Carney's

What is Carney's?

The restaurant is built into old Union Pacific rail cars painted yellow and perched above the Sunset Strip. The menu centers on hot dogs and burgers, and frozen bananas dipped in chocolate appear among the desserts. It is a casual counter-style place, suited to a quick meal rather than a long dinner.

Carney's has a second location in Studio City, on Ventura Boulevard, also housed in train cars. The Sunset location has shown up in video games too, including Grand Theft Auto V, where it becomes a diner called Last Train in Los Santos.

History of Carney's

The rail cars arrived on Sunset Boulevard in 1978, hauled to West Hollywood at considerable cost, and the restaurant has been a fixture of the Strip since. It won fans among critics. Bob Shaw, a movie critic at KTVU, liked its burgers, and Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold included it among his 99 essential Los Angeles restaurants, describing it as true to the city's character. He pictured the colorful parade of the Strip passing its windows, from musicians and models to office workers and tourists.

Visiting Carney's: tips

Restrooms are on site. Carney's is on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, so it works as a quick lunch between Hollywood sights. Allow 30 to 45 minutes, and pick a seat by the windows to watch the traffic on Sunset roll by. Madame Tussauds Hollywood is about 1.8 miles away and the Hollywood Museum about 1.9 miles away.