Norms on La Cienega is a staple of the Hollywood skyline and a cultural touchstone for the city of Los Angeles. Locals keep the angled seating of their beloved institution full as they munch down on fluffy hotcakes (not pancakes), sunny-side-up eggs and crispy bacon. Though in terms of taste, the food itself is stuck in the 50s, the friendly atmosphere and Googie architecture make Norms on La Cienega a restaurant worth the visit.
After taking in the stunning storefront architecture, patrons are instantly zapped with a blast from the past to a time when kids were called “ankle-biters” and the telephone was still called “the horn.” There are two claw machines by the front entrance and a large waiting area fit with aesthetically orange benches. Once seated at one of the many butterfly-shaped booths, customers are quickly met by one of the fast and friendly servers. Black coffee comes out hot and is soon there after accompanied by the main courses.
Coffee comes first and fast at Norms. The restaurant serves a strong blend with ample refills. Photographed by Finn Martin/BruinLife
The Lumberjack Breakfast will plate more than enough energy before you to get you through your day -- the combo meal is served in triplets: hotcakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns. Photographed by Finn Martin/BruinLife
The hotcakes helped make this place famous, and it’s not hard to see why, as they were easily the best item we tried. They were incredibly fluffy and melted in the mouth the second they hit the tongue. Interestingly enough, however, the hotcakes were very well salted – a compliment that goes to show how important salt is to delivering a well-rounded flavor profile. To play off of that, these cakes came topped with a pad of sweet butter that tied this short stack together.
Biscuits and gravy are a regional breakfast staple, just not in this region, unfortunately. The gravy was silky smooth, impressively viscous and heavily peppered – not a bad thing for those who enjoy the taste of pepper, just a note. That said, the gravy was unremarkable. There was no distinct flavor to it other than pepper and it ate like store-bought gravy. As for the biscuits, they were equally disappointing. They weren’t a thick and doughy southern biscuit or that flakey fast food style. Instead, Norms’ were soft and grainy. Patrons need not bite or even chew these biscuits as they simply dissolve the second they make contact with the mouth, leaving customers to dig out the dispersed granules from the inner cavities of their mouths. While this iconic combo was not inedible, it will probably not be anyone’s go-to side dish.
Another letdown was the hash browns. Diner-style hash browns are very hard to impress with, and the ones at Norms were no different. Cooked on the griddle, they weren’t crispy at all other than the visual char on the surface. The hash browns also had no cohesion as it was nothing more than graded potatoes lumped together to form a rectangle – they didn’t even taste fully cooked. More on the taste, they had no seasoning whatsoever. While Norms doesn’t need to get fancy with the spices, some salt and pepper would have been nice.
The veggie omelet balances the green freshness of avocados, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and bell pepper with the heavier breakfast classics, hash browns and biscuits and gravy. Photographed by Finn Martin/BruinLife Photo credit: Finn Martin
Onto the main courses, the veggie omelet was what customers have come to expect from a diner style omelet. The veggies were not sautéed to a mush so they were able to provide textural variation between the mushrooms, onions and bell peppers. The cheddar cheese was not fully incorporated into the eggs – it was a one-third melted crust on the top – and as such, didn’t enhance the flavor profile in any sort of way. The veggie omelet wasn’t bad per-say, just unremarkable.
The Lumberjack Breakfast brings you breakfast served in triplets. The crisped bacon, eggs in any style, sausage links and potato hash are bound to give you enough fuel to lumber away at your day. Photographed by Finn Martin/BruinLife
The Lumberjack Breakfast is one of Norms’ mainstays, appearing front and center amidst other supersized combos. The dish is served in threes: three sausage links, three eggs of choice, three strips of bacon, three buttermilk hotcakes (though if you have our luck, only two) and a side of hash browns. First to the plate was the sausage which was no different than the traditional Jimmy Dean’s breakfast sausage, a good link packed with pepper, but nothing special. The eggs could have shocked even Julia Child with the amount of butter thrown in, and the bacon was bacon compounded. Brace your buds and heart for the savoriness of a single bite as this bacon must be paced to be enjoyable.
Even though Norms isn’t serving up the best breakfast on the block, the atmosphere, history and community around it more than makes the La Cienega storefront worth the trip.
