People will dislike me for saying this but the Griffith Observatory is overrated. I honestly do not get why people rave over this place. I just don’t get it…

I think a part of the problem is that I don’t care much for astronomy. I also am not fond of having to search for a parking spot. A parking spot that will most likely require you to hike up to the Griffith Observatory. This may not be an issue for some people but for practically everyone in my party (translation: everyone but me and one other person), the hike was a bit of a challenge. Kind of like an unexpected work-out that you just have to force yourself to do… Not sure if that made much sense, but yeah.

Parking (wherever you end up parking) is free.

Admission to the Griffith Observatory is also for free.

As a freebie tourist destination, it makes much sense as to why you’ll encounter drama with finding a parking spot.

The stress of finding a parking spot as well as hiking up to the observatory from the parking spot made me look quite horrid in all of the selfies I took of myself.  Fortunately, you can’t see that but I’m choosing to confess this to you anyway.

The Griffith Observatory has a cafe, called “Cafe at the End of the Universe”.  Available food options are quite limited and to make matters worse, whatever food is available for sale just doesn’t taste good.  I find it somewhat “funny” that the cafe is supposed to be associated with Wolfgang Puck, yet there is nothing that is Wolfgang Puck-ish.  (I’ve eaten at one of his restaurants before in Orange County and must say it’s quite different from whatever they were serving here at the cafe…)

In my attempt to be fair to the cafe, I will say that someone in my party did find their curry to be good.  I can’t help but to wonder if it really was good or if that was her hunger that was doing the complimenting.  Then again, there are people (not me) who have palates that can be pleased quite easily.

I had the macaroni and cheese and was quite disappointed with it simply because it just didn’t taste good.  It tasted dry/bland.  Talking about dry, the top parts of the mac and cheese were literally dry.  (It was dry to me but I wonder if that dry-ness is what people consider to be “al-dente”?)

I honestly was not sure what to make of my mac and cheese.  A part of me was wondering if I was just used to crap macaroni cheese (think processed mac and cheese from Kraft) and thus couldn’t find the cafe’s mac and cheese appetizing.  I wondered…but alas I realized that even if this were the case, it still did not make up for how bland the mac and cheese was.  Ugh!

Views seemed to be a big thing among practically every visitor to the Griffith Observatory.  This, I totally get especially if a visitor comes with a good camera.  (I’m not talking about cell phone cameras…)

The one view I found to be amusing was the iconic Hollywood sign.  Yes, you can see this iconic sign from the Griffith Observatory and to be honest with you, I found it amusing that so many people were taking photos of the sign from the grounds of the observatory.  It was amusing to me because the sign doesn’t necessarily need to be viewed/photographed from the Griffith Observatory.  In fact, I don’t think any photos of the sign taken from the observatory grounds would come out good. (See below as an example.)  But then again, who am I to say such a thing when I was one of the few not sporting a fancy camera…?

The architecture of the Griffith Observatory was nice and all, but if you were to ask me if I’d like to visit the place again, I’d have to say no.