You won’t find a cheeseburger on the menu at Zeidler’s Cafe at the Skirball Museum. In fact, you won’t find any meat here. Although Zeidler’s Cafe does not maintain a kosher kitchen, by not having meat they can easily observe kosher practices – like not using the same cookware and plates for meat and dairy. Even though there’s no meat offered, a carnivore can easily find dishes to enjoy on the cafe menu.
With the interactive Noah’s Ark at the museum, many families wind up eating at the cafe. There’s a kid’s menu where the little ones can choose from kid-friendly fare like pasta, grilled cheese and pizza.
For adults, there’s sandwiches, salads, pizzas, pastas and entrees. The pastrami salmon reuben was a interesting fish-based take on the classic reuben sandwich. Salmon, cured and coated with pastrami spices, is layered with sauerkraut, Swiss and Thousand Island dressing on toasted rye bread. While somewhat unconventional, it was delicious.
The vegetarian-friendly grilled portobello mushroom sandwich came with roasted peppers, red onion marmalade and mozzarella on an herb focaccia roll. The sandwich was tasty, though a bit messy to eat.
Sandwiches come with your choice of side – fries, fruit, pasta salad or coleslaw. I made the mistake of ordering fries, destroying whatever healthy benefit I might have hoped to reap by eating my vegetarian sandwich. I kept promising myself that I would not eat another fry, only to be fooling myself.
For a museum restaurant, Zeidler’s Cafe was better than expected. Service was good, and the dining room was bright and pleasant. It’s not the type of restaurant worth making a special trip for, but if you’re at the Skirball Museum, it’s a perfectly decent place to stop for a bite.
Location: Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles 90049
Website – http://www.skirball.org/visit/shopping-and-dining
Kid-Friendly – Yes
Kid’s Menu – Yes
Pesco-Vegetarian Friendly – Yes
Vegetarian Friendly – Yes
Vegan Friendly – Yes
Gluten-Free Options – Yes
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