Upscale style at a moderate price keeps this Old Town place packed. Many non-seafood entrees are less than $18, and salad or soup (try the carrot-rosemary) is just $1 with any entrée. We always get the monkfish on saffron-shrimp risotto with a lobster sauce, but the roast chicken with fries, the seafood with black tagliolini, [...]
We’re going a little more upscale this time in our series on good-value dining in the SG Valley for recession-battered locals. Lobster is never cheap, but sometimes an occasion demands lobster, and if the budget doesn’t allow for the Palm, head for Newport Seafood in San Gabriel. Recently relocated from a small, grungier spot into [...]
Southern California may have more vegetarians per square inch than the rest of the country, but people are crazy about meat, too, as evidenced by the proliferation of Brazilian churrascarias, all-you-can-eat celebrations of beef, lamb, pork and chicken This place is one of the best-value churrascarias around, at about $27 per person during the week [...]
After a (very popular) interlude to wax on about Super King, we’re returning to our series on SG Valley restaurants that give a lot of bang for your weakened buck. This time we’re going Japanese, by way of the White House Cleaners mini-mall in Pasadena: Oba Sushi Izakaya This corner spot in the unglamorous strip [...]
Sixteen years ago, the Fermanian family opened a supermarket in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in Anaheim, and over the next few years, their low prices, good service and unusual combination of mainstream American supermarket goods and a dazzling array of international foods built them a huge and loyal clientele. In 2006, the Fermanians opened their [...]
Few restaurant neighborhoods in the San Gabriel Valley are more depressing than the stretch of Huntington connecting Monrovia and Arcadia. You name the soulless chain, and it’s here, from Macaroni Grill to the Olive Garden. So we’re grateful to our friend Sherri (Vroman’s book buyer and avid cook) for turning us on to Basil Thai, [...]
It’s time once again for a new installment in our series about worthy little restaurants that will feed you well for not too many dollars. This week we venture west to Eagle Rock to the home of “slow” fast food. The Oinkster It used to be a drive-through; with a near-complete minimalist makeover that preserved [...]
Columbo’s is an Eagle Rock institution, a 1950s Italian steakhouse where fans of time travel worship red-checkered tablecloths, padded booths and slow service. Do yourself a solid and just relax (and remember the bar’s motto, “Our standard drink is a double.”) The matriarch occupies the back booth most nights, sipping her gimlet and listening to [...]
It’s week three of our quest to find worthy little restaurants that will feed you well for not much money, and this week we head to Alhambra for an irresistible chicken meal. Savoy Kitchen If you drive down Valley Boulevard in Alhambra and San Gabriel looking for a good place to eat — something any [...]
It’s week two of Hometown Pasadena’s campaign to root out good, inexpensive little restaurants in a diverse range of neighborhoods. This week’s recommendation is a find in Montrose: India’s Flavor It’s easy to become blind to the array of international cafés that cram into our strip malls; you keep meaning to stop and try that [...]
