Boardwalk 11 GASTROPUB and Karaoke — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Boardwalk 11:

My husband and I were looking for a venue that offers fun, food and a good space to entertain our friends and family for an evening to celebrate his retirement and my birthday.

As usual, we went online, did a search for those types of TAGS and came across Boardwalk 11.

We looked at most of the 500+ reviews already posted, including the negative ones. Some of those are really serious: Cold old food, roaches, bad service, etc.

Most people may have been persuaded to not even consider this place, but we thought: Can it really be THAT BAD?

The answer is NO! – We went the same day we did our research, parked in the parking lot (which is free valet [translation: If you eat or drink, incl. non-alcoholic drinks you only need to consider tipping the valet]), went inside and we started to look around.

The place was almost empty, but it was just a little after 6:30 PM on a Tuesday. There was a clear friendliness between patrons, bartender, server and newcomers like us.

We sat down near the bar, got a menu and were surprised about the prices as those are pretty competitive to other places.

Even though we felt “adventurous”, both of us ended up with the same dish: BBQ Chicken Tostada Salad. The shell was crispy, the salad fresh and the chicken tender. – It was good.

Still, having some of those negative reviews in mind, I kept looking for anything that would gross me out. I didn’t see anything. No Roaches, no bugs of any kind. In fact, the entire place was clean, inviting, and fun.

Our server also managed to bring the owner over to us. Which was nice, as I kept thinking about the negative review he got and I expected to meet a grumpy, old, unkempt, mean, horrid person. He is not.

Steve introduced himself and started chatting with us about the venue. He is open minded, courteous, and funny.

Even though things may change in the future, but for right now, and based on our first impression, we are looking forward to our little celebration at...

I went here to enjoy a karaoke night with a new friend and got a table near the karaoke host and close to the stage. The place itself was nice enough. Lots of comfortable seating. Good sound system. Nice branded stage with good lighting. They had a charging station but I ended up grabbing an outlet closer to my table to charge my phone.

It was St. Patrick's Day so my friend and I both ordered green beers which were featured on the menu. Basically they were green versions of Miller Light which worked for us.

We both put songs in with the karaoke host immediately upon arrival and settled in at our table to look through the karaoke book with our green beers. It was posted that we could only put one song in at a time so that's what we did. I was told the wait to sing was about an hour and a half. Not being terribly long we patiently waited our turns while being entertained by the other performers.

Two and a half hours and four beers later my friend and I had still not been invited up to sing yet and I would soon have to head home to get some sleep for work the next day so I asked the karaoke host again if he could work us into the lineup soon. He said we were 7 songs away. That would be another half an hour! 3 hours wait to sing one song??!! Which would have been twice his original estimate of one and a half hours. That was ridiculous and not ok.

Now mind you I watched certain performers get up there 2 or three times throughout the night while we waited to sing once. I am certain that the karaoke hosts math was not off when he gave the earlier time estimate but seemed to not value our time or have any integrity whatsoever and just put others before us time after time after time to add another 1.5 hours of singers between our first songs.

In the end I paid the bill and left after waiting 2.5 hours. Very...

Nice cozy karaoke spot to hang out with friends and meet new friends. It was my first time going. Went to celebrate a birthday on a Saturday night. I highly recommend arriving early to find decent parking on the street. The parking lot only holds about a dozen cars where it's shared between the other restaurants and stores in the same shopping strip. Prepare to walk a block or 2 because there are several restaurants and bars on the block and none of them offer parking, so everyone is looking for street parking as well as the residents that live in the area. Parking was free thankfully since it was after 7pm so that was a plus. If you are hungry, I suggest eating before or catching a late night spot after. Bar food is typically great especially when drinking, but that was the only 2 downfalls about this place. Food was less than mediocre with ridiculous pricing. Don't get excited by looking at the online menu before arriving, because that menu is old and they do not have half of the things you see. Idk if they were having an off night but the food was not worth the price. How do you mess up wings and salad? It's possible! The drinks were also inconsistent and overpriced. I ordered their specialty margarita that was supposed to be purple but it was red instead and tasted like old cough syrup and not the good kind. The server said the bartender is not that good, but I would have appreciated the honesty before wasting good money on horrible drinks. I'd advised against their "specialties" or anything too complex and just order standard simple mixed drinks with 2 ingredients or just take shots. Outside of the food and drinks, people were quite friendly and it was an overall great hang out place. It got really crowded so it's a popular place.I'd go again since now I know better. Have fun and sing...