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

Hiatus-OVER! Format...adjustment

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. (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

Jack's Whittier Restaurant -- Whoopee!

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

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

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 - Closed

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