Friends & Family
Los Angeles, CA
📍 5150 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027
🍽 Bakery · Breakfast & Brunch
📅 Visited: January 20, 2025
🍴🥄 Forks Given: 🍴🥄🍴🥄🍴🥄🍴 (4.0 / 5.0)
Overview
Friends & Family is a trendy(ish) Los Angeles bakery and breakfast spot with a strong pastry program, a serious coffee setup, and a menu that goes beyond the expected. It’s clearly designed to serve multiple roles: weekday coffee stop, weekend brunch destination, and casual neighborhood hangout.
When it works, it works very well.
First Impressions
The space was busy and energetic, with a mix of people grabbing pastries to go, working over coffee, or meeting friends. The menu immediately signaled intention and quality rather than excess.
The breakfast burrito stood out immediately. Simple in concept, exceptional in execution. The coffee, despite impressive equipment and decent beans, was noticeably less compelling.
What We Ordered
Breakfast Burrito
The highlight of the visit. Purposeful rather than overloaded, featuring braised pork, red chile sauce, eggs, and finely diced potatoes. The small potato cut made a meaningful difference — no filler, no distraction. One of the best breakfast burritos I’ve had.
Breakfast Sandwich
Simple and well executed. The bun quality and perfectly moist eggs carried the dish. We skipped the sausage, which felt like a mistake; this would likely shine even more with it included.
Buckwheat Pancake
Large, thick, and hearty. More filling than expected. Flavorful, but a bit dry on its own and significantly improved by the blueberry compote.
Assorted Pastries
A mixed bag, which is common for pastry-heavy menus:
- Morning bun — genuinely very good
- Chocolate croissant — solid
- Banana bread — moist and pleasant
- Cheese muffin — buttery, but lacking depth
- Almond streusel coffee cake — good flavor, slightly dry
To be fair, pastries aren’t my personal weakness — give me a donut any day — but the quality here was respectable overall.
Forks Given Score Breakdown
| Category | Score (1–5) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Food Quality | 4.2 | 40% |
| Value | 4.0 | 20% |
| Service & Experience | 3.2 | 15% |
| Ambiance & Environment | 4.0 | 10% |
| Execution vs Intent | 4.3 | 10% |
| Return Factor | 4.2 | 5% |
Final Forks Given Score: 4.0 / 5.0
The Quirks
- Self-serve water jug with no cups available at first
- Extremely limited seating during peak times
The Verdict
Friends & Family largely delivers on its promise. The breakfast burrito alone justifies a return visit, and the breakfast sandwich deserves another shot — this time with sausage. The coffee was the weak point, but not enough to significantly detract from the experience. If I’m in the area, I’ll be back.
