I also recommend checking out Wing Hop Fung’s very unassuming Monterey Park store if you are around the SGV area. Lots of curiosities… Kee Wah also has a branch a couple doors down. My wife prefers this location over the one by the Focus plaza.
Also worth checking out is Action sales about 1/2 mile south on Atlantic, an excellent source for restaurant (and home) cookware. Located across the street from Elite.
Since no one else has mentioned it and stating the obvious… Beverly Hills???
Specifically Santa Monica Blvd, Camden, Beverly and Canon Drives (skip Rodeo) . Shopping & food galore …
Japanese knives
Nordic chic
Chocolates
Booze
Gelato
Pastries
Mattei biscotti
Steak
Massage parlor.… the list goes on…
The eastern end of Sunset in Silver Lake has really blown up in the past few years. Knuckle and Claw, N+M, Trois Familia, Pine and Crane, etc. Also some fancy ass stores (the new a.p.c., Clare v, shinola and all manner of other shit I can’t afford).
There are some truly awesome suggestions on this thread!
Completely horrible when I went. Pasta about as bad as you could find anywhere, limp, mushy, flavorless… it almost takes some kind of skill to mess up a basic carbonara so much. They destroyed an expensive piece of prime beef. The sides were super one-note and awful. Prices very high. Maybe they’ve improved, but they would have had a LONG way to go based on my time there.
Very strange, because Gusto is somewhat of an oft-forgotten hole-in-the-wall Italian gem on the same stretch of 3rd (same chef as well).
On that basic stretch of 3rd is AOC though, one of the best restaurants in LA. If you have your heart set on eating on 3rd, I find it virtually impossible not to recommend there.
If you’re on that stretch of 3rd you are barely a hop and a skip away from many, many tremendous restaurants though.
@Sgee thanks for the great suggestions. Yah of course I thought of Beverly Hills, but the last time I went shopping on Rodeo Drive, I kept thinking “This is like… 12 meals at Providence for this [item]!” “This is like 3 visits to Urasawa…” LOL. 
But I haven’t seen that Japanese Chef’s Knife shop (looks like fun), and some of the other suggestions you had. Thanks!
Must resist… handbags… 
Here’s another Japanese knife place on Wilshire, closer to La Cienega - Japanese Knife Imports. Kitchen jewelry!
Happy Shopping @Chowseeker1999
No watch shopping at Hing Wah Lee?
Side note (1): I was just here this past weekend and the parking was horrible. There was also construction near the Del Mar entrance so traffic was fucked going South.
Side note (2): plenty of frozen armadillo and raccoon in stock at Hawaii supermarket.
My bankruptcy court order forbids me from entering Hing Wah Lee.
Beverly Hills?
Other than Urasawa it seems to be like there are not many great restaurants there. I guess down on Beverly Maude is there, but you can’t just walk in really, the only other place I enjoy is Chaumont. I guess Wally’s, too, but my experience haven’t measured up to others there outside of the wine.
Well, there’s also Spago and CUT, and how quickly we forget the just-reviewed Yazawa by @J_L.
And let’s not overlook the obvious elephant in the room. THE STINKING ROSE!
Yeah, I guess so. I guess it’s just hard to remember some of the BH options as they never quite fit into that “I’m lazily shopping, and maybe I’ll stop in for a quick bite here and there while shopping” category. Spago does have the bar though, idk why I always forget about it.
Tempura Endo also just opened there as well.
Bouchon
And Wally’s.
and The Beverly Hills Cheese Shop.
Also Sushi Sushi
if you like lunasia (i don’t) you can now try the organic chinese supermarket next door.
Larchmont maybe? I don’t know… shopping is an dumb activity
Does anyone know if the Queen Mary in Long Beach is an interesting visit? Any good shopping to be done there or near there?
And more importantly, any great restaurants in the area? Or is it better to head off to the South Bay / Torrance? (the website says they actually have restaurants aboard the Queen Mary, but I have great hesitation about that (tourist trap?).)
Unless he’s bailed again, Sergio Penuelas is supposed to be killing it in Long Beach. Checko El Rey del Serandeado is what I got when I googled his name and “Long Beach.”