Picture it, Beverly Hills 2022. The Golden Girls Kitchen is a pop-up experience taking place now through October. Your ticket includes one entrée and one slice of cheesecake. The time slots are for a 90-minute experience. Pricing varies depending on the date and time that you choose. Seating is assigned upon arrival. You will either be led to the bar, a table in the main room, or to a table on the lanai (patio).
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Immersive pop-up experiences take place very often in Los Angeles. One of the best ones that we have had so far was the Saved By the Max experience. I do have to admit that Saved By the Bell inspired pop-up was so good that it has been difficult for other pop-ups to live up to it. I would rate Saved By the Max a 10/10 while I would rate The Golden Girls Kitchen a 7/10. I do think if you are a big fan of Golden Girls this is an experience worth having, but I do want to share my honest review to help you manage your expectations and get the most out of your visit.
We spoke with LA adventurer Lena from Lenazilla on Instagram for the LA Dreaming Podcast all about pop up experinces in LA. You can listen to the podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, or Podbean.
Tickets
This can be a pricey experience for what you get. I selected a 6 pm to 7:30 pm time slot which came to $56.12 per person. The cheapest time slot starts at $39 per person and goes up to $55 plus taxes and fees. Originally I looked at getting tickets for my husband and me to go together on a weekend. It was going to be over $120 for the two of us which felt like way too much for what this experience is. I then decided to go during the week and looked for a fellow Golden Girls fan to join me. While my husband would have been fun to take with me, he isn’t a big fan of the show. To me, for the price, this is only worth doing if everyone is a big fan of the show. You can find tickets here.
Parking
There are a few metered parking spaces directly in front of the venue. I believe these are only good for one hour so even if it is available it isn’t the best choice. I parked in a structure at Roxbury and Santa Monica. It is $2 or $3 an hour. You can park there for three hours from 9 am to 6 pm. Parking is free after 6 pm. It is less than five minutes to walk from this structure to the Golden Girls Kitchen. If you use address 450 N Roxbury Drive it should bring you to the parking structure. Exit the structure on the Bedford side and walk south to the pop-up. The first two hours of parking might be free at 461 N Bedford Drive as well.
The Golden Girls Kitchen Pop Up Experience
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What to Wear
When I was planning out my outfit I went back and forth on wearing a Golden Girls shirt or dressing up like one of them. I ended up wearing a bathing suit cover-up that I had that goes with the theme of Blanche’s bedroom. I did see a few people wearing Golden Girl shirts and one girl brought a purse that looked like Sophia’s.
Amazon has some fun costumes you can get if you want to look like one of the girls. You can also find some fun t-shirts themed to the show as well here.
Whether you wear it or not, I would recommend bringing a jacket to leave at the table. My friend and I had gotten up to get photos of our cheesecake before we ate it. We went over to the kitchen to get a few photos with our cheesecake, other than a phone there are no props for photos in the kitchen which was a bummer. So I decided to use my own cheesecake as a prop in the kitchen. You can lift up the coffee pot but since there are no cups it didn’t make sense to hold that. Not having props isn’t a major deal but it did feel like it was a small touch that would have made it an even more immersive experience.
The only downside to temporarily walking away with our cheesecake was that when we came back to the table our water and my friend’s fork were gone. It took a moment before we could find a staff member to help us get more water and another fork. I would be careful about everyone leaving the table while there if you are not done with your food. I have a feeling that like our water, it would be removed.
We didn’t have a jacket or anything to leave at the table so I guess when we got up with the cheesecake for photos they just assumed we were done. I feel like if the experience is good for 90 minutes, that table is yours for that time. But, they are letting some people in early so you could accidentally lose your table if you don’t have something to leave behind to save it.
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The Food
The Golden Girls Kitchen entrée options are:
- Sophia’s Lasagna Al Forno with garlic bread
- The Lanai – a Cuban sandwich with fries and a small salad
- Bacon Lettuce Potato Sandwich with fries
- The Rose Marie Soup and Salad Combo
There are additional sides and sweets that you can order like cheeseballs, sperheoven krispies, genurkenflurgen cake, a clown sundae, and Blanche’s Georgia style cookies. You can also order specialty drinks from the bar.
Tip is not included which I am embarrassed to say that I thought it was. I only know now because I was doing more research for this post but I assumed it was included since there was no signage or anything on site to remind us that it wasn’t included. Honestly, we maybe saw our server twice? But still, I would have tipped had I realized at the time that it wasn’t included.
The Photo Ops
I thought even the entrance looked really cute with The Golden Girls out front. There is a cute Thank You For Being a Friend sign you can get photos with. The lighting is not great at this spot but it’s still cute.
There is also the kitchen and Blanche’s bedroom.
I had hoped that they might have a little kitchen table with some fake cheesecake or something for photo ops or a mini living room set with the iconic couch. The photo ops are cute but all in all, there’s just not much to see or take photos with. I feel like props would really add to the experience by giving the photo ops a little something extra.
Is The Golden Girls Kitchen Worth It
Overall I am very glad that I went. I love The Golden Girls and enjoyed the effort put in to make this immersive pop up experience for fans. I thought the food was decent for a pop up, the chocolate cheesecake was definitely my favorite part food-wise. There were three other things that I think would have helped make this experience even better.
They played music but at no point did I ever hear the theme song, the song that Rose and Dorothy sing for a competition or the transition music used on the show. I didn’t need to hear those things on a loop throughout my 90-minute experience but maybe every 30 minutes it would have been nice. I was honestly shocked to not hear any of that.
For those sitting at the Shady Pines Bar they had an episode of the show playing. However, there was no sound which was understandable, but there was also no closed captioning. I just found that odd that if anyone actually wanted to watch while they ate they wouldn’t even be able to read the captions.
I also wish the staff used themed phrasing to help immerse you into the experience more. I think it would be wonderful if they welcomed you to either Miami or to Blanche’s house upon arrival. A little use of “picture it” or a St. Olaf reference would have been great. Some might argue that I’m being a little too picky but with how many pop up experiences I have been to I truly feel that the more little things you can do to bring us into the world you’re creating, the more the fans will appreciate the passion and effort put into bringing this to life.
I am really happy that this pop up exists and would encourage fans to go. I would encourage you to go to this experience to have fun but not to have too high of expectations when it comes to the food or the photo ops.
You can also take a drive over to the Golden Girls House. It is now owned by someone else so I am not sure how visible it still is from the street but when I visited in 2020 you could still see the house from the street.
