In Eater LA’s ongoing series, Highly Opinionated, Eater editors delve into one specific, oft-debated food obsession in Los Angeles.
This month we take on chicken Caesar salad wraps from an array of cafés and lunch spots around the city.
We carefully evaluated a variety of metrics to compare the Instagram hyped (Ggiata) to the unpretentious (Birds) to the dark horse (Goop).
Here are one editor’s favorite chicken Caesar wraps in Los Angeles.
When I was coming of age at the very peak of the Y2K era, the chicken Caesar wrap ruled my world.
My go-to Caesar wrap destination at the time was the Palo Alto location of World Wrapps, a ‘90s chain that specialized in wrapping various “global” dishes in a tortilla and is considered one of the originators of fast-casual dining.
Embodying the optimism of the era, World Wrapps had a utopian vision of almost any food reimagined as a burrito-esque creation; a June 1995 article in the San Francisco Examiner dubbed World Wrapps “the clean-cut, Gen X answer to fast food,” further adding: “After a World Wrapp meal, you can still play volleyball, ride bikes or go to the health club.
After a Tex-Mex burrito, only a siesta will do.”
As a teenager, sinking my teeth into a chicken Caesar wrap from the chain, this felt novel — the convenience and satisfaction of a burrito only filled with… salad?
World Wrapps faded into obscurity as the years passed (reemerging in 2016 under new ownership, and with a more modern look and menu), and health-conscious, fast-casual dining moved in many different directions.
For a long while, the supremacy of chicken Caesar wraps seemed to subside.
But something remarkable has happened in the past few years: Like low-rise jeans and the original lineup of Blink-182, chicken Caesar wraps aren’t just back, they’re wildly popular, appearing on Los Angeles restaurant menus and TikTok feeds with a growth rate that can only be described as viral.
So in LA, where the power lunch still reigns supreme and salad culture is elite, which chicken Caesar wrap rules them all?
For this story, I committed to an honest taste-test of nearly a dozen wraps, with the decision-making for the ultimate title rooted in fairness, not hype.
Here are the three best chicken Caesar wraps in Los Angeles, plus a few more worth noting.
The overall best: Dialog Café.
Located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood — mere steps from the Viper Room and Supreme store — Dialog Café’s primary raison d’être seems to be people-watching.
Its crowded patio is full of influencers in all-white, brunching businessmen in oversized sunglasses (this is LA after all; no suits), and hangover-nursing partiers.
The lines are long and the menu is making no attempts to innovate.
It is friendly but unassuming, and parking requires a Herculean effort.
And yet the Dialog Café chicken Caesar wrap is savant-like in its alchemy.
For starters, the wrap is toasted — a trick that any Bay Area native knows, from the great Mission burrito tradition, adds extra stretch and flavor to a well-made flour tortilla.
Within its walls, you’ll find a generous amount of finely shredded chicken, a fresh-tasting bed of chicory, and a strong umami component thanks to the liberal inclusion of Parmesan cheese and sesame breadcrumbs, all dusted with a flurry of cracked black pepper.
The dressing ratio is just right, unifying all of these textures with a savory, reliably Caesar flavor that’s homemade and creamy, not watery or overbearing.
At $14.95, it was also one of the most affordably priced wraps on the roster.
It could cure a hangover, but you could also eat one and hit a Pilates class an hour later (I know from experience).
It is the perfect lunch, and the best chicken Caesar wrap in all of Los Angeles.
The TikTok-famous hot shot: Ggiata.
Ggiata Delicatessen, maker of allegedly New Jersey-style Italian sandwiches and employer of skater bros, describes its chicken Caesar wrap as “perfect” — fair play — and I have to agree that its rendition is excellent.
When I told friends and acquaintances that I was working on this list, Ggiata was the wrap many of them asked about first.
A breaded chicken cutlet gets sprinkled with flaky salt and diced into bite-sized pieces, then mixed with chopped pepperoncini (smart), homemade croutons (of sesame-crusted sourdough), shaved Parmesan, and, of course, crunchy romaine, all of which are tossed together in a huge metal salad bowl (like God intended) and wrapped into a Burritos La Palma grilled tortilla.
This last element is crucial: La Palma is lauded for its tortillas and the grilling process adds a subtly smoky flavor to the wrap.
At $17, its price falls squarely in the average zone as far as the going rate for a CCW in LA.
But it’s worth it — the finished product has fabulous crunch, a proper balance of acidity, and garlicky depth.
The thoughtful extra Caesar dressing on the side for dipping is likely what solidified its social media reign.
The sleeper hit (that happens to be gluten-free): Goop Kitchen.
If you do not live in Los Angeles and have not actually tasted the food at Goop Kitchen, the restaurant outpost of Gwyneth Paltrow’s online store or magazine or business or whatever it is, please reserve your judgment.
Everyone I know who has actually ordered from Goop Kitchen has agreed that it’s surprisingly good food, a point of view I shared even before tasting Goop’s lovely, near-innovative take on the chicken Caesar wrap.
It is, of course, very Gwynethified, starting with the fact that it’s fully gluten-free — made with a Siete cassava-flour wrap instead of a flour tortilla.
The cassava wrap may feel a bit unconventional at first, more chewy and less airy than flour, but holds up well and is a nice change of pace compared to the layers of dry, dusty lavash encasing many of the other CCWs I tried around the city.
The use of little gem lettuce, with its refreshing snap and high water content, is a clever alternative to classic Caesar romaine.
This was the only Caesar wrap I tried that came standard with avocado (not for an additional charge), adding a buttery fattiness that fits in well with the crunchy, delightfully garlic-forward croutons.
The Caesar dressing also has a touch of Calabrian chile in it, which adds a suggestion of heat, though I wouldn’t call this wrap “spicy.”
The chicken is high-quality white meat, somewhere between shredded and cubed.
At $19.19, we’re at Goop pricing — no surprises there.
All around, there is a surprisingly balanced synthesis here of bold flavors that rest in a satisfying spot between traditional Caesar and fancy hippie food.
image source from：https://la.eater.com/24409248/highly-opinionated-editors-favorite-caesar-salad-wraps-los-angeles
