Edems Guide to LA

In addition to the usual things (like Yelp), a good guide to the area is the little t, the Caltech undergrad guidebook. It is fairly comprehensive.

Food

Extraordinary

• In-n-Out (Various locations about LA, one near Caltech). This should be the first place that you eat. In-n-out has a secret menu, but here are some choice selections:
  • Double-double: 2 beef patties, 2 slices of cheese
  • m-by-c (where m,c are positive integers): m beef patties, c slices of cheese.
  • Animal style: Burger is cooked with mustard on it, and has extra sauce and fried onions. Delicious.
  • Neopolitan shake: mixture of chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla shakes.
  • Fries are hand cut on site and delicious
• Roscoe's (Various locations around LA, one near Caltech). Southern-style food, specializing in chicken and waffles (served together). Order the #1: Scoe's southern style. Eat some of the chicken and waffle (with butter and syrup) in the same bite; it will blow your mind. (the jury is a bit out on this one...)
• Zankou Chicken (Various locations about LA, one near Caltech). Amazing Armenian food. The "plates" are an especially good deal and are enough food to make a few wraps; it is enough for about 2 lunches. Try the quarter dark chicken, tarna, shwarema, or falafel plates. The individual wraps ("sandwiches") are good, but pricey compared to the plate.
• Taco Azteca (143 South Verdugo Road, Glendale, CA). A bit of a drive, but these may well be the best tacos in the United States.
• The Pantry Cafe (Downtown LA). Probably the best diner breakfast in America. You simply cannot imagine that toast and pancakes can be as delicious as they are here. If you go during any reasonable hour there will be a line around the block, but I have only gone between 4 and 5am.
• Tai Fung Dumpling House (Arcadia, CA). Amazing Taiwanese dumpling house. Only location in the US. During lunch hours expect an half hour wait.
• Fornaretta (Old town Pasadena). Amazing, authentic Sicilian restaurant. Awesome pizza, pastas and salads.

Good

• Ernie's (food truck; located in the parking lot behind the C.I.T. Shops, in box D3 on this map). A food truck with great mexican food and burgers. Only there around lunch time. Try the Texas burger, or on Friday get the tacos dorados. Like all food trucks, eating here regularly will make you die young, so use sparingly.
• Burger Continental (Pasadena, near Caltech). Once you have a Caltech ID (they rarely check, but this place is literally run by the mafia so you don't want to cross them) you can get the "Caltech special," which is a burger and fries for super cheap. They also have good Mediterranean food; I would recommend one of their chicken breast specialties. On Friday and Saturday evenings they have a band and belly dancer.
• Souplantation (Pasadena, near Caltech). A buffet place with salads, soups, and hot dishes. Great comfort food with lots of light and healthy options.
• Tarantino's (784 East Green Street Pasadena). Italian food. Try the stromboli or Carmine special (which is like stromboli). These are in fact the only things I have ever eaten here. Awesome pizza! Voted one of the best places for pizza in Pasadena
• Puebla Taco (700 North Lake Avenue, Pasadena). Mexican food. It is all good, but my favorite thing is the torta de asada.
• Zono Sushi (230 South Lake Avenue, Pasadena). Try the crunchy roll. You can get much better sushi in California than you can in Boston.
• Pie 'n Burger (Pasadena, near Caltech). The burgers are very good, but they are also very expensive. The pie is amazing; best pecan pie that I have ever had.
• The Athenaeum (Caltech campus). The Caltech faculty club, featuring a built-in hotel. It is pricey and you need membership to eat there, so don't miss an opportunity to get a free meal on somebody else's dime. I am a member for life, so if you need a hook up with a hotel room or fancy meal here for some reason, let me know.
• Family Restaurant & Chicken Pie Shoppe (Arcadia, CA). Awesome chicken pies and shakes. One of the best diners in the area.
• Yard House (Pasadena Paseo). A excellent chain restaurant that can accommodate groups of all sizes. This is the only restaurant I know of that has around a hundred beers on tap and tasty food. The menu is lengthy (you can take a group of picky eaters here and everyone will be happy), but I'd highly recommend the mac and cheese with mushrooms. It gets loud during meals, but is relatively quiet if you eat or drink at an off time.

Delivery

Click names to get a menu.

• President Two. Thai food. Try the chicken yellow curry or the president's fried rice.
• Fredos. Italian food.
• There are not pizza places in LA like there are in Boston. Your best bet for pizza is something like Papa John's. Red Brick pizza (on Lake near Caltech) has good pizza, but they don't deliver.

Fun

• Old Town (Area around Colorado Blvd between Raymond and Fair Oaks, Pasadena). Lots of shops and restaurants.
  • Laemmle's One Colorado (42 Miller Alley, in Old Town). My favorite movie theater. Unlike the giant theater in Paseo Colorado, which is always filled with obnoxious high schoolers trying to impress their stupid girlfriends, this theater is small, not as crowded, cheaper, and more quiet.
• The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Gardens (San Marino, near Caltech). The gardens are the best part, but they also have great art collections.
• The Getty Museum (Los Angeles, on top of a mountain). It looks like the base of a Bond villain; you even have to take a tram up a mountain to get there. Great art collections, but the museum is even worth seeing for the architecture and the location.
• Third Street Promenade (Santa Monica). Lots of shops, restaurants, and street performers. Santa Monica also has beautiful beaches, views of the ocean, and a fun pier.
• Museum of Jurassic Technology (Culver City). A museum of lies. It is very bizarre and worth checking out.

Getting Around

• Supershuttle. Without a doubt the fastest and cheapest way (short of bumming a ride) to get to and from the airport. If you get picked up or dropped off at Caltech, you will get a discount. If they ask you which stop number, say #1 (the corner of San Pasqual and Holliston). I don't know how much it costs these days, but you can check online (shouldn't be more than $30).
  • To the airport: reserve online >24 hours in advance. They can pick you up at your place, or you can meet them at Caltech (stop #1) for a discount.
  • From the airport: no reservation required. Ask someone at the airport where the Supershuttle picks up. There will be a Supershuttle employee there; tell him that you want to go to Pasadena and then wait for the next shuttle (should't be more than 30 minutes).
• People's Taxi, (800) 505-2227. In my experience, this is the only taxi company that will actually send a taxi to pick you up.
• Zipcar. Zipcar has three vehicles on the Caltech campus for students, faculty, and staff. I wish they had those a few years ago...
• Public transportation: a nightmare. The LA Metro buses, rail and subway will take you anywhere you want to go, but it could take several hours. However, it is a fairly quick way to get to a neighboring city. I once tried to take a Pasadena ARTS bus, but the bus driver drove right past me even after making eye contact and I never tried again.