 21:00 on Friday and Saturday.

Minon Cake, nearby at 304 Ord Street, opens Tuesday to Sunday 10:30–18:00. In Little Tokyo, Cafe Dulce has its bakery counter in Japanese Village Plaza at number 134, open daily from 08:00.

French bread and pastry Downtown

Pitchoun, at 545 Olive Street, is a family-owned French boulangerie-pâtisserie (bakery and pastry shop) that bakes from scratch with a house-made levain starter and traditional French family recipes.³ On weekends it serves 08:00–16:00.

Etchea Café Bakery & Catering is at 254 South Hope Street on Bunker Hill. Cafe Integral, in the Freehand hotel at 416 West 8th Street, serves pastries daily 07:00–15:30, and Nice Coffee at 515 South Flower Street opens weekdays at 07:00.

Donut shops and a Cambodian story

Ted Ngoy, nicknamed the Donut King, fled the Khmer Rouge in 1975, trained at a Winchell's, bought Christy's Donuts in La Habra in 1977 and owned more than 25 shops by 1979.⁴ He trained and leased shops to relatives, employed Cambodian refugees and by the mid-1980s claimed about 65 shops across California.⁴

In Koreatown, California Donuts is at 3540 West 3rd Street and L.A Donuts & Croissant at 102 South Vermont Avenue; Big Jim’s Donuts is farther north on Vermont at number 702, and Coffee House Donuts at 411 East 8th Street Downtown. Koreatown also has Leelin Bakery & Cafe at 209 South Vermont Avenue and Concerto Cafe & Bakery at 2740 West Olympic Boulevard, open daily 08:00–22:00.

Pico Boulevard, the Westside and Echo Park

Pico-Robertson, a center of Jewish life in Los Angeles, has more than thirty certified kosher restaurants, bakeries among them.⁵ Schwartz Bakery & Cafe is at 8616 West Pico Boulevard and Elat Pastry at 8758.

Paderia, at 3032 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, bakes Portuguese egg tarts and stays open until it sells out, Tuesday to Sunday from 09:00.⁶ Layla Bagels is at 1620 Ocean Park Boulevard, and Clark Street at 9123 West Olympic Boulevard in Beverly Hills is open daily 08:00–15:30.

On Echo Park Avenue, Valerie at number 1665 serves coffee, breakfast and lunch alongside a selection of chocolates and sweets, daily 07:00–16:00.⁷ Kien Giang Bakery is farther down the avenue at number 1475.