Topline:
Gardena is a hidden paradise where you can find undiscovered gems for less.
Why Gardena? It's our 10th edition of Cheap Fast Eats, and the South Bay city has become one of our favorite places for inexpensive, under-the-radar meals.
What's on the menu? From teriyaki burgers you order from a walk-up window to Japanese street food staples such as karaage chicken and takoyaki at a supermarket food court to old-school Italian sandwiches, Gardena has a little of everything.
Can you believe it?
We’ve reached the 10th edition of Cheap Fast Eats, where we scour the L.A. area looking for delicious dishes you can enjoy quickly that won’t break the bank (as in, around $10).
That means we've been to 50 restaurants. For those keeping track, we’ve visited places such as Culver City, Silver Lake, Pasadena, Long Beach, and Inglewood, looking to dig deep into tasty deals.
This time around, we end up in an often-overlooked South Bay city, Gardena. With its sizable population of Asian, Black, and Latino residents, the cultures meld together to represent something distinctively Southern Californian, and yet all its own.
Every month, we scout out eateries, stomach-filling burrito joints, and hidden gems, focusing on dishes around $10 -$15. If you want us to try an area, drop us a line at the bottom of the story.
From big-portioned Hawaiian dishes to the perfect Italian sandwich, it’s time to dig in.
This is Cheap Fast Eats Gardena.
Yes, this restaurant is in a bowling alley. Upon entering the building, just to your left is the Gardena Bowl Coffee Shop entrance.
The space is always brimming with customers, both bowlers and non-bowlers alike. Like many, we became familiar with Gardena Bowl Coffee Shop when it was featured in the Netflix series Breakfast Lunch and Dinner, hosted by Momofuku chef, owner, and now SoCal resident David Chang.
Despite that fame, the coffee shop still maintains the look and feel of a local hangout. Many regulars sit at the small counter and chat with the staff, catching up on life, ready to indulge in some of their favorite comfort food.
Specializing in Hawaiian cuisine, Gardena Bowl Coffee Shop serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner so there's much to choose from. Selections such as club sandwiches and pancakes are solid dishes.
But the real magic happens in the Asian-meets-Pacific-Island-inspired cuisine.
One excellent option is the donburi, made of steamed eggs with added chicken katsu over a bed of rice garnished with pickled ginger.
Top it off with some of their spicy mustard, which brings a sinus-clearing kick that’s always welcomed, cause who doesn’t want to feel something when consuming a good meal? That being said, it’s okay if you don’t finish everything. Take the rest to go. This dish and many others save well; the portions here are never lacking.
Location: 15707 S. Vermont Ave., Gardena
Hours: Sunday-Thursday 8 am-9 pm, Friday and Saturday 8 am-10 pm
What is it about a good take-out window that always attracts us? The no-frills ordering while standing at a metal counter is forever charming. Pitburger is the perfect example of this.
The visual style of the place screams neighborhood institution, judging from the crowds of middle schoolers who spill out onto the sidewalk, stopping by for a quick bite on the way home along with construction workers, who line up in their safety vests and t-shirts.
Teriyaki is the name of the game here. As soon as you get out of your car, the smell of the sweet, charred meat wafts in the air, letting you know you are in the right place. While many tend to order the rice bowls, the teriyaki burger holds a special place in our hearts.
You might wonder, what’s so special about a burger patty smothered in teriyaki sauce — and do they add pineapple? Let me stop you right there and dispel any burger patty-shaped notions you may have.
The “burger” is a decently sized sliced flank steak that's expertly shellac-ed in sweet teriyaki sauce, a couple of leaves of iceberg lettuce all piled just right on a sesame seed bun slathered with a sensible bit of mayo.
Have your choice of single, double, or triple-stacked cuts of steak, depending on your hunger level. The first soft bite feels like an extra special treat, especially when you opt to wash it down with an Orange Bang. This frothy whipped orange beverage is made here in SoCal and feels perfect for an indulgent meal.
Location: 16602 S. Normandie Ave., Gardena
Hours: Monday-Saturday, 9 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., Sunday 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
Why did it take so long to recognize that food courts are perfect for Cheap Fast Eats? This is a great question that we are asking ourselves too. While there are always plenty of opportunities to partake in the occasional Costco hot dog or even a soft pretzel, we’re always looking to challenge ourselves more when grabbing a bite.
The regional Japanese supermarket chain Tokyo Central is excellent for many things, and the same goes for their Gardena location. But don’t overlook their food court, where there are plenty of treasures.
The first stop is Gindaco for some of their world-famous takoyaki. The Japanese chain boasts over 500 locations in Japan but has recently begun opening up a few in Southern California. The street food staple is said to be found on most corners throughout its country of origin.
The piping hot fritters are filled with chunky bits of octopus tentacles, tempura bits, and pickled ginger, and are made to order; you can watch the staff pour the batter into a specialized cast iron molded pan to allow them to achieve their spherical shape.
After 10 minutes of expert turning in the pan, the fritters are cooked to a crisped perfection. They can be served with various choices of toppings, such as “The Original,” drizzled with sweet and tangy takoyaki sauce, topped with seaweed, and sprinkled with bonito flakes. However, our favorite is topped with green onion and sriracha, which brings fresh flavors that cut through the fried batter.
While waiting for the takoyaki to cool, head to Tenkatori USA, for some karaage. You can have your choice of cuts, such as the traditional boneless thighs, along with wings, gizzards, and cartilage. However, if you’ve got a bit more room in your stomach, we’d urge you to order the bento boxes with your choice of chicken, rice, a cold noodle, a scoop of potato salad, pickled radish, and a green salad. The options are plentiful and you owe it to yourself to participate in this delicious fun.
Location: 1740 Artesia Blvd., Gardena
Hours: Gindaco: Open everyday, 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Tenkatori USA: Open everyday, 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m.
As you may know, we are a sucker for a good market with mouthwatering options for food that can be enjoyed in-house or taken home with you. (Roma Market, from our first Cheap Fast Eats guide to Pasadena and Jasmine Market in Culver City both come to mind.)
We find something appealing about grabbing a bite while also having the opportunity to perusing shelves and refrigerated sections to see what tasty items we can find.
Giuliano’s fits the bill with its bustling deli counter, bakery, and grocery. The place has been around since 1952 and contains a particular type of hometown charm you’d see on an episode of California Gold hosted by our patron saint Huell Howser.
After taking it all in, head toward the back, where the sandwich counter is located. There, you’ll find a stack of their signature Torpedo Jr. sandwiches. Look for the plastic wrapping made to look like the Italian flag which also makes it perfect for taking it to go especially if you are in a hurry.
The sandwich contains a cornucopia of Italian meats that includes two different types of salami, capocollo — aka gabagool — mortadella, provolone cheese, and lettuce. Pro tip: When you pay for a sandwich, ask for the small containers of oil and vinegar to go with. You'll want to drizzle it on the inside of your sandwich.
At first bite, you’re greeted by a meat and cheese rainbow, and the in-house baked bread is soft, pillowy, and heavenly. A bigger-sized sandwich is available that’s 10 inches, but somehow, the Jr. always seems perfectly satisfying.
Location: 1138 W. Gardena Blvd, Gardena
Hours: Monday-Saturday 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sakae Sushi is the type of place that requires a little planning ahead, but that’s part of its charm and very much worth it. It’s a take-out establishment that only accepts cash, and ordering ahead by phone is preferred. But once you take those preparatory measures, you will undoubtedly be rewarded.
Look for the cute mid-century storefront on Denkar Avenue when you arrive. Pull into the lot, enter through the back courtyard, and head to the rear entrance, where you can pay.
When your order is ready, the sushi comes in a wrapped cardboard box, similar to a department store gift box, which some of you might remember from before we started ordering everything online. When unwrapping it, I’m always reminded of a favorite quote from the television show Twin Peaks, from Agent Dale Cooper, played by Kyle Maclachlan, “Every day, once a day, give yourself a present".
You can choose from California rolls or our favorite, the mix, which contains a combination of tamago (egg), nori-maki (shitake mushroom and spinach), inari (fried tofu), ebi (shrimp), and saba (pickled Atlantic mackerel).
Each bite of sushi contains a tasty amount of sweet, seasoned rice, a great complement to fish. You’ll find yourself marveling at the attention to detail when it comes to the construction of each piece, especially the shrimp and pickled mackerel, which feature precise geometric cuts for the proteins. Gardena dreams of sushi, indeed.
Location: 1601 W. Redondo Beach Blvd. #112, Gardena
Hours: Wednesday-Sunday 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Topline:
Paranormal investigator David Kalbeitzer at an event Saturday night explores Pasadena's past, one where rocket science meets ritual magic and ghost stories echo through its grandest buildings.
The backstory: Kalbeitzer began digging into Pasadena’s unusual history after buying a Victorian home north of Old Town that he says is haunted by a benevolent spirit.
Wild stories: Kalbeitzer found the lore to include rocket pioneer Jack Parsons' ritual magic and muckraker Upton Sinclair's experiments in telepathy.
The event: The talk at Mesmer Mesmer in Old Town is currently full, but there's a wait list and Kalbeitzer plans to give more talks at the shop.
Beyond the Rose Bowl and historic bungalows, Pasadena has stranger tales to tell. David Kalbeitzer has been seeking out those stories where rocket science meets the occult and ghosts haunt the city’s grandest buildings.
For Kalbeitzer, a Disney executive who investigates the paranormal in his free time, his fascination with the city’s mysterious side started when he bought a Victorian north of Old Town.
He sensed a spirit at the open house a dozen years ago and took it as a reason to move his family to Pasadena. Then he started learning the city’s history.
“I realized, ‘Oh, this place called us just as much as we were looking for it,’” he said.
On Saturday night, he’s sharing the lore he’s collected at Mesmer Mesmer an Old Town shop and event space. While the event is full, there’s a waitlist, and more talks featuring Kalbeitzer are in the works.
Ask Kalbeitzer about haunted Pasadena, and the list stretches from alleyways to the Colorado Street Bridge to Castle Green, the turreted former hotel overlooking Central Park.
“The Pasadena Playhouse theater is, you know, very haunted,” he added.
He says theatergoers have reported hearing disembodied voices.
“And you look, and there’s no one there, or apparitions that have been seen sort of standing in the corner, and then you walk up, and they kind of disappear like shadowy figures,” he said.
As for the spirit that helped draw him to his current Pasadena home?
Kalbeitzer says she’s still around — and his psychic friend Michael Kouri shared her name: Dolores.
“It’s actually haunted by a very kind ghost that looks out for the house, protects my family and has been able to activate our alarm,” he said.
Having a Dolores in the house might send some people running, but Kalbeitzer said he grew up in a haunted house in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
And when his family moved to Charleston, South Carolina, a teenage Kalbeitzer started seeking out places known for paranormal activity.
Having lived in different neighborhoods in L.A., Kalbeitzer says there’s something uniquely otherworldly about Pasadena — and it goes beyond ghost stories.
He said the city has an energy that draws people exploring the unknown, perhaps most famously Jack Parsons.
The rocket pioneer who helped launch the Jet Propulsion Laboratory also practiced ritual magic at his Pasadena home with the likes of L. Ron Hubbard before he founded Scientology.
“Many people call it the occult," Kalbeitzer said. "I don’t know that I fully subscribe to that, but there is spiritualism and occult mixed in there."
Then there was Upton Sinclair, the muckraking author of The Jungle, whose interests while living in Pasadena extended to telepathy and séances.
In 1930, Sinclair published Mental Radio, a book about experiments in mind-reading. Albert Einstein provided a preface. Yes, that Einstein, who would spend the following winter at Caltech expanding on the theories of relativity and cosmology.
“It’s the craziest mixture of things that were happening at that time and all of it at the same time,” Kalbeitzer said.
The event couldn’t have found a more appropriate venue.
Since opening five months ago in Old Town, Mesmer Mesmer has embraced the dark and mysterious, offering tarot and crystal readings and hosting events on subjects such as hip-hop’s relationship with ghosts.
At that event, a medium told owner Tyke O’Brien she could sense a presence in the shop, which formerly housed a bridal store.
“She goes, ‘Do you ever feel it?’ And I’m like, ‘I am such a bummer,” O’Brien recounted. “I wish I could say yes."
The same can be said for this writer who’s lived and worked in and around Pasadena for years without so much as a brush with the otherworldly.
Kalbeitzer, on the other hand, reports supernatural encounters all around town.
“Everyone has the ability to have those experiences," he said. "But I do think how you see yourself in the world has a lot more to do with it, and whether you want to have those experiences."
When: Saturday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m.
Where: Mesmer Mesmer, 65 E. Holly St, Pasadena
The event is currently full but there's a wait list and Kalbeitzer plans to give more talks at the shop.
Topline:
Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027. At a community meeting Thursday night at MacArthur Park Elementary School, officials said fence installation is now expected to continue through fall 2027, overshooting the previously announced spring 2027 completion date.
Why now: Thursday’s meeting highlighted the divide over the city’s plan to fence off MacArthur Park, with tensions rising during public comment. The Los Angeles Police Department says the fence will make drug enforcement easier, while some in the community who volunteer around the park questioned whether it will improve safety enough to justify the cost. The city has allocated $2.3 million for the project, but officials have not said whether that will cover the full cost.
What's next: Officials also outlined other planned improvements, including restoring access through the tunnels connecting the park’s north and south sides, making accessibility upgrades and providing free Wi-Fi for parkgoers. Residents who want to provide input on the fence’s decorative elements can email admin@themorcosgroup.com or call (310) 479-4727 for more information.
Los Angeles officials expect construction of a fence around MacArthur Park will start in November and continue through fall 2027.
At a community meeting Thursday night at MacArthur Park Elementary School, officials said fence installation is now expected to continue through fall 2027, overshooting the previously announced spring 2027 completion date.
Thursday’s meeting highlighted the divide over the city’s plan to fence off MacArthur Park, with tensions rising during public comment. The Los Angeles Police Department says the fence will make drug enforcement easier, while some in the community who volunteer around the park questioned whether it will improve safety enough to justify the cost.
The city has allocated $2.3 million for the project, but officials have not said whether that will cover the full cost.
Installation of the green metal fence around the park’s perimeter is expected to begin in November and take about a year. A second phase, adding decorative elements to the fence, is planned for fall and winter 2027. Officials said the schedule could change because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances.
The park is expected to remain open during construction.
Capt. Ben Fernandes with the LAPD’s Rampart Division said the fence would create a barrier along Alvarado Street and other areas where officers have seen people using narcotics. That would allow police to focus more of their enforcement efforts inside the park, he said.
“So if people are going deeper into the park to use, that’ll make it easier for us to go in and do enforcement on them and arrest them for that use,” Fernandes said.
“I’ve been an officer for 29 years, and I’ve always known I can go buy drugs there, and I did as a narcotics officer. So what I’m saying is, we are trying to make it not convenient,” he added.
Fernandes also said the city plans to enhance the park’s existing camera network. LAPD officers and Los Angeles Park Rangers will be able to monitor the cameras from their respective stations, he said. City officials are still evaluating whether additional cameras will be needed to address blind spots in the park after construction is complete.
Ariana Walker, who visits MacArthur Park every Saturday with a group of friends who pool their own resources to distribute food and hygiene kits, questioned whether the city had shown that the fence would improve safety and how much it would cost to maintain.
“The fence is a $2.3 million fence at the base level,” she said. “And they haven’t given us any indication of how much more it’s going to cost for upkeep, to keep anybody safe. There’s no conclusive evidence that a fence is going to stop crime the way that they’re suggesting.”
The meeting grew tense when John Alle, a local property owner whose family owns the building that houses Langer’s Delicatessen across the street from the park, objected to having his comments read from a written comment card rather than speaking directly to officials. Alle has been a vocal critic of the city’s response to drug activity and public safety concerns around MacArthur Park.
He was allowed to comment during the meeting and said the city needs to take a tougher approach to drug use and sales around the park.
“We see knife attacks at all hours of the day. It’s out of control. And it’s not gotten any better,” he said. “We want to bring it back to where it was 15 or 20 years ago.”
Alle pointed to public events at the park, including an upcoming Día de los Muertos celebration and a Labor Day weekend picnic hosted by Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman as positive developments for the space. But he added those events do not reflect conditions throughout the park.
Officials also outlined other planned improvements, including restoring access through the tunnels connecting the park’s north and south sides, making accessibility upgrades and providing free Wi-Fi for parkgoers.
Residents who want to provide input on the fence’s decorative elements can email admin@themorcosgroup.com or call (310) 479-4727 for more information.
The post MacArthur Park will remain open as the city takes a year to fence off the space appeared first on LA Local.
Topline:
Metrolink’s Orange County service between the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo and Oceanside stations will be temporarily suspended next week, starting Monday, Oct. 26, through Friday, Oct. 30.
What lines will run? Orange County Line trains will operate only between L.A. Union Station and the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station. According to Metrolink, alternate transportation such as buses will not be available.
Why now? A coastal flood warning is in effect for the entire Orange and San Diego coastline Sunday through Thursday. “Astronomical” high tides could create significant coastal flooding starting Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Morning high tides could reach nearly 7 feet Saturday morning and are likely to exceed 7.5 or 8 feet by Monday.
Officials said: “The temporary service adjustment is intended to minimize the potential for widespread delays and cancellations if coastal conditions disrupt rail operations,” Metrolink officials wrote in an announcement Thursday. “This shift will also reduce competing rail traffic and shorten potential weather-related delays for other carriers, including Amtrak Pacific Surfliner and freight trains, that operate along the beachfront corridor near San Clemente.”
Background: The service suspension is along the troubled rail corridor from South Orange County to the San Diego County line. Erosion and landslides along the coastal rail have caused disruptions since 2021.
Dig deeper … The OC Transit Authority is in the middle of creating its 30-year plan for the coastal rail.
Topline:
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office filed charges Wednesday against six parents and one relative of children involved in illegal e-motorcycle use. O.C. District Attorney Todd Spitzer joined AirTalk, LAist 89.3's daily news show, to talk about the charges and rising e-bike-related incidents.
What he's saying: "We have about a 430% increase in emergency room visits by young people today, underage minors, who are being injured as a result of these e-bikes," Spitzer said, referring to incidents in Southern California.
A growing issue: Spitzer pointed out that Wednesday’s charges are the latest in a growing number of cases involving e-bikes, including one incident that resulted in a 13-year-old rider’s death.
Why charge the parents? Spitzer clarified that parents are not being charged with a crime just for giving their child an e-bike. "We're filing when the adult who's responsible for the actions of that child has additional special knowledge that their kid is a danger to the community and, in most cases, to themselves," he said, such as a history of reckless riding or knowledge of illegal modifications.
Example: In the case of the 13-year-old who died after crashing his e-motorcycle, his father could face up to six years in prison.
Listen to the full conversation:
