1975 Los Angeles restaurant guide is a trip down memory lane with prices from a bygone era

Forget $20 cocktails.

In 1975 Los Angeles, that much cash could buy chateaubriand for two at the Brown Derby, two coffees — and still leave $2 in your pocket.

Redditors ate it up this week when one user cracked open a vintage copy of “The Menu Guide of Los Angeles,” revealing the wildly cheap-looking prices once charged by some of the city’s most famous restaurants.

“I bought this for a friend but figured reddit would also like to take a peak,” the poster wrote alongside photos of the aging guide. “Some of these might still be around?”

The directory serves up a mouthwatering snapchat of LA’s dining scene half a century ago, covering restaurants from Beverly Hills and Hollywood to Santa Monica, Marina del Rey and the San Fernando Valley.

At the legendary Brown Derby, diners could order a filet mignon for $7.85, a lobster tail for $7.25 or combine the two for just $9.25.

The restaurant’s famous Cobb salad — described in the guide as the invention of owner Bob Cobb — cost $5.50 for a full portion of $2.80 as an appetizer.

A rotating lineup of beef stew, pot roast, short ribs, lamb stew, corned beef and cabbage and baked ham went for $4.85, while desert from the card was $1 and coffee or tea just 50 cents.

Benihana’s prices also looked almost too good to be true.

Hibachi chicken was listed for $6.50, sukiyaki streak cost $7.50, filet mignon went for $8.25 and hibachi steak was $8.50. The $11 Benihana Special came with soup, salad, shrimp, chicken, New York steak, vegetables, rice, tea and green tea ice cream.

A beer cost as little as $1, while warm sake was $1.75.

Over at Chez Jay in Santa Monica, the handwritten menu offered lobster thermidor for $6.50, a New York cut steak for $7.50 and a filet béarnaise for $7.75.

A filet and lobster tail combination cost $9.75 — while homemade cheesecake was 75 cents and coffee, tea or milk went for just 20 cents.

Don the Beachcomber offered a Polynesian chicken dinner with soup or salad, fried rice and tea for $5.95. Pacific mahi-mahi cost $6.65 and its Steak Bora Bora was $8.95.

Gulliver’s, meanwhile, advertised roasted prime rib with Yorkshire pudding, spinach soufflé and a seasonal vegetable for $7.25. Its desserts — including trifle pudding, vanilla rum mousse and chocolate temptation — were $1.25.

The old-fashioned working was nearly as striking as the prices. Gulliver’s promised diners that their soup or salad would be prepared by their “Wench at Tableside,” prompting one stunned commenter to repeat: “Served by your Wench tableside.”

But it was the prices that truly sent Reddit into a feeding frenzy.

“These prices make me angry,” one user wrote.

“The wages back then would make you angry too,” another shot back.

One commenter suggested multiplying the listed prices by 5.2 to approximate their value today, while another noted the minimum wage at the time was $2.10 an hour.

Still, others could not resist gawking at 20-cent coffee and dollar beers.

?Love the prices,” one wrote.

“Holy hamburger!” another exclaimed.

Commenters also began identifying which restaurants had survived the past 50 years, pointing out that Chez Jay and The Warehouse in Marina del Rey remain in business.

“The Warehouse is still open in Marina del Rey,” one wrote.

“Talk about longevity,” another replied.

Beyond the food, Redditors gushed over the guide’s intricate illustrations and handwritten designs.

“So nice to see hand drawn art by humans, typed by humans, not an AI in sight,” one commenter wrote.

Another dubbed the guide “the ancient scriptures.”

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