Cahuenga Blvd West, Hollywood

Cahuenga is a kind of dirty street but I like it just fine. It's definitely the easiest street to exit from the 101 so I always recommend people take that over Highland even if they need to go quite close to Highland. It's a pretty fast street too -- much faster than any of the other other thoroughfares in this part of town. The great thing about Cahuenga, too, is that you can take it straight into the valley. It's the only street on the east side that you can take if you want to avoid the freeway going over the hill. And, Cahuenga Pass is much faster than the 101 if you're just going somewhere like Burbank. I always feel like a race car driver coming off of the pass. . .
Cahuenga used to be pretty gross but it's definitely got a lot going for it nowadays. It became very trendy a few years ago to open a club, restaurant or bar in this area and that cleaned up the street a lot. I remember when they first opened up White Lotus and nothing was over there. There are a lot of trendy places on the street but the only restaurant on Cahuenga I actually like is Citizen Smith. The chef is different now so the food is not nearly as good as it was once upon a time, but the mac and cheese is still pretty killer and I just like the vibe of the place.
Parking is a nightmare on Cahuenga but not nearly as bad as neighboring streets. On a weekend night, you really consider yourself lucky if you actually manage to find a street spot -- so, I would say to expect to have to valet or do one of those ridiculous lots. Oh, and there's a brand new mall-ish kind of thing at Sunset that has an awesome burger restaurant. There's no ambience at any of this mall but the burgers at that place are pretty unreal. I wouldn't live on Cahuenga (it's too busy and run-down) and there isn't a ton of great food though there are plenty of restaurants. So, basically, I guess I'm saying it's your best bet for commuting or parking in the area but not much else.