Where to Eat near Port of Los Angeles

Order shrimp by the pound at the counter, watch it hit the grill, and eat it on an outdoor deck over the water.

Order: One Shrimp Tray fed a family long before it fed the internet — grilled shrimp with peppers and onions, served on a tray the table shares. Plain grilled fish and fries cover the child who will not eat anything with a shell.

Pro tip: Nobody is quiet here and nobody minds, which is the whole appeal with small children. It is counter service, so somebody stays with the table while somebody else orders. The Ports O' Call village that used to surround it is gone; the wider West Harbor project replacing it was still opening in stages when we checked on 2026-08-17.

A plain diner breakfast at 7am, every day of the week, ten minutes from the terminal gate.

Order: Pancakes, eggs and bacon, omelets. Nothing on the breakfast menu needs explaining to a seven-year-old, which is the point on boarding morning.

Pro tip: The 7am open runs seven days a week with no weekend exception, so it survives an early boarding time. It closes at 3pm, so it cannot also be your dinner the night before.

One kitchen that covers a 9am breakfast and a 7pm dinner, so a family with one fussy eater only has to negotiate once.

Order: Breakfast plates early, sandwiches and pasta later. The menu is broad enough that a table of five ordering five different things is normal here.

Pro tip: Ask for the patio if the weather holds — outdoor seating buys a lot of patience from a bored child. Sunday it closes at 2:45pm, which rules it out for a Sunday-night dinner.

Neighborhood pizza on 6th Street, five minutes from the terminal and the safest order in town with children in tow.

Order: Pizza is the reason to come. Pasta and salads round it out for the adults at the table.

Pro tip: A pizza nobody argues about is worth more the night before a cruise than a meal somebody has to be talked into. We could not read its posted hours from a source we trust on 2026-08-17 — its own website would not load a valid certificate — so call before you go.

Handmade chorizo on a quiet residential corner, served on plates with eggs and in tacos through the morning.

Order: Chorizo and eggs is the plate to get. The red Zacatecas chorizo is milder than the green Toluca style, which matters if you are feeding a child who does not do heat.

Pro tip: A morning-only shop, so it is a boarding-day breakfast and never a dinner. We could not confirm its posted hours from a first-party page on 2026-08-17; recent listings put it at Wednesday to Sunday mornings, so call rather than assume.

Breakfast and brunch at the south end of Pacific Avenue, where the omelets are the size of the plate.

Order: Omelets, waffles and pancakes. Portions run large enough that two children can reasonably split one order.

Pro tip: Further from the terminal than the downtown diners, which is exactly why it is the one to try when a cruise weekend has filled everything closer in. We could not read its posted hours from a source we trust on 2026-08-17, so call ahead.

The burger stop at the end of the LAX runway, where the planes come in low enough to stop a table of children mid-fry.

Order: Burger, fries and a shake. Order the fries well done if you have opinions about fries.

Pro tip: This is the answer to a landing at LAX with tired children and an hour to fill before the drive south. It sits at the end of runway 24R, so arrivals pass overhead low and often — the entertainment is free and it works on adults too. Open to 1am most nights, later on weekends.

Sawdust on the floor, communal benches, and a French dip carved to order since 1908 — a downtown Los Angeles stop that entertains itself.

Order: A French dip in beef, pork, turkey, ham or lamb. Go easy on the house hot mustard with children — it is genuinely hot, which is half the fun and half the problem.

Pro tip: Open 6am to 10pm daily and closed only on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, so it absorbs a delayed flight. You queue at a carving counter and carry your own tray, which suits children who cannot sit still through table service.

A dark-wood British pub on 7th Street, reopened under new owners and still the closest thing downtown has to a proper snug.

Order: Burgers and pub plates are what the current kitchen leads with. Ask what is on cask or draft rather than ordering from memory — the beer list turns over.

Pro tip: Closed Monday and Tuesday, which catches out a lot of cruise passengers arriving the day before a Sunday sailing. It also opens at 4pm midweek, so this is a night-before dinner rather than a boarding-morning plan. The pub's own site warns that closing times move with demand and with sporting events.

White-tablecloth Italian on 7th Street, the room San Pedro books for anniversaries and the night before a big trip.

Order: Pasta and veal are the backbone of the menu. The kitchen does a serious Caesar and a long wine list for a room this size.

Pro tip: Book ahead for the night before you sail — this is the dressiest room in walking distance of downtown, and a cruise weekend fills it. We could not read its posted hours from a page we trust on 2026-08-17, so call before you set a time.

A corner market up the hill that has been building oversized sandwiches to order since the 1970s, with nowhere to sit.

Order: The pastrami is what the line is for. Everything is made to order at the counter, so decide before you get there.

Pro tip: Takeout only — there is no dining room, so this is a sandwich you eat in the car or carry aboard. Listings we read on 2026-08-17 disagreed about which weekdays it opens and whether it takes cards, so bring cash and call first rather than driving up the hill on faith.

A 7th Street coffee house that opens at 6:30am, which is earlier than almost anything else within walking distance downtown.

Order: Espresso drinks and loose-leaf tea, plus pastries. It is a coffee stop, not a breakfast destination.

Pro tip: The useful thing here is the opening time — a 6:30am coffee before a morning drive to the terminal. Its own site showed only the current day's hours when we read it on 2026-08-17, so do not assume every day starts that early.