Since its inception, Intuit Dome has promised to revolutionize the fan experience as the new home for The Clippers. This includes the most important of all stadium past times: the food.
L.A. TACO toured the facility this week on the team's invite, just months before its upcoming opening in August of 2024. We tasted the food, and learned why Intuit Dome is, as they say, “built different.”
You won't find any gummy pizza dough, sad-looking, wrinkled weenies, or stale churros at Intuit Dome. Instead, you'll be able to sink your teeth into crispy pan pizza, "sushi dogs" served with dehydrated soy sauce flakes, and a double cheeseburger that could easily be the best cheeseburger at any U.S. stadium. The food at Intuit Dome is a game-changer in itself.
Intuit Dome will have two public basketball courts, one indoor and one outside in the plaza, available by reservation. The plaza courts were mentioned to have food. If they offer the same dishes, it will sure to be a hit with the local neighborhood.
Amongst promises of fresh, handmade, Bavarian-style warm pretzels, an L.A. "Street Dog" with a transparently-sourced Niman Ranch all-beef dog with a snappy bite, and rotating artisanal sandwiches, salads, and bento boxes, these are our favorite picks for what to eat at Intuit Dome.
First, you must have a double cheeseburger. It's built like a Smashburger with thin patties, American cheese, and buttery Martin's Famous Potato Rolls. The chef custom blends short rib, chuck, and brisket for their beef patties, opting for real juicy meat instead of frozen dry commercial patties. With added crunchy pickles and a secret sauce; this burger, when fresh, could contend with the top echelon of L.A. smash burgers, while not being a smash itself. At the very least, we would wager that no other stadium or arena's burger could come close to this masterpiece.
Like a deep three from the corner, this square, Detroit-style deep-dish pizza will convince you that not all stadium pizzas have to taste like fake cheese on rubber. The airy dough, a crispy undercarriage, mozzarella cheese, and Rosa Grande pepperoni (formulated to achieve the perfect amount of cupping) are so good that they curl into little pools of flavor. Each is prepared in custom pans to maximize crispy caramelized edges and the pizza bite experience. To ensure the pizza is excellent at every stand, there are 41 pizza ovens around the arena instead of them being made in one place, shelved, and carried in carts around the arena to the concession stands. They're serious about fresh, hot pizza.
Of their healthier options, you can find chicken Caeser and cobb salads made with farmer's market veggies, along with great, hand-rolled maki, nigiri, and bento boxes with fresh fish. The buffalo cauliflower wrap is also a great option for vegetarians.
But what impressed us the most were their sushi dogs, like mini sushiritos made with spicy tuna or in California roll-style. These are great handheld bites with the added ingenuity of a dehydrated soy sauce in the form of soy flakes to avoid soy spillage onto your game-time outfits.
We had low hopes for the churros, but these might be some of the best churros you can bite into. They have a crisp and flaky crunch and a nice pillowy interior. Dodger Stadium and Disneyland, take note: this is how churros should be done, served with dulce de leche. Leave these for last, or you'll spoil your arena dinner.
If judged in comparison with other venues, the menu stands out despite some unavoidable flaws. The chicken strips with waffles lose their crunchiness, but the California Gold sauce they're served with more than makes up for it. We could put that sauce on everything.
The hot dogs, including the L.A. street dog, have a fantastic flavor and bite and would get higher marks, if not for the cold buns (which might be unavoidable). The Clipper Dog will cost $8, but it's just $5 for "Chuckmark-certified" Clippers fans.
The highly technological nature of Intuit will allow fans to register a payment method with their tickets so that they can enter the concession areas, grab their items, and leave quickly at any of the 20 checkout-free markets called Fast Break and Pick & Roll Markets. This will ensure minimal time is lost while leaving your seat. The goal is for game-goers to be able to catch as much of the game and food as possible.
