When it comes to croissants, Lodge Bread is my favorite in LA. It's not an easy pick, since the competition is fierce; and it's a pretty personal choice. I prefer Lodge because their croissants are made with sourdough. Oh yeah, delicious, mouthwatering sourdough.
Lodge's sourdough croissants have a crunchy crust and the bottom part doesn't get soggy, the texture feels hearty. Lodge's croissants are huge, heavy, filling, and the aromatic sourdough gets me every single time.
I visited Lodge Bread in Culver City four times and tried all four croissant variations every shop makes: butter, chocolate, almond, ham and cheese. I gotta say the plain one is still my favorite, for the pure sourdough taste. I also like the chocolate croissant since sourdough goes pretty well with dark chocolate. The ham cheese croissant, on the other hand, doesn't stand out with its caked cheese, cold ham and 6.5 price tag.
Lodge Bread offers a lot more than croissants. Its pastry menu includes cinnamon roll, banana and coffee cakes, bread pudding, monkey cake, and cookies. Moreover, it has a full menu of wood fired pizza, toasts, and sandwiches. Last but not least, it's called Lodge Bread for a reason: it makes delectable sourdough bread: country, seeded, olive, baguette, as well as a rotating menu of daily specials. I once had an onion & fennel loaf, and relished the unique flavor.
The pizza was amazing - the dough perfect. I was disappointed at the lack of tomato sauce on the potato & leek, and spinach & ricotta pizzas, although they were delicious. The hummus was creamy, perfect texture and balance with tahina. The Jerusalem bagel is the same shape and texture you get from bread in the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, but with a more whole wheat taste. The Vegan Cesar salad was actually my favorite part - the nutritional yeast somehow made it taste cheesey. We took the cinnamon roll home and ate it the next day. It's like a third of a loaf of bread, which we sliced in 5 and toasted, then topped with the buttery, sweet, but not overly sweet, icing. Superb. The try guys were right. My only disappointment was that we came for dinner expecting the whole menu, and they only had pizzas and salads in the evening, no Shakshuka or Sammies, which I had wanted to try. They have 9 large picnic tables along the sidewalk and a bunch of 2-tops right outside the front doors for people to eat there. Even though we were at the furthest table outside, the staff was attentive and great. ETA: can't for brunch at 1pm pm a Sunday. More room to sit. Had the shakshuka, which was delicious. The portions seem to have gotten smaller but still so yummy.
