The fam (parents / sister) is visiting LA over the holidays. I am but a lowly renter. We are looking to celebrate NYE somewhere at a restaurant-ish situation. I am a NYC transplant so I think the fam is trying to understand LA’s equivalent to “ball drop” (not that we have ever gone while I was there).
Do you have any recommendations?
We like food, asian food. The parents I think want an nye countdown. I’m just north of DTLA
I am not sure if we can actually do an extended tasting menu (health etc, we are all watching our cholesterol lol)
Yamashiro Hollywood comes up as an option. has anyone been?
Is the Grand Park countdown cool/chill? is it safe? is it something LA people “do”?
Is the right move here just to eat somewhere for dinner & go to grand park countdown ?
Not done it myself but at least a few /reddit threads on the topic. Here’s one w/ some variety to the responses (sounds like it might be fun, but I doubt it’s anything close to the ball drop…. I don’t think LA, being LA, doesn’t have the equivalent of a ball drop). At least one post commented on difficult parking.
Partner and I grew up here, and we’ve basically given up on anything other than being cozy at home or attending a small get together w/ long-time friends.
I have gone, although not in the last two years. It’s fun if you like music and people watching. Generally it’s very chill.
You should pre-game it. There are a number of food trucks, but the lines are long and honestly it’s better to eat at home or get reservations somewhere.
You should metro in. In the two years that have passed, you can now get to Grand Park directly from the E or A line (broadway station), before it was just the subway. Either way you go, even if you do drive in for dinner somewhere, park at one of the public lots (I do the one behind Pine and Crane, it’s a Metro lot so it charges you as you come in) and then take the train in. It’s not your usual Metro experience, lots of folks, good vibes.
This will probably disappoint you but LA/So Cal is not a NYE town at all. Driving after midnight is not appealing at all.
House parties/potluck. You can really have fun with this getting a big variety of Asian food.
Going out to dinner then back home. SGV, Thai Town, Koreatown.
Local bars. Lots of cool bars in Northeast LA and surrounding areas (Los Feliz, Echo Park).
An actual NYE event that I think is cool is the Queen Mary in Long Beach. You probably don’t want to make that drive back though. If you get an Airbnb or room. You wil be able to hit up some good Asian food. South Bay has Japanese, Hawaiian, Pakistanian, and Korean. Some Japanese places might be close for a week or so. Long Beach has Cambodia Town and if you go into Orange County you have Little Saigon, Koreatown Garden Grove, and Little Arabia. If this is an option than I can help you find a place. Also some of the best beer in LA is in the South Bay.
New Years Day. Rose Parade and Rose Bowl (if they are into that). A hike up to Griffith Observatory. Hitting up the beach. Lots of Asian places are open on 1/1 (as mentioned earlier Japanese places may not be opened as many go back to Japan).
Yep! This is tons of fun too. You don’t have to spring for $$$ tickets or camp overnight. You just need to get up early and have patience. I usually try to get to a spot further down Colorado and use the A line Allen stop to walk onto Colorado. Bring warm clothes, comfy shoes and a thermos with something warm. It really is something worth seeing at least once.
Other options are staying home and watching the parade/game with an Osechi. There is a post here with some options to order ahead or for something simpler, Soba is another traditional new years food. Some places and markets sell fresh noodles.
Seeing the floats up close and personal when all you’ve seen it is on TV is indeed an amazing experience. Get there early. The crowds become super annoying later in the day.
I wish I had a place to recommend for NYE. But I go to sleep at like 10, because I get up early to go watch the parade from the rooftop of a restaurant on Colorado Boulevard.
Thanks all for the recommendations !!! I feel like I got a great education from this thread
They are pretty deadset on at least one tourist (trap) experience. So we will probably hit up Grand Park.
Definitely they want to see the rose day parade! I didn’t realize it was so early. Probably will do that and just drag them on a food crawl in SGV for some proper food at that point… thanks all for the protips!
