House of Bluessimilar businesses >

323-848-5100
City's Best

8430 W Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Fax: 323-650-0237

Average Rating 4 (33 Ratings)

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A restaurant, bar and concert hall in one, the House of Blues is a Sunset Strip favorite. The House's Cajun backwoods theme arrived just when themed restaurants and venues started becoming popular cultural consumption junctions. However, unlike other strictly marketed "cultural" venues, the House of Blues feels like it actually has real history attached to it. Still, even this is partially an illusion considering House of Blues, Inc. is slowly becoming an entertainment powerhouse. Regardless, the venue offers great lighting, sound and a just-the-right-size capacity. Shows offer the intimacy of a small venue combined with the production value of a larger one. Acts vary tremendously -- ranging from the Doobie Brothers to the Wu-Tang Clan. The food and beverage prices and selections are comparable to the predictable fare offered by pseudo-eclectic, California-themed restaurants. The crowd varies from night to night, making the venue's clientele as diverse as a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant combined with an LA dive bar, and the House's Sunday Gospel brunch is still as popular as ever.

Categories: Restaurants-Barbecue, Concert Bureaus, Restaurants

Picture for House of Blues

33 Ratings and Reviews

  • horrible.

    Review rating : 1out of 5   IXIsweptawayIXI - 11/23/2008

    i thought this was going to be such a great place, but as it turns out, the place sucks, and the service sucks as well. Jim, the general manager of the place is a jerk and makes empty promises to visitors. When he talks to you, he makes you feel like an absolute idiot. A friend of mine introduced me to him once, and he was all friendly, telling me to call him if i ever needed anything. Well, when that day came, he was acting like I made it all up. If you want to come to a club and not leave frustrated, DO NOT COME TO THIS PLACE. Try the one in san diego or anaheim instead. it'll be a huge mistake.

  • You like the food at Disneyland?

    Review rating : 1out of 5   EDDYBABY58 - 07/09/2008

    This sorry excuse for so-called Cajun and Soul food is pathetic. No place to sit, poor slow service and overpriced crap food that is no better than the fried turds you get at Disneyland along with the horrid parking situation and bad sound make for an absolutely forgettable evening at this dump. Go to a REAL dump and get some value for your money, along with great music, good seats, and cheap beer and plentiful parking. Go to Babe's and Ricky's in Leimert Park on Monday nights for the live blues jam. The real deal too, not some overpriced Hollywood wanna-be's or fat over the hill 70's rock band cashing in, just good honest blues music played for the love of the music. You can get in for 8 bucks and that covers the cost of a meal with fried chicken, black-eyed peas, collard greens, sausages, cornbread, potato salad, and sometimes sweet potatoes. Good stuff. Forget the HOB, leave that to the turistas and rubes.

  • Review rating : 5out of 5   Psychodan83 - 05/24/2008

  • Parking sucks

    Review rating : 2out of 5   Musicsalad - 05/16/2008

    Parking sucks. They charge WAY too much. And all the lots around there are way too expensive. $20 to park a car? LAME. Otherwise I like the place

  • Good but not great...

    Review rating : 3out of 5   miditrax - 10/01/2007

    Getting there/parking -

    This HOB venue is off Hwy. 101, in Hollywood. Parking on Sunset Strip is at a premium; I self-parked for $10 in a lot across the street, by the Comedy Store. The HOB also has $10 valet parking but I have heard complaints about the long wait for one's car after concerts. Walked across and down the rather steep hill around the corner to the box office, paid about $40 for my ticket, then walked down into the parking lot (their Porch restaurant and VIP rooms are on the upper street level). Got there about 20 mins. early and waited by the big double doors - didn't seem to be a big line this early autumn Sunday...

    Seating/the Buffet -

    The doors opened a bit after 1pm. There's a sign showing the venue capacity at about 230 - when everybody arrived it seemed about 2/3 full. I was shown to a rickety folding chair seat at the end of a long table behind the salad station (I kid you not - I could probably reach for a shrimp!) but it had a good sideline view of the stage. The buffet seemed standard fare for a brunch but not remarkable. Self-serve coffee/tea, couple of omelet stations, plus the usual breakfast, salad, hot dishes, carving station, bagels, muffins and other desserts. A waiter offered soft drinks but brought me water when I asked. There were only a few Southern dishes - biscuits/gravy, grits, chicken, mac/cheese - I expected more. The best dessert was the bread pudding. I tried a bit of the jambalaya, but like much of the food, it was nothing special.

    The Entertainment -

    After recorded gospel/jazz music with the buffet, the curtain went up and the live concert started at 1:45pm. The volume also went up; there seemed to be an imbalance of the mix out to the house that made the bass way too heavy, at the expense of the keyboards and the backup vocals (lead vocals were fine). That was improved about halfway through the hourlong show.

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