<p>We’ll be meeting our son at the airport Marriott Thanksgiving day and staying over night before we go off to Palm Desert. Does the Marriott have a decent resturant? Any nearby hotel dinning rooms or resturants? I really don’t want to be driving all over.</p>
<p>Suggestions would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Stayed at the Embassy Suites at LAX on way to Mexico and liked the resturant. Was decent enough to eat there during the layover on the way back.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the LAX airport Marriott, but I’ve eaten in a lot of Marriotts and enjoyed all of the meals. Not great, but certainly adequate.</p>
<p>Go to the Encounter. A fun kind of LA experience. (Not a traditional place for Thanksgiving,kind of touristy, but I think that it would be fun.)</p>
<p>I don’t know if they are open on Thanksgiving, but you could call.</p>
<p>It is across the street from one of the terminals, has valet parking.</p>
<p>Find out more on their web site.
<a href=“http://www.encounterrestaurant.com/encounter_dining.html[/url]”>http://www.encounterrestaurant.com/encounter_dining.html</a></p>
<p>I think that you should be starting with the question “What will be open Thanksgiving?”, rather than the question of how good the food is at various places. Having had Thanksgiving family dinners at restaurants in my home town, my experience is that few restaurants are open, and those that are may require advance reservations.</p>
<p>We’ve found that a good number of hotels have Thanksgiving lunch/dinner. Some are sit-downs, some buffets. Send a few emails and I’m sure you can find some place to eat.</p>
<p>I often have five to six hour layovers at LAX. Generally, I throw my stuff in the airline lounge, put on my tennies–and take a 20 minute/ $35 cab ride out to Santa Monica. Very easy and I have yet to miss an international flight!</p>
<p>There are heaps of nice restaurants–some overlooking the beach and the sunset and some in The 3rd Street Promenade Shopping District which is within a few walkable blocks from the beach and pier entrance. <a href=“http://www.thirdstreetpromenade.com/bdining.html[/url]”>http://www.thirdstreetpromenade.com/bdining.html</a></p>
<p>TheDad should be able to give specific restaurant recs–if he knows of any that serve USC students and parents ;)?</p>
<p>Anyway, it’s a real break from the LAX neighborhood and surprisingly easy to get to/from LAX. Bottom line–why eat at a Marriot if you don’t have to? (Also, we have eaten at the Encounter. That is not a Thanksgiving dinner kind of atmosphere. Says me).</p>
<p>Have fun!</p>
<p>In Santa Monica you’d have lots of options… is 72 Market Street still going? Rockenwagner in Venice, Chinois on Main…</p>
<p>PM Kirmum, a foodie from the LA area.</p>
<p>In Santa Monica there are also killer hotels. Shutters anyone?</p>
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<p>LA is a pretty big town. With the possible exception of a few little mom and pop places, restaurants there are not going to be closed on Thanksgiving. They’ll be serving their special Thanksgiving meals.</p>
<p>Cheers, TSDad has a special dispensation from me, his son’s association with the Dark Side notwithstanding, at least his son is in a Program of Light while at the Dark Side, capsice?</p>
<p>TSDad, drop me an e-mail, noting any kinds of preferences in cuisine. I’ll have several options for you.</p>
<p>Go to this page:
<a href=“http://marriott.com/property/abouthotel/restaurants/laxap?WT_Ref=mi_left[/url]”>http://marriott.com/property/abouthotel/restaurants/laxap?WT_Ref=mi_left</a></p>
<p>You will see that the LAX Marriot has 3 restaurants and also has a telephone number. Call the hotel and ask if any of the restaurant features a thanksgiving buffet and if so, make reservations.</p>
<p>I have eaten at several thanksgiving or holiday buffets at 2 Marriotts in the SF Bay area, and they were always lavish and very good. (My folks like to stay at the Marriott). Not cheap, but not unduly expensive either. </p>
<p>It can be very confusing if you are not familiar with LA to drive around searching for a restaurant, and basically if you head off in the wrong direction from LAX you might find yourself in neighborhoods that don’t look all that inviting. (Hint - head North and/or West from the airport, not Southeast) Lots of restaurants have wonderful Thanksgiving fare, but you probably do need reservations… and I honestly have to say that I’ve never had a bad meal at the Marriott. So if I were in your shoes, I’d take the lazy way out and book at the hotel. Obviously if you want to be adventuresome, you can do better… but then again, there is no cost to make a reservation at a restaurant. You can always change your mind later.</p>
<p>Wow. Thanks everyone. What a reliable group.</p>
<p>We usually stay at the Marriott on South Figueroa, but since we’re not doing the USC thing this time it makes sense to stay at the airport and head out to Palm Desert the next morning. </p>
<p>TheDad: I know your attitude about Palm Desert but I really like it. I’ve been there in August (I will never, never, never do that again), and October (great weatrher), so it will be interesting to see what it will be like in late Novemeber. Supposed in should be in the 80s, which sounds perfect to me. It surely will not be that temperature in Madison in late November.</p>
<p>I really don’t want to do much driving in LA even on Thanksgiving day. I’ve driven for years in the Washington DC rush hour, in NYC when I was younger, and crossed University Ave. and Campus Drive on foot in Madison (which is scarier in many ways then driving in DC and NYC), but I am unwilling to do anything but the most basic driving in LA. I absolutely refuse to drive there at night except back and forth from USC to our hotel.</p>
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<p>I would say avoid driving there ESPECIALLY on Thanksgiving day. Every year my brother-in-law drives down from Bakersfield to spend Thanksgiving with us in San Diego, and it always takes him hours to navigate the jammed LA freeways. Too many people are out there going over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house…</p>
<p>Coureur, we’ve gone down to San Diego for the holidays and it’s pretty clear sailing on Thanksgiving day until we hit South Orange County. Now your b-i-l coming from Bakersfield might be on the 5 all the way…South Orange County is where the 5 and 405 join and we generally pay the three bucks or whatever it is just to take the tollroad that cuts off about 20 minutes. But past Camp Pendleton is generally very sluggish and near the 805 (??) junction you can just about give up.</p>
<p>But getting around the Westside is almost like one of those disaster movies where everybody is gone. LAX to Westside should be duck soup.</p>
<p>Actually, to be really safe, you could go to Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach. These are adajacent to LAX; you could take a cab easily. There are plenty of nice restaurants there; if that plan interests you PM me and I will call my BIL (who loves to dine out and lives in Hermosa.)</p>
<p>I agree with TheDad, in-town travel in midst of a big holiday mealtime is probably some of the best driving you’ll see all year.</p>
<p>tsdad? are you an old codger who would preside over his family’s Thanksgiving dinner in a Marriott rather than take a cab to a nicer, more intimate venue? I assume this dinner might include S’s gf?</p>
<p>I don’t know if we can be friends, hon…</p>
<p>You know, cheers, over the years we’ve had a lot of Thanksgiving dinners in restaurants, and one good thing about them has been that very few really nasty family fights get going in restaurants–too hard to stalk out in a fury! So I remember Thanksgivings in big impersonal restaurants with some affection.</p>
<p>Which I think probably says more about my extended family than it does about anything else. (My mother used to pick a fight with at least one of us EVERY SINGLE YEAR.)</p>
<p>But this year we’re going back to a nice French restaurant in Vancouver, BC and staying in a very nice hotel that welcomes the dog. And we’re all very excited about it. (We being my husband, my D and a friend, and myself. And the dog, of course.) (But I don’t know if she’s excited about it or not. The dog, I mean. My D is.)</p>
<p>haha dmd. Just trying to get tsdad out of his hotel and into a nicer restaurant. </p>
<p>We don’t even celebrate it overseas.</p>
<p>TsDad, my mom lives in Palm Desert as my parents have had a home there for years and I have been there quite a lot, pretty much every year.</p>