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.

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

Way Station Coffee Shop - Worth the drive.

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

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

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.

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.