Masa of Echo Park Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I’ve never left a bad review in my life, but felt inclined to after my family’s interaction with the staff here at Masa of Echo Park. Maybe we should’ve listened to the other poor reviews here on Google, because the individual who “helped” us today needs to seriously work on their attitude problems and customer service skills. We were traveling through the area with our 2 year old, and decided to place our pizza order online to avoid a long wait at the restaurant since we were on the road with a hungry toddler. We arrived to a slow, half empty shop with absolutely nobody sitting outside (so plenty of seating available both inside and outside) we decided to take a seat outside, and informed our server that we already placed our order online and he quickly greeted us with a rude, almost superior attitude like we were idiots for even thinking it would be ok to order online with the intention of dining at the restaurant. He told us we would not be allowed to eat our online order at the restaurant simply because it was placed online. We apologized and asked for a refund because we had nowhere else to eat our deep dish since we were traveling, to which he just laughed and scuffed and said “ummm no” regarding our refund. It got the point where we were practically begging for him to let us eat our online order at the table outside, and even told him we were willing to order additional items off the menu because we really wanted to give them our business and simply enjoy our lunch with our kid. He told us we could go ahead and order more items off the menu, but that he would only allow us to eat those items at the table, and NOT the pizza we purchased online ahead of time. Like — really?? Again.. the restaurant was practically empty. We would’ve totally understood the fuss had they been swamped with customers, but they weren’t. The fact he happily said he’d let us order more items off the menu but would only permit us to eat those specific items at the table like he was getting off to denying us seating for our online order just made my stomach churn. Beyond rude and controlling. He went on to say “nobody would allow you to eat your online order at the restaurant” yet — we took our deep dish from Masa just a couple shops down to Triple Beam Pizza, and politely asked them if we could use their outdoor seating to eat our pizza despite having not purchased it there, because Masa refused us seating, and the Triple Beam Pizza staff immediately told us yes, that that wasn’t a problem at all. So, we enjoyed our deep dish at the Triple Beam outdoor patio, and watched absolutely no customers sit outside at Masa. Word to the wise: if you want GREAT pizza and GREAT customer service, go to Triple Beam...

I’m so sorry for my rating.😭 it wasn’t completely bad, just disappointing.

Vibe, staff: Let me start off by saying that the people seem very friendly and spoke to me kindly. They even smile art you and you are being helped. The vibe inside was wonderful, dark, moody, felt like being in Seattle. It’s a great place to go without a group of friends or your partner.

About my experience:

I ate from this restaurant for the first time and it’s one of those times I realize I simply don’t need to go out and waste my money on restaurants. I can easily just cook at home. I feel blessed I have the skills to cook and I love to do more authentic takes on Italian food or Americanized Italian food. It’s cheap ingredients, great quality if you know where to look and not difficult to cook. It doesn’t even require many ingredients. I just don’t think it’s worth eating here, or any place that serves pizza and pasta. I wish I could get my money back. It was expensive, I relied on the reviews. I think my lesson is, never go to restaurant that serve foods that use basic ingredients for basic dishes. It’s over priced. I paid $3 extra dollars for a little sprinkle of red onion on my pizza. What a shame. I thought it should be fine, people seem to love the food, i would be worth it. I guess it depends on the person. Clearly people love it here, people should come and give it a chance. But when you are someone who loves to cook and you realize that you can do just as well or even better than restaurants, is it worth going? Maybe when you don’t want to cook, sure, but this place made me think that even if I don’t want to cook, I think I just might cook at the end of the day.

The first note of pizza sauce tasted metallic, but the more I ate, it tasted fine. I wish it was more tangy and that the sauce was a bit more smoother rather than chunky. If you hate the texture of tomatoes or dislike chunky sauces, this isn’t for you. Alfredo sauce split, although I won’t blame them since I did order to go. I can still smell it on my lips, it smells rancid. 🥲 vegan breadsticks don’t taste good. I didn’t find non vegan breadsticks, maybe I missed it? The butter/oil didn’t taste pleasant, nor did the garlic taste good on there. But it’s not worth the price either, you can EASILY make this at home. Forget the bread!

Everything I ordered was vegetarian/vegan. I love meat but for religious reasons, I couldn’t have the meat here. But if the food is going to be any good, I’d probably go with anything that has meat.

I suggest baking the pizza and bread at home to get the crust crunchy for that texture experience some people love if you order to go. To cut through the heaviness of any cream sauce, just add lemon...

I finally dined in and the pizza is even better freshly served to ME, ME, ME (hence 4 to 5 stars)!!!

The restaurant is a lot more casual than I expected, so you can come dressed up or down. They don't take reservation, unless you have a big party since the restaurant is mainly set up for party of fours. Call ahead if you and your friends are having a pizza party!

This restaurant is known for their deep dish pizza as my waitress told that the owner is from Chicago and the pizza is very, very authentic. I would order the pizza ahead of time because it takes approximately 45 minutes for it to bake. Tonight, I ordered 'The Traditional' (Sausage with Mushrooms) because it is always a good idea to start of with the Basic and I've been craving for it every since my last visit! If you order the large pizza, it can feed 6 girls or 4 guys. The price difference is not much, so I would always opt out for the large to take leftovers home. This pizza has tons of tomato chunks in every bite and the top layer of sausage is just a delight! Imagine....layer of sausage on top, slices of mushrooms underneath with the support of tomato chunks, and the crust that holds it all together! Yum!!! My friends that hate tomatoes had to bow down and admit that this was a damn good pizza!

I was in a party of four and we ordered the Pizza, Cesar salad, Artichoke dip, and the Bread pudding. Everything was devoured except 3 slices of pizza! Their Cesar is big enough to split and it's well made with every single romaine lettuce covered with dressing, but not too heavy. The Artichoke dip was great as well. It wasn't the typical blended Artichoke dip; it was a good hearty Artichoke dip with pieces of Artichoke that you can actually see! The loaf of bread that came with it was warm and fresh, plus! And last but not least, the bread pudding! It came out like a slice of pie and it was warm and gooey....besides the pizza, their bread pudding is a rockstar at Masa! Get it!!!

Overall, a great meal. Want to know a secret? We also finished 2 bottles of wine we brought ourselves with NO CORK FEE! Super plus!

Service was awesome, but parking is a pain. Once again, the streets of LA loves to challenge me to find parking. There's some meter for 2-hours or 1-hour on Sunset Blvd, so pay attention. Street parking is free after 8pm for the most part, but it's harder to find parking as the night goes...