Dinerwood on the Road: Ellen's Pancake House, Buellton, CA

Quaint little roadside eatery.

Delicious biscuits and well-scrambled eggs. Hashbrowns were okay.

Tasty thin Danish pancakes. 

Add your own ham!

Food: Good
Service: Good
Price: Decent
Pie:

Ellen's Pancake House
Dining Hours:
Monday 6 a.m.–2 p.m.,
Tuesday–Sunday 6 a.m.–8 p.m

Annia's Kitchen -- El Monte

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

Where I go to something called a "Bob Evans"

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

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

On the Road: San Diego's Waffle Spot

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:

Contact us...using your cellphone.... from 1999.

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

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

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

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

UPDATE- Dandi's closed some time ago and is now a Thai restaurant