Clifton's Cafeteria
648 South Broadway
LA
213-627-1673
Comfort food. I love comfort food. I seek out restaurants that serve good comfort food. So after reading an LA Times article about Clifton's Cafeteria and I wanted to try Clifton's again. A long time ago they used to have a Clifton's in West Covina. But that closed down a long time ago. The LA Times article mentioned the original Clifton's is still open in LA. So I went down there.
First and foremost, parking sucks. The are some lots that run from $3-$5 on Sundays. But I'm sure it would be a pain to find cheap parking during the week and on Saturdays. My suggestion, take the Metro trains to Pershing Square. Then walk a couple blocks to the corner of 7th and Broadway.
As you enter Clifton's you pick up your tray and go through the line to pick your food. After selecting your food, you go to the tables. The interior dining area has the look of the mountains. There are 3-4 levels and it's warm in there. They need to turn on the air condition. But it is clean and they do clear the tables quickly.
I got the turkey with stuffing and mac and cheese. ($5.79) They carve the turkey right in front of you. The turkey, all white meat, was on the dry side, but flavorful and tasty. The turkey gravy was very good with the right amount of spices. I wasn't impressed with the mac and cheese. Very little cheese and soggy, wet, macaroni.
I also got the Chinese style pork ribs ($5.79) with rice. The ribs had a very sweet, tangy sauce on them. The ribs aren't smoked but cooked in an oven. The ribs were tender and it was a lot of food for the price.
Service is good. The servers and cashiers are nice and friendly and they are bilingual. They speak English very well. They could move to Taylor's and make more money with tips, if they wanted.
What I loved about Clifton's is the history. Clifton's opened in 1931. Think about all the things that happened since that time. Then imagine eating at Clifton's on historic days in history. Just imagine being at Clifton's on December 7, 1941. For you idiots, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and World War II for America started. Or being at Clifton's listening to a Dodger game when Sandy Koufax was pitching. Or hell eating at Clifton's and hearing the news that BASTARD Walter O'Malley was stealing the Brooklyn Dodgers from their rightful home and bringing them to LA. Or eating at Clifton's and hearing about the assassination of John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr. Or maybe some people were eating at Clifton's the day after Bobby Kennedy was assassinated back on June 4, 1968.
Clifton's is a piece of LA history and a place everybody should go to at least once. The food is good quality food at good prices.
