The Infatuation Picked L.A.'s 13 Best Pancakes. Four Aren't in L.A.

Du-par's buttermilk recipe dates to 1938; a San Gabriel bakery stand serves blue corn mochi pancakes with ube sauce.

Four of the 13 best pancakes in Los Angeles aren't, strictly speaking, in Los Angeles. The list is The Infatuation's pancake guide, published September 11, 2026 by the food site's Los Angeles writers, and it runs out to San Gabriel, Alhambra, Burbank and Santa Monica.

That's a Saturday, not a stroll. The blue corn mochi pancakes belong to Baking With Ish, a Filipino bakery stand at 264 S. Mission Drive in San Gabriel, and the cornmeal mochi stack is at Yang's Kitchen, 112 W. Main Street in Alhambra. From most of the Westside, both are a freeway decision before you've had coffee.

The geography isn't the point. What's sitting next to what is.

We counted the entries: six of the 13 are diners by name or by the guide's own description. Du-par's, at 6333 W. 3rd St. in Beverly Grove, works from a buttermilk recipe the outlet dates to 1938, back when the operation was a nine-seat counter at 3rd and Fairfax. Pann's, under the Googie roof at 6710 La Tijera Blvd. in Ladera Heights, is there too, along with John O'Groats in Cheviot Hills, Max & Helen's on Larchmont Boulevard, and Clark Street Diner in Hollywood, whose buttermilk pancakes are made with Sonoran wheat.

The other half of the list doesn't look like that at all. Architecture Books, the bookstore cafe at 8010 Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood from the Community Goods team, sends out skillet pancakes with berries. Café Telegrama in East Hollywood does a skillet pancake with the syrup already soaked in. At Bea Bea's in Burbank, the matcha-and-mascarpone Green Tea Monster is one of 23 pancake options and the bestseller, according to the guide.

Redbird, downtown at 114 E. 2nd St., carries the oldest inheritance on the page. The outlet reports that the restaurant's chef brought the recipe over from BLD, which closed in 2017; the pancakes there come with ricotta and warm blueberries worked through the middle.

Rounding out the 13: Breakfast by Salt's Cure at 714 Montana Ave. in Santa Monica, where the oatmeal griddle cakes arrive under brown sugar butter and the kitchen's position is that you don't need syrup, and Henrietta at 343 Glendale Blvd. in Echo Park.

Henrietta's come with a catch worth knowing before you drive. Those pancakes only run at weekend brunch, and brunch doesn't start until 11:30 a.m.

Source: theinfatuation.com, retrieved September 14, 2026.