Phil House, inside Island Pacific Seafood Market, 6753 Carnelian Ave. (at 19th), Rancho Cucamonga

Like Market World, the Korean market chain that occupied this old Alpha Beta (and later IGA), the similarly Asian-grocery specialist Island Pacific Market has a small food court. Having never dined inside a supermarket before, I invited a friend for lunch.

The main food stall is a Filipino buffet, and there’s also a small dim sum stall. A couple of other spots are vacant. The market only opened in November. We lined up at the buffet, named Phil House. (Presumably no relation to reader Bob House.) It’s a little like a Panda Express: If you want a combo of one or more items, they grab a styrofoam container that already has rice in it and will add whichever items you request.

They had various pork, chicken, beef and seafood items, including barbecue skewers, and soups and stews. Other than an eggplant dish, we didn’t see any vegetables. Nothing is labeled, but we asked about various items that looked appealing. I had a pork dish and a soup with fish ($6, pictured below). My friend had a different pork dish and some kind of barbecued fish. No way you’re going to duplicate our order because even we don’t know what we had.

We sat in a nearby roped-off area of tables and chairs near the other stall. My grilled pork was tasty and the sauce at the bottom, flavored with onions and peppers, was great with a little rice mixed in. The soup, a broth with chunks of whitefish, was also enjoyable. My friend liked his fish (even though he had to pick out all the bones) and his other dish.

His wife arrived and got steamed buns from the dim sum stall. I had a pork bun (price unknown), and that was good too. The staff could be seen making them in the kitchen. About the only place I ever get steamed buns is the Famima in Union Station, and as you’d expect, these were better.

So, yes, you’d be eating inside a supermarket, but the food was good, fresh and cheap. Even if it might not have catchy names.

Ban Chow, 9755 Arrow Route (at Archibald), Rancho Cucamonga

To kick off 2013′s Restaurants of the Week, here’s a hole-in-the-wall takeout place in Rancho Cucamonga that might be the only place in the Inland Valley to get Cambodian food. Ban Chow is a simple storefront in the same center as Jack in the Box, Nancy’s and Guido’s. It’s easy to find: It’s the only business without a sign.

Thanks to reader Andy for directing me here. The specialty is the ban chow, an egg crepe filled with onion, bean sprouts and a choice of meat. I got the sampler plate ($8.10) which has a ban chow, a meat skewer, rice, pickled papaya salad, an egg roll and a soda. I liked my ban chow (pork) and skewer (beef). Tasty, filling and a good deal for the money.

It’s takeout only because they have no customer restroom, although there is a small counter you can sit at. The staff said the only other Cambodian restaurants are in San Gabriel and Long Beach. The menu is short; if you get the combo plate, you’ve had pretty much everything they have. Based on photos on their Facebook page, they sometimes have baked goods, including macarons. (I didn’t see any on my visit.) Does any other place in the valley have fresh-baked macarons? If they do, it’s a safe bet they don’t have ban chow.

Kula Revolving Sushi Bar, 9659 Milliken Ave. (at 4th), Rancho Cucamonga

Said to be the Inland Empire’s first revolving sushi bar, Kula opened in August 2012 across from Ontario Mills. It’s a Southern California chain with six other locations, including Rowland Heights. Revolving would seem to imply it’s round, but really it’s a conveyor belt that wends its way around the room. It’s almost like an elaborate model train layout, only with salmon nigiri instead of coal cars.

Almost everything is $2, whether it’s sushi, hand rolls, cut rolls, salads, grill items, desserts or sodas. (Udon, however, is $5.) No matter where you sit, plates trundle by, covered by a clear plastic lid, ready to be snagged off the belt. A friend and I had lunch the other day, leaving stuffed after a total bill of $32.

Kula isn’t the place to go for high-end sushi, obviously, and the cuts of fish were thinner than is typical. Most plates had two pieces, meaning you and a companion could each have one piece and move on. The experience was novel, and if you’re undemanding, the sushi is good enough. You can sit at the sushi bar if you like conversing with the chefs, although they seem busy cranking out the sushi; for everyone else, you don’t really have to deal with anyone. It’s kind of like the automats of old.

The closer you sit to the bar, the fresher your items, potentially. We sat in the middle of the room. Pointing to the folks at the far end, my friend commented, “Those people really get whatever it is we don’t want.” I suppose the people at the bar were saying that about us.

Flamingo Palms, 11400 4th St. (at Pittsburgh), Rancho Cucamonga

Cuban restaurants have come and gone out here like the tide against the Havana shoreline, but Flamingo Palms seems to be succeeding. After a few years in Rancho Cucamonga in a charmless Archibald Avenue business park, the restaurant moved in April to a higher-profile location across from Ontario Mills, in a space that briefly housed a Camille’s Sidewalk Cafe.

I had dinner there with a friend recently. The interior has a modern ambience, with walls my friend described as “faux wood, faux terracotta and faux brick,” adorned with some not-bad art and two flat-screen TVs.

Having had a filling lunch, I opted for a light entree, the Flamingo salad ($9), with grilled shrimp and blood orange vinaigrette. Delicious, and with seven large shrimp, they didn’t skimp on the shrimp.

My friend had the arroz con pollo ($15), which he was warned would take 40 minutes. It arrived in a cavernous bowl (he took home half) and had rice, two pieces of chicken on the bone and plantains. He pronounced it excellent and said with satisfaction: “They took their time. They didn’t rush it.”

We also split an order of crispy plantain chips, called mariquitas ($5), which didn’t do anything for either of us.

Service was attentive, with both our server and the table busser inquiring how we were doing. You won’t think you’re in Cuba, but the music is unobtrusive, the food pretty good and the experience unhurried.

Lazy Dog Cafe, 11560 4th St. (across from Ontario Mills), Rancho Cucamonga

Lazy Dog, which opened in May in the sort of restaurant row along 4th Street near Ontario Mills, is off to a good start. Five of us went in for lunch earlier this week and the place was busy, most seats filled and servers efficiently going about their work.

The 10th location in the SoCal-based chain, Rancho Cucamonga’s is open until midnight every night — imagine! — and dogs are allowed on the expansive outdoor patio, where servers will bring them a bowl of water. (According to the website: “Doggie ‘accidents’ must be cleaned up and sanitized immediately by employees.”)

Inside, there’s a rustic look, the open ceiling a latticework of beams, lots of natural light pouring in. The website says the ambience is meant to evoke a hunting lodge in Wyoming and its lazy, friendly feeling. Uh-huh. With loud rock and pop playing (Steve Miller Band, ELO) and servers trying to upsell you, “lazy” isn’t really the feeling evoked here.

So even if the story behind the restaurant is the usual BS, the food is pretty good. We all liked what we had: a handformed turkey burger ($9.25) on whole wheat with a side a chilled brocollini; a lavash veggie wrap (price forgotten; pictured below) with a cucumber salad on the side, the wrap served in an accordion stand useful to hold it together between bites (“It’s genius,” the diner marveled); fish and chips with slaw ($10); and a half-sandwich (walnut chicken salad) with fries and a full salad.

“They’re not lazy with the portions,” said the diner who ordered the latter. “All this for, like, $7.95?”

The menu also has pizzas, pastas, steaks, seafood and wok-fired dishes, with lunch specials $10 and under.

Two friends dined there the previous day, one getting an ahi tuna burger with Asian slaw and wasabi dressing ($10), the other, a discriminating diner, ordering a pesto chicken and hummus salad ($8.25) and ending up satisfied despite the iceberg lettuce. They also had the sangria sampler and the beer sampler and noted the enticing selection of martinis ($6) and craft beers ($5).

Service was friendly, although the mid-meal effort to tempt us with dessert seemed like trying too hard, and like rushing us through a meal in non-lazy fashion.

Overall, though, not bad for corporate dining. And it’s a really beautiful building.

El Ranchero, 9260 Haven Ave. (at 6th), Rancho Cucamonga

Famished after a Rancho Cucamonga council meeting, I despaired of finding a restaurant open at the locally ungodly hour of 9 p.m. But on my drive to the freeway, I noticed an “open” sign alight in the window of El Ranchero and made a hasty right turn.

There’s a smaller El Ranchero at 19th and Carnelian, which is a nice little mom and pop fast-food place. This is larger and newer. When I pulled in, students from the adjacent automotive trade school were congregating for a meal break.

I ordered an al pastor torta ($5.75), which came on an oval bun at least 8 inches long and was loaded with pork, refried beans, lettuce and tomatoes. Tasty and filling, it was one of the better tortas I’ve had in these parts.

With bare floors and a high, exposed ceiling, the interior is kind of cavernous, but there are plenty of windows, two flat screen TVs and four tourism poster-type paintings of Veracruz, Xochimilco, Guadalajara and, charmingly, Rancho Cucamonga. And the place is open until 10 p.m. Thanks, El Ranchero.

Sushi Area 909, 9319 Foothill Blvd. (at Hellman), Rancho Cucamonga

The last time I ate at this place, near several other Asian eateries and a Chuck E. Cheese, it was called Sushi Wa. It was acceptable: pleasant, reliable, unexciting. After a name change, it’s part of a chain, with locations in Las Vegas, Henderson, Paso Robles, West L.A. and Wilshire Boulevard, presumably with area codes other than our beloved 909 attached.

I had lunch there Monday. My friend had the chicken teriyaki and shrimp tempura lunch ($13) and I had a chirashi bowl of sashimi, vegetables and rice ($14); we also shared shrimp and mackerel sushi ($3 each). We weren’t blown away, but we liked what we had, and there was plenty of it. The menu has the usual assortment of rolls, plus udon, ramen, bowls and bulgogi (it’s evidently Korean owned). Friends have had ramen here and liked it.

Each meal also came with miso soup and a salad. My friend’s arrived several minutes before mine, and according to the menu mine wasn’t supposed to come with salad. Service may not be their strong suit.

So, new owners, new name, but roughly comparable to the old Sushi Wa: a decent mid-range Japanese restaurant.

Ra Pour, 7900 Kew Ave. (at Victoria Gardens), Rancho Cucamonga

Ra Pour is an ambitious attempt to create a Vegas-style fine-dining restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga, with an executive chef who cooked at the famed French Laundry and with live music on weekends.

I went there for lunch recently with a friend with a $25 Groupon for an appetizer and two entrees.

Ra Pour’s interior immediately impresses. The expansive interior is modernistic with a soaring ceiling, a glitzy bar and, near the greeter’s station, a water feature shimmering against the restaurant’s name in script. The restaurant seats 200. You feel you’re in good hands before you’re even seated.

We shared an appetizer of tempura mushrooms, a mix of five types of mushrooms lightly fried and delicious. For entrees, I had a lobster roll and my friend had the salmon BLT. The online menu doesn’t have the prices, but each item we had was about $12 to $14. With the Groupon, the appetizer was essentially free (but remember to tip based on the full value of the meal).

The salmon BLT was a perfectly cooked square of salmon with bacon, avocado and greens on a bun. It was best eaten open-faced. My lobster roll was a lobster salad, served cold, on a bun. I’ve had hot lobster rolls and loved them; this was only okay. Sandwiches come with either salad or fries. The simple mixed greens salad was the healthy choice; the fries are In N Out-like and, in my friend’s heretical view, better.

My friend also got a $5 (happy hour pricing) cocktail, an Anejo Manhattan with tequila rather than whiskey, with a slice of orange, and said it was made well.

Service was assured and friendly. Several tables got lobster pops, five balls of lobster on skewers and lined up vertically in a holder, which seems to be the appetizer to get. A lot of items on the ever-changing menu sounded tempting.

Mondays may be the best day to go. Happy hour is all day, and 10-inch wood-fired pizzas, typically above $10, are $5. Then again, if you like live music or a crowd, they have DJs or live music (when we were there, a stage held a full complement of instruments) on Friday and Saturday nights, which are probably less about food and more about drinks and entertainment (some of the tables have bottle service). On Sunday they have live jazz in the mornings and a gospel brunch. Ra Pour’s motto is “Eat Drink Lounge Listen.”

You exit to the very 909 sight of a Payless across the street and, at the corner, a TGIFriday’s. The funny thing is, a lunch on a Monday at TGIFriday’s is almost certainly more expensive than at Ra Pour, even though Ra Pour offers a far superior experience. Get your swank on and give it a try.

Curry Express, 9668 Milliken (at Fourth), Rancho Cucamonga

Note: By April, the restaurant had changed hands and was now Royale Indian Cuisine.

Curry Express opened in 2011 cater-corner from Ontario Mills in what I believe was previously a Hawaiian fast-food spot. I dropped in for dinner on a recent Tuesday.

Despite the “express” name, this is a sitdown restaurant now, not fast food, although they do deliver. The interior has been redone with glass-topped tables, cloth napkins and high-backed booths. Yet it’s brightly lighted and not stuffy.

(I looked around the room and noticed some diners who seemed to be from India and several young couples. A fair number of couples, in fact. Then it occurred to me that this was Valentine’s Day, and rather than get an “express” meal, I was dining alone in a sitdown restaurant. Sigh.)

Making the best of things, I had the chicken curry ($12), rice pellow ($6.50) and garlic naan ($3), and a glass of water. Like most Indian places, dinner made for a not-inexpensive meal (with tax and tip, $27), although I took home half. I guess that’s why so many people like Indian lunch buffets; Curry Express’ is $8.

The curry was tasty, the naan thick and chewy. Six bucks is a lot to pay for a dish of rice, even if it does have onions, peas and nuts. Service was indifferent to friendly, depending on which of the two servers was near.

The menu has tandoori specialties, chicken, lamb, goat and seafood dishes, and a fairly long list of vegetarian entrees, 19 in all.

I preferred my subcontinent meals at Haandi and Koyla, both featured on this blog previously, but Curry Express is certainly acceptable, and vegetarians in particular might want to investigate it.

Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour, 10742 Foothill Blvd. (at Aspen), Rancho Cucamonga

Farrell’s means a lot to many longtime Inland Valley residents who marked birthdays and other occasions at the Montclair Plaza ice cream parlor, which operated through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s before folding like other locations after a disastrous buyout. Now the chain is back, with SoCal restaurants in Rancho Cucamonga, Brea, Mission Viejo and Santa Clarita, with more in the works. Here’s its website.

Me, I was a Farrell’s newbie when I showed up for lunch recently with two Farrell’s fans, my friends Dave and Rose Linck of Rancho Cucamonga. They grew up on the place and had already been to the Rancho location twice, once for Rose’s birthday. (She wasn’t asked to stand on a chair.)

In fact, Rose wrote several letters in recent years to Farrell’s suggesting they take over the closed Romano’s Macaroni Grill, advice that Farrell’s took. They should give her free ice cream for life or something.

The restaurant has been completely made over. After a short wait even at 1 p.m. for a table, we were seated. We were among the few adults not accompanied by children. It’s a festive atmosphere, the Chuck E Cheese of ice cream. Every few minutes a siren would blare and employees, dressed in straw boaters and vests, would gather around a table and sing happy birthday while the child stood on a chair. They’ve revived all the old traditions, including the Zoo and the Pig Trough ice cream platters.

I got a half BLT with chicken noodle soup and fries ($7.79), Rose had chicken strips known as Cock-a-Doodle Dippers ($8) and Dave had the Gastronomicaldelicatessenepicurean’s Delight (whew!), a cold cut combo with fries ($10.59).

Surprisingly, this was all pretty good. My BLT, for example, used a better grade of bacon that you’ll find almost anywhere else and the soup tasted fresh. The others were impressed by their meals too.

For dessert, we each got hot fudge or hot butterscotch sundaes, the single-scoop versions available if you get a meal ($3.29), and it was delicious, as you’d hope. Including the $2.79 vanilla Coke I got from the soda fountain, my tab was $17, a couple of bucks more than I’d have preferred, but fine given the quality of the food and the attentiveness of the service.

Would I go back, though? Maybe, but it’s hard to imagine when I would. (Other than if any friends choose Farrell’s for their own birthday, which one is threatening to do.) I don’t think I would go even for my own birthday (when you get a free sundae), although I reserve the right to change my mind.

It’s evidently a good facsimile of the old Farrell’s, a parent would probably not be disappointed by the food and a kid would probably love it. But unless you’re a retired fireman who misses the sound of a siren going off every few minutes, or deaf, this is not a place many adults could endure. Nostalgists, of course, will want to try it, and should.