Restaurants in West Whittier-Los Nietos

The food at Cafe Lafayette alludes more to a sumptuous and expensive restaurant than a simple corner café. The kitchen greets the day with Florentine omelets and mango-blueberry crepes, and toothpicks adorned with fringe or tiny semaphore flags skewer sandwiches filled with salami and provolone or waldorf chicken salad at lunch. Dinnertime is when the upscale flavors are at their best, as gnocchi with wild mushrooms and beef stroganoff prepared with filet mignon share space with the house Pollo Di Lafayette, a chicken breast stuffed with spinach, walnuts, and blue cheese and topped with creamy pesto.

Pizza shapers at the family-owned Pappadoz eatery ornament freshly baked crust canvases with signature house-made tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a slew of gourmet ingredients. Specialty pies showcase barbecue-chicken breast or a medley of vegetarian toppings, and large calzones envelop mozzarella cheese and gourmet fixings like a warm parka zipped around a chilly parakeet. Freshly sliced 10-inch subs and pastas provide flavorful sustenance for pizza renouncers, and smoothies eschew added sugars in favor of natural fruits. Customers can perch upon stools within the cozy shop, connecting to complimentary WiFi and using a charging dock to keep their cell phones, laptops, and electronic tie racks working briskly.

The crispness of the golden crust on Honey's Kettle Fried Chicken’s eponymous dish is what “sets this place apart,” according to LA magazine. Chefs fry poultry the old-fashion way, sizzling it in heavy-gauge stainless-steel drums whose intense heat seals in natural juices and ensures un-soggy crunch. Scratch-made country classics, including buttermilk biscuits and sweet-potato pie, round out the menu alongside veggie sides such as hand-shucked corn on the cob.

New Wave Restaurant transports diners back to the 1980s with a variety of 20th-century artifacts and an eclectic spread of American cuisine named after 80s icons, movies, and musicians. Upon walking through the Pac-Man-themed entrance, guests are consumed by a vortex of 80s memorabilia, which grants glimpses of authentic posters and framed records lining interior walls as Rubik's cubes and figurines of 80s characters pepper the checkered bar. A menu of finger-friendly eats such as the Ferris Bueller buffalo wings prepare palates for heartier fare, such as the Billy Idol bacon burger and Pee-wee Herman pasta. Additionally, themed events help amplify the multisense smorgasbord, including nights devoted to such 80s nostalgia as Star Wars and the passage of the Regulatory Flexibility Act.

The chefs at The Patio grill, sauté, and bake a menu of traditional Lebanese dishes, relying heavily on the simple, healthy flavors of garlic and olive oil. These ingredients play a starring roll in appetizers such as hummus and white-bean salad, and kisses from the grill's open flames leave charred lipstick on the collar of chicken, beef, or shrimp kebabs. Smoke from flavored Al Fakher, Starbuzz, and house-blended tobacco wafts through the air in the restaurant's hookah bar, mingling with ethereal genies released from nearby bottles of pop.

Though it first opened in 1959 as an English pub, the Red Lion Tavern has given Los Angeles an easy way to visit the boisterous beer gardens of Munich since 1963. The diverse menu includes lunch and dinner options, and even hosts a champagne brunch. The menu's hearty emphasis on sausage, beer, and cabbage hasn’t changed much in 50 years, and today features seven kinds of sausage and extensive pretzel and schnitzel offerings, along with an extensive list of beers. Customers can also enjoy a myriad selection of salads, sandwiches, soups, seafood, pork, poultry, desserts and sides such as red cabbage or German fried potatoes. The Tavern also features weekly specials in addition to a number of coffee specialties.

Two indoor bars and an outdoor beer garden give patrons plenty of places to refill their pints—and the bartenders likewise offer plenty of opportunities to practice one's German (their native tongue). Along with dressing its wait staff in lederhosen and dirndls, the Red Lion Tavern invites Germanic bands to play live music, hangs the work of German artists upon their walls, and sends partied-out patrons home in German-engineered cabs whenever possible.