In the exchange that set this off, two of us were talking about our love of diners, so I’ll start with a diner:

Jan’s. It’s up near Beverly Center and Cedar Sinai, on Beverly. Not the least bit trendy - aggressively non-trendy, in fact - with friendly service and good food. The Greek items on the menu are quite good, and the salads are excellent. Watch out for the serving sizes, though: every single entree I’ve seen there was enough food for two people at least.