Having grown up in LA, I only now realize just how much I’ve always taken my city for granted. But now that I’m older, I’ve come to appreciate just how cool it is to be from a major global city and to be able to regularly visit places that are seen around the world in the movies. It makes me want to get to know my city on a deeper level. So I was thrilled when LA Ghost Tours reached out to me and offered to send me on one of their tours!

Because I’m a scaredy-cat, I opted to go for something tamer than the Terrors of Tinseltown or Boos and Brews Haunted Pub Crawl tour. Instead, I went for Flavors of Venice Beach Food Tour. That’s right up my alley.

It all started on a Saturday morning when I, along with my daughter and nephew, met our guide Bob around 11 am at The Cow’s End Cafe in Venice Beach.

The Cow’s End

First of all, I gotta give some love to that sign. What a show stopper.

Inside you’ll find more cow paraphernalia scattered around. Look around in all the nooks and crannies and you’ll be rewarded by fun little surprises.

Bob went in line to grab us some food while our group of 3 headed upstairs for a table. The vibes are warm, sunny, beachy – totally the kind of place I’d work from if I were a freelancer or writer. And although there was a bustling line downstairs, we found the upstairs section wide open and had our pick of where to sit.

While we waited, I looked around at all the photos hung around the walls with historical tidbits from Venice Beach’s past. Here are just a few fun ones:

Bob told us that The Cow’s End was opened in the late ’80s Clabe Hartley, a guy who grew up in Panama in a town whose name literally translates to “get out if you can” (!) His family did just that and moved to Chicago, then as an adult Hartley moved out West to California. There he discovered martial arts and eventually decided to open up The Cow’s End, a place where he could combine the neighborhood vibes of Chicago coffeehouses with healthy fare that suited the California lifestyle. He added the acai bowl as a nod to his Central American roots, and that’s what we ate for our first food on the tour. As a typical SoCal girl I’ve eaten a LOT of acai bowls. This was a solid traditional acai bowl and even came with coconut flakes on the side to add as a garnish (which my kids were against, of course, so we had it plain). Healthy, fresh, and surprisingly filling! We tried not to eat too much so we would have space for the rest of the food coming up on the tour.

Glad I finally tried The Cow’s End. I would love to go back with friends to try more of their food and have a cozy hangout upstairs.

Venice Canals

We left The Cow’s End Cafe and strolled across the street to the Venice Canals. They were built up by Abbot Kinney, the man whose original plan was to turn this beach town into a little Venice modeled after the city in Italy.

The area used to draw artistic countercultural types (and still does) but over the years more affluent people started to move into the area. Now when you walk the canals you’ll be seeing the homes of wealthy tv and silicon beach types. Apparently even the creator of The Simpsons bought a house along the canals.

I particularly enjoyed seeing these cool marine birds hanging out on boats around the canals.

We turned out of the canals into this cute little area between some apartments with LGBTQIA colored stepping stones (yay allyship!) and an abstract wave mural on the street. This took us to our next stop: tacos.

Guisado’s

Taco time! Guisado’s started in Boyle Heights, a part of LA that’s further inland. Their tacos got so popular that they now have several locations around the greater LA area including this spot in Venice.

They’re known for tacos that focus on the meat filling and are less concerned with the cilantro, onion, lime, etc. that you might be used to putting atop your typical street tacos.

The food is pared down – each taco just features a delicious homemade tortilla and filling, maybe with a garnish of sauce or onion. Each bite was satisfying and full of flavor. And they’re small – like authentic street tacos – so you can eat a lot of different kinds. We ordered a variety plate with birria, chicharron, and a few other kinds of tacos. Of course we ate it so fast that I only remembered to take a picture on my last taco! This is their chicharron.

The kids has quesadillas which were elevated compared to what we make at home – these were made with queso and a slab of meat. My daughter loved it.

Now that I’ve eaten here I need to go back and bring my husband along!

Venice Boardwalk

As a teen I spent almost every other weekend at the Venice Boardwalk and every time I go back, it feels the same. It’s chaotic, but comforting and familiar. Shops selling t-shirts, souvenirs, and quick food. Tattoo parlors, piercing shops, and smoke shops. Street art everywhere.

To me, this is always what I think of when I think of Venice Beach.

Muscle Beach

On the other hand, my kids’ only knowledge of Venice was the famed Muscle Beach so they were excited about this stop of the tour.

We saw the iconic workout area with some serious equipment, surrounded by plaques commemorating notable Muscle Beach Hall of Famers, including Joe Gold (the founder of Gold’s Gym). An extremely buff guy walked around setting up weights and making sure everything was in good shape. Dr. Dre and Nine Inch Nails were blasting on the speakers. Overall I think the kids were impressed. Also, shout out to the shop across from here with the over-the-top bodybuilder mannequin – that was a funny touch.

Venice Beach Skate Park

Strolling onward, we walked along the curved paths that snake through the sand and toward the skate park. We passed by these concrete cones that have all kinds of street art on them. Fun fact: what used to be rebel graffiti is now legal street art; the artists pay for canvas space on these concrete structures.

Then we were at the skate park. Surf and skate culture is a huge part of Venice Beach life and history so this was a key stop. In fact, the surf-inspired skateboarding style that exploded in popularity after the introduction of polyurethane wheels in the ’70s was born in Venice Beach! Lords of Dogtown (2005) is a great movie that paints a picture of this tidal cultural shift and was one of my favorite movies as a teenager. So watching skaters shred always feels nostalgic, plus it’s just fun to watch. My daughter and nephew probably found this the coolest part of the tour.

The Sidewalk Cafe

The next stop on our tour would have been another taco spot, but my kids needed a bathroom asap and prefer pizza over tacos anyway. So we decided to skip tacos #2 and head straight to the following spot on the tour: The Sidewalk Cafe, located on the boardwalk.

There’s tons of seating under a welcoming red and white awning that looks out on the boardwalk. There’s also a bar tucked inside further away from the boardwalk (which the kids loved walking past to get to the restrooms).

Here we got a BBQ chicken pizza (plus a plain cheese for the kids – not on the typical tour menu, but Bob made it work for us since we skipped the second taco spot). This was good pizza but at this point we weren’t hungry enough to finish it so I ended up taking our leftovers home (my husband devoured them later that night).

So you might be wondering, why is barbecue chicken pizza on this tour? Apparently there’s an argument about who started this unusual pizza topping – Wolfgang Puck, or the guy who used to work for him but then branched out to start California Pizza Kitchen. We may never know who deserves the credit, but we all win from having this as a pizza option in the world today.

The Sidewalk Cafe is also connected to a little bookstore called Small World Books. I love an indie bookstore so I’d definitely come back to check this place out and browse around for a good read.

The Pink Elephant

Finally it was time for dessert – the part the kids were most excited for.

The Pink Elephant is a cute spot along the boardwalk with an iconic (you guessed it) pink elephant sculpture in the front. If you’re a tourist this will make for great photos, especially with the Venice beach mural along the back wall.

They had a nice selection of classic ice cream flavors that I was happy to find out are from Thrifty. In case you don’t know, Thrifty ice cream used to be sold at Rite Aid which sadly closed down in 2025. Apparently you can still find Thrifty ice cream if you know where to look, but I think it’s a West Coast thing so won’t be available to everyone. I had a scoop of pecan praline in a sugar cone to close out the tour.

And if you’re traveling with chronically online kids (as I was), they’ll be thrilled to find The Pink Elephant has a wall full of Labubu/Pop Monster toys and this fantastically creepy Italian brain rot plushy 🥴

Conclusion

This was so fun!

If you’re planning a trip to Venice Beach I highly recommend booking this exact tour. It’ll save you the hassle of figuring out your own itinerary and all the spots you want to go, plus you literally get a personal guide and several pre-planned meals in an all-inclusive package. The whole thing takes under 3 hours and, if you want to spend the rest of the day in the area after the tour ends, you’ll have gotten a sense of places you want to go back to and check out further. (To be honest I’ll probably start booking food tours for future family trips in other cities because this was such an easy way to get to know a city without having to do any extra work.)

Plus, if you book this exact tour, you’ll still get an extra food stop with additional sights! I think we missed out seeing the main entrance to the Venice Boardwalk with the iconic V-E-N-I-C-E street lights sign and, of course, a second round of tacos.

And if you’re a local like me, turns out you’ll have a great time! Even though I grew up in this area this was my first time at any of these eateries. Going through all the familiar locations was different with a knowledgeable guide and extra fun since Bob is a movie nerd (ask him anything, seriously) and actually attended Venice High himself.

In fact, my takeaway was you should book a local food tour wherever you live. It’s a good time.

If you’re planning a trip to Venice Beach / the LA area, book your Flavors of Venice Beach Food Tour here: https://laghosttour.com/flavors-of-venice-beach-food-tour

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I’m a scaredy cat. But after learning from Bob that he does the haunted tours for LA Ghosts too – and that he’s actually a bit of a scaredy cat himself (or was he just being nice?) – I think I’m warming up to the idea of an LA Ghost Tour.

For you brave souls, check out the LA Ghost Tour site for their other offerings: https://laghosttour.com.

And it gets better! If you’re planning a trip anywhere else in the U.S. (or just want to go on a local tour near you, like I did) they also run ghost tours under the US Ghost Adventures (https://usghostadventures.com) and Lizzie Borden Ghost Tours (https://lizzie-borden.com/) brands.

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What’s your first 2026 adventure going to be? Book it now and let me know how it goes 🙂

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