Los Angeles Salted Caramel Sweets Worth Seeking

Caramel, caramelized sugar, typically combined with dairy, is terrific on its own, but a salty flourish can often elevate the genre, contributing a savory hit that balances each bite. Los Angeles chefs are clearly infatuated with salted caramel, considering the preponderance of the combo. Learn about 15 of my favorite Los Angeles salted caramel sweets.

Establishments appear in alphabetical order, not in order of preference.

Amor Y Tacos Churros w/Salted Caramel ($5.50)


Churros Long Beach

Chef Thomas Ortega and business partner Todd Tsujioka continue to breathe culinary life into a Cerritos strip mall with colorful décor and bold flavored food. Regardless of what you order, finish with the churros, which have good give and benefit from a light hand with cinnamon sugar. Salted caramel dipping sauce completes the equation.

Bouchon Bakery Salted Caramel Macaron ($3.50) [CLOSED]

Macarons Los Angeles

For textbook examples of French classics, people flock to the sweet outpost from Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, which conveniently resides at the entrance to/exit from the sprawling Beverly Hills bistro. Plenty of pastel colored macarons are in the case, but be sure to look for the tan sandwich with brown filling. That’s the salted caramel macaron, which features pleasantly chewy cookies, crafted with Italian meringue and caramel-spiked almond paste. The filling consists of dark, buttery caramel finished with fleur de sel.

Cafe Rockenwagner Salted Caramel Eclair ($6) [CLOSED]

Eclair Los Angeles

Cesar Bermudez Cifuentes, the opening pastry chef at Rockenwagner’s Brentwood outpost, has since decamped for Spain, but he’s left behind a sweet and savory legacy in the form of a salted caramel eclair with cookie dough coat and a smattering of chocolate “crunchy balls.”

Carmela Ice Cream Salted Caramel Ice Cream ($3.75 – $6.75)

Ice Cream Los Angeles

The name of Jessica Mortarotti and Zachary Cox’s shop qualifies as an anagram for caramel, so their salted ice cream better be great, and it is. Whether their ice cream arrives in a cup, sandwich or waffle cup (a cup-cone hybrid that resembles a strutting peacock), expect spectacular salted caramel ice cream. Yes, I understand just about every premium ice cream parlor serves salted ice cream at this point, but Carmela’s innate flavor is the most pronounced.

Coffee Commissary Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treat ($3)

Rice Krispie Treat Los Angeles

Coffee Commissary’s Burbank branch is the home base for company pastry chef Naomi Shim, who fuels pastry cases at all of Tyler King’s locations. Her Salted Caramel Rice Krispie Treat is simplicity in square form, plastic wrapped and easy to add at the register. Salted caramel’s dark color and smoky flavor permeate the puffed rice kernels.

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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