LA's Best Sweet Treats

LA’s Best Sweet Treats

There’s more to food in LA than quinoa and kombucha, sweet-tooths are also catered to with an indulgent array of high-cal treats. Here are our favourite LA sweet spots for that occasional sugar hit.

You’ll no doubt espy the queues coming out of Abbot Kinney’s Salt & Straw a mile off. This Portland-imported ice-cream dream draws sugar-seekers from across the city with its fabulous farm-to-cone flavours. Opt for the familiar, like sea salt and caramel, or go rogue with intriguingly inventive combos like black olive brittle and goat’s cheese.

You can’t miss Cake Monkey for its pastel-pink-frosting frontage; squeeze inside the postage-stamp patissier for the usual carby staples, like pastries, muffins, cookies and doughnuts, as well as inventive twists like the perfectly formed cakewich, a sort of mini bitesize layer cake. Creations range from peanut butter-marshmallow to raspberry red velvet; there’s even an option for coeliacs: a gluten-free vanilla sponge with pink buttercream, and a white-choc icing, while vegans can get their chops round a little dark chocolate number.

For the kind of pie that would have Agent Dale Cooper in a flap, look no further than the elegantly monikered Pie Hole. Their fourth SoCal outlet is but a quick scoot from The Peninsula, in the heart of Historic Hollywood, under the iconic Capitol Records building. Pair your organic, Fairtrade cuppa with a made-from-scratch slice sporting outrageously sinful toppings like blueberry crumble, peanut butter-jelly, and caramel apple; ours is the ‘Mexican Chocolate’, a rich cinnamon, nutmeg and pasilla-pepper cacao sensation topped with espresso whipped cream.

You may already know foodie go-to Bestia for its sensational pasta and nose-to-tail flava-raves, but one of the few things that never changes on Ori Menashe’s market-led chalkboard menu is the raved-about Chocolate Budino Tart. The bittersweet chocolate filling – which comes courtesy of local chocolatier and founder of Bar Au Chocolat, Nicole Trutanich – is a must-try for any hardcore choc addict. Resistance is futile.

Salt & Straw / 1357 Abbot Kinney Blvd / Venice / +1 310 310 8429 / 11am-11pm daily / saltandstraw.com

Cake Monkey / 7807 Beverly Blvd / Fairfax / +1 323 932 1142 / 7am-7pm Mon-Fri, 8am-7pm Sat, 9am-6pm Sun / cakemonkey.com

The Pie Hole / 6314 Hollywood Blvd / Hollywood / +1 323 963 5174 / 8am-11pm Mon-Fri, 9am-11pm Sat-Sun / + branches / thepieholela.com