Formosa Cafe, Chinese restaurant in West Hollywood, United States
Formosa Cafe is a Chinese restaurant located at 7156 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, featuring red vinyl booths and walls decorated with black and white photographs. The menu includes Chinese-influenced dishes such as Beijing Chicken, Mongolian beef, and pork belly skewers, accompanied by tropical cocktails.
Prizefighter Jimmy Bernstein founded the restaurant in 1925 in a converted Pacific Electric Red Car trolley situated next to the United Artists studio lot. The building has preserved this original structure, linking early Chinese American food culture to Hollywood's entertainment era.
The walls hold black-and-white photographs of film stars who ate here, among them Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, alongside gangsters such as Bugsy Siegel. The bar keeps a connection to the industry across the street: the studio lot began as United Artists and later belonged to Warner Bros.
The restaurant sits at a busy intersection with good foot traffic and nearby parking options available. The setting is casual and accommodates both individual diners and larger groups with flexible seating arrangements.
The trolley car that holds the dining room came from the Pacific Electric line and was already on the site when Jimmy Bernstein began serving there in 1925; the restaurant grew around it rather than the car being moved in later. Bartender Lindy Bremerton worked at the Formosa for almost 50 years.
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