Dinerwood: Los Angeles Diner Reviews

Happy National Pie Day!

2012-01-23T20:58:00.000-08:00

Celebrated at Moffett's Chicken Pie Shop

Sambo's Santa Barbara- The First and Last

2012-01-21T20:07:00.000-08:00

Going to Sambo's is kind of a big deal for me. I've wanted to go to one before I even knew there was only one of them left.

Okay, you can kick the dirt and look around nervously when you talk about the name and history. Wikipedia it if somehow you don't know what I'm talking about.

The inside of the restaurant is adorned with murals and decorations detailing the original Sambo story.

That's adorable!

They give you a basket of mini-muffins to start out with. They were really tasty.

We had an incredibly helpful waitress that guided our menu selections.

Antoinette had the chorizo scramble with potatoes and a side of pancakes. The potatoes were the star--they were perfect. The chorizo scramble was delicious but the pancakes were a little bland.

I had the Bengal Tiger Special. The french toast and bacon was good. The eggs were really interesting--they were shredded? I have never had eggs like that. They were good...just interesting.

That's a lechery looking Tiger.

Food: Good.

Service: Helpful. (but not to good with the refills)

Price: $10-15.

Pie: Sometimes.

Sambo's Restaurant

216 West Cabrillo Boulevard

Santa Barbara, CA 93101
(805) 965-3269

San Marino Grill Coffee Shop

2011-11-29T14:50:00.000-08:00

We had been wanting to try this place for a long time. It looked so cute and old-fashioned on the outside.

The inside was just as cute and old-fashioned and really cozy. We immediately felt at home.

I'm pretty sure the old guy on the right was famous but I'm not sure. I kept thinking Pat Boone, but it's not him.

The menu is very simple. It's just this one page and few specials written on the board above the counter.

We started with some coffee and boy was it bad--like brown hot water bad. It did not improve with subsequent cups.

Antoinette ordered the pumpkin oatmeal and a side of bacon and sausage for some protein. The sausage was a little under-cooked but it tasted pretty good and I didn't get sick so that was good. The pumpkin oatmeal needed more pumpkin.

I got the crunchy strawberry french toast which was decent, if a little bland. There was some strawberry jam as a topping but I think I would have actually preferred real syrup. (I thought that but when we went back again a few weeks later I got pancakes and the syrup was nearly tasteless.)

We then looked around and saw that other than us, the place was populated by a decidedly older clientele. Older folks tend to prefer blander food and I think San Marino Grill and Coffee Shop knew on what side their bread was buttered.

Like I mentioned above, we gave it another chance a few weeks later. Bland but oh-so cozy. If the place had good coffee I'd recommend going just to sit peacefully for a bit. But it doesn't, so I can't.

Food: Bland.

Price: $6-10

Service: Nice.

Pie: It's on the menu, but I suspect store-bought.

San Marino Grill Coffee Shop

2494 Huntington Dr
San Marino, CA 91108

Big Bang Coffee Shop - "As good as Denny's"

2011-10-06T13:49:00.000-07:00

It used to be Denny's--sometimes known as "Jail Dennys" due to its proximity to, well, the jail--then it closed for awhile. Then it reopened as Nibblers, which featured a wider variety of food with an international flair. Then it closed for awhile and promised to reopen as Denny's again. Well, now it is BIG BANG Coffee Shop.

"AS GOOD AS DENNYS." Why would you say that? That's not even good advertising speak. "As good" doesn't make me want go. Well... to be fair, I wanted to go regardless because of the whole saga of openings and closings and name changes. That banner though--bad idea.

I came in at about 5:30 0n a weekday.

I was the only customer.

There are little signs all over the restaurant explaining that they were all set to reopen as Denny's when the Denny's company revoked their license. This explains why their menu is just a very scaled down version of Denny's. They even have their own version of the Moons Over My Hammy.

I ordered the Lumberjack breakfast; 2 eggs, 2 pancakes, 2 bacon, 2 sausage, 2 pieces of toast, 1 cut of ham and hash browns. All this food only 7.95.

Here's my review of the food--As good as Denny's.

The eggs and meat were really good actually. It was a slice of honey baked ham, which I did not expect and was quite nice surprise. The hash browns needed to be crispier and the pancakes were rubbery and heavy.

The owners are clearly hung up and bitter about the Denny's thing, which is too bad. I know that after Nibblers must have failed (based on the reviews I read at the time --"kind of pricey, not that great") they must have felt desperate to appeal to the old Denny's base. This all just reeks of desperation though.

It was cheap, decent food, but that's really it. I wish them success though. I like have options near downtown and this is certainly an option.

Food: Decent.

Price: $6-10

Service: Good.

Pie: Apple. (Looked really good, but I was full)

Big Bang Coffee shop

1200 Vignes St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dinerwood on the Road: Las Vegas' The Egg and I

2011-09-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

I thought The Egg and I was the sister restaurant to The Cracked Egg, which I reviewed a few years ago. The Cracked Egg was a brightly colored, whimsical nouveau-diner, I expected something similar here. I was totally wrong--not saying that the Egg and I is bad. It is just more traditional. (The Egg and I is affiliated with Egg Works, which I have not been to.)

When I walked in they asked if I wanted to sit inside or outside. This was Vegas in August. I didn't appreciate being threatened like that. I chose to sit inside. Save for a farm mural along the wall, the interior felt more like a sports bar. That felt a little incongruent with the breakfast nature of the restaurant.

Not quite sure why they emphasize the Cincinnati Chili.

I liked this feature. I could see how on a busy morning this would be infinitely helpful to your server.

This egg looks totally hiiiigh.

The waitress was especially attentive. When I flipped over to the sad "needs attention" egg to take this picture, my waitress was there in seconds asking if everything was okay.

I ordered the Stuffed French Toast. I thought the country potatoes were amazing, perfectly seasoned and crispy. I didn't care for the french toast and egg together. I ended up separating them. Good french toast and good scrambled eggs.

Food: Good.
Price: $8-11
Service: Great.
Pie: No pie.

The Egg & I
4533 W Sahara Ave #5
Las Vegas, NV 89102

Dinerwood on the Road: Penny's Diner, Yermo California

2011-08-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

Yermo California might be the most depressing town I have ever seen. On my way back from Vegas last month I decided to take the scenic route through the town. I had never seen so many abandoned and boarded up homes in all my life. It was like wandering through a town in Fallout 3.

Yermo does have two saving graces though--the two diners located right off the freeway exit. They are Peggy Sue's Diner which I reviewed last year and Penny's Diner. Well, maybe Penny's isn't so much a "saving grace" as it is a "decent option if Peggy Sue's is not available."

I do like that Penny's is a classic art-deco chrome diner. There are not a lot of those left out here in California. Stylistically alone, I give it points.

I think this is where the Yermo locals eat, leaving Peggy Sue's to the tourists.

I asked about the Dody's Vegas Jack sandwich. The waitress--a sweet girl--had no idea what I was talking about, so I showed her the menu. Apparently she had never seen anyone order it. Bad sign, maybe? But it was just a turkey melt with some green pepper, I don't know how that could go wrong. I ordered it and then got to overhear the cook asking what was on it and how to make it. Seriously, NO ONE had ever ordered this sandwich? An older waitress--sweet girl's mom--had to explain how it was made.

I got the sandwich before too long. It was okay. The cook forgot the green peppers... which is kind of the thing that would make it not just a turkey melt? I bet it would have been good with the peppers. Oh well. I thought the number of french fries on the plate looked puny, but they tasted all right.

I also got a slice of apple pie at Penny's. They had some homemade looking pastries on the counter and I could see some pies in a case behind that so I got my hopes. They were dashed when I saw in the reflection of the case a store sticker on top of the plastic lid of the pie. Meh, it was supermarket apple pie--dusty crust and nothing to taste but cinnamon.

Across the street, Peggy Sue's is this spectacle that harkens back to the old days of road-side attractions, while Penny's Diner is just there for you to get some food and move on from the most depressing town I've ever seen.

Food: Okay.
Price: $5-$10
Service: Friendly.
Pie: Yes...store bought.

Penny's Diner
35450
Yermo Rd, Yermo, CA 92398
(760) 254-1148

Uncle John's Ham n' Eggs -- Downtown's Greasy Spoon and Chopstick

2011-08-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

I never ate at the original location of Uncle John's Ham n' Eggs and after missing my window with "Jail Denny's" becoming Nibblers and now going back to "Jail Denny's," I didn't want to miss out again. The economy being what it is, places can disappear over night.

Now located next to and connected through the lobby of the Stillwell Hotel, I was surprised at how nice the interior was. I knew the reputation of Uncle John's as a greasy spoon and this did not match that. I hoped the new location had only changed the environment and not the content. Once the waitress handed me the menu my fears were allayed.

Uncle John's serves both American and Chinese food. The menu has Chinese dishes on one side and American ones (primarily breakfast but also some lunch items) on the other. Well, there is a little bit of bleed over from one side to the other. For example; most of the breakfasts have as an option either potatoes and toast or rice. The prices were very reasonable for a place known for large portions. Most of the entrees were hovering around $8 or $9.

Of course I had to try one of these...ugh, "fusions" for lack of a better word. I decided to go in a little bit different direction. I ordered the spicy fried pork chop (so spicy it had to have a chili pepper icon next to it on the menu) and eggs. I decided to go with the potatoes and toast option, rather than rice.

The pork chops were really good. Normally, I don't like breaded meats because the breading tends to be soggy and greasy, but surprisingly these were not like that at all. The breading was crisp and actually reminded me of chicken McNuggets (which is secretly my favorite fast food item). My eggs were undercooked and disappointing, though. The potatoes were pretty standard--not good, not bad.

I didn't find the portions to be anything out of the ordinary but I did wish everything had come out on a larger plate. It was just a big pile. I imagine the peppers went with the pork chop, but the scallions left me wondering. Were they part of the pork chop portion or were they supposed to be for the eggs? Maybe for the potatoes, since they needed a little something?

After finishing my meal I sat for awhile and enjoyed my coffee and--by god!--I paid for that full hour on the parking meter and I was going to use it. The staff kept my coffee full the whole time.

Uncle John's Ham n' Eggs is a decent greasy spoon with over a 30 year history. Not too long ago this was probably one of the few places in downtown that you could get a hearty breakfast that wasn't at a chain restaurant. I think it still services a need for folks who live and work down there. I mean, where else can you get some fried rice with your hotcakes?

Food: Decent
Service: Good
Price: $6-9
Pie: None.

Uncle John's Ham n' Eggs
433 W 8th St
Los Angeles, CA 90014
(213) 623-3555

The original location.

Dinerwood on the Road: Best breakfast in San Diego is in Chula Vista

2011-08-04T16:54:00.000-07:00

On the annual pilgrimage to San Diego Comic Con, me and mine stay in the lovingly rundown city of Chula Vista just south on the 5 freeway. Our usual place was booked up so I found place a few blocks away. Now, when I booked the Big 7 Motel I swear it had a 2 1/2 star rating on Expedia--which I was fine with since I only planned on sleeping there not eating off the carpets. During the approaching months I watched that rating eek ever lower. By the time Dinerfriends Greg and Paul and I checked in, I knew we were in for a crapbox of a stay.

The one saving grace of staying Chula Vista this year was our close proximity to this place--

Family House of Pancakes. If you want to just cut to the chase, let me say it: This place has the best breakfasts in San Diego.

On the first day it was just Greg and I and we had no idea what to expect.

It's a cozy joint with a charming decor ripped right out of a 70s movie.

Waitresses greeted patrons by first name and knew what they'd want to order the minute they sat down. Seriously--one of the waitresses basically did a magic trick. She asked this woman what she wanted and when she replied, the waitress said "I knew you would want that. In case you don't believe me"--she turned her notepad around for the woman to see--"I had already written it down." MAGIC.

To summarize the story: Dad had dreams of opening a restaurant although all he knew how to cook were pancakes. He realized his dream and learned that you should not open a restaurant when all you know how to cook are pancakes. The restaurant struggled until dad died. Mom, heretofore only a homemaker, came in to try to run it. She struggled too and it took the whole surviving family coming together in order to make it even function. Now they do okay.

On the first day I ordered the Tropical Pancakes. Pineapple bits in the batter and on top along with toasted coconut. This was heavenly.

To get some much needed protein to go along with my powerfully carb and sweet pancakes, I ordered a slab of ham. It was delicious.

That morning Greg was a little under the weather and honestly felt more like plain toast and tea but the lure of the bacon waffle was too much. Nice chunks of bacon were mixed in with the waffle--you would think that would go without saying right? I have unfortunately ordered a bacon waffle at places and that just means they lay some slices on top and call it a day. This had a perfect balance of sweetness in the waffle to work with the bacon chunks inside.

The next morning we ate downtown (Cafe 222 review coming soon), but on our last day we made a point of going back to Family Pancake House. This time we took Paul with us.

Paul had the banana pancakes with a side of bacon. His pancakes were almost as good as the ones I had two days before.

Whereas Greg and I ordered coffee (it was decent--not great), Paul ordered only water. They brought his water out in a gigantic cup. I think that actually says a lot about the thoughtfulness of the restaurant.

I had the roast beef hash with eggs and potatoes. I believe the menu said '2' eggs--this was easily 4 or 5 eggs. The country potatoes were thin cut and walked delicately close to crispy. The hash was a tiny bit salty but otherwise everything was delicious. I ate maybe half of what was on my plate and I was bursting.

Greg, fully recovered from his illness of the other day, was the big winner at breakfast. He had the house speciality Irish Benedict. The menu said "corned beef" for the meat portion and we had assumed they were using short hand and it would be corned beef hash, but we were wrong. It was actually hearty cuts of actual corned beef. It was amazing. The waitress (the one who did the magic trick the time before) looked at Greg and said "I know what you're ordering next time you come in. I'll remember." No doubt she meant it.

When our waitress brought out our food that morning she apologized for the delay. We had waited maybe ten minutes--I think it was probably closer to five. Their turn around was blindingly fast.

I love Family House of Pancakes. I was actually upset that it took four years to find this place and I had to eat at Aunt Emma's Pancakes more than once. This is officially my breakfast headquarters when I'm in San Diego. Now I just need to find a slightly better motel to stay at nearby for SDCC 2012.

Food: Great
Service: Exceptional
Price: $7-10
Pie: Yes.

Family House of Pancakes
562 Broadway
Chula Vista, CA 91910

Annia's Kitchen -- El Monte

2011-07-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Remember when I said Dinerwood would change formats? We'll call this more of a new-format review. Enjoy the pictures.

I've tried several times to write a more thoughtful and expansive review of Annia's Kitchen. I even went here twice to try to absorb more of the feel of the place. It just never happened.

The dining room is small and not very well air-conditioned. It's uncomfortably warm inside. I recommend sitting on the patio, because not only is it cooler but on the patio you get to see these...

..Airplanes! Did I mention that Annia's Kitchen is at the El Monte Airport?

Annia's has a very extensive menu. Everything is a little bit more expensive than I'd like it to be.

I liked the biscuits and gravy, although the gravy was a little flour-y.

The pancakes were good, but really heavy. Pancakes like this usually are, but these felt even more so. The sausage was over cooked, but the bacon was done quite well.

The chorizo and eggs was decent.

The pot roast breakfast was really great at the time. It came back to haunt me in the afternoon. I'm not sure if it was the gravy or the eggs that did me in. I ordered both eggs over medium and one was cooked perfectly while the other was over hard.

I really wanted to like Annia's Kitchen, I gave it two chances after all. The most positive thing I can say is that I do really like their menu, I just haven't been wowed by their execution. If the idea of eating breakfast while watching small planes take off sounds awesome, then by all mean go for it.

Food: Decent
Price: $6-13
Service: Good
Pie: Yes

Annia's Kitchen
4233 Santa Anita Avenue # 18 (El Monte Airport)
El Monte, CA 91731

Black Cow Cafe -- Damn Yuppies

2011-07-02T16:20:00.000-07:00

I was in an odd mood. I wanted a frou frou breakfast. No greasy spoon would do, my friends.
Thus, we traveled to Montrose, just off the 210, to a cute neighborhood with little shops and restaurants. Our destination, which already had a throng of people out front, was the Black Cow Cafe.

It being only 9am and already oppressively hot and muggy outside, we opted to sit in the dining room. This place did look pretty fancy, but was much more than that. Nearly one wall of the restaurant was a pastry case, followed by a coffee bar and then an ice cream parlor. Along with the tables, there were lounge areas where people were just quietly sipping coffee and working on their laptops.

We were both surprised that considering the very mature ambiance of the cafe, there were a lot of families with young kids eating breakfast. Upwardly mobile, yuppie parents--easy to hate them but I'd rather see them feeding their kids actual food instead of Carl's Jr. or In-N-Out. Even if the food proved to be much less than impressive.

.

We were seated not far from the open the kitchen. We started with the house coffee, which required a lot of help to be palatable. It's La Mill coffee, which always tastes bad to us.

Our waiter started off very attentive and then it just dwindled away over time. We understand the breakfast rush had him going all over, but the table next to ours had a waiter who was johnny on the spot with refills and check-ins.

We hadn't turned completely against Black Cow Cafe at that point. There was a lot on the menu that looked interesting. It also looked a little pricey for breakfast, which again shocked us due to the number of families around. Damn yuppies.

The Bavarian Cream Strudel. This is where the corner was turned. It was not good. They heated it--I'm going to go ahead and say they microwaved it which completely destroyed the texture of the pastry (soggy one bite, rock hard another, chewy on the third) and the cream filling.

Our hopes were buttressed when our breakfasts came to the table and looked delicious on the plate.

Looked.

I had the Cow Benedict. I love benedicts and the orange hollandaise sauce really sold me on it.
Orange hollandaise sauce is pretty damn frou frou, I have to say. Hollandaise sauce in-and-of-itself is pretty frou frou, really. It was good, but not great. I wanted a thicker cut of ham (this was not even back bacon thick, but more deli-cut) to counter the sweetness the orange added to the sauce. The eggs were nicely poached, I will give them that. I don't really care for croissants and in hindsight I wished I had asked to replace it with a biscuit or English muffin.

Let me go off on a tangent here for a moment and then I'm going to bring it back around. I don't usually order spaghetti when I go out to an Italian restaurant because I can make a pretty decent spaghetti at home. Straight spaghetti has pretty limited range of flavor to play with and I'd say a breakfast sandwich is pretty similar in that regard. Sometimes you just want spaghetti when you are out and sometimes Dinerwife Antoinette just wants a breakfast sandwich eventhough we can make a pretty decent one at home.

Black Cow Cafe's breakfast sandwich was all sorts of disappointment. The bread-- not actually toasted, was just touched briefly to the grill as to make the effort pointless--was very thin like the 99 cent loaf at the grocery store. The turkey was also too thin and the "melted cheese" was not melted at all. Looking at the menu online I see there is supposed to be some kind of "secret sauce" on it as well. "Disappointment" is not a sauce.

The fruit was under ripe and should not have been served. The pineapple was white and flavorless. Under ripe melons always taste like garbage to me.

The breakfast potatoes were fine. Just fine. Not really sure I'd even venture to call them breakfast potatoes. Halved small red potatoes tossed with some paprika and a minimal amount of red peppers and onions that were skitted across a griddle I guess counts, but I could easily see them served with a lunch or dinner.

We then waited far too long for our waiter to not only bring the check but to check in with us and ask us if we were ready for the check. The johnny on the spot waiter took pity on us a few times for refills. Eventually we tried to just go to the coffee bar counter to pay but that didn't work. It became a cluster.

I've read good reviews of Black Cow, Dinerfriend Amy K. even wrote a positive yelp about it. I cannot reconcile those reviews with our experience. The restaurant was packed and people seemed to be enjoying their meals. I'm told that Black Cow Cafe was for a long time the nicest restaurant in Montrose. If you wanted a nice dining experience, you had to go there; otherwise, it was fast food and take out. That probably accounts for it's continued popularity.

I just could not risk another trip there even though there's quite a bit on the menu that I'd like to try. It's not worth it.

Food: Not Good-Decent
Price: $9-$15
Service: Not good.
Pie: Tartlets

Black Cow Cafe
2219 Honolulu Ave.
Montrose, CA 91020

Dinerwood on the Road: Matt's Big Breakfast -- Phoenix Arizona

2011-07-01T11:38:00.000-07:00

On a recent trip to Phoenix, I had the opportunity to try two local favorites. Both had been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, although I have never seen those episodes. The first place my friends and I went was Matt’s Big Breakfast located near the ASU campus in--what I have to assume--was once someone’s garage. This place is tiny--teeny tiny.

We rolled up on a Friday morning at 8 am and we still had to wait for nearly 45 minutes. I hate waiting, but I really wanted to try Matt’s. Disappointingly, they don’t allow you to order drinks for outside or have water available to keep you from wilting in the Arizona heat. They do, however, give you menus and actually have you order your food once you get close to being seated. The moment your name gets called for seating your order goes to the kitchen.

The menu for Matt's is very small. I guess it fits the size of the restaurant. There are about nine breakfast items, seven lunches, and that's it.

You may notice that they serve RC Cola. RC has a pretty loyal following. It has over 5000 fans on Facebook! Sadly, FANS of RC Cola Fans are far fewer.

The 5-Spot appears to be their signature breakfast-three out of five of us got it. It's a sandwich with egg and bacon. Why is it called a 5-Spot? Maybe because involves 5 things: two pieces of bread, one egg, two slices of bacon? We never saw the waiter for more than a few seconds at a time, so I never got the chance to ask him or her--we had two. She kept forgetting our drinks and refills that were requested, and he was running around turning over tables.

One in our party is a vegetarian and asked if she could hold the bacon and get hash browns instead. They assured her it was no problem...when we got the check we learned that they basically charged her for a side of hash browns. Lame.

The toast was really good.

The hash browns were interesting. They reminded us a lot more of latkes or potato pancakes than of hash browns.

The waffle was pretty good. It was soft and warm and the real maple syrup was appreciated.

The bacon was the star all-around--on the sandwich or next to the waffle--it was thick cut and peppery.

Once we were done, we were rushed out the door. With only ten maybe twelve tables, they need a high turnover. I have no problem with that--my problem was that none of this seemed worth it. Long wait, only adequate service and good-but-not-THAT-good food. I don't see what all the fuss is about.

Food: Good
Price $5-8
Service: Rushed.
Pie: No.

Matt's Big Breakfast
801 N. First St.
Phoenix, Arizona 85004

Where I go to something called a "Bob Evans"

2011-06-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, Dinerwife Antoinette and I went to Florida for a vacation with her family. I found one diner that was less than a 30 minute drive from our hotel. We arrived and discovered that they had just stopped serving breakfast. This was crushing since I had my mind set on something involving syrup.

We looked at the lunch menu and I honestly said "I don't want to eat here." It was a lot of pasta dishes--which made sense as the place had only recently gone from being an Italian restaurant to presumably a diner. We got up and left and drove to the place we saw right off the highway: Bob Evans.

I had never heard of it before but apparently it's a chain--like a BIG chain. It just does not have any locations on the west coast. I don't review big chains--a place with two or three other locations? Sure, but not CHAIN chains.

My stance on chains is not that the food is terrible or the experience lacking. It is that a chain is going to default to being "safe." That's the comfort of chains. You know regardless of where you are in the world, walking into a Dennys, a McDonalds or an Olive Garden (shudder), whatever you order is going to taste exactly the same as the last time you ordered that same dish at that same restaurant halfway across the world. I like surprises; I like taking that chance. I'm a food gambler at heart, baby. And by gambling, I'm helping in someones struggle to make their own way, not fill the coffers of a corporation. And with this blog I like to think I'm helping encourage others to take the same chance. That's why I don't like chains.

But here--in Florida--I was at a chain restaurant that I had no experience with.

A place with such great food pron pictures of pie can't be that bad right?

Something I noticed was that the menu and the offerings represented a very different sensibility than what I am used to. For instance, biscuits are their base bread. If you want regular toast, you'll have to be sure to say something.

They are very proud of their biscuits. They have them baking in a huge bread over at the front o the restaurant. They ever have biscuit bread bowl breakfast.

The appetizers read like a list of food you will find available at this Summer's state fair: apple fries, fried cheese bits, tater-tots!

The bed of lettuce is a nice touch.

They also bake their own bread. We ordered the Blueberry Poundcake for the table.

Did I mention that I gained like 5lbs on this vacation?

There were five of us there, so I can't really go into much detail about what each of us ordered, but below are the pictures.

Veggie Omelette with onion, spinach and diced tomatoes. It tasted very fresh.

Corn Meal Mash! You know when I saw that on the menu I had to get it. Ever since I first tried it at Stox, it is that weird thing I have to try at each place that has it. It was pretty good-- but not as good as Stox. I also got the hash browns, which were decent, and the sausage and cheese biscuits and gravy.

....what I said earlier--I take that back--it was more like 8lbs on this vacation.

The turkey bacon melt, could have been more "melty." Otherwise, it was decent.

Sausage Omelette with swiss cheese. The country sausage was good, while the swiss cheese did seem like Kraft singles swiss.

The real winner was Antoinette's Pot Roast Hash. A little salty, but pretty awesome. We were stuffed toward the end of our meal, but we kept eating as much of the pot roast as we could.

...It was 10lbs on this vacation. Definitely.

We left Bob Evans satisfied. I think this was a pretty typical experience from a chain restaurant. We had good service. Our food was overall good. I certainly appreciated their bottomless refills on just about all drinks (even the Caramel Mocha). I'm just not the person who is going to get excited about a place like this, but it was a interesting change of pace.

Food: Good.
Price: $5-$9
Service: Good.
Pie: Yes.

Bob Evans
Visit their website to find a location near you.

On the Road: Danica's Diner--Michigan

2011-06-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

As someone who loves old, decrepit crap, I loved the hell out of the Detroit area. The city itself does look like a hell-hole (from the freeway--we did not venture into the city) but I did enjoy the suburbs we visited. I'd have a field day just going to all the old run-down restaurants alone. And don't get me started about how awe-inspiring the ancient Big Lots down the street from Aunt Paula's house is.

Also down the street from Aunt Paula's house is Danica's Diner, proudly serving Eastpointe Michigan since 1991. I look at that and think "Oh, that's nothing" then I realize that's twenty years ago. I. am. old.

Something that I didn't really know anything about before coming here was that Coney Dogs are a HUGE deal. If you don't serve a Coney Dog at your restaurant, you might as well not even bother opening your door. Read the wiki if you don't know what a Coney Dog is.

Danica's is pretty non-descript. It's a big square with some booths, some tables, and a small counter. It's blue?

The coffee was decent. I actually used real sugar in my coffee for the first time in a long time. There was no artificial sweetener on the table.

The food was incredibly cheap. Nothing on that menu was over ten dollars.

My breakfast of two eggs, two sausage and biscuits and gravy was $3.80.

The sausages were standard. I did ask for eggs over medium and they were perfect. The biscuit itself was only decent but the gravy was surprisingly good. It reminded me of a really creamy soup base.

Danica's Diner was convenient and decent. I think it serves a purpose in the neighborhood, but it's not a place I'd go back to.

Food: Decent.
Price: $2.95-$9.95
Service: Good.
Pie: Yes. Fruit, Cream and Pecan on the menu.

Danica's Diner

14984 East 10 Mile Road
Eastpointe, MI 48021

Cafe 50's Vermont --Where I realize I don't like Egg Creams.

2011-06-09T11:24:00.000-07:00

The new Cafe 50's on Vermont has been open for a close to a year now. It actually showed up on my GPS long before that. I drove by and just saw the abandoned Louisiana Fried Chicken restaurant that used to be there. "Stupid GPS!" I said while throwing it disappointedly out the window. A few weeks later when it actually appeared, painted exterior and ready to open, I was thrilled. My previous experiences with Cafe 50s had been decent and unspectacular, but this new location provided an option other than House of Pies for late night diner dining in the Hollywood area.

The interior is what you expect. Like the other locations, the walls provide you with ample eye-candy for 50's nostalgia.

I like that they definitely put a lot of thought into the placement of old ads and posters. Near the men's room there is a whole section dedicated to Rock Hudson and his "bachelor life."

There's also a calendar that covers history and their daily specials.
Sometimes the history and the specials result in some amusing juxtaposition.
"Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Richie Valens die in plane crash. Strawberry shakes $2.98!"

I've actually eaten there quite a bit, but sadly my pictures are from the one disappointing meal I had.

This is the Big Bopper scramble with a side of hash browns. The hash browns were not very good. I thought they were too greasy. The scramble was decent, if a little salty.

This is the 7 Grain Granola Almond Pancakes. They let me get these as my choice of bread which was very cool. These were really delicious. I recommend them.

I also decided to get a New York Egg Cream...which I need to stop doing. I don't like them. Some reason I think "Maybe, there's just something wrong with THIS particular one." I need to realize that although my brain likes the idea of chocolate syrup in soda water with milk, my taste buds think it is gross. Gross.

The service there is more often than not friendly and attentive. The one time I got lackluster service I was with a large group and our waitress (who I've had wait on me several times) was clearly having a rough day. If this had been my one and only time there I would have had a negative impression of the place. Multiple experiences allow me to give some leeway.

They have a great home made lemon-lime pie. Although, it does look odd when you get it. They don't add any coloring to the pie so it just comes out looking grayish brown--slightly unappetizing. Trust me, it is very good.

Food: Good.
Price: $7.95-$13.95
Service: Good.
Pie: Yes.

Cafe 50's
850 N. Vermont Ave
Los Angeles CA 90029
http://www.cafe50s.com/

They also have part of their menu in Japanese?
http://www.cafe50s.com/cafe-50s.php?mod=japanese-menu

On the Road: San Diego's Waffle Spot

2011-05-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

Dinerwife Antoinette and I were planning a weekend trip to San Diego. While searching for a hotel option Antoinette stumbled upon a place that had a diner IN the hotel. The Kings Inn, located in (or is it on?) Hotel Circle is home to the Waffle Spot. It's also the home to the Amigo Spot taco stand--that for some reason gets top billing.

Inside, the Wafflespot is pretty typical; pastel colors, a long counter and a few booths. Typical--save for the fanciful mural that covers one of the walls depicting a medieval landscape populated by the Wafflespot cast of characters.

Yes, the Wafflespot has Disney--or really McDonald's--style characters.

Sir Wafflelot rules this land. He's wearing a crown but still called "Sir." I think he must be more like a "Regent" than a king. He's also a hard-ass. "No substitutions" he decrees.

There's Squire Browns--he looks kind of nervous. "Ehhhh, I'm just takin' the little spuds for a walk. Yeaaah. That's the ticket."

Then there's this also nervous looking roller skating egg guy. I think he's called J-egg-ster? I dunno. I made that up. He wears roller skates so I can relate to this guy.

Sir Reginald Muffintop... I also made that up.

I ordered the Apple Cinnamon waffles. When it arrived it looked quite different. It had bananas. I was about to point it out when the waitress caught it. "You ordered the apple!" She then ran back to the kitchen. The waffle was okay--not as good as I had hoped. It was a little undercooked. The kitchen had clearly rushed it to get it to the table. The menu said there was supposed to be diced apples in the waffle; I didn't really notice any. The eggs were okay. The bacon was actually pretty good, while the sausage was too greasy for my taste.

Antoinette got the Country Casserole. Two scrambled eggs on top of biscuits and gravy over a bed of home fries. It was good, but a little salty

Some of the breakfasts come with an option of toast. That's pretty standard, no big whoop. But at the Waffle Spot, one of your options is actually mini-waffles! That's pretty awesome. Like REALLY pretty awesome. The mini-waffles were better than my big waffle.

Overall, Waffle Spot wasn't nearly as good as we had hoped. Even thought it was conveniently located AT our hotel, we only ate there the one time. If you like cartoon food mascots--THIS--is the place for you.

For more information you can visit their website.

http://kingsinnsandiego.com/

It has this on the website:

Food: Okay.
Price: $7-10
Service: Friendly.
Pie: No, pie.

The Waffle Spot
1333 Hotel Circle South
San Diego, California 92108

Hiatus-OVER! Format...adjustment

2011-03-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Guys, after years of doing this it is REALLY hard to write about-- well, as the Dinerwife puts it "Ham and eggs, ham and eggs! Every time it's ham and eggs!"

I still love diners. I love going. I love eating at them. This will not stop. The reviews, however, will probably be much shorter in the future, unless a place really inspires me.

Now having said that:

New review up tomorrow!

Coming soon my first Florida and Michigan reviews!

Dandi's Family Restaurant - Fine and dandy--mostly just fine.

2011-02-23T22:28:00.000-08:00

As far as we knew, Dandi's Family Restaurant was a brand new diner, but by doing a little bit of hunting on the web, I found that it was in different location which closed some time ago. They just reopened a few months ago, not too far from the original location.

#1DW Antoinette noticed it while driving by one night; she was really excited because she never gets to find new places. When she does think she has found a new place, it more often than not is already on the master list. It was a great personal victory for her that I had never heard of this place before.

It took us awhile to make it there even though it is just a few miles from our house. We came in for breakfast.

The front windows and walls of the small storefront building are littered with signs advertising specials; rib-eye steak dinners for $8.95, waffles and "free caffee." I always wonder about where places get these signs and if those places just vehemently adhere to the "the customer is always right" or just don't care...or just don't know? Same can be said for menu printers.

Inside, it is kind of mess of design. They clearly bought new tables for the new location but they look too new, too modern for a diner. Two large flat screen TVs mirror each other on either side of the dining room. The walls have Rockwell prints, Rosie the Riveter and bucolic thrift-store paintings. It might be terrible to say--but this being an Asian diner, I think they just thought "Americans like this stuff, right?" and called it a day.

There's also a stand up fridge in the middle of the dining room. I have to assume outlet placement in the building and kitchen space issues necessitated this, but it's still odd.

The first thing you will notice about Dandi's once you sit down is that the service is phenomenal. The staff are all friendly and attentive. If you get coffee (and you should, because it's really good) someone will be by every few minutes to see if you need a refill. They are on it like no other place I've seen.

The menu at Dandi's is pretty typical. It covers way more than it needs to with numerous items for breakfast, lunch and dinner. As I said above, this is an Asian-run diner, so there's a hodge podge of fried rice and other Chinese dishes mixed in. There didn't seem to be any signature item that I had to try, so I just went with something that would give me a good idea of what they can do.

I ordered the country breakfast; biscuits and gravy, sausage, potatoes and eggs. The home fries needed to be a little crispier. The gravy was good but not great, I like white gravy to be more peppery. The eggs and the biscuit and sausage (it's hiding under the gravy) were also decent.

Antoinette ordered the #5; O'Brien potatoes scrambled with two eggs with toast and jam. It would have been pretty great except it was lacking one thing--meat. Ham or bacon mixed in would have kicked it up a notch. I'm sure if you ordered a side of meat and asked them to mix it in, they would.

Despite the dining room being so odd with the furniture and decor and TVs talking to each other, it really is comfortable and homey in Dandi's. Even though the food wasn't anything special, we really wanted to come back.

A few days later we decided to head there for dinner. The sign in the window said they closed at 9pm so we drove up about 8pm...and they were closed. That was rather upsetting. A few days after that decided to try it for an early dinner--a REALLY early dinner. We got there before 5pm. Luckily, they were open.

I got the pork chop dinner and Antoinette got the turkey dinner. They were about what we expected, not great, not bad--just okay. The service and the coffee were again exceptional.

At this point, we're going for the service and the coffee. On our next trip there, we are trying sandwiches. I'll be sure to update when we do.

Food: Okay.
Service: Excellent.
Price: $5.95-$10.95
Pie: Yes

Dandi's Family Restaurant
533 S. Del Mar Blvd
San Gabriel, Ca 91776

Jack's Whittier Restaurant -- Whoopee!

2011-02-19T21:10:00.000-08:00

I saw the sign originally while trolling photo websites for "googie" tags. I never even noticed it on LAtimemachines.com, but it's there.

Real-life journalist David Allen and I met for breakfast a few weekends ago. I got there about ten minutes early and put my name on the list. I figured there would be a little bit of a wait, but there were only two parties ahead of us, so it shouldn't have been too bad.

It took about fifteen minutes to be seated. Not the restaurants fault, though. Nobody was leaving! Everyone was just sitting there talking and relaxing, while a half-dozen of us just stood in the ever crampening foyer. David soon arrived and we took some notes on our surroundings as we had nothing better to do.

Along with a crane machine (not pictured due to the number of children in front of it--I think there's a law about taking pictures of children. If there isn't, there maybe should be), there was also this toy novelty dispenser. Whoopee cushions? This has got to be the fart-iest restaurant ever.

There's also this sign advertising a DVD interview with the "Oldest Man In Whittier." Or rather this is included as a DVD extra on one called "Early Whittier." I googled this video and found more information on it. The old man is Monte Wicker AND HE'S NOT EVEN THE OLDEST MAN IN WHITTIER! What the hecks! He's just the oldest guy they could find who remembered anything slightly interesting. This is Whittier, it's not like there was much to remember in the first place.

Finally, we were seated. I started out with some coffee (it was decent) while we looked over the menu. There didn't seem to be anything too exciting or out of the ordinary. It was a varied menu that covered the basics. I saw that they offered a loyalty rewards program and when you signed up for it you got a free slice of pie. I immediately asked our waitress how to sign up. I was dismayed when I realized later that I wouldn't get the free pie then--I'd be emailed a coupon later. Bogus.

Apparently they used to have a "at your table" toaster feature, but we saw no sign of it on our side of the restaurant.

David ordered the corned beef hash breakfast. It was a pretty standard "canned" style corned beef. The potatoes were a bit oily for my taste. They should have been crisper.

I was craving a waffle so I ordered their waffle breakfast combo. The waffle itself was interesting; it was perfectly smooth, save for the edging. It tasted like any other perfectly adequate waffle but the smoothness was fascinating. My eggs were slightly overcooked. The bacon was actually pretty good, I'll give them that.

I can't really recommend Jack's Whittier Restaurant. Only the exterior really holds the old school coffee shop aesthetic, so there's no nostalgia trip to be had. The food was uninspiring. The service was only okay.

I finally got my coupon for my free pie, but I don't think I'll use it.

Food: Adequate
Price: $7-$10
Service: Okay
Pie: Yes.

Jack's Whittier Restaurant
13221 Whittier Blvd
Whittier, CA 90602

Village Coffee Shop--Over and Under

2011-01-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

The Village Coffee Shop is located in the shadow of the Hollywood sign in the closed-circuit neighborhood of Beachwood Canyon. You actually drive through a stone archway to enter the neighborhood. It's very fancy but yet, also somehow modest. It is like an idyllic oasis with a small town feel. The residents are served by a small grocery store and the only restaurant--the Village Coffee Shop.

I hadn't been to Village Coffee Shop in years; it was definitely pre-Dinerwood. It was never my regular spot or anything, but I'd find myself there every few months and I don't really know why. It was never good--literally nothing there was ever good. Decent, sure, but never good. Also, it's kind of expensive. You can't forget that, for as homey as the area feels, it is still in the Hollywood Hills, and that means they can get away with charging a bit more.

After all these years, I decided to go back and drag my friends Matt and Paul with me.

Village Coffee Shop is definitely decorated in the "Grandma's House" style. You do feel very comfortable there. It's about as un-LA a place I have ever been to. The wallpaper and decor made Paul angry. He lives in Hollywood, so I think anything that reminds him that life can be more than homeless people and parking tickets just makes him mad.

Paul had the tuna melt which was served with a slice of American cheese. It was a decent sized sandwich and had a decent amount of french fries. It was about nine bucks.

I got a beef melt with fries. For some reason my sandwich was cut into thirds. I also got nearly twice the fries that Paul did. My sandwich was a little bit more expensive than Paul's. It must have been the extra fries.

I ordered a side of ranch for my fries. It tasted watered down. I was at least hoping for a nice thick restaurant style ranch, but this was like low-fat dressing and just depressing.

Matt ordered an egg cream (milk, chocolate syrup and soda water) because, why not? Not a lot of places serve true soda fountain drinks. This was odd because the soda water was served on the side for no apparent reason.

He also ordered the ham and cheese sandwich, mostly because he was curious what a $9 ham and cheese was like. When it also came out with Swiss and American cheese he said "American cheese is just lazy!"

Overall, our opinion was that everything was decent but underwhelming. The french fries were cripsy on the outside but mealy on the inside. The sandwiches all tasted like what we'd make at home if we bothered to put a minimal amount of effort into it. It was also overpriced for the quality and portions. The neighborhood is what sets the prices. I think many more years will pass before I ever go back there.

When we left, Matt said "Okay, now where are we going for lunch?"

Food: Decent.
Price: $8-$17
Service: Decent.
Pie: Yes.

Village Coffee Shop
2695 N. Beachwood Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90068

Stray Cat Cafe--No Rush

2010-12-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'm going to complain about the newly opened Stray Cat Cafe. It will not be the usual track of complaining that comes about by LA bloggers over it. There's a whole controversy involving the wine bar The Must and Weenez (the hot dog joint that used to reside in this space) and shady business dealings. I'm going to complain because my lunch here cost me over $50. Let me tell the story.

I met my friend Marsha for lunch during the week. It is always kind of a hassle to go out for lunch, but it really does perk you up when you get to hang with friends in the middle of a workday. The worst is when you are on a tight schedule and you end having to wait for your friend to arrive. I parked just across the street of Stray Cat, in front of Bolt Barbers and walked in to find Marsha already waiting for me. I was the one holding up the show.

Stray Cat has only been open for a short while, but certainly long enough to not look like it is either still under construction or already going through a remodel. About half of the restaurant looks unfinished. Adorning the finished walls are oodles of cat art.

We looked over the menu and lamented that we had missed breakfast service; almost immediately our waitress came by and let us know that they were still serving breakfast. That was welcome news. We both eyed the Lemon-Scented Cottage Cheese Pancakes. I ended up deciding to go off my normal ordering routine and went with Marie's Frittata.

Our waitress took our orders and disappeared down that dark hallway.

She'd return from time to time, refill our drinks, bring other people's food. Marsha and I just chatted. Eventually, I started to get a little antsy. This was taking a very long time.

Marsha's Lemon-Scented Cottage Cheese Pancakes arrived. They were very good. They didn't even need any syrup. You could really taste how the addition of the cottage cheese had positively affected the batter. I've gotten cottage cheese pancakes before and they were plain and too tart compared to these.

But then we waited some more. In the meantime, Marsha decided she did need some protein and ordered a side of bacon.

After a bit more waiting, my fritatta came out. I didn't know it came with a toasted hoagie roll. I had asked for an English muffin for my choice of toast. The waitress assured me that the muffin was on its way, too. The frittata was also good. I love the Parmesan and egg combination.

At this point, I decided that I should go check the parking meter. I knew we had to be close to an hour by now.

As I was getting up, the bacon arrived. I paused to try some. It was good.

I went outside and sure enough: parking ticket. $50.00.

I went back inside to find my English muffin had finally arrived. My camera was already packed, so forgive the lack of the picture. You know what one looks like, come on.

Stray Cat Cafe's food was good and reasonably priced. They clearly have some issues with food prep. It took over a half an hour to get two relatively simple breakfasts. The fact that the food came out so staggered means their kitchen may be understaffed and/or in a far off location? I recommend holding off on your visit until the construction is complete and they don't have to disappear down dark hallways to get your food.

Food: Good.
Price: $6-$10
Service: Okay.
Pie: No, but a lot of cakes on the menu.

Stray Cat Cafe
500 S. Spring Street

Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 891-1144

Added:
They do change the art on the walls and as some of you might know when I'm not stuffng myself with breakfast foods, I am a roller derby referee. I was very pleased to see this new piece of art up on the wall.

Blue Star--Downtown LA

2010-12-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

Blue Star is located in a sketchy-ass industrial zone just south of downtown Los Angeles. On this particular day getting from my work to the restaurant--which should have just been a straight shot down Alameda and then left on 15th--took forever due to the insane number of 18- wheelers and scrap metal pick-ups seemingly patrolling the streets.

I knew they closed at 3pm and I arrived at 2:45. After going through the harrowing ordeal of traffic, construction detours and double parked semis, when I saw the "CLOSED" sign in the window, I was livid.

"I'm going in!" I said to myself...out loud. That's how mad I was--I was talking to myself. Have I mentioned how much I hate traffic and driving in general?

I looked at the hours posted next to the door--yep, 3pm. It was not yet 3pm, what was up with the giant closed sign in the window? Did they even know what I went through to get here? I pulled open the door and was ready to tear it up. The two women at the table near the door looked up at me, like they knew I was about to unleash hell. Then a dude told me to sit anywhere I wanted. My ire now taken away, I quietly skulked to a table. At least they were willing to honor the posted hours.

Blue Star has been around for a few years now, but it seems like a design concept never coalesced. It's sparsely decorated; in fact, I think the only thing hanging on the walls that isn't a neon sign or a flatscreen tv, are some hubcaps. It's like a decorator said, "Hey these will look cool here" and called it a day.

They also serve beer and wine, which I found very strange for a place that closes at 3pm. What's the point--unless they are going for a hardcore mid-day drinker base?

I ordered a coffee, which was disgusting and tepid. They were closing and had clearly given up on this product sometime ago. I would have said something, but both employees disappeared into the back and by the time they returned, I was over it.

The menu was sort of torture for me. Some of the breakfasts sounded delicious, but they stop serving them at 11am. The lunch and dinner menu (again, they close at 3pm. "Dinner?") is pretty uninspiring. I asked my waitress which sandwich she recommended between the BBQ Chicken and the Chicken Pesto. She said the BBQ, so I went with that.

I was not expecting much. The coffee had set such an awful precedent that if they had brought me a chicken neck drenched in Heinz 57 on two slices of store-brand bread, I would have not been surprised. Ultimately, this sandwich was really, really good. The BBQ sauce was a good mix of tangy and sweet and the fried onions were a nice touch. My only critique would be that the chicken was a little thin. The french fries were like the best non-greasy fast-food style fries I've had in awhile. Worth $10.50? No.

I finished my meal and left. I was the last person inside who didn't work there. After I walked out, the waiter flipped the sign in the window over to "Open." He just hadn't paid attention to which way the sign was facing.

It all seemed very lackluster and I can see no reason to go back to Blue Star. There was no experience to be had and the price and the hours would definitely keep me away.

Food: Good.
Price: $9-$16.
Service: Okay.
Pie: None.

Blue Star Diner
2200 E 15th St
Los Angeles
213-627-2022
www.bluestarrocks.com

Byways Cafe--Portland OR.

2010-11-30T11:57:00.000-08:00

Located just up the street from the world-famous Powell's Books in Portland is Byways Cafe. The chef/owner of Blueplate recommended it for breakfast.

We actually didn't roll up until way into lunchtime. Luckily we got there about a half an hour before they closed. Byways is only open until 3pm most days and 2pm on Sundays.

We could tell it was pretty packed inside as we drove by looking for parking. Once we did park, we raced a group of nerdy teenagers to the door. Their youth and acne beat us to the last open booth, but they raced for nothing! A table opened up immediately.

Byways celebrates the classic American road trip and the "home-style cooking" you'd encounter along the way. The interior is decorated with vintage travel souvenirs: plates, mugs, maps, teaspoons--don't quote me on the teaspoons, though. I'm assuming. I know my mom collected souvenir teaspoons from locations we visited on family road trips.

Above the booths are display cases overflowing with souvenirs and knick-knacks--neat little pieces of Americana, placemats featuring cartoon cowboys riding jackalopes and offensive portrayals of Native Americans on just about everything else. I wish I had gotten a picture of some of these items...stupid teenagers.

The menu hits the high points of road food and diner breakfasts and since this is Portland, there had to be some homemade granola. Maybe we had been in Portland too long, because that granola sounded really good. We knew they were closing soon so we rushed through ordering. Looking at their menu online, there's a lot of stuff that just sounds amazing.

I ordered the blue corn pancakes, which were served with honey pecan butter. I've been craving good corn pancakes for a long while and I have been disappointed so often. This dish did not disappoint. The addition of the honey pecan butter really made these special.

I ordered only the pancakes so I would be sure to have plenty of room for the pie. As we took our seats, I spied a pie plate on the counter with only two slices left. Next to it a little sign said "Tart Pear Pie" (or was is Pear Tart Pie?). I told our waitress to set a piece aside for me.

Antoinette did go full-tilt Portland and ordered the granola. It was a freshly made batch and was quite good. It's hard for granola to really be awe-inspiring or to knock your socks off. This granola had a lot of nuts, which was nice. The biscuit was delicious. It completely blew away the biscuits we later had at Pine State Biscuits.

When we were done eating our breakfasts-for-lunch, I asked our waitress to bring me my slice of pie. "Oh, right. I hope we have some left." I almost FREAKED. OUT. I told you woman!

I didn't eat a lot of pie on Dinerwood Honeymoon because my belly was full of other sweets a lot of the time (taffy and salt licorice). I wanted my pie! My tart pear pie!

Lucky for me and our waitress there was a slice left. It was a good pie. It delivered what it promised--a tart pie made out of pears. Or a pie-sized pear tart. Either way, it was good.

Even though the food was good, it didn't overly impress us (save for the biscuit), but the feeling of the place really made it a highlight. We were on a road trip of sorts and were at a place celebrating the road trip, so maybe we were biased. We'll end up in Portland again someday and we'll definitely end up back at Byways.

Food: Good.

Service: Good, but forgetful.

Price: $8-$10.

Pie: Yes.

Byways Cafe

1212 N. Glisan St.

Portland OR 97209

Interesting aside: After we returned from the honeymoon, a coworker asked where we went. When I told her about Portland she said "Oh, there's this cute little place my husband and I used to go every time we were in town. The food is so good. It's called Byways Cafe."

Pig'N Pancake, Seaside OR--The Taste of Nostalgia

2010-11-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

Pig'N Pancake is a chain of family restaurants in Oregon. In fact, on Diner-Honeymoon, #1DW Antoinette and I saw four out of the six locations. Each one is a little different and is really catered to fit into the town where it resides. For example, the one in Astoria, which is more of an industrial port-city, looks more rustic with a log cabin look, while the one in Cannon Beach, a more affluent beach town, looks much fancier with vaulted ceilings and large glass windows. The people in Astoria called the people in Cannon Beach yuppies. The people in Cannon Beach wouldn't talk to us so we have no idea what they call people in Astoria.

The Pig'n Pancake in Seaside, Oregon is a very special place for me. I can't remember the first time my family ate here, but chances are, I hadn't even started elementary school yet. There's pictures of us in Seaside where I still have blonde hair. Antoinette doesn't believe that that's me. She believes that I was switched in at some point with the skinny blonde kid that is in those Tanner family pictures.

Seaside is a classic tourist trap beach town. The main drag in town is just a stretch of salt-water taffy shops and gift stores that sell seashells and sweatshirts. The Pig'N Pancake always fit perfectly into the beach town atmosphere.

I hadn't been back to Seaside in over ten years, and I was afraid that the town itself might have changed and Pig'N Pancake might have changed with it. Luckily, neither had changed a bit. Well, the elephant ears places now sells gourmet cupcakes, but other than thatn nothing changed!

Now, although I have fond memories of Pig'N Pancake, I have no recollection of the food quality. Not to get too granola Oregon on you guys, but Pig'N Pancake is a feeling, man. I just hoped that the feeling was "tasty."

We started with some coffee and we were both impressed. This coffee was nearly as good as House of Pies coffee, which is our benchmark for good coffee.

I had to cover both pigs and pancakes with my breakfast. Anything less would have seemed wrong.

I ordered the Banana Pancakes. Mostly because I was intrigued by the pineapple orange sauce. Note--not a syrup, but a sauce. The pancakes on their own were very good and the sauce was excellent. It was a sweet sauce but not too sweet. I tried the huckleberry syrup (it's an Oregon thing) and the regular syrup and both were delicious. The ham steak I ordered as a side was decent, if not a little fatty.

Antoinette ordered the pecan waffle with bacon. We've been burned before so we asked if the pecans were just a topping or actually cooked into the waffle. We were assured that they were in the batter as well as on top. Antoinette was also asked how she wanted her bacon cooked. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been asked that. It seems like it should be asked more even if there are really only two ways to cook it--crispy or not crispy.

The waffle was good, and although there were pecans cooked into the waffle, it just didn't have a strong pecan flavor to it. It was a decent waffle, but nothing to really make you sit up and take notice. The bacon was very good.

After our meal, we headed into the adjacent gift shop. There they sell the expected seashells and sweatshirts and the standard gift store junk--personalized license plates for kids, but never one that says "Antoinette." I'll be husband of the year if I ever find one for her.

They also sell stuffed pigs carrying plates of pancakes. I had to get one to take home with me. I also bought a Pig'N Pancake t-shirt. This is like my Disneyworld!

Up at the counter, I paid with my debit card and signed the receipt with a pink-capped Pig'N Pancake pen. Antoinette asked if we could buy a pen and the waitress just told us to keep it.

Pig'N Pancake was a pretty big dose of nostalgia for me. I loved the whole experience but it didn't blind me to the quality of the food. It was perfectly good, but nothing special. I wouldn't make a trip to Seaside (or Astoria or Cannon Beach, etc) just for it, but if you are there, Pig'N Pancake helps complete your experience.

Food: Good.
Service: Good.
Price: $7-$10
Pie: They make their own!

It's like a stained-glass window at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Porcine Flapjack.

Blueplate, Portland OR.

2010-11-11T10:38:00.000-08:00

One of the places I desperately wanted to go while we were in Portland was Blueplate in downtown. The problem was that its normal hours weren't going to coincide with when were available to go eat. The Diner Gods smiled on us and made the weekend we were there the first weekend Blueplate was open for dinner service.

I knew it was a small place and I actually thought we might need reservations. It was only the second night of dinner service--I thought that was a big deal--but when we walked in things were very low-key. Then I remembered that this is Portland and Portland is a laid-back town. It was silly to think we would need reservations.

There were a few tables occupied and the counter was completely open. Antoinette and I took seats at the counter. Antoinette appreciated that each had its own step-stool to get up onto the seats. My wife is short.

It's almost a gimmick the way things are cooked at Blueplate. It's a tiny place without an actual kitchen. It's all done on this tiny cook top (supplemented by electric griddles during peak times). Out of necessity, the menu is about as small as the restaurant. It's all modern gourmet takes on classic comfort food: things like shepherds pie, sliders and meatloaf.

The special that night was a chicken and waffle sandwich.

Okay, this is going to sound just a little snobby but--I'm from LA, trick! Chicken and waffles is kind of played out, but I wanted to give it a shot.

Okay, this sandwich was bomb. Yep, I called it BOMB! It actually worked as a sandwich. I assumed it was going to be like a pancake sandwich which is never actually a sandwich. This had two savory waffles holding a delicious piece of chicken breast, lightly battered and fried--it could not have worked if it had been the least bit greasy--with shredded apple and a honey mustard sauce. Bomb, right?
The sandwich and the candied carrot side were phenomenal tasting.

Blueplate is known for its meatloaf so Antoinette had to order that. If she hadn't, I would have had to order that to take back to the hotel for later. Now, for the dinner that night, they were only serving the meatloaf sandwich as they didn't have any gravy. Antoinette didn't mind, she just wanted mashed potatoes and meatloaf. The meatloaf was very moist and delicious, and the potatoes were creamy and perfectly seasoned.

Along with the delicious food, Blueplate serves up homemade sodas and milkshakes. I ordered the R.P. McMurphy, named for Jack Nicholson's character in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

I have a deep love for butterscotch and when you add to that some honey roasted peanuts and toffee covered cashews, it becomes heavenly.

We talked with the owner--who was also our cook--after we finished eating. We asked him to recommend some other places to eat in town. He said where he goes for breakfast was a little place called Byways Cafe. A review of this place is coming soon.

Blueplate completely lived up to my expectations. I do wish we had been able to make it there during the day, I would have loved to see it at the height of business at lunch. A full counter and tables I think would have made the atmosphere really pop. The next time we are in Portland, we'll make that happen.

Food: Great.
Price: $10-ish.
Service: Great.
Pie: Sadly, no.

Blueplate

308 SW Washington St
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 295-2583

Peggy Sue's and the Diner-saur Park

2010-11-06T18:32:00.000-07:00

On my first trip to Vegas three years ago, I saw the signs for Peggy Sue's along the way. I wanted to stop, but when we drove by the giant dinosaur statues outside, I HAD to stop; however, the driver of the passenger van would have none of it. The next summer, former Dinerwood photog Charlie Chu and I had gorged on dim sum on our way out of town and were still bursting when we reached the exit. We declined to stop.

This year, I was going by hook or by crook. Fortunately, I did not need to use either of those tools as Burns was down for it. He's a good guy, I didn't want to hook him or crook him.

Peggy Sue's is definitely something you don't see a lot of in this day and age. It's as much a roadside attraction as it is a diner. It's an oasis for the weary traveler to have a respite, stretch his legs, munch a burger (or get some pizza at the adjacent pizza parlor), buy some junk in the gift store, and stand in the shade of a giant metal Brachiosaurus.

This phrase "eat to the beat" strikes me as really subversively dirty. On the surface it just means eat while listening to music, right? Hell, Disney even has a whole concert series at Epcot built around it. It's just too suggestive for me not to chuckle at it. Apparently, I am not alone in my way of thinking.

They have a handy history write-up of the diner. If you squint, you'll be able read it or you can go to the website. Spoiler alert: it's a love story.

The original diner portion of the restaurant is actually quite small. There is a row of booths on one side and the counter on the other. Our waitress led us through that crowded area and into the more expansive dining room...

...which unfortunately looks more like bar.

The menu isn't expansive--it's just that one sheet--but they put some effort into making it cute. It also looks like they printed it at a Kinkos in 1996.

I love Huell Howser. He has certainly been a huge influence on me and my blogging. That sentence I just typed kind of disturbed me. If you don't know Huell, let me educate you...nah, I'll just post a video.

Burns got the King Kong Monster Burger, which is just the Buddy Holly Bacon Cheeseburger with an extra patty and extra cheese. I feel like Buddy Holly would be offended by this were he alive.

I didn't really pay attention to the ingredients of the Mickey Mouse Club Sandwich. I just thought they had put a 50s name on the traditional club sandwich. Nay-nay! It arrived looking amazingly delicious just for the portions of bacon, ham and turkey. Then I saw it- cheddar cheese! "Ohhhh, now I get it." A little slow on the uptake sometimes' I'm not ashamed to admit it.

The addition of cheese and the thickness of the meats made this the best club sandwich ever. The curly fries were good, but the tiny side of coleslaw did taste like old cabbage and was kind of gross.

Peggy Sue's does have pie, but after both of our tremendous lunches, we couldn't even fathom trying to make that work.

In fact we wanted to walk off some of our meal, in the lovely dinosaur- er I mean DINER-SAUR park.

The Diner-Saur park is pretty fascinating. This handy sign helps you identify the different dinosaurs located around the park. It's also very educational. I had no idea that King Kong was a dinosaur.

Here's the majestic Brachiosaurus.

The mighty King Kong and the villainous Spinosaurus.

And finally, the playful Stegosaurus. Oh, there's also a pirate in that tree.

Peggy Sue's would be great just for the Diner-saur park alone, but you can see that from the highway. Now, when you add good food to equation, you gotta make a stop.

Food: Good.
Price: $7-$10
Service: Friendly.
Pie: Yes.

Peggy Sue's 50's Diner

35654 Yermo Road

Yermo, CA 92398

The park also has ducks. Ducks are not dinosaurs....well they were, but are not now.

NOVEMBER IS DINERWOOD ON THE ROAD MONTH!

2010-11-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, the Summer is almost always heavy with "On The Road" posts but I've been traveling quite a bit. November will be finishing up some of the summer adventures and detailing some of the stops on Dinerwood Honeymoon.

Here's a preview!

Andy's Coffee Shop--Mad About this Greasy Spoon.

2010-10-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

Dinerwood friend Marc mentioned once that he used to go to this coffee shop in Pasadena on Colorado boulevard years ago. He wasn't even sure it was still open. He remembered that the sign was yellow. I must have driven past this place a dozen times, since it is across the street from a Michaels craft store that frequent. I guess I have just never noticed it.

I don't use the term "greasy spoon," that often, but this is totally a greasy spoon. I don't want to make it sound gross, but this place is a very lived-in kind of dirty.

The walls are decorated with some pretty standard classic Hollywood head shots but there are also some fabulous 50s and 60s era advertisements, like this Campbell's ad for soup and sandwiches.

The menu is very small and concise. Andy's is only open until mid-afternoon so there's no need to have any dinner options. Prices were a bit surprising. Everything seemed just a little bit more expensive than I wanted it to be. Considering the general state of shabbiness of the restaurant, I expected it to be cheaper.

I am a big fan of retro cooking and cookbooks and noticed a lot of sausage recipes called for multiple slices to the tops of the links. I had never seen it in practice until my breakfast plate arrived and I saw that Andy's did it with their sausage.

My basic breakfast was pretty good.The sausage was very thick but not too greasy. My eggs were cooked over-medium like I requested. The pancakes were deliciously chewy. I know some people don't like that, and sometimes I don't either, but on this day, I didn't mind.

Antoinette got the "Eye-Opener" breakfast, which included a choice of juice, grits or oatmeal, two eggs and choice of bacon or sausage. She ordered the eggs scrambled well. There's a fine line between "well" and "rubbery." These eggs were perfect. The bacon was fatty and delicious. The oatmeal was the only disappointment. It was a very soupy oatmeal, whereas she and I both prefer it more absorbed moisture in our oats.

I like that there is no pretense here. They just give you a beat up bottle of Aunt Jemima for the pancakes. I kind of suspect the bottle has been around for awhile and they just refill it using a jug and a filter.

Wandering over to one of the frames on the wall, I saw a collage of articles and set pictures from AMC's "Mad Men." A scene from an episode early in season 4 was filmed here. As a Mad Men fan, I got really excited. It's kind of silly, it's not like Elisabeth Moss is still hanging around and Jon Hamm wasn't even in the scene they filmed here, but it's a fun afterglow of fame.

Andy's was good, but in a neighborhood distinctly lacking in coffee shops with character, it seemed a bit better that it deserved. It's not a place we're going to plan on going back to, but definitely a place we might stumble into again.

Food: Good.
Price: $8-$16
Service: Decent
Pie: No.

Andy's Coffee Shop
1234 E Colorado Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91106

Why it's been kind of quiet...

2010-10-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

We've been kind of busy.
See, #1DC Antoinette is now Dinerwife Antoinette.

photo by Marc Campos

Look for new reviews coming soon!

Omelette and Waffle Shop - San Pedro. There's a pumpkin shortage? REALLY?

2010-09-12T20:53:00.000-07:00

This was my first Dinerwood trip to San Pedro and to the Omelette and Waffle Shop. I figured that because it was Labor Day, it would be crowded. I just didn't expect it to be this crowded. There had been a marathon in the area earlier and famished runners were crowding the restaurant. Dinerwood Buddy and prolific Yelper Amy K. and I put our names down on the list and waited. Although I did not utilize this feature, I really appreciated that they let you order coffee while you wait and give you a mug to take outside.

We really didn't have to wait long considering how crowded the restaurant was and how many people were waiting. I guess that's the benefit of only being two people. A larger group would have probably had to wait twenty or more minutes. I saw some people had brought crossword puzzles affixed to clipboards to entertain themselves while they waited. I wouldn't have noticed them except that, as I approached, I assumed they were soliciting signatures for petitions. I was preparing my stock phrase, "I'm not registered in this state!" when I saw that it would be unnecessary.

Amy and I took seats at the counter. Amy's feet did not touch the floor. She specifically asked me to mention that and that the ketchup flowed easily from the bottle. These things were important for her.

I ordered a coffee and she ordered a hot chocolate, and we also asked for two waters. The coffee, which was refilled pretty consistently, was really good. It was strong without being bitter. Amy liked her hot chocolate. Although we got our drinks fairly quickly, it did take three reminders before we got our waters.

The Omelette and Waffle Shop is rather Soviet when it comes to interior design. The walls are a dull gray and there's only a spattering of wall art. For a place that has a bit of whimsy on the outside with the anthropomorphic waffle and egg, I expected the decor to carry over onto the inside. I think once you are in, it's all about the food.

There are 95 different omelettes on the menu (the other ten are on the next page of the menu) and a dozen or so waffles. There's also a token gesture of including some burgers, sandwiches, and other dishes (chicken curry?) but really, if you are here, you are getting a waffle or an omelette. Don't be stupid.

Neither one of us wanted omelettes. Amy doesn't eat eggs on their own and I tend to shy away from omelettes anyway. I quickly settled on the jalapeno and cheese waffle, while Amy debated for a bit but finally settled on the pumpkin waffle. When our waitress came to take our order, she revealed that they didn't have the pumpkin waffle and quickly asked if Amy would be interested in trying their new sweet potato waffle. I think I answered for her. I was nearly as excited about this waffle as I was for my own.

There seems to be a distinct lack of kitchen space at Omelette and Waffle Shop. Dishes are prepared and plated and then sort of placed hap-hazardly on any open counter space. It's a wonder the wait staff can keep it all sorted out. I did see some dishes sit for an uncomfortably long time, but I also heard no complaints while I was there. A fruit bowl sat for a good twenty minutes on the counter. It's a fruit bowl, so it's not like it would have gone bad or anything, it just struck me as odd.

I was really excited about the savory waffle. I've played around with cooking savory pancakes and found that experiment worthwhile. I was glad that this did not disappoint. It was delicious. My only critique would be that the cheese seemed to settle in certain areas and was missing completely from others. The jalapenos were very evenly dispersed and provided the right amount of kick--my nose started to run just a little bit.

Amy's sweet potato waffle was amazing. I could smell the cinnamon as it came to the counter. Everything about it was perfect, from the swirl of whipped cream to the sweetness of the waffle itself. It managed to stay on the breakfast side of the wall without jumping over into the dessert category.

Amy ordered a side of home fries, mostly so we could just try them. The potatoes are heaped up onto the griddle in large mounds and then chopped off and crisped. They were rather plain and ordinary, which was disappointing, considering this place doesn't seem to do anything else the ordinary way.

I ordered a side of biscuits and gravy, also basically just to try it. The gravy was good. It was made with chicken stock and was very smooth and creamy. Personally, I would have liked it a bit more peppery. The biscuit was unimpressive.

After we finished, we sat and jaw-jacked for awhile. Mona, the owner came by to ask what we thought. We raved about the waffles, especially the sweet potato. She revealed that that was a new recipe she had just come up with in order to have something to replace the pumpkin waffle. Apparently, there's a pumpkin shortage and she can't get a steady supply of pumpkin. (I was a little bit skeptical about the shortage story, but it's true.) We told her to add the sweet potato to the regular menu because it was just that good. She also revealed some other new recipes she was concocting. I'm most excited about the upcoming hominy waffle.

Can you guess that I'll be coming back? I really liked The Omelette and Waffle Shop. It's worth braving the poor air quality in San Pedro for the waffles...and presumably the omelettes. I'll try one of those next time just to be sure.

Food: Really Good.

Service: Decent.

Price: $6-$10
Pie: No.

Omelette and Waffle Shop

1103 S. Gaffey St.

Sand Pedro CA

Dinerwood on the Road: Las Vegas! Sunshine Cafe

2010-09-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

I love "real people" Vegas. Sin City I can take or leave, but the real thing is something special. It's rusty and sun faded and weird. Each year I've tried to make if farther and farther away from the casinos to see just what the regular people eat because I know only the tourists and the desperate hit the buffet at Binions.

This year I conned my friends Edwin and Skylar into coming with me on my breakfast adventure. I really had no idea how far it was from where we were staying and I got us lost. In my defense, Las Vegas messes with my sense of direction.

You know how casinos don't have windows or clocks so you don't have any idea how long you've been there, gambling away your pension? I think when I'm outside of a casino in Vegas I have a bizarro reaction to the heat and the sun and have no idea in what direction I am going. However, once I got my bearings, we found The Original Sunshine Cafe.

The desolation implied by the sign above the mini-mall which houses Sunshine Cafe, belies how adorable it is on the outside.

This adorability carries over into a delightful homey-ness on the inside. It looks a lot like a grandma's living room.

We overheard a lot of "Long time no see!" and "Oh, what's good this week?" from other patrons. Yep, this was definitely a locals' place.

While we waited to be waited on, we entertained ourselves with the trivial pursuit questions box on the table--I think each table had one. I'm really good at random trivia and so is Skylar. Edwin was bored by our nerdiness.

Our waitress really pushed the home breaded chicken-fried steak, which is not fried, but actually grilled. Either way, it sounded a bit heavy for 9am. I now kind of wish I had gotten it because it did sound pretty interesting.

Edwin had the Ham and Eggs with a waffle on the side. The waffle had a really nice malt flavor.

Skylar ordered the eggs and pancakes breakfast with a side of potatoes. Her pancakes were chewy, but otherwise good.

I got the pork chops and eggs breakfast special. The pork chops were tiny, but were very good. They were nice cuts of meat with very little fat. The eggs and the potatoes tasted fine. The biscuit was standard, but the gravy was really special. I would highly recommend that.

Overall, we agreed that the food was okay, but pretty much tasted exactly how it would had we made it at home. It was really nice getting out into real people Vegas, and with the friendly non-grift vibe, it certainly was a pleasant experience. I probably wouldn't go back there, but I wouldn't tell dissuade anyone else from going, either.

Food: Okay.
Service: Friendly.
Price: $5-$8
Pie: No.

Sunshine Cafe
1581 N Decatur Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89108
(702) 646-4415

"Whipped Spread" sounds dirty.

Cindy's Coffee Shop--Two Visits, Two Years Apart

2010-08-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

Back in the summer of 2008, #1DC Antoinette and I went to Cindy's in Eagle Rock and took this picture. Somehow it has odd grain to it, which makes the picture look far older than it is.

In July of 2010, I took this much crisper picture. On this visit, my friends Chip and Marc came with me.

I've talked about it before--sometimes I go to a lot of places in a short period of time and the log of reviews and pictures gets backed up. Some stuff just has to be put on the shelf. That's what happened to Cindy's.

I just never got around to writing the review, and I needed to go back and refresh my memory. I also have a much better camera now and the difference between when the pictures were taken will be obvious.

Cindy's is a surprisingly small place. From the outside, it looks like a decent sized restaurant, but once you step in you realize that you can see the whole restaurant through the store-front windows. There is no "back" of the restaurant--it's all right there.

Cindy's had to close for a time back in 2007 when a drunk driver plowed into the restaurant and did pretty significant damage. You can see pictures of the destroyed Cindy's at the Boulevard Sentinel. (scroll down)

They definitely had redone the menu since my last visit. I think I would have remembered something so out of place. This was a slick, generic menu that could be used by any family restaurant. Dinosaurs decorate the kids' section of the menu. Dinosaurs, man! That's straight-up Dennys!

On both visits the coffee was a bit of a problem. Chip is a big coffee drinker and bad coffee can totally ruin a place for him. This coffee needed A LOT of help, it was thick and burnt. I am a "two sweeteners and it's good" kind of guy. For this, I was hitting the flavored creamers. Refills either came in close succession or with wide gaps in between.

On our first visit, I ordered the chili omelet and home fries. My notes say "It's alright. Chili is good. Potatoes lack flavor."

Antoinette ordered the waffle and eggs and bacon breakfast. My notes read as thus; "Waffle - EGGO? Squiggly bacon!" Wow. I'm amazing at documenting these experiences.

I really should have consulted my notes before going back because I had completely forgotten what I ordered the first time. I asked about the "biscuit sandwich" on the menu, hoping it was an actual sandwich, but suspecting it was just like a pancake sandwich (which is NOT sandwich). My suspicions were correct. I had to quickly choose something else.

Yep, you guessed it!

I ordered the same damn thing that Antoinette ordered two years before. The bacon was less squiggly and there was less of it, but it was good. The eggs were rubbery. The waffle was less EGGO this time. It wasn't toaster soggy and I swear it must have been incredibly porous since it seemed to absorb all the syrup I poured over it. Needless to say, it was very sweet by the time I took a bite.

Chip ordered the pancake and eggs and sausage breakfast. Chip liked the pancakes; they were fluffy and sweet. He recognized the sausage as being Farmer John brand. He's a man who knows his sausage.

Marc ordered the eggs, hash browns and ham. The hash browns were undercooked and mushy. I'm pretty sure I saw an Ore-Ida bag in the kitchen. The ham was thin and fatty.

In fact, we all agreed that everything seemed "thin." Not just because of a thin pancake or waffle or ham steak, but portion-wise everything seemed thin and kind of skimpy.

We did sit and talk for a good hour after our meal was finished. It was only in the last twenty or so minutes that the wait staff stopped checking in with us or refilling our waters and coffees. We weren't taking up a table that they needed at the time but the lunch rush was presumably coming soon. I think they were using siege warfare to drive us out by thirst.

Cindy's is a place that I really wished was better. It has everything going for it in terms of location and aesthetic; it's just that the food isn't all that interesting or good. It took me two years to come back here and I could easily go two or more before coming back.

Food: Okay.
Service: Okay.
Price: $6-$8
Pie: Supermarket pie.

Someone at Cindy's loves turtles.

Dinerwood on the Road: Another Tommy's Restaurant? San Clemente, CA

2010-08-16T16:24:00.000-07:00

I go down to San Diego a couple of times a year. Along the 5 freeway, driving through San Clemente, I always see a large roadside sign for Tommy's Family Restaurant. I make a note to remember to make time for it on the next trip--I never do. A few weekends ago, as Dinerwood friend Greg and I were returning from Comic-Con, I was finally able to do it--and that's only because my GPS cocked-up the directions to the place that I was actually looking for.

Tommy's has a lot going on in the concept department: "Family Restaurant," "50's Diner," and "Hollywood at Tommy's" signage is located all over the building. It had to have started out as a regular roadside restaurant and then slowly over the years shifted into a hodge-podge 50's diner.

Do note that the sign by the door says "authentic." It's a pet peeve of mine--see, words have meanings. After experiencing, just a few days earlier, a coffee shop that really did seem authentic, Tommy's had a lot to live up to.

When Greg and I pulled into a parking spot facing the building, and I saw this staring back at me--I knew something was seriously wrong.

I would like to believe that the intention there was to do an "authentic" 50's diner. It seems that at some point the owner of Tommy's said "oh, what the hell" and it became a den for pop culture hoarding.

An explosion of Hollywood and mid-century history seems to have left its debris all over everything at Tommy's. It was all too much. Every inch was covered with a photo, movie poster or checker pattern. Every surface large enough had some knick-knack or statuary reflecting an area of pop culture that existed between 1950 and 1985.

I actually did like the embroidered names on the booth seats. They all seemed to be on theme for the 50's.

For example, we sat in the Clark Gable booth. He was past his prime by then, but it still worked.

Then I looked over to my left, toward the counter, and saw something kind of horrific.

No, it wasn't the pictures on the back of the counter stools that seemed cut out of magazines and then glued on, or the Elvis bust with the real leather jacket and life-like hair and SKIN!

It was Spiderman.

Give it a moment.

If you are a real comic nerd, give it an extra moment.

Then realize that it uses the new jagged Spiderman font they created in the 90s, and not the classic original curved font. If it had been the classic, I could have been on board. He did debut in the 60s, which is almost like the 50s but...you know...later.

They had a standard diner menu with additional Mexican (of course) and Greek sections. Greek is a type of food that I always like, but am never in the mood for. Although, I was curious to try it since, like I talked about in the other Tommy's Restaurant review, if a place puts a lot of effort into a whole different genre of food, that usually means that's what they really want to be serving. That, however, burned me last time and the Mexican breakfast there sucked.

We decided to order sandwiches and then split them.

Greg, inspired by a very gorgeous photo in the menu, ordered the pastrami sandwich with an order of chili cheese fries. I would not have expected to find good pastrami at Tommy's, maybe decent at best, but this ended up being really good. Not the quality of a deli or a place like The Hat, but definitely one of the best at a regular restaurant. It wasn't too dry and it wasn't greasy wet. I actually think they mixed little bits of actual bacon into it. The chili cheese fries were very good. They had an appropriate amount of chili smothering the steak fries, so you could still pick them up with your fingers, but could use a fork if you were inclined. I would have liked more chunks of meat in the chili, though.

I ordered the pork tenderloin sandwich, which I expected to be more of a Cuban-style sandwich. And I was wrong. Nowhere on the menu did it mention that the tenderloin was breaded and fried. I'm pretty sure it was not in the "Hot" sandwich section either. This really threw me off.

To assemble my sandwich, I had to cut the tenderloin, since as you can see from the picture, it wasn't the right shape for a french roll. I took a bite and tasted...Filet o' Fish? By god, the pork sandwich did taste like the fish sandwich from McDonalds. I like Filet o' Fish, but I like it when I order one...and it isn't made with pork. Just to make sure I wasn't walking around with some crazy taste buds, I gave Greg his half and encouraged him to try it.

He took a bite and thought for a moment. "Tastes, I don't know. Not bad...but-"

"Like a Fillet o' Fish?"

"What?...well... okay, I can see that."

It must have been the batter they used. It wasn't awful, but I wouldn't recommend it. The french fries, even not covered in chili, were good.

I'm glad I was finally able to sate my curiosity with this place. Unless someone I was with really needed to main-line some aging pop-culture, I don't think I'd go back anytime soon.

Food: Decent
Service: Attentive
Price: $9-$14. (Too much.)
Pie: None.

Tommy's Family Restaurant
1409 S El Camino Real
San Clemente, CA 92672

She has no hand!

Dinerwood on the Road: Rose's Sugar Shack, San Clemente CA

2010-08-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Everything seemed so perfect. The sun was shining, a cool breeze was blowing off the ocean, official Dinerwood Photog Charlie Chu had returned for a weekend trip, and we were eating at a diner. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

And nothing did, for several hours.

I did a little bit of research for our trip down to Del Mar, California and found a cute little diner called Rose's Sugar Shack, just off the freeway. The waitress asked if we wanted to sit inside or on the patio. It being such a lovely day, we decided to sit outside.

It did seem to take way too long for the waitress to get to us initially. I have no clue how busy it was on the inside, but for the first ten minutes we were there, there was no on else sitting on the patio. She did apologize, which was nice.

This gave us a lot of time to peruse the menu. It's certainly not a dense menu, with nothing surprisingly or seemingly unique. The prices were about a dollar or two higher than I would have liked, but since it was a beach town, I just accepted it. I figure I'm paying for the luxury of a nice ocean breeze while I eat pancakes.

Which is what I did. I got a simple bacon, eggs, pancakes breakfast. Everything tasted okay, but just okay. There in that beautiful setting, I wanted something equally beautiful...or at least tasty.

Chu went with his default order of corned beef hash and eggs. The hash was slightly better than canned. The pieces of toast were nice, thick slices, which was good.

An easy summation is: We ordered, we ate it, we left. It was a rather disappointing but adequate place to eat. Everything was fine, until about two hours later.

Chu and I were at the fair in Del Mar. I was all set to go crazy with some fair food. A turkey leg was a must, but that's not really crazy. Deep-fried twinkie? Been there. Hash brown coated hot-dog? Done that. Apple fries? Nailed it shut. I wanted to try something new, something exciting! Would it be this deep-fried butter? I think yes!

It was while walking up and down the food lanes looking for this deep-fried butter that I started to feel it. It started as a low rumble and then a gurgling and then a wrenching and then... well, let's not get into it here in polite company.

Considering the only food in my stomach was from Rose's Sugar Shack, I knew the culprit. Fortunately for him, Chu went unscathed. Prior to this, I had felt rather indifferent toward Rose's Sugar Shack. This clearly tipped my opinion to the downhill side. I didn't feel right again until nearly twenty-four hours later. This severely impacted the rest of my weekend.

Food: I got sick. Chu didn't. So.. let's call it "risky?"
Price: $7-$10
Service: Okay.
Pie: None.

Rose's Sugar Shack Cafe
2319 S El Camino Real
San Clemente, CA 92672

It turns out the deep-fried butter is kind of crap. I imagined as something kind of like the cornmeal mush from Stox restaurant: frozen stick off butter, rolled in batter, and then fried just long enough to soften the butter. Instead, it's a stupid churro stuffed with butter. What the hell?

Our friend Jovi of the Rad Dudes podcast did try the deep-fried butter. A video of the aftermath can be found here.

Dinerwood on the Road: Clayton's Coffee Shop - San Diego

2010-07-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

Original Dinerwood Friend Greg and I went down to San Diego for San Diego Comic Con this past weekend. On our first day we neglected to eat anything. By the end of the day, we had gone beyond starving and into a dull ache in our tummies. We shambled back to the car with our swag bags and headed out to Coronado island. Last year #1DC Antoinette and I had a bizarre and awkward experience at the Night and Day Cafe; located just down the street from there is Clayton's Coffee Shop.

My biggest concern with doing a Dinerwood review on such an empty stomach was that we'd be so hungry that everything and anything would taste good. That ended up not being the case. That sounds ominous, but it's not.

Clayton's Coffee Shop is how you do a 50's diner right. It's not over the top. It really feels like a place you could have eaten at back in the 1950s.

A jukebox is about as garish as Clayton's gets. It doesn't need pictures of Marilyn and Elvis on the wall to capture the feel. It does so with colors and textures.

It was 9pm on Thursday, so things were starting to slow down. There were a few singles at the counter and a few couples at the booths. There were still about four waitresses working and we never wanted for refills on water or coffee (The coffee was only okay).

When our waitress came to take our order, I asked what she recommended. This is always an interesting question to ask. If they say "everything," it's not at all helpful and tells you a lot about the waitress. If they say "nothing," WHOA--That's an honest waitress and you should listen to her. If they ask for more specifics, you know she's taking your question seriously. She asked what we were in the mood for. I wanted breakfast, Greg was more open. We just told her we were starving.

She began a litany of menu items and before long the ladies at the table behind us joined in and started listing their favorites. The daily special was a turkey pot pie, which one of the ladies was currently eating and said it was delicious. Ultimately, I went with corned beef hash and eggs and Greg got the baked turkey dinner.

Greg was also sold on the soup-of-the-day, which was chicken tortilla. Apparently, the owner of Clayton's also owns the Mexican take-out place next door and a lot of their Mexican dishes are actually made there and then brought over t0 the coffee shop.

The soup was really good. It was hearty--each spoonful had some tomato, some chicken, some tortilla and some cheese. It was just a little spicy, giving a little tweak to your taste buds.

Our waitress then brought out Greg's baked turkey dinner. It was a giant mound of turkey and a giant scoop of potato, flanked by a medley of steamed fresh vegetables and a dish of cranberry. Here's how I know I wasn't so hungry that my opinion would be off--I did not care for the gravy. It needed more salt. You could tell it was made with real pan drippings, but it just wasn't salty enough for me. Greg liked it, though. Everything else was great, but I couldn't get behind the gravy.

My breakfast-for-dinner came out looking a little cramped on the plate. There was a lot more corned beef hash on the plate than the picture shows. I ordered my eggs over medium and two of them were right, but one was cooked through. Not a huge deal, since they all tasted good. The hash browns were standard and tasty. The corned beef hash was outstanding. In fact, it was the second best corned beef hash I have had in California. The best is at Nick's in Los Angeles.

I'm not sure what they did with my biscuit, but the bottom was a little soggy (maybe they put it on a freshly washed plate that wasn't dry yet?). Otherwise, it was good. I tore it in half and used one half to sop up some egg yolk and the other to just have with jam.

One of the women who had been sitting behind us stopped by our table to see how we were enjoying the food. Although we didn't take her advice about the turkey pot pie or french toast, she was very sweet. She asked why we were in town and when we told her it was for Comic-Con she got a little sad. It was her first year not going. She and her husband had enjoyed going every year. She was Mrs. Dick Durock. She was Mrs. Swamp-Thing.

I almost wanted to thank her for her husband's service, but that would have been weird.

She wished us well and told us to have fun at the Con.

This was my favorite piece of decor at Clayton's. They take delicious pie so seriously, they painted it on their wall. Here was my odd conundrum--I wasn't totally in the mood for pie. Shock! Horror! I was craving a milkshake. I thought I might have to order both and then explode like the guy from that Monty Python movie.

Greg saved me from such a fate and ordered the apple pie and let me have a few bites. It was very good. It tasted fresh and was made with granny smith apples, which gave it some tart flavor. The crust was dry but not "dusty."

I asked our waitress what kind of milkshake she recommended. I knew which one I wanted and I was hoping she'd list it early to confirm my craving. She went down what seemed like the whole list before I finally stopped her. "What about peanut butter and chocolate?" "Oh, I haven't tried that one."

I went with it. Some sips were more peanut butter, some sips were more chocolate. Each one was heaven.

Clayton's Coffee Shop just became my go-to spot in San Diego. I will drive over that giant bridge to get to the island any time. It was pleasant and absolutely a classic.

Food: Good.
Service: Very good.
Price: $6-$10
Pie: Various. And good shakes!

Clayton's Coffee Shop
979 Orange Avenue
Coronado, CA 92118
619) 435-5425

Goody's 2-- The New Digs

2010-07-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

You may remember Goody's from my stellar-nearly journalistic quality-review of the last night of service at its original location. It certainly took long enough, but Dinerwood finally made it to the new Goody's location in El Monte.

Goody's now resides in what was formally called the "News Cafe" next to El Monte City Hall. I'm pleased that they kept the original font for the sign. It may not be as grandiose at the original Googie sign,but it works. That font is one of the few familiar things they were able bring to the new location.

Another is the sad-sack chef fixture on the wall. I love this guy: his lazy eye--or is it a wink? I don't know; the plate of buns or coffee beans or moon pies; the shovel. He's a schlub. I love him.

The News Cafe was a more modern, more shiny coffee shop. It was next to City Hall for crying out loud. It needed to be a beacon of progress for people looking for a cup of coffee after filing a property lease permit or getting a cheapy wedding. The old Goody's was like your grampa's den.

#1 Diner Companion Antoinette, my folks, and I came in last Saturday morning for breakfast. We were seated and then kind of forgotten about for a little while. I was just getting to the point of flagging someone down to at least take our drink orders when the waitress finally came back to us.

She was nice and chatted with us a bit. In fact, she chatted with everybody a bit, which is why it took so long to get drinks. We asked how things were working out in the new location. She said "fine," and then looked at us a little oddly and asked if we used to come in at night. She's worked at Goody's for 17 years and didn't recognize us. We explained that our first time was actually the last night. She then left to get our coffees.

The coffee was good. The cup and saucer were adorable. It looks like they also took the dishes with them to the new space.

On one hand, I was a little disappointed that they kept the old menus. Our waitress had let me take one when we left the original restaurant and I thought I taking home a priceless artifact. On the other hand, I see that it provides a safe continuity for those old regulars coming to the new location. The same sweet message of "To serve you is a real pleasure" greets you on the cover, and you know that although you drove a different way to get there, it's still the same ol' Goody's.

Before our food arrived, our waitress brought us each a small dish of peaches. These were certainly not from a can; they actually still tasted like peaches and not syrup. I'm not saying Goody's jarred them themselves, but at least there was an effort made for quality.

They also brought all of our bread out in one basket that we then had to sort out. I should mention now that in the morning they do not have the small loaves of fresh baked bread that Antoinette fell in love with at the old location. They only have those at dinner time.

My parents ordered basically the same thing, so I only took one picture. My dad ordered the hash browns "extra, extra, extra crispy." The tops and bottoms were fine but he said they were a little too mushy in the center. The eggs were good, but the ham was a little dry. Overall, good though.

Antoinette ordered the bacon and eggs with a side of home fries. Everything was good except she became really worried about the bacon. "It tastes weird. Like, maybe rancid?" No one wants rancid bacon and nobody wants bacon to go to waste. I tried a bite. It wasn't rancid. It tasted like a crispy pork chop. I think it was just maybe overcooked a bit.

I ordered the Creamed Chipped Beef on Biscuits. I had never ordered it before anywhere. It's something that you see written on placards of restaurants in old movies. Depression era food, is how I see it.

When it came out, Antoinette and I immediately saw the problem. I hate hard boiled eggs. They gross me out. This dish was covered in hard boiled eggs. She graciously offered to trade me her eggs and weird tasting bacon. I wanted to power through and try it....and if it came down to it, I could try to eat around the eggs. One thing I had to keep in mind was that this wasn't gravy over biscuits and dried beef and hard boiled eggs. It was a cream sauce with a very different flavor. Luckily it usually overpowered the egg taste. It was a nice experiment, but I don't think I will ever go down that road again.

I'd be really sad if the new Goody's just didn't feel right or if the food was bad. Luckily, it was basically the same as it was that first time; it was just in a new location--"old wine, new bottle," so to speak. It's a little too far for us to make it a regular stop, but I'm glad it's out there in the world. I hope it's there for a long, long time.

Food: Good.

Service: Friendly

Price: $6-$11

Pie: Yes.

Goody's Restaurant

11357 Valley Blvd.

El Monte, CA 91731-3227

Tommy's Restaurant--Everything to Everyone.

2010-07-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Tommy's Restaurant is one of the few non-chain breakfast joints in Monterey Park. It's located right next to a shopping complex with both an IHOP and a Carrow's nearby. As a supporter of local restaurants, I was glad to see that on a Saturday morning, it was very crowded.
And as a supporter of local restaurants, I just wished Tommy's had proven to be better.

#1 Diner Companion Antoinette and I luckily caught the eye of a waitress when we first walked in, before we could check in with the host. The waitress grabbed us and sat us down at a table that could easily seat 4 or 5. She said if anyone asked to just say we were waiting for more people. She proved very friendly and attentive throughout our meal, but a little spazzy. I think she sat us down there to keep a larger, more difficult to deal with party from being seated in her section.

We both ordered coffee. I found it a bit weak, but Antoinette really liked it. They only had sugar and sweet n low, but they did have real milk available on the table. The servers were very quick and very frequent when it came to refills, which was nice. A few times, I hadn't even taken a sip of my fresh cup when someone came around and poured just an eensy-weensy bit more into the cup.

Looking at the menu, I started to get worried. There was a full "family restaurant" menu AND a full Mexican restaurant menu. There was just too much going on there. There had to be some dilution in the quality of the food. Shortcuts like microwaves, canned goods and decidedly un-fresh ingredients had to come into play.

I gambled that any place that had put that much energy into having a Mexican menu was probably better at that then at regular diner fare. There are a lot of diners that are secretly Mexican restaurants but haven't made the changeover yet. Was this the case at Tommy's?

Antoinette ordered the polish sausage and eggs with a side of home fries. She liked her eggs and the home fries, even though the latter were room temperature by the time she got them. I thought they were a little uneven and some were underdone. The sausage was very good--it had a really robust flavor with some real char on it. She did say that the toast had too much butter on it.

I ordered the Chilaquiles breakfast and it was kind of a mess. The rice was bland--really bland. The beans were okay; I'm just not a fan of refried beans in general. The eggs were oily. The chilaquiles were drenched in a rather boring--I suspect canned--enchilada sauce.

So clearly Mexican was not the way to go with ordering. This was not their secret strong suit. This was more of a case of a place expanding their menu to appeal to the larger neighborhood. I always think of Monterey Park as being predominantly Asian but down near the 60 freeway, it becomes just as much a Latino neighborhood.

Antoinette liked Tommy's Restaurant far more than I did, but she concedes that my breakfast was bad. I'd be willing to give it another shot, but I can't imagine when I would ever go back. If I was ever in the mood for "diner or Mexican" food, I'd go to Bun n' Burger (if they ever get consistent with their hours) which is right in our neighborhood and has much better food of both varieties.

Food: Poor to Okay.
Service: Very Good.
Price: $6-$9 most items.
Pie: Yes.

Tommy's Restaurant
1150 W Riggin Street
Monterey Park, CA 91754

I have never ordered Albondigas because it sounds slightly dirty.
"Check out the albondigas on that one!"

Update to House of Pies review.

2010-07-15T11:16:00.001-07:00

What did they do!?!

Way Station Coffee Shop - Worth the drive.

2010-06-24T12:41:00.000-07:00

The Way Station Coffee Shop is located at the end of the quiet little main street in Newhall. If you have no clue where Newhall is, you can join the club. #1DC Antoinette and I are former members. We had no idea where it was. We had a vague idea that it was north. It's a small town, both in size and attitude, located not far off the I-5 freeway, near Magic Mountain.

The Way Station is not very big; there are maybe only ten or so tables along with the counter. We were there at 11am and every table was full. I imagine there can be times where there's quite a wait. Luckily our friends Matt and Sara, who live in nearby Val Verde, had gotten there already and grabbed a table.

The interior is decorated with vintage license plates and an assortment of western kitsch. The waitress was a little rushy with us, and I understand the desire for turnover, but it took us a little while even to look at the menus. There was a lot of little stuff to look at all over the the restaurant. We started with some delicious coffee and then took a look at the menu.

The menu is very simple, with only two pages of American breakfasts and lunches. They close at 2pm so there's no reason to go any further with the food choices. It was interesting to me that there was no Mexican influence on the menu. The area is pretty heterogeneous, so I would expect there to be some cross pollination. There are, however, three Mexican joints on the same street, so maybe they know not to compete.

On the griddle is just a mountain range of hash browns slowly cooking. The cook just hacks off a piece of it like Sir Edmund Hilary, crisps it on a hot spot and-boom-ready to go.

#1Diner Companion Antoinette, Matt and Sara all got some basic variations of the standard breakfast.

Antoinette's had bacon, eggs and hash browns. The hash browns and scrambled eggs were really good. The bacon wasn't soggy with grease and had slight crunch to it. It was quality bacon.

Matt got his eggs over-hard and a slab of delicious ham.

Sara abstained from a pork product, but got grilled onions instead.

All of them were delicious.

We also got two sides of the biscuits and gravy and both were very good. You can see from the picture that the white gravy was very smooth, almost milky. The biscuits were a little small but very good.

I ordered the Kris Special, which was kind of like a Benedict but with chicken gravy instead of hollandaise. I didn't expect EVERYTHING to be smothered with the gravy. I didn't mind it though, because it was fabulous.

After our food came, I asked the waitress what pies they had--the menu clearly said they had pie--she said they were out of season and that they only have them in the fall. Pie is always in season, young lady. Always.

The Way Station Coffee Shop is really a top-notch diner. I just lament that it's such a long drive from where we live. If you are north of LA proper, I can't recommend it enough: all around good food and great coffee.

Food: Really good.

Service: A little rushed, but good

Price: $6-$9

Pie: Seasonal

The Way Station Coffee Shop

24377 Main St
Newhall, CA 91321

Nick's Cafe--On the Other Side of China(town) is America.

2010-06-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

I knew it existed, but I didn't quite know where Nick's Cafe (not to be confused with Nick's Coffee Shop ) actually was. One day I took a slightly different way into work and just happened to glance the right way and, to my surprise, there it was, just before Chinatown.

I decided to leave for work a little bit earlier yesterday and get some breakfast. I knew the building was small, but I had no idea until I stepped inside. It's all counter with a single table on the far side, but I don't think anyone is meant to sit there since it was piled with boxes when I walked in.

I'm not shy about taking pictures anymore unless it seems obtrusive to the other diners; in Nick's it definitely felt obtrusive. We were packed in. I was sandwiched between two groups of guys, one of which was arguing about the Lakers and the other about parachuting--not civilian parachuting but Airborne/knifing Nazis in the throat--parachuting. I think either party would have been a little edgy about a camera snapping photos.

On the other side of the counter were two cops, and its creepy taking pictures of cops. It's creepy for them; it's creepy for me. They only get their picture taken when they are doing something wrong or when they are being targeted by the evil South Africans from Lethal Weapon 2.

I waited for them to get up before surreptitiously taking this awful picture.

Let me also say that when I got the coffee at Nick's Cafe and it awesome, I knew I was off to a good start.

Nick's is only open until 2pm (Mon-Sat, not open on Sundays) so the menu only covers breakfast and lunch. It is a solid diner menu: a dozen different egg specials, pancakes, waffles, sandwiches and soup--sadly no desserts. I saw that their corned beef hash breakfast was made with "fresh ground beef," so I wanted to give it shot.

I have to say, that this was hands down the best corned beef hash I have had in California (the best overall was at Jam in Portland). It tasted fresh, as fresh as a brine-cured meat can be. This was so far beyond the canned stuff I've had at most restaurants as to actually taste almost unfamiliar as "corned beef hash." There were no cubes of potato and there was no dog food sliminess. The only negative thing I could say about it was that it was shade too greasy.

The potatoes at Nick's are also amazing. They are shredded so fine that they must crisp instantly on the griddle. The only thing I can really compare them to are Chinese crispy fried noodles.

My toast also came with a homemade apple and grape jelly (I think that's what it was). I also assume it was homemade because it wasn't sweet enough for store bought jam. They also make and sell their own salsa, but there was nothing on my plate that I thought salsa would improve, so I skipped it.

By the time I was halfway done with my breakfast, everyone else had cleared out and it was just the cook, the server and me. The server and I chatted about scooters and vacations and Fall weather. It was very pleasant.

I really fell in love with Nick's Cafe. I can see myself going there at least once every two weeks or so, or whenever I haul my butt out of bed early enough to go before work. It's working class; it's simple; it's delicious; it's what a diner is meant to be.

Food: Great.
Service: Friendly.
Price: $6-$9. (Cash only, but ATM on premises)
Pie: No pie.

Nick's Cafe
1300 N. Spring st.
Los Angeles CA 90012

Dick Church's Restaurant--We Went Here Because of the Name

2010-06-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Dick Church's is one of the oldest continuously run restaurants in Orange County. It has had a half dozen different names since it opened in '47 (editor's note: 47!) but has retained the Dick Church's name since 1972. Its previous name was "The Coffee Tree," which makes the Dick Church logo less confusing.

#1 Diner Companion Antoinette and I went down to Newport Beach to go on a whale-watching cruise (no whales but enough dolphins to make seeing dolphin playing in the ocean actually seem boring). Afterward, we stopped into Dick Church's in the mid-afternoon for a late lunch.

There was only one other table occupied at the time, a man in his mid-20s seated with two chatty elderly women. We couldn't decide if he was just an unfortunate grandson or an unlucky gigolo.

We both fell in love with the "grandpa's den" feel to the place: wood paneling, comfy chairs, black and white pictures on the wall...

...and the vintage cigarette machine hiding by the bathrooms.

Even though it was the afternoon, I really wanted to try the coffee. At a place like this, it's either really bad or really good. I thought it was just a little weak, but Antoinette loved it. She also liked the real cream brought to the table.

The menu is straight up American diner classics. There is a strong emphasis on breakfast and lunch, but they also offer a decent Family Restaurant dinner menu with things like steak and jumbo shrimp. They have great daily specials during the week (soup, burger and pie for only $8.25) but alas, nothing comparable on the weekends.

When the waitress came to take our order, I asked which sandwich she recommended--the Plantation sandwich (ham, Swiss and pineapple) or the Aspen (ham, turkey, bacon), since both sounded good. Without hesitation, she said the Aspen.

Antoinette ordered the Beefeater with tomato added. This was one of the best beefeaters we've ever had. Quality roast beef, not too greasy, and the cheese was melted perfectly. The fries were also pretty good. There was a decent amount of them, but I would have liked more.

I was surprised by the Aspen; I expected something more deli style. It was a more elaborate Club sandwich and not cut into fourths. Ham and turkey and bacon, 1000 Island dressing and tomato. It could have used a little bit more of the dressing, but otherwise was perfect.

The pie was good in a gross way. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but think of it like this: you can get a McDonald's hamburger or a gourmet one from someplace like Umami Burger. Sure, the gourmet one is going to be better, but sometimes the McDonald's one is just fine. That's how I felt about this pie. The filling was from a can, the crust was from God knows where, but I liked it. I like pie.

Food: Good.
Service: Friendly.
Price: $6-$10
Pie: Yes, but you can skip it.

Dick Church's Family Restaurant

2698 Newport Blvd.

Costa Mesa, CA 92627

A relic of Dick Church's past. This is the side of the building facing a U-Haul rental place. When I went to take the picture, I walked onto the lot and gave the day laborers false hope. Suckers!

Stox - "That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen you order."

2010-06-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

For the finale of the three year anniversary, I invited just about everyone who had ever appeared in a Dinerwood review to come out to breakfast with me. Five people showed up. Apparently, I am not that popular.

I choose Stox in Downey for this celebration because well--basically, the sign is amazing. What font is that? It's kind of classy, kind of sporty, kind of awesome.

The first paragraph of their history page has perhaps my favorite quote from one of these things "Stox quickly became a favorite restaurant stop because of the home-cooked food and pies fabulous." Typo or poetry? You be the judge.

The dining room is adorned with fake plastic plants, neutral colors and ceiling fans, giving it a late 70s/early 80s coffee shop feel. Gigantic booths make it perfect for large parties. They actually have a lounge off the main dining room, so if you want your ham and eggs with a side of Highball or Mojito, you can.

The wait staff was great. We rarely had to wait for refills on any of our drinks. They also asked right away if we wanted to split the check.

Paul ordered the cheese benedict. It did not come out in smiley face form, but pretty close to it. We had only to move the bacon around to form hair and it was set. Paul liked the bacon the best.

#1DC Antoinette ordered the soup and salad. The soup was beef and vegetable and packed pretty dense with carrots, zucchini and other veggies. It was also very peppery.

She also ordered the pumpkin muffin, which was amazing.

Tony and Brian both ordered the avocado omelet. They liked that it was fluffy and layered and well-made, but it could have used more fixin's inside. As it was, the avocado was basically only on top and hardly found inside the omelet. The hash browns were nicely crispy on the top and the bottom and then soft in the middle.

Brian also got a side of french toast. It was alright.

Lidia ordered the Stox Burrito and photo-bombed her own food picture. She thought it was a bit bland. The burrito was also lying in what we thought at first was "salsa-juice" but we concluded was a broth of some kind.

Cammie ordered the corn beef hash with poached eggs. The hash wasn't anything special but the eggs were good.

Now for me, I only had to take a few seconds with the menu. I saw immediately what I wanted: the corn meal mush. I asked the waiter what it was and he replied, "We mix corn meal and water and then freeze it so it holds shape and then we deep fry it. It comes with syrup."

Seriously.

How could I NOT get it!?!

When it came out, #1Diner Companion Antoinette said "That's the weirdest thing I've ever seen you order."

Another waiter came by specifically to watch me eat it. "It doesn't taste like anything. It's GOOD!" he insisted.

And of course my camera ate the picture. This is why this review is not posting until after the 3 year anniversary is over. I had to go back the next week and order it to go.

When I ordered it the week before it actually looked like golden bricks. These were kind of like...slightly rounded at the top golden bricks. The mush bricks aren't crispy. There is a fried "skin" and then they are soft and mushy on the inside. On their own, they were just okay. They tasted like plain polenta...which is what they are.

But dip them in warm syrup--OMG! Sooo good.

Stox gets top marks from me for having an impressive pie menu. A Pie Fabulous menu, even.

I ordered the pineapple cream cheese pie and it was pretty good. I didn't care for the crust though, I found it a bit "dusty." The cream cheese (think the filling in a Danish) and the pineapple were very good. I think I actually felt my gums shrink away from my teeth on account of all the sugar.

Paul ordered a slice of coconut cream pie to go. He compared it favorably to the coconut cream pie at House of Pies.

Cammie ordered the strawberry tart. Lidia photo-bombed.

I really liked Stox. The food was a little weird in both bad (burrito broth) and good (corn meal mush) ways. The service was great. I'd go back there and, in fact, I already have.

Food: Good overall, but a little uneven.
Price: $8-$12
Service: Great.
Pie: "Fabulous"..well it was good.

Stox Restaurant

9518 E. Imperial Highway

Downey, CA

Lancers--Where the "Greatest Generation" Eats.

2010-05-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

I went to Lancers a couple of times, many years ago--before I had even started Dinerwood. I had forgotten about it until just recently, and at that time it became an, "Oh yeah, I should go there again" place. It was pretty low on my priority list but then I found myself in Burbank a couple of times and in a position to grab a quick dinner, so this review covers two trips.

Lancers is a traditional family restaurant/coffee shop. Pastel colors cover the plush booths and the walls are adorned with awful motel room art. The restaurant is very large with a long counter and two full size dining rooms, not to mention the cocktail lounge (accessible through it's own entrance or through a door from the dining room).

On both visits, I was surprised at how packed it was. I was there at 6pm on weekdays and if I hadn't just been by myself, I would have had to wait a few minutes to be seated.

I noticed two distinct kinds of people at Lancers: old people and the not-quite-as-old people dining with the young people. There were quite a few families enjoying together time. There were greasy teenagers having awkward, stilted conversations with their parents over pancakes and patty melts seated right next to blue haired biddies talking about artificial hips and what a looker Roosevelt was...TEDDY Roosevelt. Heyoohhh!

One gray panther regular looked a little peeved when he saw me seated in the tiny booth. The waitress buzzed by him and said "We didn't think you were coming tonight." I guess I took his spot, so he sat down at the booth next to me. I'd like to say he glared at me or mumbled threats, but he didn't. He just hassled the waitress about tea and what soups they had.

Speaking of soups, I was able to look into the kitchen from my seat and I saw that they microwave their soups. I found this really odd. Most places have their soups in big heated pots or tubs or I'm not sure what they are called. I watched several times as a waiter would appear with a bowl of soup and pop it in the microwave for a minute or two and then take it to a table.

On both visits, the wait staff was just amazing. They were always there with a refill and a friendly smile. I think I was asked three times by three different waiters in the span of a minute if I needed anything to drink.

As the cover (seen above) demonstrates, Lancers has a traditional menu that covers everything anyone would have wanted to order in 1985.

Although I didn't think of this at the time, I guess I am commemorating the 3 year anniversary of Dinerwood in this review as well. I ordered a fried egg sandwich, something I hadn't ordered since the 101 Coffeeshop review three years ago. I was very surprised because this was literally just a fried egg on toast. No mayonnaise, no tomato, no cheese, no nothing. It was good, but obviously really dry. The coleslaw I got with it was very good, not too sweet and not at all soggy.

The next week I tried to be a little more adventurous. I tried the Liver and Onions dinner. I figured this was an old person kind of restaurant, I'd order an old person's of dinner.

My salad was good.

What? It's a salad. I'm not going to wax poetic about it.

The liver and onions came with a choice of sides. I went with rice and steamed vegetables. The veggies were very good: large chunk of carrot, large chunk of zucchini, large chunk of cauliflower, little bite of broccoli. The rice was tasty as it was obviously cooked in butter and chicken broth. The onions were good and caramelized. The liver...well, the liver was weird. It had the taste and texture of venison. I can take or leave venison. I've had good and I've had overly gamey. I ended up only eating about half of it. This experiment did not pay off.

I will note, that while I was leaving, I saw that, at two separate tables, people had also ordered the liver and onions. They seemed fine with it.

Now, I didn't get pie on either trip, but I have had their pie before and it was good. I remember really liking their chocolate cream pie. They also have a decent variety of cakes and muffins.

Lancers isn't exciting. In fact, it's the opposite. It's very safe and comfortable, which makes sense since after all, this is what we call "comfort food."

Food: Decent
Service: Excellent
Price: $5-$16
Pie: Yes

Lancers Family Restaurant
697 North Victory Boulevard
Burbank, CA 91502-1628
(818) 843-3433

Nat's Early Bite --For You, Not Me.

2010-05-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

If you remember, Nat's Early Bite was one of the choices in the poll for where to go to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of Dinerwood (Leroy's won). #1DC Antoinette and I happened to be in the Valley on Saturday and decided to go.

After finding street parking (the lot is very small), we went inside and put my name down on the list. It was crowded, as could be expected for a Saturday morning. From what I've found looking online and talking to people, Nat's Early Bite is pretty popular with the Valley crowd. It has been around for 30 years and now has two other locations.

They had a really nice looking pastry case near the front of the restaurant but it was always so crowded around there that I wasn't able to get a picture of it. They had a dry-erase board hung above it listing the different pies and cakes available.

Nat's is pretty cute inside. It's a a strip mall diner similar Corky's in Rancho Cucamonga. It has a nice homey decor. People are pretty densely packed in the main dining area and luckily we were seated near the back of the room. Some people don't like to be seated by the restroom or by the kitchen, but I actually prefer it because it usually means a waitress or busboy is going to have pass by your table sooner or later.

Our waitress checked in with us fairly early after we sat down. We weren't sure what we wanted yet so we asked for more time. Lesson learned; it was a good five minutes before she made it back to us. She was running ragged so I don't blame her. I think she got to us at her earliest opportunity.

I ordered the Salami and Eggs with a side of grits. The grits were watery, which I should have expected. I usually ask at a restaurant if they make their grits this way, but I just forgot this time. The salami wasn't that good; it tasted more like salty bologna. It reminded me of when I was living on my own and I would buy meat from the Everything 99 cents Store. That meat always tastes a little off. Halfway through I noticed that the bowl my grits were in had dried avocado along the side. It was not washed adequately.

Antoinette ordered the Apple Maple Turkey Sausage breakfast. The potatoes were quite good, they had a little bit of crust on them and a good flavor. She ordered her eggs "scrambled well," and they delivered. The sausage though was where her breakfast fell short. I could taste apple and I could taste maple but overall the sausage tasted cheap, like my salami, and it had the consistency of a dense hot dog.

This disappointment was particularly odd because they have a whole page of the menu devoted to their sausages, implying that they are kind of a specialty.

They do have a pretty good apricot-pineapple jam available (you can take home a jar for just $3.95).

I didn't even bother finding out what kind of pies they had--we were both ready to go once we finished our meals. We left Nat's very, very confused. It has such a good reputation and is clearly very popular, so why was our experience so lackluster? Maybe we just didn't order the right things to really see the best that Nat's has to offer?

If a place puts an emphasis on their baked goods, we should have at least tried a muffin or ordered pancakes (pancakes aren't baked, but you know what I mean). I won't go out of my way to try Nat's Early Bite again, but clearly they are doing something right for a lot of people.

Food: Okay

Service: Busy

Price: $6-$10

Pie: Yes.

Nat's Early Bite Coffee Shop

14115 Burbank Blvd

Van Nuys, CA 91497

New York landmark diner set to close on May 15th

2010-05-05T12:45:00.000-07:00

The Empire Diner

History:
"The Empire Diner was closed and nearly abandoned in 1976 when three young New Yorkers-Jack Doenias, Carl Laanes, and Richard Ruskay, renovated the former greasy spoon on then-grungy 10th Ave. and turned it into the landmark restaurant it has become. With its Chrome and Black interior, traveling marquee lights, outdoor café, flashing “EAT” sign, and stainless steel Empire State building silhouette, the Empire Diner became a major force in the Chelsea Renaissance that allowed art galleries, hotels, and other restaurants to replace the machine shops, gas stations and auto parts stores that then dominated the landscape."

Present:

"After more than thirty years of serving Chelsea residents, actors, police commissioners, athletes, gangsters, such luminaries as Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Steven Spielberg, and anyone carrying a New York City Guide Book, the Empire Diner has lost its lease and is closing its doors May 15th, 2010."

Future:

"The search is on for appropriate real estate in and around New York City, as well as abroad, on which to develop both new Empire Diners and Burger Rebels eateries."

Le Roy's, The Original--3 Year Anniversary poll winner!

2010-05-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

Last month, in preparation for the third anniversary of Dinerwood, I put up a poll asking where I should go. Le Roy's The Original in Monrovia won (runner-up Pacific Diner will get done next month).

I am not often in Monrovia, but every time I am, I end up on Huntington Drive driving past Le Roy's Original. I had never seen it open and assumed it was closed down. I also assumed it was called King Le Roy's for no better reason than it has a lion wearing a crown on the sign.

I was overjoyed when I found out that it wasn't that they were closed down, it's just that they close at 3pm everyday. Apparently I am only ever in Monrovia in late afternoon or evening. Monrovia has an exciting nightlife, if you didn't know.

This morning, bright and early at 7:30 am, I met my friend, legitimate journalist David Allen. In complete contrast with the very first review three years ago, where I walked into Millie's also at 7:30 am and there was no one else there, Le Roy's was hopping.

Le Roy's is by no means tiny, but it doesn't have an abundance of tables. They require that everyone in your party be present before seating you. David was a few minutes late so I got to soak in some of the atmosphere. There's a short counter with about a dozen seats. Each was occupied by a man no younger than 60. More often than not, they were referred to by first name and/or didn't need to look at a menu before ordering.

The waitresses were the kind of waitresses you always want to have; I was called "sweetie" and "hon'" at least twice. They were attentive and friendly, and they were also relatively "with-it." One waitress told her elderly patron that he should go to Youtube and watch the video of the cat flushing the toilet. "It's the funniest thing," she insisted.

So two failures in the realm of photography that occurred during this visit were that I didn't get a good shot of the butterflies that adorn the ceiling and no picture of the etched lions on the glass in the background. The butterflies area bit of head-scratcher unless this is their "spring time" decoration. The lions (same mascot as on the sign) are pretty amazingly detailed in the glass.

Once David and I were seated, we looked over the menu. Even though Le Roy's is only doing breakfast and lunch, the menu was very concise. For breakfast, you basically had a few omelets, the pancake-french toast- waffle triumvirate, and eggs with a pig part. For lunch you had some basic sandwiches.

I asked our waitress what she recommended. She specifically said "Well, these are popular" (which is not exactly what I asked, but all right.) and then proceeded to point out the ham and eggs, the corned beef hash and eggs, and the pancakes.

After some negotiation between us, David ordered the corned beef hash and I ordered the pancake breakfast special. This way we got to sample a a wider variety of what Le Roy's had to offer, at least from the breakfast menu. I also ordered a side of the cottage fries and David ordered the tater-tots.

I get why people are REALLY excited for tater-tots. There are not a lot of restaurants that serve tater-tots, but Le Roy's does. It's pure lunchroom nostalgia. At every table this morning, at least one person ordered them for their potato side. I was more intrigued by the cottage fries, but David was definitely into the idea of the tots.

I also ordered a coffee and let me just say--this was the best coffee I've had in a very long time. It was strong, smooth and not at all bitter. I drank at least five cups while we were there. A waitress was always there each time I finished.

After a slightly longer time that I would have expected, our food arrived.

David's was a little disappointing. I've had worse corned beef hash but I've had way better as well. The tater-tots were as good as tater-tots get, but since I suspect all tater-tots are made in one central processing center in Idaho, I don't imagine there's much variance in flavor.

I fared a bit better. My pancakes were made with a bit of Cream of Wheat mixed into the batter. Usually this is mentioned on a menu as a sub-category of the Pancakes section, like a place might have buttermilk, whole-wheat, and Cream of Wheat. It's interesting that this is their default. It was very soft and tasty. The bacon was crispy but not brittle. The cottage fries were just like big ovoid french fries; they were decent.

The service and the coffee were outstanding at Le Roy's. The food was a bit of a mixed bag. I fully intend to go back since it's quaint places like this which really make doing Dinerwood fun.

Food: More Good than Meh.

Service: Excellent.

Price: $5.00-$9.00

Pie: No pie.

Le Roy's The Original

523 W. Huntington Drive

Monrovia, CA

626-357-5076

Arthur's - GREATEST FOOD IN TOWN! Well...kind of.

2010-04-27T21:37:00.000-07:00

While we were at Ozzie's the other weekend, Tony recommended Arthur's as another great breakfast place. So last weekend when #1Diner Companion Antoinette and I were looking for a place to go to breakfast, I googled it. As it turns out it, Arthur's is only a few miles down the road from Ozzie's.

I was a little hesitant when I saw that they have a drive-through. That's a burger joint thing and I am not in the business of going to burger joints. "If we have to order at a counter, we're walking out," I informed Antoinette. I am snobby about my diner reviewing.

I was relieved when we walked inside. Thankfully, there was no back-lit sign that I had to crane my neck up to read. Chairs lined the counter rather than the counter having a line. Looking at it more closely, I think it had to have been a burger joint at some time in its history: the drive-through first of all, it's very cramped inside, and the kitchen is partially exposed.

A benefit of being in such a small space is that your waitress is never more than ten feet from you. Eating in such close proximity to everyone else also lets you in on their conversations. If it weren't for this, we wouldn't have known that Arthur himself (or Art, as his regulars call him) was there this morning chatting up the diners. He's a sweet looking old man with two hearing aids and flair for jokes. Dirty ones, I assumed, since he'd lean in close to give the punchline.

It's a pretty standard menu that covers the basics. There were two things that really stood out: the price, which I expected it to be a lot cheaper, and the lack of spell check used on the menu. It's like an Easter egg hunt spotting all the typos. "Squueesed."

They also have a fake or rather "exact duplicate" of an Orange Julius on the menu.

The is a weird thing worth noting--in small type at the bottom they tell you that they charge a fee for using your credit card. I had a sense of goodwill toward Arthur's because y'know, old man/dirty jokes, that's pretty cool--but this was borderline.

I'd reserve final judgement for the food. I ordered the french toast breakfast with polish sausage and a side of biscuits and bacon gravy (supposedly a house speciality). Antoinette ordered the turkey salad sandwich on raisin nut bread with a side of fries.

The turkey salad sandwich was exquisite. Quality chunks of white meat that wasn't drowned in mayonnaise. The toasted raisin bread was perfect. The french fries had an excellent crispy to potato flavor ratio.

The french toast and the eggs were nothing to crow about. They were decent--basically what you'd make at home. The polish sausage, however, was delicious. I did have sausage burps for the rest of the day-- but hey if you really like that flavor, it will stay with you.

The biscuits and gravy were very good. The gravy was smooth, not lumpy, and we could taste the bacon grease. That sounds kind of gross, but it really is good! The biscuits are small and dense. They bake them continuously and pop them straight from the oven and into a bucket. The waitresses come by and scoop them out and onto a plate.

Arthur's Restaurant was good. It had a cozy, familial atmosphere that we both really appreciated. The prices and the odd charge card fee practice were given context when Arthur (I can't call him Art, yet) was asked by a patron how business was doing. In that "greatest generation" way he sort of shrugged and talked about not losing money, not making money, only breaking even. Little places like this operate on the razor's edge and need the support of people who appreciate real, classic American food.

If that is not enough to entice you, there's always the prospect that Arthur might tell you a dirty joke or two.

Food: Good.
Price: $6.95-$10.95
Service: Good.
Pie: No pie.

P.S.

After I told Tony that we went to Arthur's for breakfast, he got really mad. "Dude why didn't you call? I live right by there. I would have met you."

"Sorry. Wait...don't live in Orange County?"

"Yeah?"

Apparently, there are TWO Arthur's. Art gets around!

Arthur's GREATEST FOOD IN TOWN

8813 Lakewood Blvd

Downey, CA 90240

562 869-9189

And the other location-

Arthur's Coffee Shop GREATEST BREAKFAST IN TOWN

1281 E La Habra Blvd

La Habra, CA 90631

562 691-7793

Added-
Apparently that wasn't the place Tony was talking about either. There is a THIRD Arthur's and this one is also located in the OC. However, the logo is different and the menu is much fancier. I expect it is not the same restaurant family... or is it? Perhaps there is a story there. Maybe this third restaurant is old Arthur's son's place. He wanted to take the diner dynasty in a new direction but Arthur clung to the old ways, the simpler way of a simpler time. They had a bitter falling out when Art Jr. ran off with the third Mrs. Arthur, a vivacious starlet who Art Sr. hoped would take care of him in his twilight years. The harlot and the ungrateful son had planned on the shock and heartbreak to be enough to kill Art Sr., but they knew nothing of the fire and vigor that rested in the old man's guts. He survived and now battles for the heart and soul of the Arthur's name.

Wow, this makes this so much more than a diner review and more like a Raymond Chandler novel.

Ozzie's Diner --Not just for truckers.

2010-04-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Tony, whom you first met in the Pann's review, came up to me and said "There's this place off the 5 freeway. It's really hard to see but it's right off the exit. I can't remember the name but you have to go."
"Is it south, like around Bell Gardens?" I asked.
"Yes."

Ozzie's Diner. Already on my list.

We made plans to meet last Sunday morning for breakfast. I was running behind and got there about ten minutes late. As I walked in the front door, I took in the delightful cuteness of the diner; overstuffed turquoise booths, long counter and formica table tops. There was a kitchy 5o's theme going on with the standard Presley-Monroe-Dean (lots of Dead) triumvirate in effect. I scanned the restaurant for Tony. No Tony was to be found.

I was greeted warmly by a waitress as I craned my neck around looking for my friend. For some reason, as I was answering her question about the number of people in my party, I realized I had left my wallet at home.

"Twoooo? Umm yeah." I said, realizing that I had no money on me that didn't jingle.
She looked at me strangely and said, "It will just be a minute."

I sat quietly, hoping Tony would arrive sometime soon, and before a table opened up. I could be innocuous and perhaps just slip out the door if need be if he wasn't going to show. No such luck. The waitress called me over to a freshly cleaned table.

"You want anything to drink? Coffee? Juice?"
"Uhhhhh--Water, please."

I couldn't even float a coffee with the change in my messenger bag. I sipped water and spent my time perusing the trucker advertisements on the menu. I was seated in between the counter and the main dining room. This meant all the waitresses had to pass by my table. I had to deflect several inquiries as to my need for anything else.

This limbo allowed me to take a lot of time deciding what I would theoretically eat if the opportunity arrived--and all of this examination just made me hungrier. They have a large selection of what they call "Trucker Omelets" which are made with "four fresh eggs and served with a side of either Ozzie's Potatoes or hash browns, toast and jelly OR biscuits and gravy and a GOOD MORNING!" Each is named after some highway or trucking terms: "The Peterbilt," "The Interstate 80," etc etc.

Something to mention--There's an old saying that if you are on the road, you should eat where the truckers eat because they know the best places. Yeah, nothing could be further from the truth. Trucker's eat where they can park and at whatever is close to the freeway. If a place has garbage for food but it has a big parking lot and it won't take more than a minute to get there after you exit the freeway, THAT's where they are going to eat. If you find a place that caters to truckers and the food is good, consider yourself lucky. Ozzie's is in an industrial area and has a large parking lot, but inside I saw it crowded with families and regular folks. I felt pretty safe that this was going to be at least decent.

I liked that they had blue plate specials that were actually specials and not just what they wanted to push that day. Bread pudding with every special was also a nice touch.

Looking through the different sections of the menu, I was also tempted by the "Armenian Sandwich." It included turkey or roast beef or ham served on Armenian bread with Swiss cheese, green chiles and a homemade au jus. That sounded very intriguing and a definite "must get" next time I go.

Luckily my bearded messiah arrived before the sights and smells of the delicious breakfasts and burgers and menudo parading by my table made my stomach fold in on itself. He was stuck in traffic, of course. When I sheepishly revealed my lack of funds without missing a beat he offered to cover me. He's a stand up guy that Tony. A stand up guy with a massive beard.

We both went with the trucker omelets for breakfast. I ordered the "Interstate 80" and Tony ordered the ominous sounding "Run-A-Way." I got the biscuits and gravy and he sprung the extra dollar to upgrade to a side of pancakes for his bread. We both questioned whether or not we'd be able to pack away that much food.

After a decent amount of time, our food arrived.

Whoa...the omelet was small. I expected some massive loaf of egg just exploding with meat. It was a TRUCKER'S omelet. This was downright REASONABLY sized. Maybe the idea is that truckers take a lot of amphetamines and don't really eat that much. The omelet was sort of a mixed bag. It very nicely made; layers of egg neatly folded over a thin layers of pastrami. Unfortunately, it was topped with what I believe was processed singles of Swiss cheese. It almost ruined the whole thing. The Ozzie's Potatoes were amazing. They were spicy home fries mixed with extra crispy shredded hash browns.

The biscuit and gravy was also great. The gravy was very smooth and peppery and delicious. I generally prefer a denser biscuit, but this was good.

Tony's Run-A-Way omelet was also reasonably sized. He had ordered egg-whites only but that didn't happen. Like mine, his was very well put together with a good mix of avocado, sour cream and green chiles. His cottage cheese tasted a little odd to him but he couldn't place what was wrong with it.

Tony's pancakes were soft, chewy, and fluffy. He said he could have eaten them plain without any syrup. Ozzie's does something with their syrup that I can't even remember the last time I had; they serve it warm. Warm syrup is a little touch that can make a big difference.

I should mention that there were two separate tables that got up and walked to the counter in order to request drink refills. I guess good service was the perk of being seated on the main route the waitresses take; we never waited for refills.

The odd flavored cottage cheese and questionable use of processed cheese were the only negatives that we could find at Ozzie's. I would go back any time. They had some fresh looking pies in a case above the counter that I'd like to try, and I'd love to take a shot at that Armenian sandwich.

Do note that they only serve breakfast until 2pm on weekends and only until 11am on weekdays.
Food: Good. UPDATED: Uneven.
Service: Friendly. UPDATED: Friendly, but not all that good.
Price: $5.99-$9.99
Pie: Yes.

Ozzie's Diner

7780 E. Slauson Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90040

Maybe the new owner will spring for real cheese.

UPDATE - 11/23

Antoinette and I ate there this past weekend with my sister and her family. Remember what I said about drink refills? Well THAT and the rest of our service was pretty terrible. I can't blame our waitress alone though, since a big part of it was that our food came out in shifts with a long time inbetween. One of my nieces was done eating by the time Antoinette got her food. It wasn't that the waitress didn't deliver the food promptly, the kitchen just hadn't prepared it all yet.

The food was also really uneven. My brother-in-law had the chicken fried steak and he liked it. I had pancakes that were very good while my eggs were not cooked to order and were pretty bad.

Be warned.

Heritage Family Pantry - You could live on this bread alone.

2010-04-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

I found Heritage Family Pantry while searching for a place to eat near Long Beach. #1 Diner Companion Antoinette and I were picking up her sister, Carolyn, who was visiting from New York. A few days before, Diner Friend Lidia said, "Hey if you ever go down to Long Beach there's this place that makes amazing bread. It's called something like Family Pantry?" I replied, "Going on Sunday. Boom! Scheduled."

That Sunday happened to be Easter Sunday. Easter is kind of a big deal for some folks. It's a big going out to brunch after church or after sleeping in kind of holiday. We picked up Carolyn and headed to Heritage Family Pantry.

And then we waited for a good while for a table. It was packed. And oddly, even though H.F.P is clearly an "after church" inclined restaurant, with Bible written verses on the windows (pic below), there seemed to be more of the "sleeping in" category of folks there.

I've stopped being so shy about taking pictures at the table when I go out. When our waitress saw me taking pictures of the menu she stopped. "Pictures? You opening up your own place? Can I come work for you?" She was sassy. As we were leaving I heard her complaining loudly about being open past 2pm on Easter. "No one is coming in! They all ate already!"

Later, Diner Friend Lidia asked if we had had the "older, surly waitress with all the make-up?" Yes, we had. Apparently, she's legendary.

The menu at H.F.P. is pretty extensive, but nothing too crazy that made me say "I gotta try that!" There's a lot of emphasis on bread there since they do pride themselves on their homemade bread.

We all shared the cinnamon roll. It was rather bizarre looking when it arrived. I kind of thought it might be someone's biscuit and gravy. The roll was nothing like any cinnamon roll I have ever had. It was light and more like a bun than a roll. It was very good. The frosting was very buttery, but could have been a little sweeter.

Carolyn had the three egg breakfast with hash browns and a side of pancakes. We thought her eyes might be bigger than her stomach, but she powered through and finished her main plate and took out most of the pancakes. The highlight was definitely the hash browns. They were crispy on the top and bottom and buttery in the center.

Antoinette ordered the Roast Sirloin melt. The bread was amazing, first of all. Heritage Family Pantry makes their own and it is frankly some of the best bread I have ever eaten. Her sandwich was thick with meat and tomato. Luckily, she couldn't finish the whole thing so we took it home and I was able to eat it for dinner later. The french fries were seasoned with celery salt and were very good.

Curiously, they serve ketchup in a small dish--no bottles, which struck me as a little odd.

I went with the country-fried steak and eggs with a side of home fries. There are usually two ways you can go with country-fried steak: crusty tough leather or greasy slab (sometimes its both). This steak was perfect. It was still tender and even a tiny bit pink in the middle and the breading held to the meat. My eggs were also good. I ordered them over-medium so I could sop them up with my biscuit. The home fries were actually a little underdone and were the only disappointing part of my breakfast.

The biscuit was fluffy and much like the cinnamon roll, was more bun like than biscuit.

Heritage Family Pantry was a great breakfast spot. The food was definitely worth the trip and the atmosphere was friendly. Our waitress was the fun kind of irascible waitress you thought only existed in movies and sitcoms from the 70s. I highly recommend this place, even if only for the bread. My god the bread!

Food: Great.
Service: Good.
Price $7.95-$12.95
Pie: Yes.

Heritage Family Pantry
2601 Carson St.
Lakewood CA 90712

Cafe 50's--The Best Stuff is on the Walls.

2010-04-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

I honestly was not expecting much from Cafe 50's on Santa Monica. In some ways "5o's diners"are to me what Bucca di Beppos are to Italians. You kind of hate them, but at least it's something, and it's not an Olive Garden (the diner equivalent of which is Johnny Rockets).

The problem with a lot of 50's diners decor is that they are basically cliched Reader's Digest versions of the 50s--Presley, Monroe, Dean, and Coca-Cola, repeated ad nauseum. Sure, Cafe 50's is going to have some of that; it would be incomplete without it.

But at Cafe 50's, it's a more complete view of the popular culture of the day. It's like they loaded ten years into a spray can and went to town.

#1DC Antoinette and I took a long time with the menu. We were there for dinner but our options were open. They serve breakfast all day and have a wide selection of sandwiches and burgers.

Interesting things we noticed were that you only get one free refill on sodas and hash browns are only available until noon on weekdays. They also have Buffalo burgers for only $1.98 extra. I'll forgive the anachronism of buffalo meat being readily available. It's not like this place is trying to be Medieval Times. Medieval Times is accurate, right? I don't know; I only go to diners.

By far the most impressive section on the menu is the milkshake list.

The Butterfinger shake was intriguing considering it lacked what I consider to be the secondary ingredient of a Butterfinger candy bar: chocolate. The shake was vanilla ice cream with peanut butter and root beer. Root beer? There were sips that were just straight peanut butter shake but then there would be a sip of the perfect combination and the aftertaste was pure Butterfinger.

Antoinette pointed out these two ads pasted on the wall next to our booth. Boys DO like girls who make Seven-Up floats.

We started with the most intriguing appetizer on the menu, the green bean fries, which are somewhere between a french fry and a zucchini stick with just a little bit of spice. They were very tasty, but they did give me green-bean burps for the rest of the night.

Antoinette ordered the Healthy Sandwich which is just a fancy way of saying "vegetarian." The sandwich was thick with cucumber, mushrooms, lettuce and avocado. The bread was little over-toasted and scratched up the roof of her mouth.

I went with the Sputnik Melt: turkey, coleslaw, cheese, and Russian dressing. It was good but a little dry--I would have preferred a bit more dressing. I resorted to dipping my sandwich in the remaining green bean fries' dip.

We both had sides of coleslaw. I like sweet coleslaw; in fact, the best coleslaw in the world as far as I'm concerned is from KFC. I was disappointed in Cafe 50's coleslaw, but Antoinette liked that it wasn't drenched in dressing and still had a little crunch left.

I could spend hours looking at the walls in Cafe 50's. There's an insane amount of cool stuff up there. The food I could take or leave, though. The milkshake was definitely worth it and I'd go back to try the pie.

Food: Decent.
Price: $7.95-$13.95
Service: Okay.
Pie: Yes.

Cafe 50's
11623 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90025
http://www.cafe50s.com/

... This movie is about EXACTLY what you think it's about.

The Original Pancake House--Try the eggs!

2010-03-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

You will notice a bit of up and down in the picture quality of this entry. This is because this review covers two trips to the Original Pancake House in Anaheim. The first visit was around Christmas and sadly was the last review Diner Photog Charlie Chu was able to attend before relocating to Portland. The second visit was just a week ago.

The Original Pancake House does honestly look like a house. It isn't much bigger than a regular house, either. During peak pancake times you can expect to wait and since they close at 2pm, it's all pretty much peak pancake time.

It can be surprisingly douchey at the Original Pancake House. I don't want to offend any of my Orange County readers but, y'all got some d-bags down there. But for every Ed Hardy dad and Zach Morris tween, there's a family out for Sunday brunch who are just regular folks. While we were waiting for a table, an older gentleman commented to a young woman who was carrying her baby, "My wife gave birth at the hospital not too far from here. When I was finally able to bring them home, on our way we stopped here for breakfast. My son's first restaurant experience was right here."

I love that the first page of the menu is basically a Wikipedia entry on "pancakes."

Now, no matter what you order at the Original Pancake House, you're going to be eating a pancake.

Maybe just one.

Maybe three.

Maybe six.

Maybe six of them made out of potatoes.

Even the non-pancakes kind of remind you of pancakes.

The coffee is really good. The waitresses are friendly and attentive. I hardly finished a cup before it was refilled.

On our first visit, I ordered the cottage cheese pancakes. They were all right. It was a pretty subtle flavor. On the second visit I ordered the Nebraska corn cakes. When the waitress told me "good choice, they taste just like cornbread," I was really excited. They were also just 'all right.' I've had better corn cakes at places that don't specialize in corn cakes.

I hate to say it, but the best thing I've tasted at the Original Pancake House was the beef scramble Charlie ordered. It was rich and cheesy and used a pretty great seasoning on the beef.

The runner-up was definitely the German pancake that #1 Diner Companion Antoinette got on our first visit. It's gigantic. It looks a deflated zeppelin laying lopsided on your plate. It's doughy and soft and delicious. She was smart enough to order it again on our second visit.

Overall, the Original Pancake House was just okay. I gave it two chances to impress and it didn't really do that. Faced with waiting twenty minutes for some only-decent pancakes, I may be tempted to go back to the Busy Apron just down the street and take my chances.

Food: Okay.
Service: Great.
Prices: $8-$11
Pie: None.

The Original Pancake House
1418 East Lincoln Avenue
Anaheim, California 92805
714-535-9815

Bun n' Burger - Fun n' something that rhymes with "burger"

2010-03-22T07:57:00.000-07:00

Bun n' Burger is a place I was really excited to try. It's right in my neighborhood and has a delightfully cute art-deco exterior.

I had read an article about this place in the Alhambra newspaper and the picture that was included only showed the main dining room. It's an all-around classic design with booths lining the storefront windows and an oval counter taking up the middle.

Until my folks and I walked in that morning, I had no idea that there was a full room just out of sight. A room that can only be described as...

...the most-insane-yet-somehow-adorable-dining-room-in-existence. It's like the world's coolest flea market threw up inside.

Not a lot of diners have firearms displayed. I don't even remember seeing one at Revolver, where it wouldn't have been at all out of place.

There's a series of these pictures hanging up on the wall. They have an R. Crumb meets Norman Rockwell quality that I really appreciated.

One of the things Bun n' Burger is well-known for is their menudo soup. It's only available on weekends so that makes it more special. If you haven't had menudo soup, it's a Mexican soup made from a tomato base with hominy and tripe. You can garnish it with onions and cilantro as they have done here. Menudo is my chicken noodle soup when I have a cold. I buy it in giant cans at the ethnic market. This would actually be my first time ordering it at a restaurant. Bun n' Burger's menudo was pretty good, but not spicy enough for me.

My dad ordered the ham, bell pepper and Monterrey jack cheese omelet. It was less omelet and more folded over scramble. It was also delicious. They use honey baked ham in it so it's unexpectedly sweet.

My mom ordered the waffle breakfast. It was a pretty standard waffle. Her eggs were good but the bacon was a little chewy for my taste. It was a good cut, but just needed to be crisped up a bit.

I regret that this is where the food portion of the review turns sour. I did not like my breakfast. Chilaquiles can go wrong. They can be mushy and bland and just outright gross. Sadly, these were the chilaquiles that I had this morning. The potatoes were no better; they were, in fact, worse. They were drenched in peanut oil and were equally mushy and bland. I barely touched them. My eggs were very good, though. They must have been cracked and poured simultaneously into a circular mold to get them to look like that and be cooked evenly.

Bun n' Burger was just so adorable and pleasant that I would go back again just to look at more of the weird stuff they have on the walls. Despite how disappointing my breakfast was, my folks' food was good enough. The staff was friendly and the coffee was good. Overall, it is definitely worth a visit.

Food: Okay* (see below)

Price: $5-$8. Cash only.

Service: Friendly.

Pie: Yes, several.

Bun n' Burger

1000 E. Main Street

Alhambra CA 91801

(626) 281-6777

Take a look at the menu:

*UPDATE 7-14-10: We have since been back to Bun n' Burger a few times now and our food has been either good or great, but oddly, I have yet to try the pie.

A word of warning though-- if you plan on going in the evening definitely call. They seem to be really inconsistent with their hours, which is not a good sign.

Pop's Cafe

2010-03-15T20:53:00.001-07:00

Lidia (who you've recently met in the Colonial Kitchen review) and I drove down the seedy streets of Bell Gardens, past the Bicycle Casino and graffiti covered industrial buildings. Soon that environ gave way to the less seedy and just normally depressing streets of Downey. We weren't 100% sure where the restaurant was, but when we saw a sign that said "Rives Sguare." We both were inclined to think that that might be where we would find our destination.

Inside the strip mall that is "Rives Sguare," (yep, that's an old engligh 'g' there and not a 'q.' I have no clue what a SGUARE is.) we found Pop's Cafe.

Our friend Amy (first time Dinerwooder but longtime Yelper) was already waiting for us. We in turn were now waiting for our other friends Andrew and Terri. The two of them are notoriously early for these kinds of things, so I knew right away why they were not there yet. This was Sunday the 14th, Day 1 of Daylight Savings Time. I left Andrew a message saying "Spring forward!"

Pop's Cafe is a decent-sized strip mall diner. There is the standard abundance of cheesy motel art on the walls, with the obligatory lack of a level having been used to hang them. Our waitress was very nice and brought Lidia and I our coffees (which were excellent) right away. Even though we were taking a up a lot of real estate with only three people sipping drinks at a table that could seat six, our waitress never made us feel guilty. The people standing outside waiting, however, did throw some glares our way.

While we waited, we took our time going over the menu. The clear focus at Pop's is the breakfasts. They cover the basics very well and I love that they offer three kinds of breakfast potatoes: Irish, Home Fries, and traditional hash browns. There are some dinner options and sandwiches, but they seem like an afterthought. We did note that all the food coming to the tables around us looked amazing. I had high hopes.

I was really tempted to order the Pop's Country Breakfast, but that price was pretty steep. Although, any place that is going to put a dish in that price bracket must know what they are doing and that must be the best damn breakfast in history. I just couldn't swing that much money.

Giving up on Andrew and Terri, we decided to go ahead and order.

Amy ordered the Belgian Waffle and the Irish potatoes. She was initially a little gun shy about ordering it, hoping that the "fruit topping" listed in the menu wasn't just strawberry compote. The waitress informed her that it was strawberries AND other berries, which sounded intriguing enough for Amy to try it. Unfortunately when it came out, the compote was still a bit frozen. The waitress gladly whisked it away and Amy decided to get one without the topping.

The Irish potatoes were a little bit different from what you usually get. Normally the potatoes and the onions and peppers are fried up all together and all the flavors mix which usually means, everything tastes like onions. These were clearly cooked separate and the potatoes are plated first and then the onions and peppers plopped on top.

Amy's new waffle looked like this and was satisfactory.

Lidia ordered the french toast with a side of eggs and bacon. At Pop's they give you the option of grilled or fried French toast. Lidia, sadly, went with grilled. I would have liked to have seen the fried version. The french toast consisted of thick slices of bread and a lot of powdered sugar and tasted good, but were not anything special. The bacon and eggs were pretty basic. The bacon was very crispy and it was cool that they give four decent sized slices of it. We had expected the standard two slices.

I asked my waitress which she would order giving the choice between "corned beef and eggs or the polish sausage and eggs." Without hesitation she said to get the polish sausage. I suspect that the corned beef at Pop's is probably going to be the canned variety, but I didn't see it firsthand.

The Polish Sausage and eggs were very good. My eggs were good--I ordered them over medium so I could sop up some yolk with the biscuit. I'm big into sopping right now. The polish sausage, very oddly, was 1 1/2 sausages. Somewhere in the back there was a lonely half of a sausage that had just been split in two, like a lover in Plato's, "The Origin of Love."

The home fries were the highlight for me. I have never seen them made this way at a restaurant. The potatoes were sliced, not shredded or cube or diced. Each piece was a golden brown on each side and were heavenly.

The biscuits were interesting. The had almost a steamed quality to them. They weren't crusty or dense, but had more to them than do dinner rolls. I liked them.

Of course just as our food Arrived, Andrew and Terri finally showed up, diminishing the wrinkled noses and ruffled feathers of the now several parties waiting outside.

They didn't take too long with the menu. Terri ordered the french toast also, sadly, not the fried version. Andrew was the big spender at the table.

He ordered the Pop's Country Breakfast.

He enjoyed it. The gravy wasn't too heavy and the biscuit and sausage sandwich that was smothered underneath it was good. Unfortunately, a few of his home fries were undercooked.

It took us a long time to actually pay our bill, which only became a problem when we started to feel extremely guilty about taking up the table space. Our waitress just never made it back over to us after she cleared our plates and dropped off the check. We were pleased that they actually took Amy's waffle off the bill entirely. The refill waitress coming by with more delicious coffee helped ease our wait.

The bathroom (there was only one as the men's room was out of order) was a little dark and kind of sketch with both the toilet paper dispenser and the paper towel dispenser being busted. I have seen worse, though.

So three negatives: frozen compote, underdone home fries, and less than stellar bathroom. Overall though, good food and nice service. There is also a disturbing lack of pie on the menu, but I will still recommend Pop's Cafe for providing a pleasant experience.

Food: Good.

Service: Good.

Price: $6.50-$650. (maybe it's a typo)

Pie: No pie!

Pop's Cafe
7840 Florence Ave.
Downey, CA 90240
(562) 927-0096

Happy Pie Day! Pie 'n Burger

2010-03-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

Pie 'n Burger is probably one of my favorite diners. I have selfishly kept it to myself since before there even was a Dinerwood. #1Diner Companion Antoinette and I go there to celebrate; we first went for her birthday a few years ago, and have gone to celebrate new jobs and opportunities, projects getting the green light, etc. Pie n' Burger is also where I proposed to #1DC Antoinette. It's a very special place.

March 14th is unofficially "pie day" (pi =3.14) and I had to celebrate, so of course I dragged #1DC Antoinette to our special place to do a mini-review.

Pie 'n Burger is a very small restaurant. There are only about five small tables and a counter that seats about 20. That means it is almost always crowded. For some unknown reason, it seems like every time we are there there is also a single group of eight to ten people taking up most of the tables. Just plan to sit at the counter.

Why is Pie 'n Burger so beloved? It's not just us; it's a Pasadena institution. I will say unabashedly, for us it's not the food. The food is only okay and honestly limited in its offerings. Outside of their breakfast menu, it's just hamburgers and sandwiches. It's also overpriced. At $6.50 for an average sized burger with a moderate-sized side of fries for $3.55, you are paying over ten dollars for what you can get at any number of fine local burger stands for half the price.

The only reason to go to Pie 'n Burgers is the pie. The pie is damn amazing. I have tried almost all of their pies and have never been disappointed. They are either the best or the runner up. This is where I fell in love with ollallieberry (a hybrid of the blackberry) and butterscotch pie. Although I prefer House of Pies' peanut butter pie, the Pie 'n Burger version (meringue based versus HOP's cream base) is nearly as good.

Tonight, for Pie Day, I ordered the blueberry. This was after finding out rhubarb (one of the few I hadn't tried yet) was sold out and that they didn't have butterscotch (they alternate butterscotch days with peanut butter). The pie was amazing. The filling was sweet but not sugary and the tiny blueberries were all still individual and not completely mashed. The golden crust was thin and flaky. Probably the best blueberry pie I have had in recent memory.

Go for the pie, skip the burger.

Food: Okay
Service: Okay
Price: $6-$12 CASH ONLY
Pie: The best

Pie 'n Burger

913 E. California Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91106

(626) 795-1123

www.pienburger.com

Located next door:

"Nippers.... It's a salon."

Colonial Kitchen--Kitsch-en

2010-02-24T11:29:00.000-08:00

Going to the Colonial Kitchen in San Marino was just like visiting my grandmother's house. Well, not my grandmother's house, because mine is a crazy hoarder. It was more like visiting your grandmother's house.

There are glass display cases with ceramic figurines and a grandfather clock...

useless books laying about...

a gift shop selling necklaces and...stuff...

a hidden away Elvis dining room...

And this... hanging on the wall. Just like your grandma's house.

It's clear to see that Colonial Kitchen is a bit of a design mystery. It's folksy and homey and loves Elvis and has weird stuff everywhere. The overstuffed booths are covered in green leathery upholstery that reminds me more of an Italian restaurant than a diner. The low mood lighting and fixtures do the same.

#1Diner Companion Antoinette and I met up with our friends Lidia and Josh for breakfast one morning. We arrived around ten and had to wait just a minute for a table. Sadly, they were not seating in the Elvis room at this time. I think it's just for special occasions.

The menu had an odd habit of placing quotation marks on parts of the titles of the dishes. For example, the menu listed "The 'Reuben' sandwich" which was right next to "The Hot Beef" sandwich.

Antoinette ordered a turkey sandwich with a side of potato salad. The sandwich was good. It was very thick and didn't skimp on the meat. The potato salad was odd. It was all potato and mayonnaise. No egg at all. It didn't taste bad, it just tasted weird. I actually HATE potato salad with too much of an egg taste, but this was just wrong.

Lidia and Josh split the Belgian Waffle breakfast. It was pretty standard. The bacon stood out as being pretty good.

I ordered the Louisiana omelet. Much like my 1961 cookbook "What Cooks in Suburbia" has a recipe for a sweet and sour sauce which is basically ketchup and more sugar, Colonial Kitchen thinks "Louisiana" is just a place holder for "spicy." The omelet was good, mind you, it just had very little to do with Louisiana. Oddly, it was served with salsa and green chiles, y'know, staples of the southern diet, with a slice of Swiss cheese over the egg. The sausage inside the omelet was at least an actual hot link, so the name wasn't a total misnomer.

The hash browns were really disappointing. They were chewy and lumpy. Apparently, this is a style of hash browns known as "Cafeteria." This comes from cooking a lot of potatoes all at once and then keeping them warm for an extended period time. The starch from the potatoes gets all sticky and gross over time.

Colonial Kitchen is a little disappointing in the food department. In the "WTF" department, it gets a solid 'A.' I can't really give it positive recommendation though. It's fun to go there for the kitsch and the possibility of dining in the Elvis room, but otherwise it is an easy skip.

Food: Okay.
Service: Okay.
Price: $6.95-$9.95
Pie: Yes.

Colonial Kitchen
1110 Huntington Dr
San Marino, CA 91108

(626) 289-2449