Recently in Inland Valley Eatin' Category

Photo at left by Stephanie Guerra

This week's restaurant: McConnell Hall, Pitzer College, East 9th St. (at Mills), Claremont.

The best dining bargain in the Inland Valley may be the Claremont Colleges dining halls. Sure, they're for students and faculty, but the general public is allowed in. They have breakfast, lunch and dinner on weekdays, brunch and dinner on weekends. It's buffet style, all you can eat, and the cost is a mere $7, beverage and tax included. (You might be able to bluff your way in for the $6 student-faculty fee.)

Regulars can tell you the idiosyncracies of each college dining hall. I've had lunch at most of them and have yet to be disappointed. The offerings change daily. Here's a link to the Pitzer site; note the limited hours.

At Pitzer one recent day, they had a couple of soups, salad and dessert bars, stations for hot or cold sandwiches, chicken teriyaki breast, a gourmet pizza (with pear as the topping) and a pasta. There was fresh fruit, breakfast cereal dispensers, frozen yogurt and undoubtedly more that I've forgotten.

The made-to-order chicken sandwich, pictured above, had Swiss, mushrooms, grilled onions, lettuce and tomato. Good stuff, as was the pizza and the soup. As you can see in the second photo, there was no shortage of cookies, brownies, pastries and other sweets for an indecisive blogger to choose from.

The only downside is finding legal parking. Especially with construction going on, spaces are hard to come by and most of them are marked for students and faculty only. To be safe, park on Claremont Boulevard or College Avenue and hoof it a few blocks. Here's a link to a Pitzer map; McConnell Hall is No. 9, on 9th Street.

This week's restaurant: WaBa Grill, 9670 Haven Ave. No. 104 (at 6th), Rancho Cucamonga; also 4110 Edison Ave., Chino; 9870 Sierra Ave., Fontana; 1055 W. Philadelphia St. and 800 S. Milliken Ave., Ontario.

WaBa Grill is a new name to me, although as you can see above, it has four other Inland Valley locations, as well as others around SoCal. The Rancho location just opened in a new center next to Dickey's BBQ just north of 4th Street.

It's a teriyaki bowl place, but one emphasizing the reputed healthfulness of the items: all-natural ingredients, no additives, no skin-on chicken, no oil and no frying.

I had been wary after a sign in the window during construction promised, among other things, "vegitables." Misspellings of core products aside, I gave WaBa a try earlier this week.

I got the No. 2, the chicken plate ($6.99), with brown rather than white rice (80 cents more) and a soda ($1.60). The portion was filling, often an issue with chicken bowl places, and the food tasty. A small salad and orange slices come with.

WaBa also has steak, salmon and veggie bowls and plates from $4.19 to $8.99.

The interior is kind of cool, done in white, orange and red and with mod-ish wall treatments resembling giant brackets. It's like Pinkberry with chicken. WaBa is a decent option if you're in the area. And I am.

This week's restaurant: Manila Sunset, 11815 Foothill Blvd. (at Rochester), Rancho Cucamonga.

One of a small chain of Filipino fast-casual restaurants, Manila Sunset is located in the Masi Plaza center. I'd been meaning to go for a long time but kept forgetting, as I don't get to Far Rancho all that often. Then my friend Rose had lunch there and sent me a glowing report. Finally I made a point of going there with a friend on our way to "The Crucible" at Lewis Family Playhouse last week.

It's a clean, bright place, done mostly in yellow, with murals and a large patio. You order at the counter, which can be intimidating, since the menu is full of unrecognizable items (if you're unfamiliar with Filipino food, as I am) with names like Pancit Malabon and Tokwa't Baboy. But the manager is very gregarious, explaining the menu and recommending items.

We had the pork BBQ skewers plate ($5.95), milkfish, which was one of the daily specials (price forgotten but around $7), an order of fresh lumpia ($3.95), which is sauteed vegetables in a crepe-like wrapper, and two unusual but delicious beverages, sago at Gulaman, which is an iced gelatin drink, and the iced melon drink ($2.75 each).

We liked our food and thought it was reasonably priced. The menu has a lot of fried items, and eating off foam containers isn't really my thing, so Manila Sunset probably won't be a regular stop. But I have nothing bad to say about the place. The numerous daily specials were on a separate board and may be unique to this location. It was neat to see how the menu doesn't seem to be dumbed down.

The Rancho Cucamonga/Fontana area has a sizable Filipino population. Several other diners that evening were Filipino. Having a Filipino restaurant here is a boon for them and helps make Rancho Cucamonga just that much more cosmopolitan.

Did I really just use "Rancho Cucamonga" and "cosmopolitan" in the same sentence?

Jay Phillips tends to chicken, ribs and links cooking in the restaurant's brick oven Wednesday. Below, the rib tip dinner.

This week's restaurant: Phillips BBQ, 11798 Central Ave. (at Francis), Chino.

Phillips is a big name for barbecue in L.A. and my column today is devoted to the chain's surprising arrival in Chino, in a strip mall in north Chino perhaps a mile or two south of Mission Boulevard and formerly home to Clark's BBQ.

If you've had Phillips' food in L.A., this seems to me to be a comparable experience, although I've only been to an L.A. location once, about six years ago. I've had two meals in Chino so far. (I paid for both, as per my policy.)

The rib tip dinner ($10.55) comes with two sides and two slices of white bread for mopping up the sauce. I got two meals out of it; also, two small stains on my shirt. The pulled pork sandwich ($3.52) has meat chopped so fine it's like a sloppy Joe; the sandwich had to be scarfed down quickly before the bun fell apart, although this was no chore. Both meals were delicious.

(My only problem with the sandwich was when I later realized I'd been charged 89 cents for my sandwich's side of cole slaw, which is supposed to come with. Even at that, my lunch, including a soda, was a mere $5.48 with tax. The same combo at the Dickey's chain costs $7.07 and, while acceptable, isn't nearly as good.)

This is the first Phillips location with a dining room. It's a little bare, but clean and bright, with new tables and chairs. All food comes in a takeout container. This isn't the full restaurant experience, like at Joey's or Lucille's, but the prices are cheaper and you can box up your own leftovers to take home just by closing the lid.

The menu has sandwiches, dinners, the standard sides, small and large trays for parties or events and individual desserts such as 7-Up cake, red velvet cake, peach cobbler and sweet potato pie.

One note about the prices: They're all odd. A rib dinner, for instance, is priced at $13.18, baby backs will run you $14.66 and a beef link sandwich is $9.37. Manager Jay Phillips says tax is included in all purchases, accounting for the creative pricing.

Candidly, I'm not a big barbecue guy, eating the stuff a couple of times per year. Some people, or at least some men, like arguing the finer points of various barbecue styles. I don't know one from another. So I'm no expert. Disregard my opinion if you like. But for whatever it's worth, Phillips' barbecue is very good, certainly the best I've had, and I will be eating a lot more of it with them in the neighborhood.

If you'd like a more knowledgeable recommendation, read Jonathan Gold's take here (but scroll down a bit to find it on the page).

For the record, The New Diner blog broke the news about Phillips' arrival in Chino. My bib is off to them.

This week's restaurant: King Wrap, 373 W. Bonita Ave., Claremont.

With King Wrap as the latest Mediterranean place to hit the Village, following Pita Pit, Saca's, Yanni's and Casablanca, the pita must now be the official bread of downtown Claremont.

King Wrap, which occupies a narrow storefront between Quizno's and Taco Factory, opened a couple of months ago but isn't a total startup: It was formerly located in Rancho Cucamonga under the name Mama's Grill. Several readers here lamented its closing, leading the grill's mama (actually, the grill's daughter-in-law) to pen a message in response a few days ago.

I'd already been to King Wrap three times before her note, not realizing the connection to Mama's Grill. The new place is a smaller operation, a literal mom and pop, with four tables and a limited menu of wraps, sandwiches and salads. Nothing is more expensive than $6.99. (Mama's Grill seated 100.)

I've had a gyro and a chicken shawarma ($5.49 each) and a Caesar wrap ($6.49) and found them all tasty, unexceptional perhaps but solid examples of their type. And the price is right.

My only suggestion would be to offer combos that include a small salad and a drink. Nobody wants to order a $5.50 sandwich and a $6.50 salad, but when the tray is delivered with nothing but a cylindrical sandwich resting there in a wrapper, it looks lonely.

After writing the above, I had a fattoush salad (cucumbers, peppers, onions, parsley, toasted pita; $6.45) on Wednesday evening and noticed there's now a lunch special: kabab, hummus, rice and salad for $7.49. So there's a partial answer to my suggestion above.

Quibbles aside, in the often-pricey Village, King Wrap is a nice addition. I hope Mama settles in for a long stay.

In conversation with me recently, author and Ontario native Charles Phoenix was recalling the burger joints of his 1960s-1970s youth. I'll list them below; the descriptions are mine.

Burger Bandit: At 4th and Grove, this stand's mascot was a man in a burglar mask. Demolished (I think?).

Hamburger Ding-a-Ling: At D and Euclid, this restaurant's oddball concept was to have telephones at each booth, which customers would use to phone in their order. The food would be delivered to the table. Now demolished.

Burger Lane: At San Antonio and Holt. It's now Sammy Burger.

Burger Q*: On Mountain at G Street. The Q, Phoenix says, referred to a "queue," as in a line, as in, you line up for burgers. (*I inadvertently left this place off the list even though it did come up in our conversation. Because a couple of commenters asked about it, I'll retroactively add it here for completeness' sake.)

Andy's Burgers: At Holt and Sultana (I think?), this drive-in moved to Holt and Lemon circa 2004. There's a second one in Chino.

Before our conversation, Phoenix had dropped in at Andy's to chat with the staff and learned that it opened in 1969. That's 40 years ago.

If Andy's has survived four decades, Phoenix mused, that puts them ahead of all the competition.

"They would be the official hamburger of Ontario," Phoenix declared.

What do you think?

This week's restaurant: Super Chili Burger, 6090 Riverside Drive (at Magnolia), Chino.

I'd heard about this place from a reader's tip and decided to head down to Chino for a long lunch hour to check 'em out. It's a few blocks east of Central Avenue in a standard fast food building.

The menu has burgers, chili, tacos, burritos, fried chicken and gyros, plus eggs, omelettes and pancakes for breakfast. It's one of those burger places where you can get almost anything and is popular with students from the nearby junior high and high school. Oh, and I noticed that besides the three standard milkshake flavors, they also have pineapple.

Of course I ordered the namesake chili burger, the quarter-pound size, with onions, lettuce and tomato, in a combo with fries and a Coke ($5.97 with tax). A customer hanging out at the counter, a public defender named Bill, recognized me, as did the counterman, Jimmy. Believe it or not, this generally happens everywhere but restaurants.

Well, courtesy of employees Jimmy Alexandris and his brother, Nick, two cheerful, gregarious guys, I soon had the history of the family-run restaurant, founded circa 1987 by their parents, both Greek emigres. The whole family pitches in to operate the place and has watched the city change.

As for the food, I'm not a chili burger aficionado so I can't compare the Super Chili Burger version to the competition. I've been to Tommy's twice and got heartburn both times, which never happens to me. I did not get heartburn from Super Chili Burger. To me, that's a plus, but your personal belief system when it comes to chili may differ. In any event, my lunch wasn't a knockout, but it was messy, gooey and satisfying.

If nothing else, you might go just to meet the family.

Photo of Weiland Brewery's cheeseburger and garlic fries by Jeff Aragaki

Upland reader Jeff Aragaki writes:

"In your jaunts to downtown LA, have you eaten at a place called Weiland Brewery? There's two locations: one in JTown and one underground on Flower St. at 5th. If you have, did you try the garlic fries? They're actually garlic, parmesan cheese and parsley fries. To die for."

Good choice of words. Jeff continues:

"What I'm looking for is anywhere near us that has similar french fries. Any ideas?"

As I told Jeff, I haven't been to Weiland Brewery nor do I know of any garlic fry opportunities in the Inland Valley, other than the Gordon Biersch stand at Epicenter Stadium. There's a Biersch in Old Town Pasadena if you're willing to travel that far.

Angel's Place in La Verne serves "Greek fries" with oregano, parmesan and feta -- interesting, but no garlic.

Readers, can any of you help out Jeff with some local garlic fries?

This week's restaurant: Viva Madrid, 225 Yale Ave. (at 2nd), Claremont.

One of the 909's most unique restaurants, Viva Madrid is the only Spanish tapas bar in this corner of the Empire. It's been operating since the late 1990s in a small arcade of shops near a bagel shop and Rhino Records.

A bunch of us went there to celebrate a birthday last week. The restaurant is cozy, seating under 50, all squeezed in, plus another dozen at the bar. Even on a Thursday night the place is full, with a half-hour to 45-minute wait, a testament to its popularity. It's a prime place for dates and celebrations. The close quarters add to the room's energy level.

The single room is heavy on ambiance with rustic wooden tables and chairs, Spanish tchothkes on the walls, a large chandelier and dim lighting. A flamenco guitarist played on a small platform near the ceiling. Three friends toasted a 60th birthday at the bar. The restaurant attracts a wide age range, from college students to seniors.

The heart of the menu is the tapas, 40 small plates from $1 to $9. Each has a few bites, good for sharing, but not with many people. While they could be considered appetizers, most diners make a meal of them.

The six of us shared 11 tapas: yellowfin tuna on toast, an empanada, salmon-wrapped asparagus, chicken croquettes, chorizo-stuffed mushrooms, bacon-wrapped dates, barbacoa chicken, cheese and olives, beef with garlic and white wine, mussels and a basket of bread. We also had a seafood paella, which is a rice dish (double portion $32), and a creme brulee for dessert. Some had sangria ($15 per liter). The bill worked out to $27 per person, with the birthday honoree's money not accepted.

There were some mild complaints: The size of the tapas varies too much (why are some two pieces and others five?), the bread didn't taste fresh, the asparagus tasted canned, none of the dishes were especially complex or inventive.

Those cavils out of the way, most of the food was delicious. We all enjoyed our meal quite a bit, for the food, atmosphere and conviviality. Most of us are irregular but repeat customers, hitting the place for special occasions. There's no place in the region quite like Viva Madrid.

I say, viva Viva Madrid!

Restaurant of the Week: Joey's BBQ, 9538 Foothill Blvd. (at Archibald), Rancho Cucamonga; also 1964 W. Foothill Blvd., Upland; 117 W. 2nd St., Pomona; and 3689 Riverside Drive, Chino.

In June Joey's, the Chino-based chain dating to the late 1970s, opened its fourth location, in the former George's Burgers building a bit west of Archibald on Foothill in Rancho Cucamonga. Unusually, Joey's retained the drive-thru, making it one of the few non-burger drive-thrus in the valley -- and the only one where you can get a $28.50 filet mignon.

Inside the restaurant recently at lunchtime, our server wore a headset so she could double on the drive-thru. Not much business there yet, under a dozen customers per day, she reported. I suppose one benefit of the drive-thru is that you could order ribs and feel like Fred Flintstone, except that your car probably won't tip over.

Other than that feature, and the slightly more fast-food feel to the place, this Joey's is pretty much like the others. The menu features beef and pork ribs, steak, chicken, sandwiches and other items. The barbecue is smoky in the Texas style, except for the tangier St. Louis-style pork ribs. The meat is cooked in a closed-pit barbecue, whereas larger chains use a faster, rotisserie-like process.

I've eaten at Joey's downtown Pomona location numerous times over the years, especially before concerts. The food is pretty reliable, although some carp about the prices, which for ribs start at $12. In a cute touch common to Joey's, each table has a miniature wooden steer with a pole from which you can hoist a Joey's flag when you need service.

Our table had pulled pork and turkey breast sandwiches ($12 each), which come with two sides. They were meaty sandwiches -- my friend took home half the turkey -- and tasty too. Our sides were a corn cobette, baked beans, cole slaw and sweet potato fries.

Almost any self-respecting valley resident has eaten at a Joey's at least once. Your thoughts?

This week's restaurant: Three Anas, 8980 Benson Ave. (at Arrow Highway), Montclair.

Located in a small, nondescript industrial park, Three Anas doesn't promise much. But then you step inside, notice the two colorful murals and learn you order at your table, not the counter. There are other homey touches: a Wall of Fame by the door in which regular customers' photos are posted and a stack of magazines for solo customers' reading pleasure.

Our server cheerfully explained the origin of the Three Anas name: That's what their father called Ana, Julianna and Joanna, the three sisters who own the restaurant. It will mark five years in business on Oct. 1.

Our table ordered steak picado ($7.50), which was pleasingly dry, not soupy; the special burrito ($4.50) with potatoes, carne asada, onions and peppers; and the chile relleno and chicken enchilada plate ($7), served wet with green sauce, plus rice and beans. They were all solid, satisfying versions. Three Anas "rivals Mi Pueblita," one of our group said admiringly, referring to the popular Upland restaurant.

You have to like a restaurant run by three sisters, especially when the experience delivers so much more than the location promised. A hidden gem.

This week's restaurant: The Basil, 1845 E. Holt Blvd. (at Vineyard), Ontario.

Part of a sharp-looking new complex on the northwest corner of Holt and Vineyard, the Basil is by a Quizno's, a Starbucks and a child welfare office, with the restaurants obviously aimed at the hotel crowd nearby. The Basil has certainly been anticipated here in our newsroom a few blocks away, the "coming soon" banner for months having drawn my colleagues' curiosity. I round the corner there on way to Ontario council meetings twice a month and always glance over.

Well, the Basil finally opened in late August, after a long gestation. A couple of us went there for dinner Wednesday.

Inside, the Basil is done in shades of gold, tasteful art on the walls, a candle at each table, a shiny bar specializing in martinis against one wall. The look is very modern and upscale. The Basil, one has to acknowledge, is almost certainly the hippest atmosphere anywhere on Holt from Ontario all the way through Pomona.

Given the attention lavished on the setting, however, the menu was a letdown. Billed as "Thai-European cuisine," the restaurant promises a fusion of disparate cuisines in creative new dishes. Instead, it's standard Thai food, plus fettucine alfredo and spaghetti. Other than seafood ka-pow, the only fish on the menu is deep-fried orange roughy.

Adjusting our expectations, we went with mas-a-man pork ($10.95), a peanut and coconut milk curry with potatoes and onions, and drunken noodles with tofu ($9.95), flat rice noodles with chile, bell pepper, onion, cabbage, tomato and basil.

The dishes were okay, the tofu entree being better than the pork, although my friend was less satisfied than I was with the latter. She noticed that the potato was mushy and the onion crisp, indicating the dish was assembled from other parts rather than cooked together.

The kitchen brought out free fried banana for all the tables that evening. Dipped in coconut flakes and fried, the banana was the one unequivocal success of the night.

For that corner of Ontario, the Basil is welcome, and the mildly swanky bar might become a popular spot. For Thai entrees in the $10 to $20 price range, however, locals would be better off at Green Mango or Thai-T in Rancho Cucamonga or Taste of Asia in La Verne, where the menus are more imaginative and the cooking more expert.

This week's restaurant: Yangtze Chinese Restaurant, 126 N. Euclid Ave., Ontario.

Yangtze has been a fixture of downtown Ontario since 1961 and, with the demise of Jong's and Chung King, it's the oldest Chinese restaurant in the Inland Valley. Back then, Chinese food was considered exotic; it was one of the few foreign cuisines available in the area, along with Mexican and (oooh) Italian. Now you can get kung pao chicken and a dozen glazed at any number of local donut shops.

Not much has changed at Yangtze except the prices, from what I can gather. Step inside and you feel you've stepped back in time. The interior retains the slatted wood walls, the slender hanging lamps, the avocado booths and the 3-D dioramas that radiate a 1960s ambiance. Author Charles Phoenix likes to say that '60s icons James Bond and Sophia Loren could dine there and not look out of place.

Mr. Gin, the founder, is gone, but Mrs. Gin, one of my favorite people in Ontario, still greets customers and works the cash register. The waitresses have been there for decades. So have some of the customers.

Now, as for the food. I had dinner there once, perhaps six years ago, before an Ontario council meeting. It was, shall we say, not to my taste. I returned a couple of weeks ago for lunch only because Phoenix was in town and suggested we meet there. He told me he hadn't eaten at Yangtze in decades.

He cleaned his plate, I ate half of my shrimp chow mein. It would not surprise me to learn that the cook had opened a can of Chung King vegetables into a pan, tossed in a few canned shrimp, cornstarch and some MSG, heated it and put it on a plate. To my mind, retro charm can go only so far.

Yet there are those who dote on Yangtze. Generations of locals had their first taste of Chinese food there and its old-school American take on the cuisine still meets their needs. It's the food they grew up with, cooked the way it's supposed to taste. Some of the regulars drive from miles away.

Others barely leave. An older gentleman a couple of booths away from us at lunch was eating a steak, and when he left, the waitress cheerfully told him, "See you tonight."

This week's restaurant: Chile Red, 9608 Base Line Road (at Archibald), Rancho Cucamonga.

Chile Red has been a reliable fixture in the shopping plaza at the northwest corner of Base Line and Archibald since at least the mid-1990s. It's a comfortable sit-down Mexican restaurant that does a lot of takeout. It was a newsroom hangout in '97 when I started at the Bulletin but I hadn't eaten there for a few years.

Well, I had dinner there last week. The dining room has been redone with yellow walls and dark brown tables and chairs; the last I remembered, the tables had red-checked tablecloths. It looks good. Chile Red still specializes in burritos, touting their foot-long "killer burritos," but they have normal-sized burritos, tacos, enchiladas and dinner platters ($8 to $13) too.

I got the Chile Green burrito ($6), stuffed with chile verde pork and a smattering of rice and beans. It was a knife and fork burrito, good stuff, probably 7 inches long and 4 inches wide, and a mild lip tingler. I took home half and got a second meal out of it.

My take is that while Chile Red isn't the best Mexican food in town -- contenders would be Taco Hut, El Ranchero and Los Jalapeno's -- it's pretty good, and the atmosphere is sedate and pleasant. And by Alta Loma standards it's practically historic.

Online chatter says Chile Red has changed hands, apparently for the second time, and now is closer to the original style. Anyone else been there recently, or have memories of the place?

This week's restaurant: Esther Tacos, 1466 Foothill Blvd. (at Grove), Upland.

A lot of taquerias are lovable dumps, while many attractive Mexican restaurants serve crummy food. Here's a storefront operation -- in the Foothill and Grove center, across Grove from Rancho Cucamonga's Red Hill BBQ -- that hits the sweet spot. The service is cheerful, the interior clean, the walls decorated in bright murals and the food inexpensive and tasty.

I've eaten there a half-dozen times. (I once mentioned them favorably in a restaurant roundup column and they posted two copies, which are still displayed, even though they only got a paragraph or two. Awwww.)

They sell breakfast plates, tacos, burritos, sopes, tortas, soups, and beer and wine. You order at the counter. The al pastor (marinated pork) is dense and smoky, in tacos (99 cents each) or in a torta ($5.99), although the torta bun was crumbly. The fish tacos ($2.49 each) are Ensenada-style, grilled rather than battered.

Seating is in oak chairs at oak tables. Brass railings top the dividers. Two walls have murals. It's a pleasant place.

And for better or worse, you're in the same center as various automotive service shops; I once killed time with lunch at Esther while getting new tires. I told the tire guy I'd be at Esther and he actually walked over to give me a report. Even at the very edge of Upland, it remains the city of gracious living.

This week's restaurant: L.Y.L. Garden, 921 W. Foothill (between Mountain and Towne), Claremont.

L.Y.L. opened in April, replacing Captain KJ's in the former China Star location at the west end of the Sprouts center. To my knowledge, this is the only sit-down Chinese restaurant in Claremont. I'm afraid my city is awfully light on one of the world's most popular cuisines.

A reader whose name I've misplaced (sorry) said I should give L.Y.L. a try, saying he gets takeout from there frequently. And so I invited a couple of foodie friends to lunch there the other day.

Before leaving the newsroom, I mentioned my destination to my colleague Wendy Leung. She joked: "I can tell you what they're going to have. Sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, beef with broccoli..."

Sadly, she was right. All the popular non-Chinese Chinese items filled the lunch menu, which has a page of $5.95 combos and a page of $6.95 combos. Yes, orange chicken is among them. So much for my hopes, based on the restaurant's unusual name, that this would be a more authentic Chinese experience.

That said, the food was competent and plentiful. The combos come with soup (in our case, a decent hot and sour), an egg roll (mediocre) and either rice or lo mein. I got the lo mein, which made me the envy of my friends, who'd ordered rice. They ordered string beans and chicken with cashews (each $5.95) and the big spender (me) got scallops with garlic sauce ($6.95).

They liked their combos okay but thought the rice portion was undersized. My entree was all right but nothing special. Two of us had leftovers, so the price-per-meal was right.

The L.Y.L. interior is very different from the China Star days, and arguably better: Rather than pleasant but dull cushioned booths, the seating is small wooden tables and a few wooden booths separated by paper screens. The false ceiling is gone, exposing steel beams from which hang paper lanterns and fashion lighting.

L.Y.L. may prosper because I don't think there's another Chinese restaurant for some distance -- maybe La Verne's Chinese Pavilion.

This week's restaurant: Page One Cafe, 215 E. C St. (at Lemon), Ontario.

Page One is the cafe at rear of the Ontario City Library and was added in 2006, after the library renovation. There are two entrances from the outside and one from the library itself. It's operated by SMG, which runs the Ontario Convention Center and has a large food and beverage department to support its events.

There was grand talk in the beginning of a seasonal menu, fresh soups and sandwiches, plus live music out on the enclosed patio. I dropped in a few times before council meetings for a quick bite and the cafe seemed underfunded. I had a chicken pesto pocket that was rubbery and inedible. From that point, I stuck to a fruit cup or yogurt -- items impossible to mess up -- before gradually forgetting the cafe was there.

Well, it turns out the cafe and its menu are now close to what was originally envisioned. The place was busy Monday at the noon hour and the menu is considerably larger and more ambitious than before. There are a few basic breakfasts, but sandwiches, salads and soups are the main items. They don't have a grill, but they can do almost anything else.

There's a Healthy Ontario menu to go along with the local health campaign and even sugar-free cookies, as well as sugary treats, from Sweet Nick's bakery in Corona. Not to mention Starbucks coffee, the only Starbucks outlet downtown.

You order at the counter and they bring the food to your table, on real plates and with real silverware.

I had a Cuban panini with fries ($6.95) and an iced tea and it wasn't bad. The crinkle-cut fries are made fresh to order and arrived hot and crispy. The sandwich came on a roll rather than pressed bread, which was unusual, but with ham, cheese and a pickle sliced lengthwise, it was tasty.

A couple of days later, I went back for another meal so I could take photos. (My camera batteries were dead the first time, darn the luck.) This time I got the daily special, a curry chicken wrap with a tomato salad ($6.50). Tucked inside the sundried-tomato wrap were curried chicken, romaine lettuce and, adding a nice crunch, sliced apples. I also got a sugar-free sugar cookie just for the novelty ($1). (Since most of the name cancels itself out, wouldn't it be simpler to call it simply a "cookie"? But I digress.)

My only quibble would be that the oil and vinegar from the tomato salad spread over the entire plate, including the wrap. But it was close to a restaurant-quality meal. I wouldn't drive here from Upland or anything, but if you're near downtown, or visiting the library, Page One is a clean, comfortable spot for lunch or a snack.

The ambience is Starbucks-like, with a two-story ceiling, high tables, free Wi-Fi, a bookcase of cheap books for sale and an enclosed patio with more seating. And, of course, you've got a library just steps away. How many restaurants can make that claim?

Page One hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday.

This week's restaurant: Bistro Roti, 1041 E. 16th St. (at Upland Hills), Upland.

Bistro Roti is in the business center immediately west of Upland Hills Country Club. The name refers to the restaurant's wood-burning rotisserie. I tried the place out for lunch the other day.

The interior is upscale-casual. A flat-screen TV was silently showing the Food Network and three other tables were occupied. The lunch menu has salads, sandwiches, pastas and pizza; the dinner menu is more ambitious with steaks, chops and seafood entrees from $16 to $45. They also do breakfast. (See the menus on the bistro's website.)

I went casual with a tuna melt on sourdough with fries ($9.25). I've mentioned before that a tuna melt is my baseline sandwich. (This remained true even though Upland uses 16th Street as its name for Base Line, ha ha.) No, seriously, a tuna melt is what I tend to order to judge whether a place is putting any effort into its food.

Well, the Bistro Roti tuna melt displays real effort. It tasted like, and was, according to the server, made from real tuna, not tuna from a can. Chopped onions, celery and shredded cheese completed the effect. The fries were thin and crispy. At first I thought they were nothing special, but then I noticed I was finishing them. A small dish of ketchup was delivered rather than a bottle, a nice touch. The service was prompt and professional.

Bistro Roti merits further investigation. The only obvious drawback is that when you look out the windows, or sit out on the patio, your view is of for-lease signs in the center's numerous empty spaces. A sign of the times. But the quality of the food proved distracting.

This week's restaurant: The Boiler, 4665 Chino Hills Parkway (at Ramona), Chino Hills.

Reader Charles Bentley once asked us in vain about the presence of any New Orleans-style restaurants in the Inland Valley, after the demise of New Orleans Express/Crescent City Cafe. Well, we now have one, albeit with an untraditional take on the cuisine.

The Boiler, a restaurant offering "steam kettle cooking," opened at the start of June in The Commons at Chino Hills. I had dinner there a couple of weeks ago with my Chino Hills friends. (Everyone should have Chino Hills friends.)

The interior is dominated by a U-shaped bar at which most customers sit. The menu is short and almost entirely seafood. They have gumbo, jambalaya, oysters and pan roasts, plus some pastas.

The sauces are made in advance from scratch and once you choose your item and the degree of spiciness from 1 to 10, they quickly steam it in a small kettle in front of you, put it in a big bowl and hand it over.

I had the pan roast house ($18.95) with shrimp, crab, lobster, clams and trinity in a tomato cream-based sauce. My friends had pan roast crab ($17.95) and pan roast clam ($13.95).

We liked the food and took home the extra. One remarked lyrically on the "layers of flavor." We weren't convinced of the accuracy of the spice levels, with my "4" and another's "7" tasting about the same, but that's fine. I never know what the deal is with the sauces they mix at your table at P.F. Chang either. You just accept the gimmick and move on.

The service was friendly, and the person who explained the concept to us and answered our questions turned out to be the owner. Surprisingly, this is a single-location business, although he hopes to expand. He developed the recipes at the Oyster Bar in Las Vegas.

Our group's only quibble is that the prices (entrees $12.95 to $21.95) might be a couple of bucks high given the fast-casual setting.

You can view the menu online here.

And what is The Commons at Chino Hills? Just off the 71, it's the latest happening spot in suburbia. There's a Pei Wei (the 909's sole survivor after the Rancho Cucamonga one shut down last year), a wine bar with live jazz named Wine Down, a Lucille's BBQ, Corner Bakery, Wahoo's and BJ's, not to mention a Lowe's and a Toys R Us, with more stuff coming, in theory at least (what with the economy and the developer's bankruptcy).

This week's restaurant: Riverside Grill, 5258 Riverside Drive (at Central), Chino.

In Chino last week for an evening meeting of the school board, I definitely wanted to eat afterward, business not taking me often to Chino. Riverside Grill, along Riverside Drive, is just a block from the school district office and was an inviting choice.

It's a bistro and half the seating is outside, on a patio enclosed by glass walls and surrounded by palm trees and landscaping that makes busy Riverside and Central seem a world away. The interior is upscale casual, with an open kitchen (well, it's glassed in) and photos of old Chino on the walls.

The breakfast-lunch-dinner place has sandwiches, burgers, nine salads and some ambitious entrees from $16 to $24 that include sirloin, N.Y. steak, scampi and baby back ribs.

I got the champagne chicken salad ($10.50) with baby greens, grapes, gorgonzola, walnuts, grilled chicken breast and "our own champagne dressing." No idea what's in the dressing, but the salad was delicious and made for a light, healthy dinner. Like all the salads, it came with a slice of the restaurant's signature beer bread, which they also use for their morning french toast ($5.25).

You can see Riverside Grill's website and menu here. The restaurant is a nice place and a haven from the cares of the world -- which include the school board.

Hours: Wednesday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday to Tuesday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This week's restaurant: Los Portales, 10244 Central Ave. (at Kingsley), Montclair.

I'd seen Los Portales for ages in the strip center behind the estimable Cafe Montclair, but hadn't yet gone in. That is, until looking for a new place to eat before Monday's Montclair council meeting and finding most restaurants on Central closed, Mondays being what they are. Los Portales it is!

I was pleasantly surprised how large the interior is and how nice it looked. There were at least four dining rooms and the one where I was seated had banquette seating, those wooden booths with high backs. Chips, salsa and a menu were quickly delivered. The place was moderately busy.

The menu has plenty of seafood and steak dishes in the $10 to $15 range. Not having time to linger, I opted for the fish taco plate, grilled ($9.95). The two tacos had at least an entire filet between them, more fish than Rubio's would put in a half-dozen tacos, plus some cabbage, diced tomatoes and cilantro on corn tortillas. Double tortillas would have made the tacos easier to eat, but I felt like I got my money's worth. The plate also came with beans and rice. A horchata ($2.25) washed it down well.

My first impression of Los Portales is positive and it may be one of the valley's better Mexican restaurants. Anyone else been there? Do any of you know the location's history?

This week's restaurant: Masala Bowl, 4200 Chino Hills Parkway, Chino Hills.

Indian food is still a mystery to most of America, unlike many other ethnic cuisines. Masala Bowl is a small chain -- locations in Irvine, Tustin, Chino Hills and Plano, Texas, with more coming -- that attempts to remedy that by offering a simplified menu and walk-up service.

The Chino Hills location is in the Chino Hills Marketplace, a sprawling shopping center just off the 71 Freeway. Inside there's a flat screen TV with Indian music videos and a few decorative touches, but mostly it's the standard exposed-pipe, no-frills interior.

The woman at the counter (who was Indian) explained the menu. They have tandoori-cooked dishes and wraps, but the primary entree is curry. There are seven curries, from mild to spicy, and eight meats or vegetables, meaning 56 possible combinations.

I got lamb tikka masala ($7.49 on its own), which is chunks of lamb in a creamy tomato sauce. It arrived at my table in a plastic bowl with basmati rice. Pretty good stuff. I got the meal as a combo ($9.48) with a soda and samosa bites ($1.19 on its own), crispy pockets filled with potatoes. I also ordered garlic naan ($2.49) and bhel ($3.79), a puffed rice mixture with chopped onions and tomatoes.

The bhel was interesting, a sort of dry, crispy salad, but perhaps an acquired taste. The samosa bites were just okay. I couldn't finish all this, so lids were brought for the two bowls, which were easily portable.

Well, Masala Bowl is no Haandi, but it's not meant to be. As a low-priced, casual introduction to Indian food, it's worth a visit. I noticed another couple of restaurants in the Marketplace I hadn't tried and another one across the street when I exited the parking lot onto Pipeline, which means I'm already looking forward to my next excuse to head to Chino Hills.

This week's restaurant: Garden Square, 1401 Foothill Blvd., La Verne (at Wheeler); and 710 S. Indian Hill Blvd. (at San Jose), Claremont.

Garden Square, a local operation, took over the former Bakers Square in La Verne in January, reopening less than a month after the location closed. Seizing an opportunity, the same owner nabbed the vacant Claremont Bakers Square and, although not as speedily, opened it as a second Garden Square earlier this month.

I ate at the La Verne location recently for lunch. The interior still resembles a Bakers Square with the green-upholstered booths, oak trimming and pie case in front. I had a pretty good tuna melt ($7.99), but my so-so side salad was brought to the table at the same time as the entree.

For dessert there are 20 pies on the menu. I had a slice of apple ($2.99). It was a sad thing, filled with that heavily glazed "apple filling" that comes from a can, not fresh apples, and consequently flat and mushy.

The owner was working the register and he seemed like a nice fella. He told me he does all the baking and much of the cooking. I decided to give the Claremont location a try when it opened.

So in I went for lunch on Monday. I got the chicken stir-fry pita ($8.49), which wasn't what I expected, having (apparently) mixed up the photos on the menu and liking the looks of a wrap. Oh well. This was chicken, broccoli, mushrooms and pea pods, in way too much teriyaki sauce, spilling out of a pita. No way to pick it up, so it was eaten knife-and-fork style. I've never seen this odd dish before and would suggest it be quickly retired.

Deciding to give the pie another shot, I tried banana cream ($4.29). Better than the apple (whew), but nothing special. If I want pie, I'm going to Flo's or Corky's or Marie Callender's, where the extra calories won't be wasted.

Certainly I wish Garden Square every success and am pleased to see these two chain restaurants in local hands. It's possible the places are better than when they were Bakers Squares. (Some on Yelp say so and the people in the booth behind mine on Monday thought so too.) They do breakfast, lunch and dinner and they have a seniors menu. But based on my uneven meals there, life is too short for me to go back.

This week's restaurant: Haandi, 7890 Haven Ave. (at Town Center), Rancho Cucamonga.

India is a mild curiosity of mine, and Indian food likewise, but I'm barely conversant with its basics. Most of my dining is done at lunchtime, and most of our Indian places do nothing but buffet at lunchtime. I don't like buffets much.

Recently, however, I thought to try dinner at Haandi, which is in the Deer Creek Center on Haven north of Foothill. The interior is plush, with lacquered tables and booths divided by etched glass. Indian art is on the walls and Indian music videos play on a flat screen TV.

The restaurant's backstory is intriguing; owner Sartaj Singh is from India but studied cooking in Italy, and so he owns an Italian restaurant (Antonino's) and an Indian restaurant (Haandi), both in Rancho Cucamonga. You can read about him on the RC Now blog here. The Haandi location began as a second Singh-owned Italian restaurant (Primavera) and still looks vaguely Italian.

But what of the food?

Chicken tikka masala ($12.99), chunks of tandoori chicken in curry sauce, and shahi paneer ($10.99), cheese in tomato sauce with ginger, were both delicious. And colorful: one dish yellow, the other red. The papadum (free), a crispy flatbread, came with green and red condiments. So most of the color wheel was represented at the table.

The papadum is an acquired taste, but the naan ($2.25), a pita-like bread served hot, was more to my liking. Many other menu items sound enticing, including lamb and seafood dishes, and there's plenty here for vegetarians.

I returned Wednesday for lunch and to take a photo of the sign. Of course the buffet is a given; it's what everyone does, so you don't even get a menu.

Well, the buffet ($9.99) isn't bad: salad, saag, bhindi masala, chicken tikka masala, vegetable samosas and tandoori chicken, among other items, plus kheer, a rice pudding, for dessert.

But I'm looking forward to my next dinner at Haandi.

This week's restaurant: Kwon's Restaurant, 1625 W. Holt Ave. (at Dudley), Pomona.

I'd never taken notice of Kwon's until finding ecstatic reviews on Yelp and actively searching for the place one recent lunchtime. It's out on West Holt near St. Joseph's Church and housed in a skeevy-looking strip mall, although a CHP car parked outside offered some comfort.

Inside, Kwon's was bustling, with multiple people ordering at the counter, waiting for takeout or packed into the half-dozen tables or booths. The clientele was made up of laborers, families and a couple of employees from Lanterman, not to mention a hungry columnist.

The menu consists mostly of fried rice in numerous permutations of beef, pork, chicken and shrimp, with or without vegetables. They also have chop suey, lo mein (or as a poster spells it, "low mein") and the dreaded orange chicken. I ordered shrimp fried rice with vegetables ($6.45) and hoped for the best.

What I got was a heaping plate -- Yelp reviewers estimate it at a pound -- of rice with cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, scallions, onions and broccoli, and a generous amount of shrimp. Slightly bland, perhaps, but you get soy sauce and hot sauce. For a cheap meal of reasonable quality and unreasonable quantity, you can't beat it with a chopstick.

I took home half my order and got a second meal out of it.

Apparently Kwon's was upgraded a year or two ago. Yelpers say the storefront sign used to read only "Restaurant"; now it gives the full name and says "since 1983." Long may they fry.

This week's restaurant: Taste of Asia, 2007 Foothill Blvd. (at D), La Verne.

Taste of Asia opened last year in the former Caribbean Gardens space in the small, '70s vintage Oak Tree Center on the north side of Foothill and near the movie theaters. (It's easy to overlook the center, but in a plus, the small parking lot is shaded by actual oak trees.)

Inside, Taste of Asia is modern and slightly upscale, although the paper rather than cloth napkins stuffed in the glasses will throw you off. The menu is mostly Thai but with some Vietnamese and Chinese dishes.

I've been there three times so far and expect to keep going. Everything I've had so far has been good: Steamed fish with lime ($9.95), with minced garlic and carrot, and lime sliced thin as communion wafers; yellow curry chicken ($8.95), yum seafood salad ($10.95), Vietnamese hand rolls ($5.95) and, most notably, off the "chef's recommendations" list, tropical salmon ($14.95), which comes grilled on a bed of spinach and topped with mango, tomatoes and onions.

Yes, I love Mix Bowl in Pomona, but Taste of Asia is on a different order of magnitude, slow food rather than fast food.

It's a family operation, and Chef Virada comes into the dining room every time to go table to table to chat with customers and make sure everyone is satisfied. Framed diplomas in the hallway to the restrooms show that she trained at a culinary school in Bangkok. But she was working at Bausch and Lomb before opening Taste of Asia.

"This is my dream, to have a restaurant," she told me. We can all pinch ourselves and be happy her dream is our reality.

This week's restaurant: Fong Noodle, 1515 N. Mountain Ave. (at 6th), Ontario.

I'm sure I would never have tried Fong Noodle, a small Chinese restaurant outside the Edwards 14 theater off the 10 Freeway, if not for a tip from reader Stephanie Ulmer. Ulmer said prior to Fong's arrival, it was typical buffet-style Chinese. Now they cook your food fresh when you order it. She and her friends love it.

Curious, I gave Fong Noodle a try Wednesday evening. The menu has Americanized Chinese stuff like broccoli beef and the ubiquitous orange chicken, but also boasts chow fun (broad flat noodles) and Singapore-style noodles (thin, spicy), both of which are relatively rare in these parts.

I ordered shrimp chow fun ($6.95). The order was passed from the middle-aged woman to the middle-aged cook, who sprung into action. A simple salad was brought out, followed several minutes later by a large plate of noodles, plus an egg roll. The noodles were fresh, the shrimp plentiful and the portion enormous; I took home half.

They make their own noodles, the counter-woman confirmed. How about that!

The storefront location is sparkling clean, the decor understated: paper lanterns, a decorated fan and two pieces of traditional art. There are two outdoor tables and plenty of inside seating. And, that evening, plenty of empty seats.

"I was initially afraid to write to you," Ulmer confided, "because once you taste it, you will rave too, and I don't want King Taco-sized lines to form for the tasty chow. But in this economy I thought it was better to send more folks than to keep it to myself."

Thanks for divulging your secret.

This week's restaurant: Giuseppe's, 2433 N. Euclid Ave. (above 24th), San Antonio Heights.

Giuseppe's is a quaint place just north of the Upland border that specializes in both Persian and Italian foods. This means you might exclaim during your meal: "Mama mia, that's-a spicy kebab!"

I'd been wanting to try this restaurant for ages because of the novelty. My friends Tom and Ann, who are regulars, met me there for lunch on Wednesday. Two of us ordered koobideh kabobs and the third got the lasagna. (The takeout menu doesn't have the lunch prices but the items were under $8.)

The kabobs and rice were hearty, the lasagna cheesy. Having baskets of pita bread and French bread on the same table was slightly surreal.

Our server had earlier brought out complimentary shirazi and yogurt salads. As we were finishing our entrees, she returned with complimentary filet mignon and veggie kabobs.

I quietly asked Tom and Ann: "Do you think we're getting all this because you're regulars or does she know what I do for a living?" Ann replied: "Well, I did say we were waiting for a newspaper columnist..."

Sigh. (I try to eschew special treatment.)

Well, no matter why we got the free food, the kabobs were good, especially the flavorful filet mignon. We polished off about half when the server returned with complimentary baklava. No complaints there either.

The restaurant is in a small building, easy to miss, as you round the curve into San Antonio Heights proper. The restaurant interior is comfortable and well appointed, with a subtle Mediterranean influence -- columns at the entryways, colorful mats under the glass tabletops, muted Middle Eastern art on the walls.

Why does Giuseppe's have an Italian name but two different cuisines? The co-owner said her family, which is Iranian, took the pizza parlor over in 1997 (it was founded in the mid-'80s) and added the Middle Eastern items. Her husband used to own an Italian restaurant, however, and that part of the menu isn't an afterthought.

Wonder if you can get falafel on your pizza?

This week's restaurant: Burger Bar, 425 W. Foothill Blvd. (at Indian Hill), Claremont.

Burger Bar opened recently in the same Old School House building that houses Trader Joe's and Robeks Juice and the reviews have been mixed. Yelpers give it two stars and the Claremont Insider was even less kind (so what else is new?). The Claremont Courier was more upbeat, as was my colleague Elaine Lehman.

I gave Burger Bar a shot myself recently despite misgivings. Well, I was going to Trader Joe's anyway.

A single-location place (which explains the slightly cheesy sign), Burger Bar is clean and cheerfully yellow. Your initial reaction may depend on your tolerance for the concept: You pick up an order form and choose the size of your burger, the bun, the spread, the cheese and two condiments, among them grilled peppers, sauteed forest mushroom blend and tossed house spring mix. This may be more "have it your way" than you really want.

A champion waffler who was suddenly confronted with multiple decisions, I eventually got the quarter-pound patty on wheat with pesto mayo, bleu cheese, sauteed onions and the mushroom blend, with sweet potato fries rather than french and a soda ($7.90 as a combo). The tray was delivered to my table.

The toppings proved a good choice, and I can't say the sandwich was bad. But midway through, sensing the weak link in it all, I lifted the bun to take a squint at the burger. It was a wan, puck-like thing.

It seems as though management focused on the gourmet-ish toppings and forgot the basics. Imagine a grand mansion constructed on a foundation of straw.

The sweet potato fries were a delicious novelty, by the way. But when I'm at home in Claremont, I'm afraid I'm going to continue heading west to La Verne's The Habit when I want a decent burger. Unless I'm going to Trader Joe's.

This week's restaurant: Aladdin Jr. 2, 296 W. 2nd St. (at Main), Pomona.

Aladdin Jr., a popular Middle Eastern restaurant on Pomona's Garey Avenue just south of Foothill, recently opened a second location in downtown Pomona, taking over a vacant space last occupied by Lela's, of "Kitchen Nightmares" infamy. (The Aladdin owner also has Casablanca in Claremont, a slightly more upscale restaurant.)

Aladdin Jr. 2, as it's dubbed, is still ramping up, but it's been drawing a decent lunch and dinner trade since opening in March. The corner location is striking, with a patio, rollup doors that expose the 2nd Street side, brick walls inside and paintings by local artists. Contrast with the slightly kitsch Garey location, in which servers wear vests and fezzes and an imitation-Disney Aladdin mural decorates the walls.

I had dinner at Aladdin 2 with friends before the Smogdance Film Festival at the Fox a couple of blocks away. We all had chicken shawarma and all were impressed.

As a sandwich, you get a generously-sized portion that comes in pita bread wrapped in paper to hold in the juices. I had it a la carte ($5.99), one friend got it with some tasty round fries (price unknown), and the other had the shawarma as an entree with salad and hummos ($9.99).

On Monday i returned to try the lunch buffet ($9.99). The two steam tables were piping hot. I tried at least a smidge of the following: shrimp stew, chicken and kafta kabobs, lamb shanks with rice, kebbey, Mediterranean salad, tabbouleh and hummos. Items change daily. A complimentary baklava was dessert.

Not gourmet, but all in all, pretty good food for a pretty good price.

The location is perfect for Second Saturday art walk nights, Fox shows and jury duty. The menu is evolving; unsure of their market, management put four pastas plus pastrami and turkey sandwiches on the menu, but to Pomona's credit, few people are so timid as to order them. Unlike big brother Aladdin Jr., the sequel has beer and wine.

This week's restaurant: Pacific Fish Grill, 13865 City Center Drive (at Peyton), Chino Hills.

Pacific Fish Grill is at the Shoppes at Chino Hills and, from what I can gather, is a single-location restaurant, although it could be a chain in the making. It's located between a Panera and a Johnny Rockets near Barnes & Noble.

Like Louie's Chicken and Fish Grill in Upland, featured here last week, Pacific Fish is a rarity, a seafood-based fast-casual restaurant. Grilled fish plates run $8 to $15 and come with rice, salad and pita bread. They also have salads, fried fish, sandwiches, wraps and tacos. View the menu here.

I ate here in February after the library dedication when I bumped into friends and we decided to have lunch. That meal I ordered the tilapia plate ($8.95) with lemon-oregano seasoning. Not bad.

I returned recently (this time with my camera) and ordered a salmon caesar salad with Cajun seasoning ($10.95). I liked it. Not an outstanding piece of fish or anything, but it was fine, and there was enough salmon for each bite of salad.

There's an open kitchen, high ceilings with visible piping and slowly revolving ceiling fans.

A place like this (or Louie's) seems like a fairly inexpensive, no-fuss way to get more seafood in your diet. People on Yelp say the fish tacos are good; on Tuesdays they're 99 cents.

This week's restaurant: Louie's Chicken and Fish Grill, 960 N. Mountain Ave. (at Foothill), Upland.

I was driving north on Mountain Avenue one lunch hour this week, looking for Upland Kebab, which was on my list of places to try. I didn't see it this time, which means that either I missed it (both coming and going) or it's gone. But Louie's, a little farther north, was my second choice and that's where I ended up.

Louie's opened last year next to a FedEx store on the southeast corner of Mountain and Foothill. (Anyone remember what was in the Louie's space before? La Salsa comes to mind.) I learned about the restaurant from a Business story we ran last year. Owner Louie Camacho previously owned Yahoo Chicken and Louie's Chicken Cafe, both in Chino.

You order at the counter. They have rotisserie chicken ($9.95 each to go), grilled seafood, fish tacos, wraps and salads. All in all, a slightly different concept.

I got catfish, blackened, with brown rice and cole slaw as my sides ($8.49). Blackened is so often done poorly that it's gotten a bad name, but this version didn't overdo it. The slaw was moist and pleasantly crunchy.

Louie's also has trout, tilapia, white roughy, Atlantic salmon, mahi-mahi, halibut and jumbo shrimp, ranging from $7.49 to $13.95. Obviously this is not fine dining, especially with the minimal decor and fast-food seating, but the menu is a nice change from the norm. There's a patio with umbrella-shaded tables that looks like a relaxing spot -- although not on a day when it's not 95, as it was when I visited.

Louie's, this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

This week's restaurant: Dino's Chicken and Burgers, 770 E. Arrow Hwy. (at Towne), Pomona.

When Dino's took over a Golden Ox Burgers location a couple of miles from my house in November, the full import of this development eluded me. Stepping inside last weekend, I saw an L.A. Times Magazine blowup on a wall behind the counter. Turns out Dino's, which until recent years had only one location, is celebrated for its chicken. Alas, I'd already ordered a burger.

Well, the burger was fine, but I knew I had to go back for the chicken before writing something. I did so on Wednesday evening after work, ordering the chicken combo with fries and soda ($6.91 with tax). While I waited I read two more blowup articles newly posted on another wall, one from the Azusa Herald, the other from the L.A. Times food section.

It seems Dino's was founded by Demetrios Pantazis, who used a Greek recipe for his chicken marinade at his West Pico location. Vinegar, garlic and oregano appear to be involved. The restaurant has since opened a second outpost in Azusa, with Pomona being only the third.

The half-chicken arrived. It's fiery red, like tandoori chicken, its orange juices dribbling onto the bed of fries. The chicken proves lightly spicy and very, very good. The fries, already well above average, only improve with the addition of juices.

The Dino's dining room is nothing fancy, beige walls with burgundy booths, but you'll come here for the food, not the ambience.

Supposedly the carne asada here is also quite good. Dino's has breakfasts, Mexican food, sandwiches and pork chops. The Dino's website has photos and more. You can read Jonathan Gold's entertaining LA Weekly capsule review here.

Welcome to Pomona, Dino's. You've made life in the 909 slightly more bearable.

Nancy's, the Rancho Cucamonga breakfast and lunch spot whose obituary appeared here recently, is returning from the dead like Lazarus, only with pancakes.

The reopening is Monday, April 20. The new name will be Nancy May's '50s Cafe. My column has the details.

Photo by Neil Nisperos

This week's restaurant: King Taco, 406 N. Mountain Ave. (at D), Ontario.

Admittedly, most of my dinner experience was covered in my Wednesday column, but that was more about being there than the actual food.

In short, it's a very busy place, with long lines. You order at the counter, sit down and pick up your food when your number is called.

Quality-wise, King Taco could be the In-N-Out of Mexican fast food, or the Tommy's, another cult-like place with long lines for simple fare. The five of us at our table were all impressed by the quality of the meats especially. You can view the menu here.

On the authenticity scale, King Taco doesn't seem to have watered things down despite being a chain: Fillings include lengua (tongue), cabeza (head), buche (pig stomach), molleja (chicken stomach) and suadero (beef brisket), besides the more common asada (steak), pollo (chicken), carnitas (pork) and al pastor (marinated pork).

We stuck with the basics -- al pastor and carnitas sopes, al pastor and carne asada burritos, carne asada and chicken tacos -- being willing to carry adventurousness only so far.

We also liked the chile and verde salsas, which come in small plastic cups and pack a punch. But there were some downsides.

One of us ordered chips and salsa. The chips were bagged and only average, and she didn't like paying 69 cents for salsa when, as she learned when she took her seat, the exact same containers were given out for free on request to others at the table. Also, $1.25 for a tiny cup of guacamole seemed rather high.

There's also the matter of whether the food was worth the half-hour wait from walking inside to picking up the order. You can get essentially the same food all over the valley with no waiting. The lines will die down, but perhaps not that much; King Tacos are high-volume outfits and the layout, with four cashier stations, is set up in anticipation of crowds.

A poll of our table revealed that everyone was willing to come back despite the lines and the hectic, noisy atmosphere. Actually, I may have been the only lukewarm voice on that count. Another said he was more likely to take his food to go, or even eat at the curb (there's no outdoor seating), because of the hubbub.

The restaurant, btw, is closed today for Good Friday.

Courtesy Pomona Public Library Special Collections

Each week, author Charles Phoenix sends out an e-mail with his "Slide of the Week," featuring a vintage, and usually silly, photo rescued from someone's collection of slides. (Sign up for his e-mails on his website.) The accompanying message describes the photo and sometimes goes off on an entertaining tangent.

Such was the case recently when Phoenix, a native of Ontario, shared a photo of a man eating a chicken sandwich in front of chicken-patterened wallpaper (!). Phoenix passed along a recipe:

"My recipe is inspired by the chicken salad sandwich that I devoured many times as a teenager lunching with friends at the oh-so-elegant Palomares Room Restaurant at Buffums' department store in Pomona, CA.

"Their special nutty-fruity version of the Americana lunchtime classic is quite memorable. It was served on raisin bread and it had nuts I it. I would have it for lunch every time we ditched our fifth and sixth period classes to go thrift shopping in Pomona. Lunch at Buffums' was always our first stop. And yes, the thrift shopping was always a learning experience.

"I will be using Miracle Whip to bind and enhance the flavor of all the chopped bits that make this sandwich so delicious. Miracle Whip is an Americana condiment of the highest order. Kraft Foods first introduced the mayonnaise wannabe at the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Fair. According the legend the tangy-fatty, emulsified mystery matter is seasoned with 20 different spices. All the better to make your chicken salad sandwiches taste their best!"

His recipe, which apparently is an approximation of the Buffums' sandwich rather than being the exact version, goes like this, in his words:

Fruity-Nutty Chicken Salad Sandwiches

8 chicken breasts baked the night before

1 cup finely chopped celery

I cup declumped raisins

I cup finely chopped walnuts meats

2 cups Miracle Whip

16 pieces of fresh buttered white bread (toasted or not)

Chop the breasts into small bite size pieces. (Careful not to make them too large because no one wants to choke on a chicken sandwich!) Mix in other ingredients and bind it together with Miracle Whip. (And NO the lo-cal version won't ever do!) Salt and pepper and generously spread between two slices of bread. Press the palm of your hand down firmly over the sandwich to 'glue' it together. Slice diagonally and serve with chilled long sliced curled carrot strips and your favorite pickles.

Makes 8 sandwiches

This week's restaurant: The Seafood Kitchen, 612 N. Euclid Ave. (at F Street), Ontario.

The Seafood Kitchen is a newcomer to downtown Ontario, taking over a venerable location. Walter's Coffee Shop was there from 1960 to 1980, succeeded by El Mexicano II, which was there from 1982 to 2008. (Thanks to the Ontario Library's Kelly Zackmann for the research.)

Two restaurants in 48 years? That would seem to bode well for Seafood Kitchen's longevity, except that when I was there for lunch on a recent Monday, there were only two other diners. Hope it was an off day.

The menu is heavy on shrimp, leavened with scallop, cod, whitefish, catfish, calamari, snow crab and tilapia items. Some are battered and fried, others are steamed or grilled. The presentation is partly Mexican, partly Cajun, partly Asian. That must explain my order, the No. 4 combo ($6.95), which consisted of shrimp scampi atop chow mein, with Cajun fries on the side.

The meal came with a dozen small tail-on shrimp atop chow mein noodles with bits of celery, cabbage, carrots, onions and pineapple. The fries were the crispy kind you get at Popeyes. There was some Asian-style marinated cabbage on the side.

You have to give them points for creativity. And even though the result seemed like a reject from the Panda Express test kitchen, it wasn't bad, and the service was friendly. The menu includes several seafood tacos and salads, Cajun hot wings, ramen soup, lunch combos from $3.95 to $6.95 and dinner platters up to $12.95. They also have beer and wine.

Although the concept could use some focus, the interior space is classic mid-century coffee shop. Small lamps are suspended over the booths on long cords from the sloping ceiling. A giant plate-glass window fronts Euclid. The whole effect is striking and, I would imagine, largely unchanged since the Walter's days. If you're a nostalgist, take a look.

This week's restaurant: Nancy's Cafe, 9759 Arrow Route (at Archibald), Rancho Cucamonga.

Crucial note: After I finished a version of this Restaurant of the Week piece Thursday afternoon, a cook at Nancy's phoned to tell me the restaurant is closing for good FRIDAY, a victim of the economy. That's TODAY, for most of you reading this. This is a hard blow, and a surprise, because Nancy's used to always be packed. [UPDATE: I tried to go in for breakfast Friday but at 7:15 a.m. the place was locked and dark, with no sign of life or of explanation.]

Nancy's was a modest gem, a just-folks diner serving up breakfast and lunch from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. The setting was a small, slightly rundown strip mall behind a Jack in the Box, although the non-Jack restaurants are a foodie's delight: Guido's, an Italian deli, and Los Jalapenos, a taqueria, both among the city's best.

I've been eating at Nancy's for years -- infrequently, true, but Nancy's was always there when I needed it. The cheery interior was stuffed with kitsch, some of it '50s-themed, much of it related to pigs. There was a tiny pig figurine on a tiny swing suspended from the ceiling in the waiting area, more pig figurines at most of the tables, pigs on the walls, pigs at the cash register.

Breakfast had all the standards, served in big portions. The french toast combo ($7) was especially good, as was the french toast covered in brown sugar and oats, dubbed the Annie Oatley ($7.75). I was also an admirer of the lemon pancakes ($7.75). The sausage here was above-average.

Red Hill Coffee Shop, Brandon's Diner, Kickback Jack's and Nancy's make up the shortlist of Rancho Cucamonga's best breakfast spots. I like 'em all, but Nancy's was my favorite, with the ambience a big plus.

For whatever reason, I'd never tried Nancy's for lunch until Wednesday. They had a variety of hot and cold sandwiches, salads and even barbecued ham and chicken. I got the meatloaf sandwich ($7), on toasted sourdough, with tomatoes, lettuce and onions, and it was a pretty good version.

My colleague Joe Blackstock advised me to get a burger ($7.25) and ask for it on grilled sourdough. I wasn't in the mood for that much meat on Wednesday. Oh well.

I thought Nancy's would always be there for me. But let me salute Frank and Nancy Clark for years of good food, friendly service and goofy kitsch. I'll miss 'em.

Anyone have memories of Nancy's to share?

This week's restaurant: Everest Drive-In, 430 N. Central Ave. (at Arrow Route), Upland.

Emulating its namesake, Everest rises majestically along a quiet stretch of Central near Montclair, next door to a vacant lot.

It's another of those burger palaces that has a zillion items on the menu, sort of the spiritual opposite of In-N-Out: not only a dozen styles of hamburger but pastrami and other kinds of sandwiches, basic Mexican items, salads, breakfasts, even an "old fashioned Sloppy Joe" ($2.99).

I had a burger combo there a while back with fries and a soda ($5.49). The char-broiled patty is topped with Thousand Island, lettuce, tomato and red onion. Good stuff. The fries aren't bad. One nice touch: Ketchup is on the tables in glass bottles. The restaurant interior, however, is bland, beige and uninspiring.

Not having had a chance to write about Everest at the time, I returned recently for two more meals. I got the Mediterranean chicken sandwich, again as a combo ($8.58); it comes on a wheat bun, with red and green peppers and feta cheese. A for effort, although the sandwich was better conceptually than as a physical object. Oh well. A week later, an a la carte BLT ($4.19) hit the spot for dinner.

There are other Everest locations in Altadena and La Crescenta. But if you're going to explore Everest, why travel farther than Upland?

This week's restaurant: Toro Sushi & Grill, 1520 N. Mountain Ave. (at 6th), Ontario.

A couple of years back Toro moved from Chino to Ontario into the new neighborhood center at Mountain Avenue and the 10 Freeeway. It's a large, high-ceilinged place in modernist style, done mostly in black, with a few Japanese accents. But the prevailing spirit may be best symbolized by the Raiders plaque behind the sushi bar and a nearby sign reading "Macho sushi $4.50."

Toro seems somewhat bar crowd-oriented, but the food's not bad. I've had the salmon skin salad ($7.50) and liked it. This week I had albacore sushi ($4), yellowtail belly sushi ($5.50) and a salmon skin cut roll ($6). The fish seems fresh and the presentation is nice, if slightly flashy, with sauces drizzled across two of the three orders. Toro also has grilled seafood, chicken and steak entrees from $10 to $30.

I would compare Toro to Kabuki in Victoria Gardens or Sakura Ichi in Pomona as slightly upscale, untraditional takes on sushi -- not the best, but above average.

Toro should work on its motto, though. According to the takeout menu, its mission is to "touch and embrace our customers hearts and souls, as well as their pallets." Please take your hands off my flat wooden transport structure.

This week's restaurant: La Piccoletta, 114 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont.

Hidden away in a Claremont Village alley, La Piccoletta is in a standalone building between 1st and 2nd streets and between Indian Hill and Yale. These directions will be handy in case I ever want to find it again, because for years at a time I've forgotten precisely where it was until stumbling across it on foot.

The building, once a shop that made smudge pots for local orchards, has a trompe l'oeil mural of vines, a stone doorway and a window, but no actual windows. This deterred me for years, that and the no-lunch hours and set menu, which led me to believe (correctly) that as a solo diner I wouldn't be comfortable. I've also heard the restaurant's glory days were behind it after a couple of ownership changes.

Still, I was curious, and at last, I scared up a friend to accompany me. Reservations made -- it's a small place, and you'll need them -- we arrived and were seated immediately. A party filled the communal table and the half-dozen other tables were occupied too. The cottage-like interior reminded me of a mission or a monastery: rustic, dark wood, a stained glass window, thick wooden tables. A smudge pot perches on a shelf near the ceiling.

The menu is more complicated than under previous owners, I'm told. Instead of two pastas and two sauces for the evening, there were four sauces, plus several other entrees.

I got the penne pasta ($17) with a half and half of two sauces: aromi (cream, Romano cheese and tomatoes) and pesto. My friend got a filet mignon with balsamic reduction ($26), which also came with a small side of pasta. The entrees both came with a simple salad and a beverage.

My meal wasn't worth $17. As other friends have said, you could make the same meal at home. The sauces, while fresh, were bland. The pasta didn't taste homemade. The restaurant doesn't seem to be hurting for business, but $10 would be a fairer price for what they're serving.

That said, the steak was tender and flavorful, and worth every penny. It was that good. A berry tart ($6.50) was fine but unexceptional.

A basket of warm, crunchy bread contained only two small pieces. We soon asked for more and got two more pieces. Modesty forbid requesting a third serving, but two more pieces would have been nice. Service was friendly.

There are three other Italian restaurants in the Village, and you could probably get better Italian food at any of them. La Piccoletta's atmosphere, however, is unique and makes up for a lot of the flaws. But they really need to pep up the sauces.

This week's restaurant: Pho Vi, 281 S. Thomas St. (at Third), Pomona.

Pho Vi opened in early 2008 in downtown Pomona, in a corner of the 1912 Founders Building that had seen a variety of marginal businesses in recent years. In preparation for its opening, the sidewalk was widened to allow patio dining.

As aficionados know, Pomona is home to several exemplary Vietnamese restaurants, most of them on East Holt between Clark and Indian Hill, but Pho Vi is the first attempt downtown. It may have represented something of a gamble, but perhaps because downtown is light on sit-down restaurants, Pho Vi was an immediate hit, especially during the monthly art walk or when there's a concert up the block at the Glass House.

I first went there last May and I've gone back almost a dozen times, ordering something new each visit. The menu has 222 numbered items, which should keep me busy through Obama's second term. (On one visit, employees were overheard testing each other on their recall of the menu: "147!" "Sauteed mixed vegetable fried noodle!")

I'm far from an expert on Vietnamese cuisine, but my own experience and that of friends tells me Pho Vi, while perhaps not the best in Pomona, is among the best.

There are three dozen examples of pho (pronounced "fuh"), the Vietnamese beef noodle soup, most of them under $6.50 even for a two-person bowl. You also get a plate of mint leaves, bean sprouts and lime wedges to season the soup to your taste.

(The very long thin noodles are a challenge to eat if you're not good with chopsticks; I always, rather shamefacedly, twirl them with a fork against my soup spoon, like spaghetti, hoping no one sees me.)

There are dozens upon dozens of rice and noodle dishes, often with charbroiled pork, beef or shrimp. I've had a few of these too and liked them quite a bit.

The restaurant is L-shaped, done in shades of green, with an industrial look. Each table has jars and bottles of various spices and containers of cutlery and chopsticks. The service is prompt, but rather than make you feel rushed, they rather quaintly never bring a bill until you motion for it. The place is family-run, with the oldest member of the family usually seen sitting at a table reading a Vietnamese-language newspaper.

Also, their neon sign, which lends an urban feel to the corner, is really cool.

This week's restaurant: Sal & Sons Pizza & Pasta, 1520 N. Mountain Ave. (at Sixth), Ontario.

Sal's opened in November in the modern-looking shopping center visible from the 10 Freeway across from the Edwards 14. Sal's has some connection to the Graziano's chain, although it's unclear what. The menus are similar.

It's a peppy, fast-food-looking place, on the small side, with yellow and red being the dominant colors. You order at the counter. They have a variety of pizzas, a dozen pastas, plus calzones and hot and cold sandwiches.

I've now been there twice. In January, I got one of the lunch specials, a half-order of lasagna with a salad and soda (price forgotten, but under $7). Kind of thin -- it was like the half order was done horizontally, giving you two layers out of four -- but good, and the price was right.

On Wednesday I returned for a pizza. I got an 8-inch mini-pizza, luna style ($7.70), a small salad ($2.35) and small drink ($1.25).

The pizza had olive oil, garlic, mozzarella and romano, no tomato sauce. Perhaps too much olive oil, but the crust was nice and thin, with a light, crunchy edge. The salads here are just chopped lettuce and a single tomato slice. It might be worth adding a topping for 95 cents. Or not, since for $5.25 you could get a small antipasto salad.

Sal's has a variety of lunch specials and dinner specials, all under $7. Not a bad place for a low-cost meal if you're in the neighborhood, such as before or after a movie.

This week's restaurant: Stevie Dee's Cafe, 8890 E. 8th St. (at Vineyard), Rancho Cucamonga.

Stevie's is the shack perched a few feet below the railroad tracks on Vineyard. The blue and white striped building appears to have been there forever. The building was Chuck's Diner for at least a decade prior to Stevie Dee's arrival. Anyone know more of its history?

Inside there's a counter, a few tables, frilly curtains on the windows and '50s kitsch on the walls: Marilyn posters, Elvis photos, etc. The walls also hold 45s tacked up in a row near the ceiling and an autographed photo of that late-night yodeler, Slim Whitman.

I'd been to Stevie's once, maybe three years ago, eating a fish sandwich and a cup of soup. The sandwich was fine and the soup was the standout. This time I went with two friends who'd always been curious about the place. It serves breakfast and lunch and now also has dinner.

Our sandwiches -- tuna melt ($7.25), tuna sandwich ($6.75), avocado burger ($6.99) -- were deemed average to slightly above. They were all generously sized. The burger seemed to have both mayo and Thousand Island, which made it a little goopy.

An order of onion rings to share ($2.75) was thick cut and tasty. Our sandwiches came with a side of soup, salad, fries, onion rings or zucchini. My salad was standard. My friends got two of the day's housemade soups, Northern bean and beefy noodle, and that's where the action was. Instead of cups, the soup came in bowls and could have been meals in themselves. The beefy noodle had big pieces of tomato, as well as pasta, beef and corn. "I would come here just for the soup," one friend said.

Twice during lunch a Metrolink train roared past, whistle blowing. People have been hearing train whistles in that building for decades. You could do worse than to join them.

Here's a review with photos at the fun Dinerwood blog.

This week's restaurant: City Broiler, 12959 Peyton Drive (at Rock Springs), Chino Hills.

In a standalone building in a shopping center on the north end of Chino Hills, City Broiler is reminiscent of New York Grill at Ontario Mills. Both are white tablecloth restaurants, lightly swank, with a Big Apple theme. City Broiler took over in 2007 from Peppino's, a short-lived Italian eatery.

The interior is brick with wood trim, brass and etched glass. There are some stylish B&W NYC photos dotting the walls. The restaurant feels urban, certainly more urban than Chino Hills, even if it is across the parking lot from a Wendy's.

I ate there Wednesday night with a couple of friends who live nearby and like the place. We sat in the bar area, which I would recommend for a casual experience. We ordered the mini-pizza with mushrooms ($6) and the crab cake sandwich ($8) off the bar menu and the fish and chips ($12.50) off the regular menu. The latter two came with a side dish; we got fruit and mixed vegetables, respectively.

We traded food and none of us were disappointed. I wasn't blown away, but I would eat there again. Service was attentive and the atmosphere is appealing. It's nice to see a family-owned sit-down restaurant.

The specialties are steak and seafood, by the way, although they also have sandwiches, salads and pizzas. You can view the menu and photos here.

This week's restaurant: Don Marcos Mexican Restaurant and Cantina, 10276 Foothill Blvd. (at Center), Rancho Cucamonga.

Don Marcos opened last week in the former Whole Enchilada/Socorro's space a bit west of Haven Avenue, an ambitious startup in a down economy. But the restaurant is said to have been hopping from day one, and on Wednesday evening, cars continually pulled in or out of the parking lot and dozens of diners nearly filled the sprawling restaurant. Depression? What depression?

A hostess kept an eye on the parking lot and came out to open the door for anyone entering, a nice touch. There was no wait when we arrived, but the waiting area is inviting and next to a station where the staff makes tortillas. Much as before, the seating area is divided into small rooms of a half-dozen booths. Our room had an aquarium.

Our table got arroz con pollo ($12), chile verde ($11) and chicken mole enchiladas ($10). The first dish, chicken and rice, had both relleno and ranchero sauce and was topped with jack cheese. The second dish was chunks of pork with green sauce. The third was two enchiladas topped with mole, a sauce of chocolate with cinnamon.

We liked all three dishes, and the corn tortillas were especially good. A margarita was half ice but, at $5.50, deemed reasonably priced. The only real complaint anyone had was about the indie rock music in the background, which brought us the Dave Matthews Band, Gwen Stefani and Fallout Boy. "I'm not here for white guy music," the Latina in our group groused.

There is better Mexican food to be had, at sitdown places like Chalio's Birrieria in Pomona or Taco Hut a few blocks west of Don Marcos (and far worse Mexican to be had a few blocks east at On the Border). But Don Marcos seems to bridge the gap between homestyle Mexican food and Chevy's, being comfortable for diners skittish about an authentic ethnic experience while offering what is actually pretty good food.

Verdict: A pleasant surprise. But ditch the lame music.

This week's restaurant: China Point, 9028 Archibald Ave. (at 7th), Rancho Cucamonga.

For my dozen years at the Bulletin, I've noticed the aging blue Inland Business Center that has China Point as a tenant -- and continued driving past. But on Wednesday I finally pulled in.

China Point's interior has a '70s ambiance and feels almost personality-free: one wall mirrored, the other lavender, with generic booths and tables and a few small pictures and hangings for a Chinese touch. If China Point ever lost favor, a taqueria or pizza parlor could take over the dining room with about an hour's notice. But that's unlikely, because the restaurant has been there for years and was half full when I went in for lunch (although not half full of Asians).

The China Point menu is separated by price points, with items listed under headings for $6.25, $6.95 and $7.95 -- I didn't see any takeout menus so I'm doing this from memory -- with a daily $5.95 special. China Point is old school Americanized Chinese, with chop suey still on the menu, and when you order from one of the no-nonsense waitresses, the default rice is fried.

I got No. 23, shrimp with garlic sauce ($7.95), with steamed rice, hot and sour soup, a wonton and an egg roll. Well, the food was a little better than expected: sinus-clearingly spicy and generous with the shrimp -- I counted a dozen, and they were decent-sized. And there was so much food I took home half the entree.

In the hierarchy of Inland Valley Chinese restaurants, China Point falls in the middle: Not truly authentic (Good Time Cafe, Peking Deli), not even moderately authentic (China Gate, Chu Chinese, Dragon Inn, etc.), but well above steam-table outfits.

Incidentally, the fortune in my cookie read as follows: "You will be called to fill a position of high honor and responsibility."

Well, Obama is still looking for a Commerce secretary...

Somebody told me recently that the exemplary Corner Butcher Shop in La Verne (2359 Foothill) sometimes offers $1 hot dogs as a special. Days later, from another source, a coupon for same was forwarded to me. You can find it, and print it, by clicking here. You can also read more about the shop here.

This week's restaurant: The Habit Burger Grill, 1608 Foothill Blvd. (at Chelsea), La Verne.

The Habit opened recently in a standalone building in front of the remodeled Vons center near Wheeler and was busy pretty much from day one. There are two dozen Habits, which began in Goleta in 1969, but the nearest one is in Glendale.

The operation seems perched between Fuddruckers and In-N-Out with its emphasis on fresh, quality ingredients and its somewhat stylish interior. On Saturday, when I visited, the lunchtime line stretched to the door. The menu has charbroiled burgers, some tasty-sounding sandwiches including chicken, tri-tip and albacore tuna, and salads.

I got the No. 1 Char combo ($5.95), a single burger, fries and soda, and took a seat on the patio. My number was called on the loudspeaker in a few minutes. The fries were pretty good and the burger even better, charred to perfection and served on a toasted sesame seed bun with lettuce, tomato, mayo, pickle and, a nice touch, caramelized onions.

The staff was friendly, just like at In N Out. They'll come take your tray or offer to fetch a soda refill.

The patio is the stroke of genius. Rather than an afterthought with one or two tables, theirs has 12, and the tables and chairs are wood, not molded plastic. Saturday was uncommonly warm, as it's been all week. I sat outside in short sleeves for the first time in weeks, reading the centennial issue of Westways with its pieces on two SoCal icons, '30s artist Maynard Dixon and writer Carey McWilliams, soaking up the weather and feeling mighty fine about living in Southern California.

This could become a habit.

Tried to have lunch Monday at Sansai Grill, a fast-casual Japanese place in the Mountain Green Center in Upland, but found the door locked and the interior cleaned out.

Too bad. I wouldn't have had sushi there, but they had a nice seared ahi tuna sashimi salad, and the salmon bowl, which was actually a plate, was good too.

Oh well. The La Verne location is still in business at 1263 Foothill Blvd.

This week's restaurant: Johnny Carino's, 12240 Foothill Blvd. (at Day Creek), Rancho Cucamonga.

Carino's is an Italian chain with a location near Victoria Gardens. I stopped in for lunch last week while I was in the 'hood.

It wasn't packed -- is any place packed for lunch these days? -- but there were several full tables. The greeter, who turned out to be the manager, sat me in the bar area. There's a lot of wood and a moderately classy feel to the decor.

A basket of doughy hot rolls was brought out, as was a plate of roasted garlic and olive oil for dipping. I ordered the salad/sandwich combo, getting a Caesar salad and half an Italian meatball panini ($8.99).

The salad was blah, but the sandwich, loaded with split meatballs, provolone and marinara, was inhaled. Housemade potato chips, not bad, accompanied the sandwich.

Johnny Carino's is perhaps slightly better than Olive Garden, although your mileage may vary. Find the lunch and dinner menus here.

Victoria Gardens has lost the three above-named restaurants recently. Nathan's closed a while back in the Food Hall. Wapango and Sisley, two sit-down restaurants, closed in the past week. (Wapango was by Gyu-Kaku and Fleming's; Sisley was by the AMC.)

Heck, Wapango, a pan-Latin restaurant, only opened in July. You can read my "Restaurant of the Week" piece about them and weep. I never wrote about Sisley but had had one meal at the Italian restaurant and enjoyed it quite a bit. Kept meaning to go back for a special occasion, but you know how it goes.

As for Nathan's, that was the cruelest blow for yours truly. I ate there a half-dozen times. It was more in the journalist price range. Good dogs, and I liked their fries too.

This week's restaurant: Bright Star Thai Vegan Cuisine, 9819 Foothill Blvd. (at Ramona), Rancho Cucamonga.

A vegan restaurant in the Inland Valley? Unlikely as it seems, there is one, in an aging strip mall east of Archibald Avenue that also boasts a Korean market. Bright Star opened a few weeks ago and on a recent lunchtime was doing decent business.

Since few Thai dishes use eggs or dairy products, this is essentially a vegetarian place, but they do use soy milk rather than condensed milk in Thai iced tea, which is less sweet than what you're used to. Bright Star has soups, salads, curries, noodle and rice dishes, and some non-Asian sandwiches.

Our table had two of the lunch specials, garlic soy chicken with mixed vegetables and sweet chili soy fish ($6.95 each), which come with miso soup, salad, steamed brown rice and two dumplings. The faux chicken was indeed chicken-like, the faux fish less so but acceptable. This isn't precisely my sort of thing, but it wasn't bad, and you can't help but feel more virtuous after a vegan meal, which counts for something.

I was impressed that a niche restaurant that would seem better suited to Santa Monica appears to have found a place here, and a multi-ethnic clientele: Over the course of a lunch hour, diners included a half-dozen blacks, a few Asians, one Latino and a white couple besides yours truly. Not cutting into meat must cut across all sorts of boundaries.

(This area has just two other vegetarian restaurants, according to HappyCow's restaurant guide: Veggie Era, 903 W Foothill Blvd. in Upland, and Veggie and Tea House, 641 Arrow Highway in San Dimas.)

This week's restaurant: Tokyo Wako, 4480 Ontario Mills Parkway (at Franklin), Ontario.

This teppan grill restaurant is in a minimall on the south side of the Mills. A fire pit near the entrance provides a place to warm up if you're waiting to be seated. I don't know if that's ever the case in this economy: A friend and I were seated immediately on a Tuesday night around 8 p.m. and the restaurant was mostly empty.

The interior, however, is enormous: a large sushi bar and dining area as well as a large teppanyaki room. And it's lovely too, even if the koi "river" (a la Tokyo Tokyo) was dry.

The special is worth trying: For $29.95, two can have the full teppan experience with both chicken and steak, plus soup, salad and rice. The results were pretty good, too.

But one has to ask: What is the point? Benihana does the exact same thing. And I mean the exact same thing. The grill seating, the soup, the salad, the shrimp appetizer, the vegetables (zucchini, onion, mushrooms and bean sprouts), it's awfully familiar. Ditto with the chef's tricks, which mostly involve randomly knocking various implements and containers against the edge of the grill, and making the de rigeur onion volcano.

The food at Tokyo Wako was fine, the decor was a cut above Benihana and you can probably be seated faster. But how about a bit more wako?

View the menu here.

This week's restaurant: Connal's, 1226 W. 7th St. (at Mountain), Upland.

Connal's, which opened Dec. 11, took over the building that housed Mi Taco, a beloved Mexican drive-thru, from 1966 until early 2007. Readers reacted with shock and horror when I broke the news of its passing. I had no idea. When a reader passed along the recipe for the signature dish, the Matador Salad, clipped and saved from an old Daily Report food page, nearly 200 people wrote me requesting a copy.

Connal's is an interesting story itself, which I will share in Sunday's column. In brief, it was founded in 1958 in Pasadena and the Upland location is the first expansion in its 50-year existence.

The menu is enormous for a drive-thru burger joint, highlighted by burgers, grinders (or subs, if you prefer), salads, Mexican dishes, hot sandwiches, dinner plates, hot dogs and ice cream. They have flavored sodas, floats, freezes and shakes, including specialty flavors such as pineapple-banana and chocolate-peanut butter. I count 204 items in all.

I went in for lunch during Monday's downpour. The counterwoman was exceptionally polite; this wasn't the robotic service one tends to get. I had a tuna melt ($4.39), onion rings ($2.99) and small drink ($1.29).

It was a decent tuna melt, wrapped in paper and cut in half. The onion rings came on a plate, piled high. I ate probably a dozen, which to me is more than enough onion rings for any normal person, and then counted how many I was throwing out: 14.

Last year, I tried the Connal's in Pasadena and had a burger and fries. The serving of fries was similarly generous, and again, at least half went in the trash. Tip: One serving of fries or onion rings would serve two people, or even three or four.

The Upland interior is white tile, with red accents; it's vaguely In-N-Outish, except the twin archways separating the counter from the small seating area -- six booths, five tables -- remain, charmingly, from the Mi Taco days. There's some nostalgia kitsch on the walls. The exterior is now painted white, and cleaned up, but Connal's still looks a lot like Mi Taco. Which itself looked like a Taco Bell, even though it wasn't.

Nice to have a bit of Pasadena out in Upland.

You can view the menu on the Connal's website.

This week's restaurant: La Parolaccia, 201 N. Indian Hill Blvd. (at 2nd), Claremont.

This is the newest restaurant in the Village Expansion, an "osteria Italiana" (with a second location in Long Beach) whose name is said to translate, amusingly, as "bad language." The restaurant, which opened a couple of months ago, took off immediately -- the place always seems to be jumping -- and I finally visited with a friend Thursday evening. We made reservations for 7 p.m. and reservations turned out to be a good idea, as even on a Thursday the restaurant was almost full.

They have a selection of pizzas cooked in a wood-burning oven, some with unusual ingredients such as eggplant, smoked salmon, yellow squash and goat cheese. Pastas include ravioli, linguine and fettucine, often with pesto, olive oil or other non-marinara treatments.

We had the Napoletana pizza ($12.50) with tomato sauce, mozzarella, capers, black olives and anchovies, and the linguine con i frutti di mare ($18.50), with fresh seafood. The latter was essentially a bowl of seafood (scallops, shrimp, clams, etc.) with a dollop of linguine and was quite good. The pizza, after I got past my unrealistic expectations that it would be as creative as Pizzeria Mozza's in L.A., proved quite good as well, thin and crisp.

For dessert, the waitress recommended bread pudding ($9), which came with a scoop of gelato. She was on the money.

The meal didn't proceed without hiccups: Perhaps the waitress hadn't understood your soft-spoken blogger's order, because we got a different linguine; it was returned and out came the right one, except, kitchen's fault, they forgot to add the pasta. But this was quickly remedied and we were charged for the initial, mistaken dish, which was $4.75 cheaper, leaving nothing to object to.

I'd rank La Parolaccia among the valley's better Italian restaurants, given the creative menu, but would like to reserve special praise for the location and atmosphere. Tables are close together, but not too close, so you get a friendly buzz from a roomful of people unseparated by booths or partitions. Service was friendly and prompt.

And from the exterior, the enormous windows show off people having a good time, in close proximity to a sidewalk, busy street and movie theater. It's both urban and urbane. As a pedestrian I've seen other passersby cast an envious glance inside or closely examine the menu posted outside. La Parolaccia seems like a restaurant in Pasadena, not Claremont. I'm glad it's here instead.

This week's restaurant: Dickey's Barbecue Pit, 9670 Haven Ave. (at Trademark), Rancho Cucamonga.

Dickey's opened recently in one of the new buildings just north of the aloft hotel at Haven and Fourth. It's in the same modern-minimalist style as the hotel with steel and big windows. The interior is done in orange, burgundy and chocolate; you order at the counter and everything looks clean and shiny.

Of course, a purist will argue that barbecue should only be consumed in a shack with a corrugated tin roof and a smoker out back that looks like a piece of a steam locomotive. I can empathize, and you are hereby directed to Red Hill BBQ, across town but a world away in ambience.

But back to Dickey's, which if it has a barbecue pit, as the name indicates, it's probably tasteful and scrubbed clean twice daily. They have six meats -- brisket, Polish sausage, pork ribs and the like -- and prices are for a sandwich with zero, one or two sides or for a plate with two sides and one, two or three meats.

I got the pulled pork sandwich with two sides ($8.59): cole slaw and mac and cheese. The meal arrived switfly. Some would say the pulled park was too fine in texture, and perhaps that a 4-oz. portion was too small. But I enjoyed it, and with the two sides, it made for a filling meal. It's convenient to our office and I would go back.

Drinks come in one size only, in a yellow plastic 32-oz. cup, for $1.99.

Free with each meal are pickles -- serve yourself from a giant jar -- and soft-serve ice cream, a nice touch. And kids eat free on Sundays.

Dickey's is a family-run chain started in Dallas in 1941, according to its website. The original Mr. Dickey probably never guessed his descendants would one day have a restaurant in Cucamonga.

This week's restaurant: Upland German Delicatessen, 983 W. Foothill Blvd. (at Mulberry), Upland.

Underneath Upland's bland exterior lies, let's be frank, a bland interior. But between the exterior and the interior lies a strata of fascination. Among the denizens of that realm is what I believe to be the Inland Valley's sole German restaurant.

It's one of those quiet gems, tucked away in a dull strip mall behind a Taco Bell and near the Hi Brow bar. For some reason I'd never been there before, a lack I remedied on Monday.

Inside, the deli offers a homey environment. There's a small seating area with glass-topped tables, German postcards visible from under the glass; and a few shelves of market goods, including imported foods, especially chocolates, and Advent calendars. Cheerful German oompah music played softly. A wall is covered in decorative pieces of wood in which mottos have been burned in script. The largest reads: "Tough times never last, but tough people do!" A good message right now.

At the counter I ordered one of the combo lunch specials, the Stuttgart sandwich (Black Forest ham, mayo, mustard, lettuce, tomato and onion) on rye, with German potato salad, a pickle and an iced tea ($9.15 with tax). The meal came on a sectioned plate with real silverware. Excellent sandwich. I hadn't had German potato salad: It's finely chopped baked potato, piping hot, mixed with mustard. Interesting, but not my new favorite dish. I almost never eat more than a bite of a pickle but polished this sweet one off.

They also have wienerschnitzel, bratwurst, braunschweiger and other German foods, and they make baked goods such as tortes and strudels. A server brought by samples of plum torte for customers. It was a topper to a memorable, filling meal.

Are you familiar with chili mac? According to Jane and Michael Stern's book "Road Food," it's a Midwestern specialty: spaghetti noodles topped with chili.

I'd had it only once, years ago, but read about it in the Sterns' book before my recent St. Louis trip and was intrigued. Seeing it on the menu at Crown Candy Kitchen, I ordered it. (Later I checked the book again and realized the Sterns had recommended the chili mac at a different establishment.)

Here's what you get: a soup bowl filled with spaghetti and chili (no beans), and, if you want 'em, cheddar and onions. I did. Adding to the silliness, on the side you get a package of oyster crackers, those small, six-sided crackers that come with chowder or chili but, um, rarely with spaghetti.

Strange it may be, the platypus of entrees, but chili mac was actually pretty tasty. I cleaned my bowl. Anyone else ever tried this regional specialty, or another one of which most Californians would be unaware?

This week's restaurant: Pittsburgh Broasted Chicken and Subs, 669 Indian Hill Blvd. (at Holt), Pomona.

This restaurant opened a few months back north of the old Food 4 Less in a strip mall that is also home to Christy's Donuts, a nail salon, 98 Cent Plus and a Vietnamese sandwich shop. The space's previous occupant was the shortlived Sushi 4 U, which I liked to imagine was run by a Prince acolyte.

PBC, as I'm going to call it for brevity, was empty when I ventured in for a mid-afternoon meal this week. The interior appears clean and bright. You order at the counter. I think the owners are Korean American.

I got the 2 piece dinner plus a soda ($6.69). (It was only after ordering that I noticed "lunch specials" on the menu. D'oh! It's tough trying to absorb a new menu while someone is waiting for you to order.)

They gave me my choice of pieces, so I went with a breast and thigh. You also have a choice of four styles: original, plain, lemon pepper or cajun. (Begging the question, what is the difference between original and plain?) I went with lemon pepper. The dinner comes with a side of slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad or baked beans; I went for the slaw.

The dinner was made to order and came out after 15 minutes. The meal was served in a basket that was heaped with potato squares, kind of like Wendy's fries except in cubes. They were pretty good. The slaw was standard. There was a roll too.

As for the chicken, it was impressive. I have limited experience with broasted chicken -- who doesn't? -- but the mysterious process of broasting somehow involves both pressure cooking and deep frying. As they say on this Chowhound thread, don't try this at home. You can read a more official version at the official broasting website. Scroll down for an apt quote from a "West Wing" episode.

The PBC version of broasted chicken had crispy skin and very moist, flavorful meat, even if the lemon and pepper were too subtle for me. (Maybe lemon pepper, original and plain are all the same.)

The meal was a good deal for the money. All in all, a pleasant surprise.

PBC has also been reviewed by the IE Restaurants blog and by the Student in Pomona blog, which rates it No. 1 in Pomona, even above (gasp) Donahoo's. Heresy!

I wouldn't go that far, but if you like chicken, you ought to give PBC a try. The restaurant doesn't deserve to be empty.

This week's restaurant: Super Sandwich, 9885 Central Ave. (at Benito), Suite A, Montclair.

I learned about Super Sandwich from the Goddess of Pomona blog a couple of weeks back. The place has all sorts of sandwiches but specializes in banh mi, which are Vietnamese and served on thin baguettes. Besides several kinds of meat, they have strips of carrot and cucumber, daikon (a carrot-like root vegetable), cilantro, onion and pate. Also, peppers.

Super Sandwich is next to a Domino's in a small, standalone building. The interior is small, like a yogurt shop, but there are a few tables and chairs in a mod, Space Age style. One wall features a large photo mural of the Eiffel tower with a giant sandwich superimposed in the sky. Mmmmm...Eiffel tower.

The menu lists "regular sandwiches," French baguette sandwiches (i.e., banh mi), kitchen dishes (teriyaki, mostly), tea, coffee, shakes, salads and nonfat yogurt.

I got a 6-inch sandwich combo, the house special, with pork and ham, which came with a salad, chips and a boba milk tea (all for a mere $5.38). It's only the third time I've had banh mi, so I'm still a neophyte, but this was certainly comparable to the others. (I removed the peppers.) The salad was iceberg, nothing special, but fine for the price. There was so much food I couldn't finish the salad and didn't even crack open the chips!

They bake their own bread here, by the way. They have a happy hour special in the window: From 2 to 5 p.m., buy two baguettes and get the third free.

(Happy hour specials must be getting more imaginative: I ate Thursday at Classic 66 Burgers in Pomona and noticed their window advertises a happy hour special involving chili cheese fries.)

One thing Super Sandwich doesn't have is...soup. But they make a mean sandwich.

This week's restaurant: Lisa's Gourmet Foods, 600 E. D St. (at Monterey), Ontario

Lisa's is a convenience store on the corner of a residential neighborhood and must have been there for decades, although the exterior has a fresh appearance. I had no idea they had sandwiches until Jim Bowman, a city councilman, urged me to try the deli counter sometime. The former fire chief said Lisa's is a favorite of firefighters, whose main station is just blocks away.

The market itself has staples like potato chips, baby food and toilet paper, plus booze, and I'm unclear where the "gourmet" part comes in. Maybe it's an old-school name like Upland's C&M Fancy Mart, which doesn't look all that fancy. Anyway, the deli counter is in the back. They have a variety of hot and cold sandwiches, most of them $3.75 for a half and $6.25 for a whole.

I got one of the Lisa's Specials, a half Godfather ($4). It had ham, salami and mortadella, plus lettuce, tomato, mayo and, crucially, olive oil. There are two picnic tables outside, but with a guy lounging foodless at one and a fellow with a shopping cart laden with recyclables stalled near the other, I headed to the Civic Center a few blocks west, the closest thing to a park that came to mind.

The sandwich, on crusty French bread, was outstanding. And filling. And, for the price, a six-inch sandwich was a steal. Highly recommended.

The ambience of the Civic Center, not so much so. East of the library is a broad, utopian-style, empty plaza. It's almost completely characterless, but it does have a couple of benches, and it's certainly quiet. I ate there in peace, undisturbed except for the effects of stupefying architectural mediocrity (although the library is nice).

For a richer aesthetic experience, take your Lisa's sandwich somewhere else. Wonder if they'd let you eat at the fire station?

This week's restaurant: Red Devil Pizza, 1465 Foothill Blvd. (at Wheeler), La Verne.

Red Devil is in the CVS Center near the old Vons, placing it across the street from the new Vons. Red Devil is a longtime La Verne favorite.

The interior is nicer than expected, with vintage-style Italian posters and such decorating the walls. Also, a "GoodFellas" poster autographed by Henry Hill. Although there's a counter for takeout orders and paying, they have waitress service. A couple of gents near me were chowing down silently on large bowls of pasta.

Pasta dinners range from spaghetti ($9) to seafood linguine ($17); they also have sandwiches, beer and bottled wine up to $25. And, of course, pizza. I got one of the $8.50 lunch specials, a mini pizza with one topping (mushrooms) and a salad and soda or beer (iced tea, in my case).

The salad was iceberg but it was large, almost entree-sized, with cheese, olives and tomatoes. Not bad. The pizza was also large at 10 inches (2 inches larger than most mini pizzas), chewy and tasty. I took home three of the eight slices. It was a good deal for the price.

La Verne's a good pizza town. Still gotta go back to Sal's for a Sal's Special, as some of you recommended.

This week's restaurant: Yatai Sushi Express, 8956 Foothill Blvd. (at Vineyard), Rancho Cucamonga.

Yatai is in the winery center on the northeast corner, in a building between Souplantation and Bobby Baja's. The interior is small, clean and colorful. Even though it's "express," the tables have waitress service.

This is far from a high-end sushi palace and, expectations adjusted downward, I opted for the Yakisoba Chicken ($6.95). This began with a small lettuce salad. The main course had noodles, teriyaki chicken and cabbage. I ate every bit.

Meanwhile, my friend had one of the lunch specials, the Alaskan Roll ($6.99) -- salmon atop a California roll, baked -- and thought it was quite good. I sampled it and agreed. Who knew? It came with a choice of two other items, the proverbial one from column B and one from column C; she got two pieces of salmon sushi and a Coke.

Yatai has a large array of sushi and sashimi, plus bento boxes, $6.99 three-item lunch specials and meals no pricier than $12.95.

Not fine dining, but a pleasant surprise.

This week's restaurant/car wash: EZ Take Out Burger/EZ Car Wash, 515 N. Mountain Ave. (at Arrow Highway), Upland.

I suspect this will be a one-week-only permutation of my Restaurant of the Week feature. But why not do a knockoff of myself? EZ Take Out is a transparent copy of In N Out. Yet two of its three Inland Valley locations set themselves apart from any other restaurant you can likely think of by pairing themselves with a car wash.

You can walk up to the window, get a meal and eat at a patio table. You can go through the drive-thru for a meal. Or you can pull into a car wash bay just feet away, drop quarters into the slot and set to work with the wand and the foaming brush. Be careful not to spray the people on the patio!

Under a new law, chain restaurants in Calorie-fornia will have to post calorie counts and grams of fat starting in 2011, and provide brochures with that information starting July 1, 2009. But some restaurants are getting a head start.

I ate at a Chick-fil-A in Ontario recently and nutritional information for every menu item was printed on the tray liner. Not that it did me a lot of good, since the liner came under the food I'd already ordered, but it made for good lunchtime reading. If I'd gone for the chargrilled chicken instead of the regular breaded chicken, I'd have saved 130 calories and cut the fat from 16 grams to 3.

Did you know their cole slaw has 32 grams of fat? That's only one gram less than the Cookies and Cream milk shake, the fattiest item on the menu! Waffle fries, with 13 fat grams, are actually better for you than the slaw. Methinks some tinkering with the recipe is in order.

The same week, I also visited -- on the opposite end of the valley, and the fussiness meter -- Le Pain Quotidien in Claremont, where they're now putting calorie counts on the menu. Very helpful, except in the case of beverages. A note explains that calories for beverages range from "5 to 195." I'd like one closer to 5, please!

This week's restaurant: Green Mango Thai Bistro, 11226 4th St. (at Milliken), Rancho Cucamonga.

My unholy love for Mix Bowl Cafe in Pomona has been well-documented. It's Thai fast food, essentially, not far from home and casual enough -- with its bright lighting, colors and neon and its T-shirt-clad servers -- that a lone diner can eat there without feeling self-conscious.

On the other end of the spectrum is Green Mango, which opened a year ago cater-corner from Ontario Mills (but in R.C.) in a space formerly occupied by Mi Tortilla. The family owned restaurant is decorated in teak direct from Thailand, and with its straight-backed chairs, square plates and staff in traditional dress it feels slightly elegant.

The menu, too, is lighter on the noodle and rice dishes Mix Bowl favors. There's a nice range of entrees: chicken, duck, pork, beef, curries, seafood and vegetarian.

I've been to Green Mango a half-dozen times in its year or so of operation, in groups of two to five, but have never written about it. So on Thursday, I went in for a solo lunch. The place was, thankfully, busier than I've seen it. It may, finally, be catching on.

Since my last visit, the lunch menu has expanded from nine items to 30, and prices dropped a bit, with the lowest special at $5.95, which may be helping.

I got Panang Salmon ($8.95), which was chunks of salmon in a red curry with coconut milk, mildly spicy. Quite good, and as with all the lunch specials, you also get a small salad, a wonton, a scoop of rice and a cup of soup. Candidly, these sides are smaller than before, and not as good, either. A cream cheese wonton? That's too American for a restaurant like this. But for the money, you get a filling meal.

In past visits I've had Jade Curry Chicken, Pad Thai (both $7.95) and, for dinner, Pra Ram Long Soung Prawn ($15.95), which is sauteed prawns with garlic, peanut sauce and sauteed spinach. The Sweet Coconut Sticky Rice With Mango ($6.95) dessert is delicious.

There's no special need for me to mention the amusingly named Angry Beef, Angry Chicken, Drunken Noodle and Dancing Crispy Duck entrees, but I can't resist.

Oh, and I can attest that Green Mango is a good choice after a movie at the Mills. Boston's, BJ's, etc., are packed, with lines out the doors. Green Mango is quiet and you'll be seated quickly. It's not as popular as it deserves to be but hopefully it'll be around a while.

While I haven't made a comprehensive survey, it's up there with Thai T in Rancho Cucamonga and Swasdee Thai Cuisine in Chino Hills as the nicest Thai restaurants in the Inland Valley.

Although I still love Mix Bowl best.

This week's restaurant, Mariscos Los Enrique's, 812 Mountain Ave. (at Mission), Ontario.

I had to get down to Mountain below Holt for the "Moutain" photo earlier this week -- Councilman Jim Bowman had given me the tip, btw -- and I went at lunchtime, figuring I'd find a restaurant in the area. Continuing south to Mission, I found Mission Plaza, a strip center fronted by a Jack in the Box, on the southwest corner. The center also turned out to be home to Mariscos Los Enrique's, a Mexican seafood restaurant. Bingo!

The interior is rather nice: big broad windows, a large dining area and four colorful murals, two of them quite large, with beach or ocean scenes featuring sharks, crabs, octopi, catfish and other of our undersea friends. Tables have Coronita cartons with various hot sauces in the slots that once held bottles.

The menu is heavy on seafood items. You could go crazy and get a large, $105 party platter of shrimp, scallops, calamari, crab legs, etc. More reasonably, they have various shrimp, fish fillet and octopus dishes from $9 to $13, plus an array of soups, tacos, burritos, tostadas and appetizers, and breakfast items too.

My server brought out thick tortilla chips, a sinus-clearing salsa, lime wedges and a small plate of fried catfish chunks on cucumber slices, speared with toothpicks. I ordered a catfish sauteed in garlic ($9.75).

The result was a whole fish, which was deep-fried -- that was the other option and apparently the server misunderstood my choice. But the result was quite good, the skin pleasingly crunchy, the meat tender. It came with beans, rice, a mix of diced tomatoes and onions, and corn tortillas. It was a satisfying meal.

Life doesn't often take me to Mission and Mountain, but it's nice to know there's a good restaurant down there.

This week's restaurant: Flamingo Palms, 9223 Archibald Ave. (at 6th), Rancho Cucamonga.

Located in a nondescript business park next to a nail salon and employment center, this is a high-turnover space most recently home to a Mexican restaurant, Mi Casita. Recently a new banner went up over the entrance: "Cuban Food."

A welcome change, since there's no real Cuban restaurant in the Inland Valley outside of Norco's Little Bit of Cuba. (Coco Palm in Pomona, from what I can tell, is kind of a hybrid. Some of us remember the late Mama Inez in downtown Pomona.)

The interior is improved: pale yellow walls with ironwork sculpture and deep brown trim. It's pleasant but spartan. The stackable chairs are strictly hotel ballroom. Partitions and plants would help.

I know almost nothing about Cuban food, to be honest. The menu has stews, salads, sandwiches and seafood. Lots of chicken and pork. Some of the dishes (in the $10-$12 range) indicate more ambition than might otherwise be surmised from the menu's rather homely appearance.

I stuck with one of the basics: a Cubano sandwich ($6.75) of ham, pork, cheese (or, as the menu put it, "chesses") and pickles on a long roll, pressed and then sliced diagonally. Fried plantains were on the side. The result was as good as my memory of the Cubano I had once in Miami.

Service was friendly; it looks to be a family operation.

I hope Flamingo Palms lasts longer than recent occupants because it bears further investigation.

This week's restaurant: Fratello's, 1667 N. Mountain Ave. (at 16th), Upland.

There aren't many places to eat above 16th Street in Upland, which is probably how privacy-lovin' homeowners up there like it. One of the few exceptions is Fratello's, which is in the Stater Bros. center along with Rancho Los Magueyes, Happy Wok, Legends and the Bulldog Pub.

I first visited Fratello's last week. It's on the small side, just a few tables, a bar and an open kitchen, but the ambience is pleasant enough: golden paint, dark wood, comfortable seating and vintage wine posters. The insistent music may be a bit much.

I tried one of the $5.99 lunch specials: a cheese pizza slice, salad and soda. The salad was above average, aided by the vinaigrette dressing. The pizza was quite good. The crust was uncommonly light and chewy. Based on this slice, Fratello's is now my second-favorite pizza in Upland (although I still need to try Petrillo's).

On Thursday I went back for the pasta lunch special (also $5.99): a half-order of either spaghetti or penne, meat sauce or marinara, and a soda. I went for the penne with meat. Pasta is pasta, and hard to mess up, but the sauce was hearty.

So were the '70s rock classics playing over the sound system: "Blinded By the Light," "Rocket Man" and "Brown Sugar," among others. Until the next table asked that the volume be turned down.

This week's restaurant: Nayu's Peruvian Restaurant, 4380 Holt Ave. (at Ramona), Montclair.

A few of us from work had lunch at Nayu's last week after a recommendation from our colleague Elaine Lehman. It turns out to be located in the slightly seedy, if hilariously named, Larry's Plaza, which I visited in May, to my horror.

Nayu's currently has no sign but it's in Suite K and is, well, the place without the sign. Inside the place is reasonably comfortable and the service was friendly. There's an A in the window too. This was looking up.

I had the lomo saltado (sirloin, peppers, onions, tomatoes and fries, with rice, $9.99) and an Inca Cola. Two others had pollo saltado (the same but with chicken), another had lomo chow mein and a fifth had a ceviche.

We all liked our food quite a bit, and the portions were so large we each took some home. The ceviche may have had too many onions but was loaded with good-sized shrimp and had sides of sweet potato and corn.

I'd say Nayu's is comparable to Kikiryki in Claremont, except Nayu's has table service.

As we ate, a TV played soccer in Spanish, then switched to the studio, where a man was wearing a crown and an ermine cape, carrying a scepter and carrying on to the amusement of the other soccer commentators. Meanwhile, in the restaurant, a customer entered wearing a T-shirt with this message: "I got out of bed for this?" I hope he found his meal worth the trouble.

This week's restaurant: Nancy's Tortilleria, 348 S. Towne Ave., Pomona.

Many are the times I've passed this Pepto-Bismol pink building with green awnings on Towne Avenue at Third Street and thought I should go in sometime. They seemed to sell food in addition to housemade tortillas, but would they have seating? Not knowing what to expect, I put it off.

With business in Pomona on Wednesday afternoon, I decided to try Nancy's for lunch while I was in the neighborhood.

Nancy's is three businesses in one. Their business card calls it Nancy's Tortilleria Carniceria and Deli. Besides the tortilla operation, Nancy's is a small market with a large meat section. Up front the deli sells takeout tacos, burritos, sopes and other items.

The white-jacketed counterman lifted lids off a series of metal containers to show off the various meats. They all looked good; I had planned to get carne asada but went with chicken instead.

I got a chicken burrito and a small horchata to drink ($6.23 total). There is no seating inside but two tables outside in the parking lot. Not the most pleasant seating on a blazingly hot day, but at least the building cast a shadow over them.

My lunch was very good, helped along by the very fresh and tasty tortilla. I'd go back, and if you don't mind takeout, I'd recommend Nancy's to you too. With that color scheme you won't have trouble finding it.

This week's restaurant: Joanne's Cafe, 1141 N. Mountain Ave., Ontario.

Joanne's is in an A-frame building on Mountain near Fourth Street and was most recently Home Kitchen. Longtime residents will recall it as the Pie Place. *

I ate there months ago, without reviewing it, when it was still Home Kitchen, and on Friday thought I'd give it a try under the new name. The place seems virtually the same.

Inside it's a moderately-sized open room, somewhat updated from the classic coffee shop -- there are chairs at the counter, for instance, not swivel seats, and carpeting rather than tile -- and with a lot of pink, green and orange. Cheery and colorful. I didn't notice the fish tank until on my way out.

The prices seem reasonable to me. You can get a meatloaf dinner (the menu's come-on: "Mom's old recipe will find a new friend in you!") with vegetables, mashed potatoes, gravy, garlic toast and soup or salad for a mere $6.99. The five "senior breakfast" specials ("value-priced for seniors 55 and up") are priced under $4.

If you want dinner, you'd better have it for lunch: Hours are 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., seven days.

I had a tuna melt ($5.99), with cole slaw rather than fries or fruit. Big and piled thick, on sourdough with cheddar, the sandwich was pretty good. The slaw, kind of tasteless. The server kept the ice tea coming. Overall, an unexciting but pleasant enough experience.

Disappointing, though, that the onetime Pie Place * is now pie-less. But if you need to indulge, there's a Baskin Robbins next door.

* By acclimation (see all the comments), this was actually an outpost of the House of Pies chain, not The Pie Place. Thanks for the correction.

This week's restaurant: Mel's Drive-In, 11550 4th St., Rancho Cucamonga.

After an incredibly long gestation of more than a year, Mel's finally opened recently in the Signature Center across from Ontario Mills. (The north side of 4th is in Rancho.) There's nothing "drive-in" about it. Forget car hops; Mel's is in a pleasant but corporate-looking shopping center.

It's part of a chain. The original Mel's was used in "American Graffiti" and was later razed. The restaurant name and style were revived in the 1980s on San Francisco's Lombard Street; I've been to that one a couple of times. You can read the history at the chain's website.

Inside the Rancho Cucamonga location, Mel's has rather successfully updated the diner motif for 2008. High ceilings and a somewhat industrial look, yes, but a chrome-edged counter, mini-jukeboxes at some tables and employees in white paper hats and bow ties.

I've now been to this Mel's twice. Last week I had the half-sandwich, half-salad combo ($6.95) with a meatloaf sandwich and spring salad. The salad was better than average and I wasn't disappointed with the meatloaf. On Friday I returned for a 1/3-pound Mel Burger and fries (also $6.95). They came on a real plate and passed the taste test. There seems to be an attention to quality ingredients here.

They have a long, varied menu of American comfort food staples, some in healthier style than the originals. I suspect Mel's will become part of my lunchtime circuit.

The only obvious flaw: The awning over the entrance reads "Where the Local's Meet to Eat." Ditch the apostrophe and you're golden, Mel's.

This week's restaurant: New York Pizza Company, 1013 W. Foothill Blvd., Upland.

NYPC was formerly located in an obscure part of West 11th Street in the Upland Sports Arena pay-to-play building and moved to Foothill and Mulberry, next to Philly's Best, a few months ago.

They have a huge array of pizzas with over 50 toppings to choose from, plus salads, pasta, subs and burgers. You order at the counter and they bring your order to your table. It's clean and comfortable, a very modern interior with corrugated metal accents, and with clocks giving the time in Italy, New York and Upland. One wall, perhaps 15 feet long, is covered with a photo mural of Times Square, with NYPC's sign Photoshopped in. Ha ha. By the way, can it be true that Times Square has two Sbarros in two blocks? Well, it IS Michael Scott's favorite N.Y. pizza parlor...

I've been to NYPC twice in recent weeks, plus a third visit in their old location a few years back. But I can't say I'm a fan. The first time was because a friend was working there. I went more recently to check out their new location and possibly blog about it, but a different restaurant that week ended up in this space.

In that visit, I had the pizza slice special (slice, salad and soda) and for whatever reason, the "pizza of the day," the odd but strangely compelling Baked Ziti Pizza, called to me. It was a slice with, yes, baked ziti pasta, sauce and ricotta cheese on top. It was as weird as it sounds, albeit quite filling.

I decided to go back last week, order a conventional slice and write about it. I got the slice-salad-soda special again, this time with a plain cheese slice ($7.55 with tax).

One thing in NYPC's favor, you get a lot of food for the money. The salad isn't bad and the slices are enormous wedges bigger than your head. That said, this doesn't seem like New York-style pizza to me. The crust is on the thick side, rather stiff, and it's impossible to fold a slice in half to eat it, as New Yorkers (and those who love them) like to do. You're just holding this giant triangle with two hands and moving it toward your mouth.

The sauce is rather bland, too, something I'd noticed on previous visits.

I'm a little surprised to be saying this because I like all kinds of pizza (while generally turning up my nose at Domino's, Little Caesar's and the like) and really like New York-style pizza. They do very good versions at San Biagio's in Upland and Anthony's Italian Kitchen in Rancho Cucamonga.

You may like NYPC's pizza -- people's taste in pizza varies considerably -- but if I go back, it will be to try a sub.

This week's restaurant: Maria's Italian Deli, 202 W. Holt Blvd., Ontario.

Maria's opened this spring in a newly remodeled two-story building at Holt and Laurel, a couple of blocks west of Euclid, and it's become popular in the neighborhood as an alternative to the Mexican restaurants and hamburger stands in the immediate area.

I've eaten there a couple of times. The interior is long, narrow and a little bare, with a Van Gogh poster the only decoration, but the place is neat as a pin. My first visit I had a ham and mortadella with provolone ($6.50) and ate outside; the second time I had a Classic Italian Salame (salami, pepperoni and turkey) with provolone (also $6.50) and ate inside.

Outside is fun. There's a patio with six shaded tables, surrounded by a wrought iron fence, and from there you can enjoy the outdoors in relative comfort and watch the Holt Boulevard scene, such as it is. For instance, a guy walked by in a Brooklyn Dodgers jersey that read, on the back, "Cash 4 God" with a phone number. Inside is cool on a hot day, if sedate; I was the only customer for a late lunch.

The sandwiches weren't bad. In fact, they were better than expected, given the rather shaky help at the counter. If you're thinking an Italian deli should be boisterous and full of life, staffed by crusty, colorful experts at the art of sandwich-making, this isn't that.

The staff is pleasant, though. My second visit, the owner (who doesn't know me) said as I left: "Have a great day, okay? We really appreciate your business." And you know, she sounded as though she meant it.

Here's a note from reader Wes Ray:

"You wrote an column a few months ago about Upland not changing the Foothill Boulevard name to Route 66. Since that time my wife and I have conducted a loose survey of Foothill Boulevard from Central Avenue to Grove Avenue.

"We saw only one restaurant, of any size, we would call a sitdown restaurant only. That was Coco's at Euclid. We could have missed some minor sitdowns in the back of shopping centers, but if so they were unknown to us and we have lived in Upland since 1964."

Wes, I appreciate your legwork, and I can understand your frustration at the numerous fast-food chains along the street. The days of the grand old restaurants in Upland seem to have passed: The Arbor, the Stuft Shirt, Lord Charlie's, York's, the Sage Hen, Noble Inn, etc., etc.

However, things aren't as dire as you think. I can think of a bunch of sitdown restaurants along Foothill, although they may not be to your liking.

From memory, heading east from the city limits at Monte Vista:

New China, Joey's BBQ, Buffalo Inn, Spaggi's (which is one of the valley's finest restaurants), Jarritos, Pho Century, Athens Gyro House, Kishi, Sizzler (still there, I think), Sushimaru, Brandon's Diner, El Perico Ranchero and Thai Satay BBQ. Plus another three or four sushi bars whose names slip my mind.

I'm sure I'm leaving out a few more places where you order at your table rather than at a counter.

Still, Fastfood Boulevard does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

This week's restaurant: Wapango, 7881 Monet Ave., Rancho Cucamonga.

Wapango, an upscale, pan-Latin restaurant in Victoria Gardens, had a low-key opening July 7 before a grand opening this month as they work out the kinks.

A friend and I had dinner there Monday. Wapango is a Texas-based chain and this is its second California location, next door to Gyu-Kaku and near Fleming's. The ceiling is industrial-looking, the floor is bare concrete and the hanging fixtures, booths and walls are colorful and stylish. Very modern interior.

We were seated in a crescent-shaped booth with a screen behind it, orange plastic and brown wood in vertical slats. Kinda cool. Service was good because our waiter confided we were his only table.

The menu features various Mexican, Cuban and South American dishes in new combinations. I'd compare it to Border Grill in Santa Monica; it's not to that level but the comparison may be helpful.

My friend had spinach and black bean enchiladas with rice and slaw ($14) and I had the Wapango tropical salad ($16). There's a full bar as well. She had a Cazadores margarita ($11), which was too sweet; the waiter volunteered to exchange it for a Patron ($12), which was much better. Me, I had an iced tea.

My salad arrived on a plate roughly 12 by 12 inches and looked lovely: Romaine lettuce (not very much, frankly) topped with orange and mango slices, raspberries, strawberries and large grilled shrimp. I really liked it -- it was very fresh and flavorful -- and our waiter said he thinks it will become a favorite.

The enchiladas came on a large oblong platter and my friend thought they were all right, although the cream sauce was on the heavy side. (It was the only vegetarian dish on the menu, which seems awfully limited for 2008.)

Personally I thought the entrees were too large; I could eat only half my salad, taking the rest home. But that's how it is at a lot of restaurants anymore, and my friend thought my objection was silly. So take that for whatever it's worth.

No room for dessert, especially with the free rolls, served with tapenade and pico de gallo. I recommend Wapango, which I'd judge one of the VG's half-dozen best restaurants.

Now and then a few of you have urged me to try a pastrami burger -- most recently Charles Bentley, in his comment on my post about eating at a Krystal's in New Orleans. I admitted that while I still planned to sample one sometime, I found the whole concept of a pile of pastrami atop a burger to be intimidating.

But that comment put the pastrami burger back on my mind. One lunch hour last week, feeling like eating a burger and having business in Pomona, I decided to revisit Bravo Burgers and go for it.

Bravo brags about its pastrami, and I knew its burgers were pretty good. Seemed like a good place to try the two in tandem.

(I've heard Bravo Burgers' chili cheese fries are top-notch, btw, but a sense of decorum kept me from getting those and a burger topped with pastrami. I got the regular fries and a Coke.)

Well, I hate to break it to Charles like this, but I didn't care for the pastrami burger.
Not that Bravo's wasn't an exemplary version of the sandwich. It no doubt was.

Me, I like my burgers fairly simple. Usually I don't even get cheese. Pastrami was akin to another condiment, one with a salty tang, getting in the way of the beef. For me, the pastrami diluted the pleasure, rather than increasing it. Your mileage may vary.

There was another issue that gnawed at me as I gnawed at my sandwich. Sure, I eat a fair amount of unhealthy things -- as well as a fair amount of healthy things, I hasten to add -- and perhaps some of those items are as unhealthy as a pastrami burger, or worse.

But they don't seem as bad. Each bite of the pastrami burger filled me with guilt. Also, fat and salt. Mentally blocked, I couldn't really surrender to the sandwich.

Was that a hiccup, or my heart seizing?

So it was an anxious lunch. Just as well I didn't develop a taste for a pastrami burger, I suppose. I'll continue to enjoy my pastrami and burgers separately.

This week's restaurant: Lollicup, 4323 E. Mills Circle, No. 104, Ontario.

Lollicup is a chain of tea and coffee shops specializing in boba drinks; there are other local locations in Chino Hills (14320 Chino Hills Parkway) and Pomona (961 E. Mission Blvd.) But the Ontario location, which is operated by a family from Indonesia, also sells food.

The menu has a few fried snacks, which may be common to other Lollicups, but the Ontario store has a small bakery-type case atop the counter, a sign near it about taro pudding and various jellies, a few bagged items for sale to-go (Dendeng Sapi, described as sweet beef jerky, and something crunchy-looking called Rempeyek) and a short lunch menu displayed on the counter. A chalkboard had five or six specials, including Soto Ayam (a soup) and several noodle dishes.

From the specials I ordered Mie Goreng Jawa ($6.50), which was much like pad Thai, with thin noodles, onion, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes and chicken. It was too much for one meal; I took the other half home. For a beverage, I had a jasmine milk tea ($3.25) with boba (35 cents).

The interior seats 20. It basically looks like a Starbucks except with tables. Kind of cute. There's a Korean-style yogurt shop, Berry Trees, a couple of doors down but when I left I was too full to go in.

Inland Empire Restaurant and Food Reviews is the name of a blog I discovered last week, and while the name is awfully literal, so is The David Allen Blog, right? So let's not hold that against it.

The posts are a kind of diary of the unnamed writer's lunch outings, heavy on photos, light on text. The photos of the food are fun.

This blog really does cover the Inland Empire -- restaurants from Riverside, Corona, Upland, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga and good ol' Pomona have received writeups. Whoever the writer is, he/she gets around.

This week's restaurant: Sal's Pizza and The Bagelry, 2095 Foothill Blvd., La Verne.

I've passed this combo restaurant on Foothill at D Street probably hundreds of times, but for whatever reason it never occurred to me until a couple of weeks ago that I ought to actually eat there sometime.

I had been inside once. Circa 1998, for a feature story, a photographer and I spent a day driving around the Inland Valley to check out banks that had been converted into other commercial uses. I don't have access to that story, but the La Verne building had been some sort of a bank -- anyone remember which one? -- and the main entrance was then The Bagelry. Sometime in the past few years, Sal's Pizza was added.

(The sign out front advertises the building's two less-visible businesses, Taco Factory and Juice Stop. Because of the strange spacing, I always read the sign in jest as Taco Juice/Factory Stop.)

Anyway. The restaurant seats 87, plus another 20 or so on the patio, so it's quite large. It's pleasant enough, tiled everywhere. A lot of restaurants would envy the generous patio. Speaking of generous, the sprawling menu has bagels, bagel sandwiches, salads, sandwiches on fresh-baked bread, pizza and pasta, and there's an espresso bar.

I had the Route 66, a sandwich of turkey, swiss, tomato, onion and pickle, and got it on a plain bagel, toasted ($5.95-ish), and an iced tea ($2-ish). I didn't expect great things, and didn't receive them, but the sandwich was acceptable. There were several customers, including a young guy on a laptop at the espresso bar and an older couple in a booth, each reading a paperback as they ate silently.

Anyone tried the pizza?

The 600 Starbucks that are closing aren't having much of an impact in the Inland Valley. Only one store, on 4467 E. Mission Blvd. (at Ramona) in Montclair, is shutting down. Thanks to Meg at M-M-M-My Pomona for steering us to the list. Only eight locations in all of California are closing.

Tuesday evening I took Vineyard to Holt on my way to the Ontario council meeting. A brand-new Starbucks is nearing completion on that corner -- the sign is up. That was a surprise to me. But I did know about a Starbucks under construction at Vineyard and Fourth, replacing a Sizzler. Both operations will be within blocks of the Daily Bulletin and can't be more than a mile apart.

Meanwhile, there's still a Starbucks at Vineyard and Foothill, plus a second one inside Albertsons on the same corner. Both are across the street from Coffee Klatch, which valiantly hangs in there, and good for them.

Reader Gail Sundberg writes:

Dear David,

Once again life as I know it is changed. Thanks for reading.

Hey, thank YOU for sharing, Gail. I suppose Claremont is a long way to go for an onion bagel if you live in Rancho Cucamonga. The only bagel alternative that comes to mind is Bruegger's Bagels in the Ontario Mills food court.

If you can break the onion bagel habit, Panera is certainly Target-adjacent. You might become a fan of Dolce Cafe in Montclair, which has pastries and is a block or so from that city's Target. Or enjoy another pastry shop, the homey Local Baker in downtown Upland.

Anyone have any better ideas for Gail?

This week's restaurant: KiKiRyKi, 344 S. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont.

That dull, gray shopping plaza at Indian Hill and Arrow doesn't look very interesting but it has some gustatory gems: Casa Blanca Mexican, Ce Fiore frozen yogurt and KiKiRyKi, which I tried on Wednesday at the urging of a friend who's a fiend for the place.

It's Claremont's other Peruvian restaurant, the finer one being Inka Trails on Foothill near Towne. That place has atmosphere and is a bit pricey. KiKiRyKi is cheaper and you order at the counter, but the food seems every bit as good.

Before you ask, I don't know what the deal is with the upper-lower name, which reminds me of Sarah Jessica Parker's character in "L.A. Story" -- you remember, SanDeE* ("capital S, small A, small N, capital D, small E, capital E, star"). Just as confusing, you walk up to the entrance under the sign and a small sign tells you to use the entrance to the left, which is under a sign reading Pollos.

Well, they specialize in rotisserie chicken, but we skipped it. I had the Lomo Saltado ($9.99) and an Inka Kola in a can ($1.75). My friend got the Tallarin Saltado (also $9.99) and, to split, a fish ceviche ($11.99).

The ceviche was dressed in lime, cilantro and slivered onion, with a hunk of sweet potato on the side. Simple and tasty. Our lomo dishes were beef with chunks of tomato and onion, mine served on papas fritas (french fries), with rice on the side, the other with spaghetti. Mine was quite good. The sole disappointment was the dry rice, but as it was on the side I just left it. The Inka Kola was pleasantly unnatural, tasting like a Fanta soda crossed with bubble gum.

People on Yelp like the place too but, alas, none explain its name. In fact, Yelp calls it Pollos Kikiryki.

Looking up Pupuseria Cuscatleca (shoot, I had to type the name all over again) for a blog post last week, I Googled it. One hit that came up was a surprise to me: a page from Pomona's city website where you can search for restaurants.

Good ol' Pomona, hiding its light under a bushel again.

Check the page out here. The list is actually fairly up to date -- I noticed Pho Vi and Philadelphia Broasted Chicken on the list -- although Osuna's ought to be deleted, as it became El Molcajete, which has a separate entry, a year or two ago. There are numerous places I've never even heard of, perhaps topics for future culinary exploration.

I'm pleased to report that, based on the list, Pomona has a restaurant for 24 letters of the alphabet, missing only U and X. Restaurateurs should feel free to take that as a challenge.

This week's restaurant: Pupuseria Cuscatleca (whew!), 990 E. Holt Ave., Pomona.

I noticed this restaurant's sign (I'm going to avoid typing the name a third time) some weeks back while taking Holt into Pomona for a council meeting, and finally returned for a meal at lunchtime the other day. It's in an older, one-story building directly across the street from the Pala Motel. (It appears the restaurant relocated from 1380 S. Garey.)

The interior is L-shaped and the entrance is at the bottom right of the L. In other words, when you walk in, your view of the back half of the restaurant is blocked by a wall. I took a seat near the door and have no idea what you see if you sit toward the back along the left wall. Just one of those quirks of a space that may not even have been designed for a restaurant.

As the name implies, the restaurant has pupusas. I've had those in Upland. They're Salvadoran and are like a corn pancake filled with a thin layer of meat, cheese and beans. The colorful menu downplays the pupusas and plays up seafood dishes, many of which looked pretty good from the photos and descriptions. But I decided to stick to the pupusas.

I ordered two, with pork -- my options were two or three -- and frankly one would have been plenty for me; they're good but filling. There was a pleasant cabbage and carrot salad on the side. I also had an agua fresca of pineapple. I couldn't see them make it, of course, but I could hear the blender whirring behind the wall. The frothy juice drink was served in a goblet and hit the spot on a hot day.

The server, who may be the owner or co-owner, was very nice to the visiting Anglo who probably stuck out like a sore thumb. There's an A in the window and the place (see how I avoided typing all those syllables again?) serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Not sure what the individual items cost but the bill came to $6.50, which wasn't bad for a satisfying lunch.

The other day I noted here that Claremont's Back Abbey has a $13 hamburger, one that may actually be worth the money.

At ONT I discovered the $10.40 breakfast burrito.

That would be at El Paseo, the Mexican restaurant in the concourse. I was there around 5 a.m. (yawn) before my flight to New Orleans, hoping to grab a bite. El Paseo at that point seemed to be the only restaurant open. The juice place next door, my usual stop before a flight, is out of business.

I saw the price for the burrito at El Paseo and decided I didn't need food that badly.

(I'm going to presume that rent at the airport is sky-high and that the prices reflect that. But that doesn't mean I'm going to pay it.)

It could be an amazing breakfast burrito, of course. And is there a reason I would pay $13 for a burger, but not $10.40 for a breakfast burrito? I guess it does sound strange.

My reasoning is, I don't really like breakfast burritos -- my hazy, pre-dawn recollection is that that was the only breakfast-ish item on the menu, hence the only reason I considered it -- and I didn't want that much food. Whereas I like a good hamburger and for the ambience at The Back Abbey, I was willing to pay. Seeking a quick meal at the airport, I wasn't.

Thankfully, ONT's Carl's Jr. opened before my flight and I had a breakfast sandwich and OJ for under $5. Their breakfast burritos were all around $3. You could probably get three for $10.40.

Anyone want to share tips or memories of meals at ONT? Hungry passengers will thank you.

This week's restaurant: The Back Abbey, 128 N. Oberlin Ave., Claremont.

The Back Abbey opened earlier in June behind the Laemmle theater in Claremont's Village Expansion. The building, which dates to at least the 1920s, was an ice house that chilled citrus bound by rail for other states. The small, distinctive structure was saved when the Expansion was being planned and sat, window-less but full of promise, until early this year when renovations began.

Well, it's a neat little building and the Belgian pub that occupies it is a great addition. A friend and I went in for dinner a few days ago. It has a lived-in look, dark and rustic. The metal rafters are exposed and the hanging lights look industrial. There are tables inside, and one long high table with bar-style chairs, good for individuals, plus seating outside.

The beer menu apparently doesn't exist. The food menu is on a chalkboard posted high above the bar. It consists of salads, burgers and bratwursts. It's upscale bar food.

I had the Back Abbey Burger (at $13, possibly the most expensive burger in the Inland Valley) and my friend had the Grilled Vegetable Burger ($11), a portabello mushroom with eggplant, feta cheese, zucchini, red bell peppers and another item or two I got tired of craning my neck to read off the menu. It proved far more interesting than a Gardenburger.

My burger came on a brioche bun and had mustard aioli, microgreens, caramelized onions and a type of bacon whose proper name I couldn't read. Well, it was a heckuva burger, but very rich, in more ways than one. It was very tasty but didn't sit well. Incidentally, the presentation and price, not to mention the setting, invite comparisons to Father's Office in Santa Monica and Culver City.

The half-order of fries I can recommend unreservedly. They come in a paper cone with three dipping sauces. The sauces are OK; the fries are amazing.

As for the beers, the Abbey has some 30 Belgian beers on tap. This is apparently A Big Deal in the beer community, Belgian beer being considered among the best and having it on tap being a rarity. There's no beer list, annoyingly, so you may be hard-pressed to know what to get. My friend tried a couple and liked them. Beer doesn't appeal to me and a sip of one didn't change my mind.

But if you're into it, Back Abbey is almost like a wine bar for beer. It's very non-909 and Claremont's lucky to have it. The clientele ranged from 20s into the 60s that night, and it will be interesting to see this fall if Claremont Colleges students adopt the place and its $7 to $9 beers or whether it remains more of a beer snob/foodie hotspot.

About my only criticism is that it's very LOUD. It's not TVs, it's not music, it's just conversation that makes the interior almost as noisy as a nightclub. I don't know if there's anything to be done about it, other than timing your visit to off-hours.

You can read reviews on Yelp and on the M-M-M-My Pomona blog.

This week's restaurant: Ojiya, 4183 Chino Hills Parkway, Suite J, Chino Hills.

I ate at Ojiya last week but saved the review for this week. It's yet another of the sit-down restaurants in Chino Hills that the masses seem unfamiliar with. But it got good reviews on Yelp, so I met up with a couple of CHills friends for dinner.

Ojiya is in a strip mall -- it's a couple of doors from Peking Deli, a Chinese restaurant reviewed favorably here a while back -- and once you're inside you forget you're in a strip mall. It's a cozy interior with touches of bamboo and with a serious-looking sushi bar. I felt like I was in Little Tokyo.

I ordered various nigiri sushi items, especially ones I rarely see elsewhere: Spanish mackerel, seared salmon, fatty albacore and large scallop, plus my baseline dish, the salmon skin cut roll. (I don't remember the individual prices but they added up to about $24.)

I'm confident in saying that Ojiya is the best sushi I've had in the 909. Then again, there's still Rockuan, another Yelp favorite in Chino Hills that is still on my list.

My friends enjoyed their food, a chicken teriyaki bowl and a salmon teriyaki/crunch roll combination plate. Our only complaint was the green salad of iceberg lettuce was boring. At least it was only $3 for me, and free for them with their meal.

We met up, by the way, at 6:30 p.m. on a weekday, and the place was mostly empty. It quickly began filling up. By 7:45, when we left, the dining room was full.

This week's restaurant: Famous Dave's, 11470 4th St., Rancho Cucamonga.

This is a Minnesota-based barbecue chain that recently opened a location across from Ontario Mills. The large-ish dining room has a high ceiling with rafters, wavy tin trim and silly signs, such as, in neon, "Eat like a pig."

I like barbecue as much as the next person, but I'm not one of those people who know the difference between the styles of St. Louis, Texas, Memphis and wherever. What I can tell you is that I went in for lunch on Tuesday and ordered the Dave's Favorite Burger ($8.99) with a side of slaw. How could this Dave resist?

The burger took a while but the server said that's because the beef is ground only when ordered. It's not this Dave's favorite, but it was a darn good burger, a fine pile of beef chargrilled medium well until crunchy. Too much barbecue sauce, though. Oh, and the slaw was above average, dry and crisp.

My friend had a pulled chicken sandwich ($7.49), quite tasty, and a side of sweet potatoes with brown sugar on top. I'm not a sweet potato fan but I could have eaten more than the bite I sampled.

Is Famous Dave's better than Lucille's, the chain at Victoria Gardens? Is it better than the local places, like Joey's or Red Hill BBQ? Ask an aficionado. But I'd eat at Dave's again. Or any of those places, for that matter.

Weird trivia: Famous Dave co-founded Rainforest Cafe and is a former assistant secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

This week's restaurant: Los Michoacanos Baja Grill, 639 E. Holt Blvd. (at Miramonte), Ontario.

I've stopped at Los Michoacanos a couple of times before Ontario council meetings for a quick bite. It's a broad storefront on East Holt. Walk inside the large space and there's an open kitchen on the left, a money-transfer counter on the right and, through a wide walkway behind them, a carniceria in the back half.

The first time I had very acceptable carne asada tacos. This week I ordered two chicken tacos and a horchata ($4.84). The counterman, who had raced up from the carniceria, seemed delighted by my order: "Have you tried our chicken before? It's marinated in orange juice, cilantro and black pepper. You'll love it."

And I did. Chicken is often bland, but this chicken was full of flavor and did indeed taste of orange juice. They could be the best chicken tacos I've ever eaten.

Perhaps because I was the only customer, the counterman picked up the remote and changed the channel of the TV on the wall from a telenovela to "Family Feud." First time I'd seen John O'Hurley, best known as J. Peterman on "Seinfeld," as host, and he was no Richard Dawson in the charisma department, although he, or at least his suit, had startlingly wide shoulders.

Still, for the question "things fans wear to a football game," when a player guessed "face paint," Hurley brightened. "Face painter -- just like the 'Seinfeld' episode," he declared. And it was a correct answer.

Before Monday's Pomona council meeting, I had a bite at Tijuana's Tacos on West Holt at Wisconsin. Good tacos. The beverage part of my repast was a first: a Mexican Coca-Cola.

I'd always heard a Mexican Coke is more potent. It comes in glass bottles and is often found at your more authentic taquerias. Seeing the Coke in the lineup of bottled sodas on the counter, I took the plunge. Even though a 16.9-oz. bottle cost $1.99.

Well, it wasn't a life-changing experience or anything, but the Mexican Coke did go down smooth. A little Internet research shows it's a popular drink up here among soda fanciers of all ethnicities, who are excited it's now sold at Costco. They say the taste is similar to the Cokes some of us grew up drinking because it's sweetened with cane sugar, not the current sweetener, the nutritionally and environmentally dreaded high fructose corn syrup.

Anyone else want to weigh in on Mexican Coke vs. American Coke?

This week's restaurant: Barboni's Pizza, 7270 Victoria Park Lane, Rancho Cucamonga; also 9792 19th St. at Archibald.

I'm a flexible diner, rarely so gripped by desire for a particular cuisine that I can't be waylaid by something else. Case in point: I was in northern Rancho on Thursday at lunchtime and figured I'd head east on Base Line past Day Creek to Nodaci (?), an out-of-the-way sushi bar I'd once seen a sign for. So, I'm there at the quaint Victoria Park neighborhood center, walking under the awning toward the sushi place, when I see the B in the window.

While I'm not totally opposed to eating at a B, it did give me pause, especially for raw fish. Barely breaking my stride, I veered a few feet to the right and into Barboni's Pizza.

This is a new-ish second location for Barboni's, with the original location on 19th. According to the menu, they've been in Rancho Cucamonga since 1986, which makes them practically historic. I'd never been there. The menu is slightly broader than most pizza parlors', with more than a dozen pastas, all said to be prepared fresh daily.

I ordered the half lasagna lunch special ($6), which comes with a salad, garlic bread and drink, and took my seat. The dining room is spartan, well-lit and set up for families and sports teams, with most of the seating picnic-style on long tables with benches. A women's softball game played on the flat-screen TV that dominated one wall.

As for the food, I wasn't blown away, but for a six-buck lunch it was pretty good. A simple salad of shredded lettuce and mozzarella was improved by the oily Italian dressing. The lasagna came out bubbling in a teardrop-shaped dish. And I mean bubbling aggressively. It continued bubbling for 1:15 (I timed it, fascinated). My expectations dropped. But the sauce had some kick to it and in the end I wasn't displeased.

Service was indifferent even though at 1:45 p.m. I was the sole customer.

Like a lot of places I visit, Barboni's is a neighborhood restaurant, not one worth driving across the valley to try. But if you're in the neighborhood, they may be worth investigating. Even if you thought you were in the mood for Japanese.

This week's restaurant: Swasdee Thai Cuisine, 14720 Pipeline Ave., Suite B, Chino Hills.

One reason I kept going to events concerning development of The Shoppes (ground breaking, media tour, second media tour) is that each one was in the late morning, perfect timing to eat lunch afterward in Chino Hills. (The developers provided food each time but I skipped it.) Not that Chino Hills is a culinary mecca -- the city is just so far from our Ontario office that it's a rare treat to be there.

And the city does have some good places to eat. Residents there are always complaining about the lack of sitdown restaurants, but their city has more than they think. It's just that most are ethnic eateries, non-chains, and maybe for that reason they're not quite what the average person is looking for.

All I know is, my list of places to investigate in Chino Hills is a half-dozen long, and that's pre-Shoppes. On Thursday I went looking for one of two sushi bars I've read about and couldn't find it -- drat those giant shopping centers and five-digit addresses -- but while exiting Chino Hills Marketplace on the Pipeline side, I looked across Pipeline and saw a sign for Swasdee Thai. Well, any port in a storm. I drove directly across the street and into the business park.

Swasdee (the word is said to be a greeting in the Thai language) is a brand-new restaurant in a brand-new building, open "one month and one week," the server told me. The interior has a sleek, mod design with comfortable booths and a small bar. The lighting is dim, the glasses are fluted. Definitely a swankier environment than Mix Bowl.

The menu is upscale too, as are the prices. Appetizers are $6.95 to $15.95; entrees range from $7.95 to $13.95. I had Drunken Noodle ($8.95) and a Thai iced tea ($2.25). Important note: With some of the noodle dishes, the price is without meat; adding chicken, pork, beef or shrimp is $2 more, and seafood is $3 more. So my noodles with chicken actually cost $10.95.

A little pricy. Still, I have to say, my food was a cut above. Drunken Noodle was a bowl of broad, flat noodles with generous cuts of carrots, onions, tomatoes and chunks of chicken, all mildly spicy. The serving was large enough to take home half.

Across from the entrance just feet from the door was a second building with Roscoe's Famous Deli, and based on the names on the door it's owned and operated by the people formerly behind Heroes in Claremont.

So there's yet another Chino Hills restaurant to try, not to mention two sushi bars, two more authentic Chinese eateries and who knows what else. As we left The Shoppes Thursday morning, the city's spokeswoman suggested a tour sometime of the under-construction City Hall and I'm certainly amenable to that.

As long as we schedule it for around 10:30 a.m.

For our annual Living Here magazine, I was asked to write a piece about restaurants and a shorter piece recommending five non-chain eateries.

Alas, the magazine (due out any day now as a DB insert) proved smaller than expected because of lagging ad sales and both my pieces were bumped. Oh, the humanity. So the main piece became today's print column and the sidebar is published below. Waste not, want not.

Note that I spread the five choices around geographically. So while these are not (as Nick Hornby would say) my all-time Top 5 restaurants, they're five that I've patronized multiple times over the years and enjoyed, for one reason or another.

Donahoo's Golden Chicken
1074 N. Garey Ave., Pomona (also 1117 N. Grove Ave., Ontario)
The Donahoo's box lunch is to fried chicken fanciers what the bento box is to Japanese food fans, an all-in-one conglomeration of tastes. The box consists of either two pieces of chicken or six chicken strips, perhaps the Inland Valley's best fried chicken, plus a pile of bland thick-cut fries (crinkle-cut at the Ontario location), a fist-sized roll and a small container of cole slaw. A plastic fork is tucked into a side flap. It's to-go only. If you're at the Pomona location, take your box a few blocks east to Lincoln Park and have yourself a picnic.

Fredy's Tacos
1821 E. Fourth St., Ontario
Located in the Ralphs center at Vineyard and Fourth next to a panaderia, Fredy's serves up small, Mexican-style tacos with plenty of onions and cilantro on corn tortillas. A humble place with mighty food, Fredy's draws laborers, journalists and Ontario police. Dine in and listen to ranchera music from the jukebox or watch a telenovela on the TV.

Angelina's Cafe
9135 Archibald Ave., Rancho Cucamonga
Hidden in a business park, Angelina's proves to be a cozy place with high tables, mustard-colored walls and a welcoming atmosphere. The food, mostly sandwiches and salads, is modest and reliable. There's a daily special to spice things up a bit. I like the old-fashioned spaghetti and meatballs, served in a portion large enough to take home half. The burgers are pretty good, you can get a salmon caesar salad for $8 and they make their own potato chips.

Flo's Cafe
7000 Merrill Ave., Chino, and 5650 Riverside Drive, Chino
Flo's is a down-home place, so popular there are two locations. They have the same menu, meaning that your choice of Flo's can be based on where you are at the moment, either physically or psychologically. Downtown Flo's is slightly downscale Coco's; airport Flo's is old-school coffee shop with airplanes, and sometimes flies, outside. I prefer airport Flo's but I visit the other in a pinch. Whatever you order, even if it's biscuits and gravy at breakfast, only the uninitiated make the mistake of not saving room for the homemade pie, cobbler or pudding.

San Biagio's N.Y. Style Pizza
1263 W. Seventh St., Upland
They have pastas here, baked and served in an aluminum tin, and sandwiches too, but the main event is the pizza. It's made in the New York style, a thin crust topped with tomato sauce and a sprinkling of mozzarella, plus whatever toppings you like (a purist would say none). You can order by the slice or get a whole pie. Slices are thin enough you can fold one in half and pretend you're in Brooklyn, even though you're really in a shopping center in Upland. Owner Biagio Pavia doesn't speak a lot of English but his enthusiasm is contagious. He speaks the universal language: a thumb's up or a high-five, accompanied by a big smile.

This week's restaurant stretches the definition: Costco, with locations at 11800 Fourth St., Rancho Cucamonga, and 9404 Central Ave., Montclair.

When a few budget-conscious friends invited me to lunch at Costco, I wasn't sure what to make of it. I'm not a Costco member and I didn't even know you could eat there. But they said anyone can eat at the cafe, which is on the patio, and that the $1.50 hot dog and soda special couldn't be beat.

So a group of us met at the Rancho location across from Ontario Mills. You line up, place your order at a window from the very basic menu depicted in giant blow-up photos on the block wall above, get your food and sit at the one of the plastic benches on the utilitarian, hose-it-off-before-closing-time patio.

I got only the 1/4-lb. hot dog and 20-oz. soda, $1.62 with tax, to relish the novelty of the cheapest lunch I've had since Del Taco halted its three tacos for 99 cents deal.

The hot dogs and Polish sausage are Hebrew National, all-beef. I had the Polish and asked for the off-menu sauerkraut, one friend's tip.

The dog didn't live up to the hype and didn't taste like anything other than a hot dog, but for the price, it was outstanding.

Curious about the $1.99 pizza slices, I visited the Montclair Costco a few days later. This time I got the frozen yogurt chocolate and vanilla swirl ($1.35) as well as a combo slice, and no drink. Total: $3.61. While these prices, and the 59-cent soda with free refill, are eye-poppingly low, my guess is that with its high volume and low overhead, Costco still makes a profit.

The pizza slice was only average, which still made it better than some pizza I've paid more for. The swirl was tasty but as it came in a 5-inch-tall plastic cup, there was enough for a whole family.

It would take only three more visits for me to try every type of food on the menu: the chicken caesar salad, the turkey wrap, the berry sundae, the berry smoothie, the ice cream bar and the most mysterious item, which is called the chicken bake. It seems to contain chicken, cheese and bacon, all deep-fried into a hot dog-like form. It's oddly compelling.

Social critics will grind their teeth at hearing that at $3.99, the salad and turkey wrap, the healthiest items, are the most expensive other than a full pizza, thus encouraging us all to stuff our faces with hot dogs and chicken bakes.

The two Costco cafes are identical except in Rancho there were ropes to funnel us through in one line, whereas in Montclair we lined up at individual windows, like we were at a ballpark. Also, in Rancho the patio has overhead heaters. Perhaps corporate HQ thinks Montclair has a naturally hotter climate.

Both locations are good for people-watching if you take an academic interest in the type of people who shop at Costco. In fact that thought was just crossing my mind in Montclair when a mother with two children in tow passed by pushing a shopping cart containing one item: a crate-like box of diapers with the number 264 on the side.

This week's restaurant: Angel's Place, 2325 D St., La Verne.

This was shaping up to be a poor week for new-to-me restaurants. First there was a lunch at Larry's Burgers, in the wonderfully named Larry's Plaza on Holt Boulevard in Montclair. I knew this could be trouble when I passed a haunted looking woman at the pay phone who had a bare midriff and several unsightly rolls of loose belly skin. Moments later I saw the B grade in the restaurant window. My burger combo actually wasn't bad and the clientele made for amusing people-watching...but I'm not going to hurry back.

Then there was Bowl House on Third Street in La Verne, where my curry chicken bowl was the least appetizing I've ever had. It almost looked like bone-in chicken, big fatty pieces of it, skin-on.

To salvage the week, on Thursday, a day off, I impulsively decided to try Angel's Place, a Greek restaurant I'd spotted on my Bowl House misadventure. Angel's opened in October, replacing Nick's Place and a dry cleaner.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner, mostly Greek but with some American favorites judiciously sprinkled in. Pastrami, burgers and steak sandwiches? Hmm.

But it's got a casual, cheerful atmosphere and table service to boot. I had a chicken souvlaki sandwich ($5.99) and a side salad ($4). A bit too liberal with the tzatziki sauce, but it was a good sandwich: chicken and diced tomatoes on pita bread.

One quibble: The staff could be more clear on whether the side choices are free or not. I was asked "french fries, no fries or salad" but had to pay extra for the salad, and pay the same price for the sandwich as if I'd had fries. I'd have had fries and a salad if I'd known I was essentially paying for both.

People on Yelp are conflicted about Angel's Place. I liked the feel of it and the staff was friendly. Several items on the menu, especially some of the salads, piqued my curiosity. It may not be as good as Athen's Gyro House in Upland, but I expect I'll go back.

Walking downtown La Verne before Monday night's council meeting, I was startled to see that Dippin' Dots is opening an ice cream, or whatever it is, parlor at 2310 D. St. just above Third. The sign on the door says the opening is 10 a.m. today.

The name Dippin' Dots is familiar to L.A. County Fairgoers: The so-called "ice cream of the future" chain has had a stand outside one of the exhibit halls for years. The product itself is served as a pile of round frozen pieces the size of BBs, hence the "dots."

Dippin' Dots is also sold at Rancho Cucamonga Quakes games and at movie theaters in Chino and Chino Hills, according to its website's store locator.

In its page on Dippin' Dots, Wikipedia notes that the ice cream of the future hasn't quite become the ice cream of the present. I'm pleased to learn the company was founded by a fellow Illinoisan, though.

This week's restaurant: Brandon's Diner, 8689 Base Line Road, Rancho Cucamonga; also 870 E. Foothill, Upland, and 10271 Magnolia, Riverside.

Brandon's is a hugely popular breakfast spot, and maybe lunch and dinner spot too. For whatever reason I'd never been there. An online review at the Dinerwood site (an LA guy, he's also reviewed BC Cafe) caught my eye a while back, so last Saturday, a friend and I went in for breakfast. Even at 10:30 there were five small groups waiting for a booth, but the wait wasn't long.

Inside, Brandon's is surprisingly old-school: tile floor, booths, a long counter with swivel seats and signs with regular daily specials. The kitchen is in the back, not behind the counter. They have the full complement of breakfast items as well as sandwiches, Mexican food and dinner plates, plus beer and wine.

I had the half French toast combo with two eggs and two sausages ($7.45); my friend had Polish sausage, two eggs, home fries and two French toast halves ($7.95).

The French toast was very good, thick and dusted with powdered sugar. They also have a French toast variety with the name Cinnamon Revolution, which seems to promise a spice insurrection in your mouth. ("Vive le Cinnamon Revolution!")

The sausage links were plump, some of the best I've had. However, my over-medium eggs arrived over-easy.

My friend's Polish sausage, split and grilled, was tasty, and the scrambled eggs very nice when flavored with the two (!) kinds of salsa brought to the table. However, she described her watery coffee as perhaps the worst she's ever tasted. "This is like gas station coffee," she said, before quickly deciding that even gas station joe is better.

So Brandon's isn't perfect. That said, we enjoyed our meal and the atmosphere, and also the people-watching.

The clientele was diverse -- whites, blacks, Latinos -- and included a Goth couple, the woman in white gloves, the man in Kiss-style platform boots, striped pants and a belt buckle that read "666." Goths tend not to smile so it was hard to tell if they were enjoying themselves. They certainly livened the place up for everyone else.

This week's restaurant: Dragon Inn, 8031 Archibald Ave., Rancho Cucamonga.

This place was recommended by Robert Karatsu back when I was asking about decent Chinese restaurants in the Inland Valley. Since then I discovered the exemplary Good Time Cafe and Peking Deli, both in Chino Hills. But I met Robert for lunch Thursday at Dragon Inn to give it a shot.

It's on the northeast corner of Foothill and Archibald. Belying the faded yellow paint on the exterior, the interior is quite nice, with Chinese prints on the walls, wooden chairs and smartly dressed servers. A short bar has a computerized register and that whole area resembles a Starbucks.

Right inside the door is a framed Jonathan Gold review of Chu's Mandarin in Rowland Heights, which he praised for its hand-pulled noodles. The connection? Mr. Chu owns Dragon Inn, in existence seven years, as well as Chu Chinese at Fourth and Milliken, which I've tried and liked. Chu's Mandarin, however, closed several years ago. But at least Dragon Inn has a good pedigree.

I ordered Szechwan Chicken Noodle ($6.95), figuring with its reputation I should get a noodle dish, and Robert got what he said was his usual, Shrimp with Broccoli ($12.95). His dish was average, mine was very good. Or am I biased? The spaghetti-like noodles were soft and chewy, in a slightly spicy sauce with bell peppers and mushrooms.

The menu is dumbed-down, as expected -- cream cheese wontons, anyone? -- but some interesting dishes surface, such as chow fun. Try a noodle dish and experiment with an appetizer or second entree.

This week's restaurant: Viola's Deli, 17715 Arrow Ave., Fontana.

It's rare that I visit Fontana for anything. We don't officially cover Fontana anymore, that duty being left to our sister paper The Sun, and downtown Fontana is so far from our Ontario office (15 miles) that it's impossible to get over there on a lunch hour.

After Pomona's State of the City luncheon, though, Fairplex CEO Jim Henwood, of all people, was telling me about a little deli in Fontana. A native New Yorker, Henwood said Viola's Deli made cold subs in Big Apple style: shredded lettuce and olive oil tucked inside a tube of cold cuts and cheese, the whole thing inside a roll laid flat for just moments on a grill. (I think I'm remembering this right.)

So I began looking for an excuse to go to Fontana. Conveniently, the new library, which I've been hearing about for two years, is opening and as a library fancier, I intended all along to check it out. Arrangements were made for a tour at 1:30 Wednesday, which allowed me to combine the trip with -- yes! -- lunch.

Naturally, Viola's was my choice. I was joined by reader Tom Leak, a Fontana resident and real sandwich maven, who treated, which was awfully nice of him. Good ol' Fontana hospitality.

Viola's is at Alder and Arrow, across from the Fontana courthouse and a little east of downtown. Viola's shares a small building with a law office. The deli is an unprepossessing place with a counter and a dozen two-chair tables.

I got a capocolla sub and Leak had the oli. (He's not sure what the oli is but he liked it.) Mine was as Henwood had described it, and very tasty.

Cold or hot subs are $4.29 (small) to $5.35 (large). Viola's also makes brownies, cakes and cookies; one of the lunch specials gives you a sub, soda and piece of cake. I'm thinking of applying for work at the law office.

Another menu item may be coming. A handwritten sign on the counter polls customers: "Would you prefer a steak, chicken or turkey pot pie?" Based on the hash marks, turkey and chicken are in a dead heat, with steak lagging far behind with three votes. It's too late for California to decide on Hillary or Barack, but the Viola's pot pie election is on.

This week's restaurant: Malott Commons, the Scripps College dining hall, 10th and Columbia, Claremont.

I was going to write a favorable post about Omana's, a Juanita's-like taco stand at about 1000 W. Holt Ave. in Pomona, near St. Joseph's church, where I had a good burrito before Monday's council meeting. (At Omana's, not at St. Joe's.) Tacos are $1 to $1.25, burritos are $3 to $3.50 and plates are $4, so you won't spend much dough. My carne asada burrito had meat, beans and salsa. It was ruder than most neat American-style burritos, but quite good.

However, I was invited to lunch Thursday at Scripps by Judy Harvey Sahak of the college's Denison Library. Claremont Colleges' food won a deserved rave from a visitor and blogger from Occidental College. I ate last year at Pomona College's Frary dining hall and was impressed.

Harvey Sahak bragged that the Scripps food service is the best of any of the colleges and told me I had to try it.

Well! It's all you can eat, and I can't even tell you all the stuff they had, they had so much. Let's see: a good salad bar; four kinds of soup, including sourdough bread bowls; an array of gourmet-style hamburgers, deli sandwiches and paninis; four varieties of wood-fired pizza by the slice; a pasta dish called eggplant roll-a-tini; barbecued beef brisket and cornbread; meatball stromboli; and vegetarian dishes cooked to order.

I had cream of asparagus soup, pizza with tomato, salad, meatball stromboli (a sandwich in a pita-like bread) and a slice of beef brisket. For dessert, frozen yogurt. Plus an iced tea. Harvey Sahak insisted on treating. Price is $5 for colleges folk and $7.50 for anyone else, not that anyone checks ID. Anyone can eat at the college dining halls, and while they don't exactly publicize that fact, they don't discourage the public.

Best dining deal in town. And the food is a long way from mac and cheese and mystery meat.

In a satisfying boost for my ego, I was even recognized by a couple of readers, a college employee and her mom. All in all, a pleasant outing.

Omana's is still cheaper, but not by much.

Had lunch Wednesday at Shalimar Garden, a combination Pakistani/Chinese restaurant at Holt and Main in Pomona. (The building, which began as a Bob's Big Boy, has gone through many permutations.) Referring to the twin cuisines, reader Bob Terry advised me: "Be sure to let us loyal readers know how the tandoori eggrolls are, or the orange peel lamb."

Of course the cuisines aren't really mixed. I had a beef dish whose name I don't recall (it was No. 14) and it was pretty good. There was only one other customer there, not a good sign. My waiter, who's Chinese, said when a customer orders off the Chinese menu, he goes into the kitchen to make it himself.

Other combination restaurants I'm aware of: Giuseppe's, an Italian/Middle Eastern place in San Antonio Heights; Golden Wok, which has burgers, donuts, Chinese food and Louisiana fried chicken, in Pomona; and Walter's in Claremont, with Afghan, American and Italian food.

Bon appetit!

This week's restaurant: Good Time Cafe, 2923 Chino Ave., Suite H4, Chino Hills.

Attentive readers will remember the debate in this space about the lack of real Chinese food in the Inland Valley. Since then I've written about a find in Chino Hills, the Peking Deli. Well, here's a second Chino Hills Chinese place that's just as good.

Good Time Cafe occupies a wide, shallow storefront in the 99 Ranch Market center at Peyton Drive and Chino Avenue, just a bit south of Pomona. As the sign on the door promises, it serves Taiwanese-style cooking. The menu boasts 192 items, including an astonishing 47 appetizers. Granted, some of them are only for the hardy -- pig blood rice cake, anyone? -- but there's plenty for the rest of us, and dozens of soups, noodle and rice dishes, seafood and meat entrees, vegetarian items and a category called potage, a kind of porridge.

Oddly, unlike the rest of the menu, names of the menu's 22 beverages are untranslated from the Chinese. Better ask for help there.

I had Tainan's Peddler Noodle, dried rather than as soup. It had noodles, ground sausage and a tea-simmered hardboiled egg, a dish made in what I'm told is the style of street food in the Taiwanese city of Tainan. It was delicious and filling. This $4.95 entree came with a free pot of hot tea. Total outlay with tax and tip: $6. You can't beat that with a chopstick.

Service was friendly, the dining room was immaculate and a flat screen TV broadcast Chinese language news. To sum up, yes, I had a good time at the Good Time Cafe.

And I'm looking forward to my next meal here, even if it's unlikely to be No. 176, fried kidney with sesame oil.

Had lunch Thursday at the Corner Butcher Shop, at Fruit and Foothill in La Verne, a new, yet old-fashioned, butcher shop that also serves sandwiches. My pulled pork on a French roll, plus cole slaw and a Faygo soda ($8.40), were good stuff. (In-joke for Claremont Courier readers: Martin Lomeli wasn't eating there.)

From there, after a couple of errands, I dropped into 21 Choices Frozen Yogurt at Foothill and Mountain in Claremont. Only my second time in the place, but whenever I pass by, there's either a line out the door or people are walking toward it from the parking lot as if hypnotized. (The 21 Choices in the Village Expansion, which has been under construction for probably a year, albeit with little to show for it, now looks like it could actually open. Someday.)

I ordered one of the daily specials, vanilla bean ("98 percent fat free"), and had the counter girl add strawberries. She plopped out the yogurt onto a cutting board, added fresh strawberries and began chopping the whole thing up with a cleaver.

A customer watched all this, asking the counter girl what flavor of yogurt it was, saying it looked good and asking me if I'd had it before (no). The counter girl told her that chocolate with strawberries was very popular.

The customer then said to me excitedly, "You know what would be really good? Strawberries with marshmallow." I scrunched up my face, indicating that I disagreed violently, and also that in my opinion she may have lost her marbles, and paid my tab ($3.95).

On my way out, I heard the customer order vanilla bean yogurt.

This week's restaurant: Casa Blancas Mexican Food, 300 S. Indian Hill Blvd., Claremont.

You may know Casablanca, the Mediterranean restaurant in the Claremont Packing House. But do you know Casa Blancas, the Mexican restaurant three blocks south at Arrow Highway?

I stopped in there two weeks ago for dinner before seeing a movie at the Laemmle. That was "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," the Romanian abortion flick that, while worth seeing, was such a downer it may qualify as the feel-bad movie of the year.

Casa Blancas was previously a Green Burrito, with a couple of iterations in between. Thus, my expectations were low. The interior, however, had a lot of colorful tile, and the menu seemed promising.

At the counter, I ordered two grilled shrimp tacos and a Jarritos soda ($7.56 with tax). The salsa bar had been converted into a trough of ice filled with bottled Mexican sodas, not only Jarritos but Mexican Cokes. Nice, although too bad it's not a salsa bar. The tacos were the smallish, real kind, served on corn tortillas and loaded with cabbage. They were quite tasty. The soda proved a good pairing.

Casa Blancas was a pleasant surprise, likely the most authentic Mexican restaurant in Claremont (not that there's a lot of competition, granted). It's a good place for a quick, cheap bite in an often-pricey town.

And if you're curious, I did try two new-to-me restaurants this week: La Verne Pizza Co., where I had an adequate if unexciting pepperoni slice and salad, and Rok the Wok in Upland, where I had a below-average chicken teriyaki bowl. I'd rather highlight a worthwhile place, even if it's a couple of weeks old.

This week's restaurant: Hilltop Jamaican Market and Restaurant, 1061 E. Holt Ave., Pomona.

Their business card says Hilltop's, the signs say Hilltop. I'll go with Hilltop. Anyway, I've passed by this place for years and, while forever meaning to investigate it, always came up with excuses not to stop. Hilltop is in a narrow storefront in an aging building and the curb is painted green. The neighborhood is slightly dubious. But finally I stopped for lunch last Wednesday.

Hilltop turned out to be much more restaurant than market. There are a half-dozen tables and on the walls are amateur drawings and paintings. No customers were present at 1:30. The market consisted of a corner with shelves stocked with shakers of jerk seasoning, packets of curry powder and cans of breadfruit slices.

At the counter, I asked the employee for a recommendation. "First time?" he asked. He suggested oxtail stew. The small plate is $10 and came with rice, plantains, cabbage and fry bread. I got a ginger beer from the refrigerated case. He didn't charge me for the drink. "I gave you a discount," he said.

I have no basis for comparison but certainly enjoyed my meal, eating every bite except for some rice. In fact it was so filling I didn't even need dinner.

Hilltop also sells fried chicken, curry goat, curry chicken and fish patties, which the paper menu reports are sold in restaurants in L.A. and at the Bob Marley Festival in Long Beach. My guess is that takeout, catering and perhaps wholesale are a bigger part of their business than the dining room.

But for the adventurous, I recommend the place, mon.

This week's restaurant: Three Forks Chop House, 580 W. 1st St., Claremont.

To celebrate my 11th anniversary at the Bulletin, a friend treated me to dinner at Three Forks, a Montana-themed steakhouse in the Packing House and perhaps the valley's most expensive restaurant. Hey, anything to avoid having to fork out (three fork out?) that much dough myself.

Three Forks was the first 909 restaurant to be reviewed in the L.A. Times in recent memory. Ol' S. Irene Virbila gave it 2.5 stars out of 4 and for her, that's a positive review. There was amusement over the photo, which included a man in very casual attire at the bar, on a local blog; someone said dismissively that they wouldn't pay those kind of prices to sit near a man in a tank top. The review, which is posted outside the restaurant, has other problems: S. Irene manages to use the word "rustic" four times, including twice in the same sentence, to describe the tart, the sausage, the food in general and the atmosphere.

The restaurant has a website but no prices are listed on the online menu.

We sat outside near a heat lamp. We shared the charcuterie platter ($18), a plate of cured meats, olives, brie and something called ramp. I had the filet mignon, 10 oz. ($46), and she had the lamb chops ($39).

What arrived first was an amuse bouche -- they don't typically serve these things at the burrito stands I frequent -- of, it was explained, "crab and cucumber with vinaigrette aged 12 years...excuse me, a vinaigrette reduction...to spark the appetite." Whichever, the bite-size dollop had a pleasant mix of flavors.

Now bring on the meat!

The appetizer was quite good, although the ramp and olives were nothing exciting, and any more than two people would not have found the size adequate. The lamb was tender. The filet mignon, which I asked to be cooked medium, may have been overdone (that was my friend's opinion; I'm no expert), a bit chewy on the inside and charred on the outside. But, as one who accepts what he is given in life, I accepted it and enjoyed it.

For dessert, we split the lemon tart for two ($12), which was excellent, very lemony, although not of the size you might expect from a dish billed as being for two.

Take points off the meal for a few aspects: the "artisan" bread that came with the meal wasn't as good as that at Le Pain Quotidien a block away; the service was fair but not outstanding; and the view, of an industrial plant across the street, isn't what you would call inspiring.

Total bill, by the way: $144.51. Gulp.

That said, the experience was a cut above Fleming's, the steakhouse in Victoria Gardens, if a cut below Ruth's Chris in Pasadena. Would we go back to Three Forks? On a rare occasion, sure. Perhaps to try the farmers market dinners on Sundays, which sound intriguing.

Plus, you never know when you might want the Three Forks specialty, a reduction of your bank account. And a dose of rusticity.

This week's restaurant: Monaco's Pizza, 7325 Day Creek Blvd., Suite 101, Rancho Cucamonga.

Monaco's is in the Henry's Market center at Base Line Road, just up the road from Victoria Gardens. The interior has an upscale look: There's a greeter's station, backed by frosted glass, and the decor includes faux-marble tabletops, dark wood chairs and wine bottles behind glass.

The menu has a page with the restaurant's backstory. I didn't finish reading it before the waitress arrived but did manage to glean that the same family ran Red Devil Pizza prior to this restaurant.

We ordered the seafood linguine ($16) and the cheese ravioli ($9.50). They came with dinner salads, which were basically iceberg lettuce, cheese and olives, with dressing in a small plastic container, as if we'd ordered the food to go. This salad would cost $3.50 if ordered separately.

Now, this is essentially the same salad you get at San Biagio's in Upland, only San Biagio's is an unpretentious place where you order at the counter. The Monaco's salad is kind of a weak for a place with upscale pretensions. The entrees, however, were perfectly acceptable, if not up to the level of the decor.

I went back on my own for lunch to try the pizza. I read a bit more of the Monaco's story, such as the family's arrival here around 1960 and someone's (the mother's?) employment at Nordstrom, but once again had to order before I could get very far. I ordered a small pizza with anchovies and mushrooms ($14). Pretty good stuff, with generous, quality toppings and a moderately thick, slightly crunchy crust.

My friend Bob, who lives in the neighborhood and recommended the place, especially likes the pizza. If I lived nearby I'd probably go there more frequently. (For one thing, maybe then I could finish reading the family's story.) But Bob agrees the food is more casual than the decor.

This week's restaurant: Peking Deli, 4183 Chino Hills Parkway Suite F-G, Chino Hills.

Diligent readers will recall this blog's lament about the paucity of non-Americanized Chinese restaurants in the Inland Valley. My hope was that Chino Hills, with its proximity to Diamond Bar's Asian population, might have something a bit more interesting. A friend recommended a place, and some Internet research turned up a second.

We tried the second one -- we'll go back for the first -- on Tuesday. That was Peking Deli, which is in a strip mall off the 71 Freeway at Pipeline. It's a simple storefront operation with table service. Nothing fancy, but comfortable.

The menu has 118 items, and while it includes such American staples as orange chicken and pork fried rice, there are plenty of dishes one doesn't encounter in the 909. As another friend said after scanning the takeout menu later, "This is totally Taiwanese style."

There are two dozen soups, not just hot and sour and egg flower but seafood tofu, shredded pork with preserved pickle, and salted duck. Cold appetizers don't even have English translations but include beef brisket, duck leg, tripe and pig ear. (Try ordering pig ear at Panda Express and see what happens.)

We had pork fried rice cake ($5.25), dry noodle with Peking sauce and sesame sauce ($4.50) and beef with spicy sauce ($8.75). My friend liked the latter two best; I preferred the rice cake. It's not like the diet-food rice cake but rather slices of soft, chewy rice that resemble bamboo shoots.

All the customers but us were Asian, a good sign. Peking Deli has been in business four years and survives on word of mouth, our server told us. But she was delighted to learn that the restaurant had been well-reviewed on Yelp.com.

The only downside to the place is that it closes at 8:30. They didn't kick us out, but within two minutes of our departure, the lights were out.

I hope to go back sometime -- after first sampling that other Chino Hills Chinese restaurant.

An anonymous (why? why?) reader sent the following e-mail to yours truly and three colleagues on a food topic perhaps best showcased here:

"I would like to make a suggestion for a food article. I presented this idea to a staff writer about 4-5 years ago and they just filed it away. [Of all the nerve. -- DA]

"I am an avid fan of Bento Boxes. Definition of what these are follows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bento

"My main interest, however, is where these are available in the Inland Empire -- more so around the surrounding Ontario airport areas. I know of a few that I patronize regularly. It's a lot of good healthy food for an average price of $6. Most Japanese establishments have this available. Some in the fine dining category may not.

"The ones that I am aware of in my general area (around Ontario Mills where my office is at) are:

"Robin Dono Sushi, 4th & Milliken, Ontario, CA (fine dining)

"Also having lived in Orange County, I patronized places that offered these bento boxes daily. There are more of these venues in O.C. so it's a common find.

"I hope this can be considered as an article. If you know of the staff writer that can perhaps do this for the Daily Bulletin, please forward this email. I'm sure they would enjoy these bento box lunches as I do.

"Thank you."

I'll leave it to the features staff whether to write an article about bento boxes, but at least your plea has been heard here at the blog. Anyone want to add to the list of bento box purveyors?

Oh, and let me add that Kazama Sushi is now in Claremont's Village Expansion, where it opened last week. Another sushi restaurant has taken its place at Grove and Foothill.

This week's restaurants: Sho Sushi and Route 66 Subs, both at 373 E. Foothill Blvd., Upland.

Both restaurants in a yellow strip center at Third Avenue (I think -- the street signs are missing) notable for a Green Burrito, Digital Color World and Check 'n Go.

At lunch Tuesday I entered Sho Sushi and took a seat at the sushi bar. I had most of my usual sushi items: salmon skin cut rolls, spicy tuna cut rolls, salmon sushi and albacore sushi. I'm inexpert at these things but would judge the sushi to be average -- not excellent but not bad.

Sho seems to be known for "all you can eat." I simply ordered my items off the menu and when the bill came, it was "all you can eat," $19.95. Mentally adding up what I'd ordered, it came to slightly more than that, about $23, so I guess it worked to my advantage, barely.

Sho Sushi, by the way, used to be owned by the people who now own King's Teriyaki on East Holt in Pomona, where I wrote about getting napkins imprinted with the Sho Sushi logo.

Thursday, figuring I'd polish off the strip center, I had lunch at Route 66 Subs. (I've been to a Green Burrito before and that's good enough for my little restaurant survey.)

The interior has a black-and-white motif with Route 66 and car-related decor. I got the Maserati, which is an Italian Trio sub (ham, mortadella and capicolla, I believe), 8-inch size, plus macaroni salad and a Coke, for $9.42. The sub was fine and filling, the salad pleasingly peppery.

They gave me a sub card -- a free sub on your eighth visit -- and you can sign up for e-mail coupons that will also net you a free meal on your birthday.

I'm not a sub guy, and when I am I go to Grinder Haven, but this was a nice little place. On my way out, after almost an hour of eating and reading, the guy behind the counter, who had taken my name with my order, called out, "'Bye, David." So he gets points for trying, and maybe I will go back sometime.

Where are the 24-hour restaurants of the Inland Valley? Most seem to be in Pomona.

Leaving aside Coco's, Denny's and their corporate cousins, here are the places I know about in Pomona:

* La Fuente, 987 S. Garey Ave. at 10th Street.

* Grandma's Donuts, East Mission Boulevard just east of Garey (can't find them online or in phone book).

* The Jelly Donut, 2097 N. Towne Ave. (A sign says it's "Open 24/24." Someone tell Jack Bauer!)

* Golden Wok, 1725 N. Garey Ave.

* Taqueria de Anda, 1690 S. Garey at Franklin.

So Pomona has a lot of night owls. What about the rest of the valley?

* Rancho Cucamonga has Corky's Kitchen and Bakery, 6403 N. Haven Ave. just above the 210. Apparently they do good business in the middle of the night. The fresh-baked pie is awesome.

* Ontario has Fork in the Road, 4265 E. Guasti Road, at the Travel Centers of America West truck stop. The food is surprisingly good. Fork was featured in a segment of the Food Network's "Road Food" in 2006.

Surely there are more 24-hour joints, especially in Ontario. Anyone want to fill in the blanks, or tell stories about 24-hour dining?

This week's restaurant: Salad Farm, 9090 Milliken Ave., Rancho Cucamonga.

Salad Farm opened recently in the small center on Milliken at Seventh Street that also houses Gandolfo's, a NY-themed deli (already visited). The 'Farm is part of a very small L.A.-based chain that appears to have just five locations thus far.

You order at the counter and they make your salad right then and there for you. The menu shows 28 salads, from $5.95 to $8.50, plus panini sandwiches, baked potatoes, soup and quesadillas. A helpful photo menu depicts virtually every item.

I had the Greek salad with chicken ($8.45), and it wasn't bad. It was also enormous and I don't know who could finish it. It came with two pieces of pita bread.

It's a similar concept to So Fresh Salads and More in the Claremont Village Expansion (also visited before), and perhaps slightly better -- at least at Salad Farm I didn't have to wait, I got what I ordered and the amount of dressing was reasonable.

This week's restaurants: El Perico Ranchero, 1401 E. Foothill Blvd. (at Grove), Upland, and El Cerrito, 7201 Archibald Ave. (at Base Line), Rancho Cucamonga.

Yes, we're riding the El this week and we're nowhere near Chicago. El Perico Ranchero was pointed out to me by one of you readers recently when I wrote about Mexican restaurants in Upland. I'd overlooked it. So I rectified that omission by dining there for lunch on Tuesday.

It's mid-range Mexican with table service and some seafood on the menu. I had the chile verde ($9.95). The plate itself was hot, which always makes me suspicious that the plate is prepared in advance and stuck in the oven. The chile verde, though, was very good. And there was a lot of it. I don't know who can eat all that; I could barely finish half. I took the rest home and got a snack out of half of it Wednesday night. I had the other quarter Friday night. That's a lunch that keeps on giving.

On Thursday I hit El Cerrito after a visit to 4-Color Fantasies, the comic shop across the street. Entering El Cerrito was disconcerting because it looks like half a restaurant. All there was to see was a long, narrow space with booths along each wall. No employees or even kitchen in sight. I sat myself and saw the kitchen is tucked away through a doorway on the left. The lone employee I saw during the meal was pretty busy.

I had three soft tacos with chicken, beef and steak ($2.25 each). They were big too and loaded with cheese. I should have asked if they were Mexican style (small) or American style (big). Oh well. They were fine for what they were. The menu was fairly extensive, just like El Perico's, but I wasn't in an ambitious mood, so this is a feebler than usual account, sorry.

Maybe next week, instead of eating at another El place, I can do the opposite: a Le place.

Fat Tuesday, the end of Mardi Gras, is today, and reader/foodie Charles Bentley has a question:

"I was wondering if you have any suggestions for local eateries to enjoy some Mardi Gras cuisine?

"But if you know someplace local – especially a good spot that makes good crawfish etouffee – I would dearly love to know about it. Plus points if they have nice beignets like at the Café du Monde!"

Crescent City Cafe was the restaurant by Montclair Plaza that had to relocate to make way for a Chili's but ultimately couldn't survive in its Ontario location as New Orleans Express.

With them gone, the best I could come up with was Kelly's Cajun Grill in the Ontario Mills food court. The Inland Valley surely must have a soul food restaurant or two, but I'm unaware of them.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Monday I ate at two new-to-me restaurants, Richie's Diner for lunch, Harry's Pacific Grill for dinner, both at Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga.

I'm familiar with the Richie's in Victorville, an occasional lunch stop when I lived and worked there in the mid-1990s. That one, if memory serves, had a virtually all-white interior and was fairly utilitarian. The food was OK but nothing exciting. The VG one is more a modern take on a diner, outfitted in browns and gray, with comfortable booths and classier touches. It's a little disconcerting to see a wall niche with bottles of wine not far from a lineup of classic bottled sodas and emblems of old-school gas station pumps, but it mostly works.

I ordered the California tuna melt ($8.95) on sourdough with slaw as my side and a Pepsi with vanilla flavoring ($2.19), which came in a metal cup. A tuna melt is my baseline sandwich. This one really was a melt -- sometimes the cheese isn't melted at all -- and was one of the better examples I've had. It came with avocado, probably a treat for most people, but to be honest, I've never really liked avocado. The slaw was good too.

All in all, Richie's beat expectations.

Dinner that night was at Harry's. I've been to Honolulu Harry's, owned by the same chain, but this is virtually nothing like that. It's a more upscale experience, without the tropical gimmickry (which is fun, by the way).

I had the Paniolo skirt steak ($17), which was said to have been marinated 24 hours, with fries; my friend had the Asian Pacific Pescado ($16), which came with baby broccoli, kalamata olives, fresh tomatoes and white wine reduction.

What was Asian or Mexican about the fish's preparation wasn't clear, but it was flavorful and served on a bed of scalloped potatoes. My steak was tender and juicy. Even my fries were good. Harry's atmosphere hit that sweet spot where you feel you're in a nice place but it's not so stiff that you're intimidated.

So, two meals, two winners. If only all days were like this.

Although I did write about Chinese restaurants and noted therein my lunch at Foothill Bistro, I didn't have room last week on this blog for an official Restaurant of the Week. And I ate at four new-to-me places too.

Belatedly, here's where else I ate:

* Crepes de Paris, 7876 Monet Ave., Victoria Gardens: This was a pleasant surprise. They sell crepes both savory (entree-style) and sweet (dessert), plus salads, hot and cold sandwiches, French onion soup and coffees. I ordered a chicken-spinach crepe ($9.95) and, while it appears I ended up with a chicken-mushroom crepe, it was large and tasty and, the place being crazy-busy and the staff shorthanded, I had no complaints. There are cheerful French cartoon drawings on the wall. A better-than-average dining option, especially if you're tired of the same old same-old.

* Beard Papa, Food Hall, Victoria Gardens: Founded in Japan in 1999, Beard Papa outlets have been springing up in L.A. To see one in Victoria Gardens lets us know the 909 is hipper than it's given credit for. Their cream puffs are made on the spot and cost $1.95 ($2.25 with tax). The shell is lightly crunchy and the custard filling is creamy good.

* Central Burgers, 10340 Central Ave., Montclair: I went here before a Montclair council meeting. This location was Andy's Burgers No. 2 until fairly recently. This is one of those burger places (like Jim's in Upland and Terry's in Rancho Cucamonga) that has a surprisingly broad menu. For breakfast, eight omelets, eggs, bacon, hotcakes; 13 types of burgers, plus a patty melt and chili size; burritos, tacos, quesadillas, taquitos and tostadas; tuna, fish, steak, chicken and gyro sandwiches; five salads; steak dinners ($6.55!); and even a cup of chili ($3.25) and a cup of rice ($1.75). I had a burger combo ($4.37 with tax) and enjoyed it while watching "King of Queens" on the dining room TV.

So that rounds out last week's dining. I'll get to this week's dining soon -- hopefully before next week.

Not long ago I had dinner with friends at China Gate, the Chinese restaurant in Upland by Trader Joe's. China Gate is probably the best Chinese eatery in the Inland Valley, and one of the most popular.

We had two of the specialties, the sizzling beef plate and the seafood clay pot, plus the kung pao chicken. The food was good, as it reliably is at China Gate (although the seafood clay pot, we couldn't help but notice, did not come in a clay pot). The service was friendly and attentive. When the third member of our party finally arrived, 15 minutes late, the waiter, hands on hips, asked with perfect comic timing: "What took you so long?"

So there's a lot to be said in China Gate's favor.

But in looking over the 100-plus-item menu, it must be said that there's a 1980s feel to it, and maybe even older. Have you noticed they still serve not only egg foo yung, but chop suey? How very Yangtze of them. And China Gate may be the valley's most authentic Chinese restaurant.

What's strange is that you can get fairly authentic Thai food, or Japanese food, or Korean food, or Vietnamese food at any number of restaurants out here. Asians and non-Asians alike pack into, say, Sanamluang in Pomona or Pho Ha in Rancho Cucamonga. Nobody's catering to American tastes there by serving pho with, I dunno, pepperoni, or pad Thai with bacon and avocado.

And yet whenever somebody opens a Chinese restaurant here, they feel obliged to serve cream cheese wontons and orange chicken. Why not go for the Chinese audience? The rest of us might follow.

This isn't to say our valley has no decent Chinese food, just nothing that isn't Americanized to a greater or lesser extent.

Among the best, besides the aforementioned China Gate: Noble House and Chu Chinese Cuisine, both in Rancho Cucamonga; Chopsticks House, with two locations in Ontario; and Chinese Pavilion and Phoenix Garden, both in La Verne.

As far as chains go, Panda Inn in Ontario and P.F. Chang's in Rancho Cucamonga offer superior meals, and Pei Wei, in Rancho Cucamonga, a P.F. Chang's spinoff, has good Asian-inflected food at modest prices.

On Tuesday, I had lunch at Foothill Bistro, which two months ago took the place of Emperor's Kitchen at Hellman and Foothill in Rancho Cucamonga. (The same center has good Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese restaurants, plus a boba shop. Also, a Chuck E. Cheese.)

"Hong Kong Style Chinese Food," the banner says. Foothill Bistro was pretty good. They have Singapore-style chow fun and a menu of 137 more items. It bears further investigation. There's even a B in the window.

Still, there's no congee or dim sum or other items (my experience is fairly limited, I'm afraid) that one would find in Alhambra or Chinatown. And the name is kind of bland. At this point, though, Foothill Bistro ought to be encouraged.

Let me end with a question for you foodies:

Can anyone recommend an authentic Chinese restaurant in Diamond Bar, or anywhere else east of San Gabriel?

This week's restaurant? Broadly, it's the Upland Center, on the southwest corner of Mountain and Foothill (the shopping center with Big Lots and Stater Bros.), which had three previously unsampled restaurants. This week I tried all three of them.

Monday: Jarritos Mexican Restaurant. The interior is large but seating is spaced apart, giving everyone plenty of elbow room. Cheerful and brightly lit, the walls are colorful. Except for one wall near the kitchen, which has a black and white mural of scenes from "Casablanca." Must've been left over from a previous tenant and nobody could bear to paint over it.

The food was above average. I had barbacoa ($7.79), which is tender barbecued beef, with sour cream, rice, beans and tortillas.

I was prepared to rule it the best Mexican food in Upland. To be sure, though, I tried the only (to my knowledge) other Mexican place I haven't eaten at, Rancho Los Magueyes at 16th and Mountain, on Wednesday. Not bad. So I'll declare it a tie.

Tuesday: Athens Gyro House. Or, as the sign and its ads put it, Athen's Gyro House. One hesitates to recommend a place as authentic Greek when it betrays uncertainty how to spell Athens. (I felt the same about the defunct Cajun restaurant in Montclair whose sign put an accent on the final e of Creole. Creo-lay?)

However, I had a very good gyro sandwich ($7.99), and the menu seems to have plenty of Greek specialties, so my recommendation is to ignore the apostrophe issue and dive in. The menu, oddly, also has spaghetti, lasagna and pizza, with gyro meat as one of the options.

If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to see the poster in the window. It features a slightly blurred photo of the owner smiling for the camera while slicing gyro off the spit. The copy reads: "Chef Michael Slicing Gyro Meat Thinly." It's a kitsch classic.

Thursday: Pho Century. Upland has a Vietnamese restaurant? Who knew? It was busy at lunch Thursday with Vietnamese, Chinese and us white folks alike. A friend had the seafood pho ($6.25), I had charbroiled pork ($5.95) and we shared shrimp and pork spring rolls ($2.99). The pho was judged to be good but not as good as Pho Ha in Rancho Cucamonga; I liked my entree quite a bit.

Pho Century's menu has 209 numbered dishes, plus 20 appetizers and 22 beverages. You could become a regular there and never get bored, that's for sure.

So, that polishes off that corner of the Inland Valley. Next!

This week's restaurant: Terry's Burgers, 6709 Carnelian Ave., Rancho Cucamonga.

Terry's is the restaurant I was trying to find last week when I headed east on Base Line from Carnelian. Terry's is actually along 19th Street just around the corner from Carnelian, in the shopping center with the new Korean supermarket, Market World. I had lunch there Thursday.

Inside, Terry's looks like a sitdown restaurant (perhaps it once was?) with comfortable booths and hanging lamps. You order at the counter, they give you a number and bring the food out.

There's an extensive menu, much like Legends and Jim's, two other local burger-and-more joints. Besides the standard fare, they have hot sandwiches, salads and Mexican food. Dinner specials include roast beef, chicken fried steak, pork chops (all $6.96) and N.Y. steak ($7.50). Ambitious.

Going for the namesake item, I got the burger special ($5.55 with tax), a burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and Thousand Island dressing. It arrived in a basket atop a mound of fries. In my considered judgment, it was an above-average burger, at one of the valley's classier burger restaurants.

I'm glad I kept looking for Terry's.

Just an alert for anyone who knows the Saffron Cafe at Guasti: Its last day is Friday.

Saffron will be the main topic of my Friday column, but let me get the word out here a day early. If you want one last meal, beat the rush and go today. Saffron is the lunch-only spot in the Guasti Villa (the Guasti Mansion to you oldtimers). The food's pretty good and you can't beat the ambience of the 1922 building, the former home of Secondo Guasti, the head of the onetime winemaking village.

I had lunch there Wednesday, from the $20 prix fixe menu. My meal -- field greens with pears and prosciutto, bread, soup and an entree of shrimp, mussels and scallops in a coconut curry -- was filling, and if it didn't knock my socks off (the soup was a little weak), I was satisfied.

Saffron plans restaurants throughout the region, with one already open in Riverside and one likely for Upland. But it will be gone from Guasti. In fact, with Guasti under demolition and reconstruction, you won't have a chance to return to the Villa until 2009 or 2010.

Call (909) 605-7677 for directions, reservations or questions.

This week's restaurant: Stuft Pizza Cafe, 7251 Haven Ave., Rancho Cucamonga.

I was heading east on Base Line on my Friday lunch hour, looking in vain for a different restaurant, when I gave up and pulled into the Haven/Base Line shopping center, the one with the Ralphs ("Double Coupons!"), Salsitas (unimpressive) and Noble House (pretty good). Cruising through, I found Stuft Pizza, a new-to-me restaurant. My friend Bob Almanzar swears by the place so I'd been anticipating going there at some point anyway.

Inside there was a small bar, lots of tables and booths, a game on the TV and two tables full of UPS drivers in brown. It was well lit, the TV was moderate in size and the atmosphere was far more restaurant than bar. I took a seat and a waitress brought out a menu. Yes, it's an actual sit-down restaurant, not an order-at-the-counter operation.

There's the usual array of pizzas and pastas, including a Cucamonga Pizza that contains "everything, including the Rancho." Several items sounded good, like the Italian sausage sandwich and the meatball sub. You can get those from the lunch-special menu with a salad and soda for $6-$7.

Figuring I should sample the pizza, I went for the cheese slice/salad/soda combo ($6.66 with tax). The salad was basic but acceptable and the pizza wasn't bad, doughy and with the cheese a little burnt, but pleasantly so.

A standout was the service. The waitress was attentive and friendly, moreso than one often finds. What with the menu descriptions, the table service and the helpfulness, Stuft Pizza tries harder, and you have to respect that.

This is a good neighborhood spot and who knows, even though it's a ways from our office, I might go back for a meatball sub sometime.

Today's column is my second annual Inland Valley dining guide, which offers a roundup of some of the more noteworthy of the 92 restaurants at which I ate in 2007.

For anyone who missed it, or who wants a refresher, here's my earlier dining guide, published Jan. 5, 2007, covering some of the 84 restaurants at which I ate in 2006. Amazingly, I think all the ones mentioned below are still in business. Now here's that column:

True, I’d developed a reputation as a fella who likes to eat out, but by the end of 2005 I realized my lunch hours were mostly spent at the same half-dozen joints.

Thus, to shake myself out of a rut, I made a New Year’s resolution for 2006: try at least one new-to-me restaurant per week.

Admittedly, it was a modest goal. But unlike your resolutions to stop smoking or start working out, I stuck with my vow all year. Nyaah!

By the end of December, I had eaten at 84 previously untried restaurants. A few were chains. Most were mom and pop places. Some looked like dumps but had good food. Some actually were dumps.

I hasten to point out that I’m not a professional reviewer, just a guy on his lunch break, so my standards aren’t exactly rigorous. Also, just so you know, I ate anonymously and paid my own way.

Any opinions below are merely observations, but they’re all mine.

And now, some results from my field research:

* Thai T (9000 Foothill Blvd., Rancho Cucamonga) and Bangkok Blue (2300 Foothill, La Verne) are in strip malls, but both Thai restaurants have a genteel ambience and good food. My favorite Thai place, by the way, is Mix Bowl Cafe in Pomona, where I’m slowly eating my way through the 100-plus items on the menu.

* The interior is stark and bare, but the carne asada tacos at Taqueria el Triunfo (1565 W. Holt Ave., Pomona) make a deep impression.

* The food was fine, but the old-school interior of the venerable New China (2006 W. Foothill, Upland) with its ornate bar, burgundy booths and carved ceiling is what makes this a local treasure.

* A colleague recommended the chili at Buckboard BBQ (1386 E. Foothill, Unit M, Upland). He was right.

* Year’s best restaurant name: Posh Burgers and Beyond. It’s the latest tenant in a former Dairy Queen (727 E. Holt Blvd., Ontario). The teriyaki bowl features charbroiled chicken and is surprisingly tasty. Not to mention posh.

* Tropical Mexico (1371 S. East End Ave., Pomona) opened in 1967 and may be Pomona’s oldest Mexican restaurant. It’s a sprawling place with a busy lunch trade, and I can see why.

* Reputation holds that Owen’s American Bistro (5210 D St., Chino) is the nicest restaurant in Chino. It’s downtown in a converted bank. Bank on a fine meal there.

* Despite the name, Guido’s Pizza (9755 Arrow Highway, Rancho Cucamonga) is really a deli. They make a fine sandwich.

* I can recommend the pizza at both zPizza (1943 N. Campus Ave., Upland) and Joe Chicago’s (711 W. Foothill, Upland). Upland, in fact, must be a good pizza town, as it’s also home to the superior San Biagio N.Y. Pizza.

* Tucked away in a business park, Angelina’s Cafe (9135 Archibald Ave., Rancho Cucamonga) is worth hunting down. The food is good, the atmosphere is cozy and the servers, Karen and Katie, are a crackup. If you’re lucky, you’ll get homemade potato chips while you wait. I know I was trying to get out of a rut, but after finding Angelina’s, I ate here every week.

* Best sushi I had around here all year was at Kuma Sushi (1905 N. Campus, Upland).

* When I paused at the menu board at Esther Tacos (1466 E. Foothill, Unit Q, Upland), the woman behind the counter asked if I’d been there before, then scurried to the kitchen to bring out small samples of all their meats. I wouldn’t have gone wrong with any of them.

* I had better than average hamburgers at Archibald’s Burgers (2685 E. Riverside, Ontario), Jim’s Burgers (969 W. Foothill, Upland) and Samo’s (1701 S. Garey Ave., Pomona). Although I still miss A&W Root Beer in Ontario and continue to dote on Golden Ox, with three locations in Pomona to serve you better.

* While it’s hard to beat the food at El Merendero, an old standby, two other Mexican restaurants within walking distance of Pomona City Council meetings are also a cut above: Sabor Mexicano (180 E. Sixth St.) and Mexico Lindo (1060 S. Garey).

* It’s “Home of the Bean Special,” according to the sign at Taco King (1317 E. Foothill, Upland), but I went for the chicken tacos. Not only was the food tasty and cheap, but three customers recognized me.

Eating there was satisfying for my appetite and my ego.

This week's restaurant is the Tenderloin, 2080 Foothill Blvd., La Verne.

In an L-shaped shopping center, the Tenderloin, at the northern end, is easily visible to motorists. I've seen it for years and wondered if it was a bar, a restaurant or what. The unfortunate connotation with San Francisco's seedy Tenderloin District made me wonder about the place.

As it happens, it's a steakhouse. I dropped in for lunch Saturday.

The interior is decorated in Old West style, with several large paintings of Western scenes, and Tiffany-style light fixtures. The lighting is on the dim side. The menu prices are on the moderate side.

I had a steak sandwich with fries ($10.79) plus a side salad. The sandwich came with grilled onions, lettuce and tomatoes, on sourdough bread. It was messy but pretty good. The fries and salad were OK.

Service was indifferent. My waitress wore a quilted winter coat over her uniform. Management ought to turn up the thermostat. She also left me without utensils or napkins, which I had to fetch from another table.

The Tenderloin attracts an older crowd. A father had three young boys at the booth next to mine, but everyone else was in their 50s or older. On the other side of me, a couple in their 70s may have run out of things to say to each other. They read paperbacks silently during their lunch.

This week's restaurant is Sammy's Burger (note lack of plural), 765 W. Holt Blvd., Ontario.

Sammy's is a stone's throw from Grinder Haven, which is an occasional stop for me, but I'd never tried Sammy's. It's in a long, narrow building on a long, narrow lot, fronted by an old-school sign reading "Burgers" (the top appears to have been removed) that is almost hidden by neighboring signs. Blink and you miss the place.

According to research by the Ontario Library's Joanne Boyajian, 765 W. Holt, previously a home, in 1969 was reborn as Burger Lane Drive-In with "drive thru service and inside seating," to quote the phone book. It was also the Burger Lane main office, with a second location at 1715 W. Holt in Pomona. By 1975, the name was Jerry's Burgers; in 1980, it was A 'n N Burgers; in 1990, it became Sammy's, its name for the past 18 years.

It's seen better days, but Sammy's was moderately busy when I went in for lunch Friday. They have the usual array of burgers, a dozen hot sandwiches, plus burritos, teriyaki and basic breakfasts. I got the hamburger, fries and soda special, which was $4.09 with tax. My food was cooked fresh and delivered after five or 10 minutes.

The fries were crisp and better than average; I finished them, which is rare for me. The burger came on a soft bun with Thousand Island, lettuce, tomato, pickles and chopped onions. Tasty and filling.

The takeout menu brags "Best Burger in Town." It's a respectable hamburger and certainly a contender for the best in Ontario. A blog reader says Sammy's has a good pastrami burger. The menu's most expensive hamburger is the $4.25 Sammy Burger. I don't know what it is, but it must be big, since it's pricier than the double cheeseburger.

Sammy's is Korean-owned and the back of the menu charmingly explains how to introduce yourself in Korean or speak several "useful expressions." I'll have to practice before I try "How are you doing?": "Eo-Tteo-K'e-Ji-Nae-Sae-Yo?"

Islamorada is the in-store restaurant at the huntin', fishin' and campin' paradise, Bass Pro Shops in Rancho Cucamonga's Victoria Gardens, as mentioned in today's column. While writing that piece, incidentally, my spellcheck suggested that I replace "Islamorada" with "slumlords"; I declined.

You can access the restaurant from the parking lot or from the store. On Monday about 7:30, the dining room was said to be full, so a friend and I ate in the lounge, where they have full service. Even the bar is impressive, with a lot of wood, an aquatic motif and, behind the bar, an aquarium some six feet high that wrapped around the bar. It made for a great view.

A duo performed until about 7:45, a woman singing and a man on keyboards. First full number we heard: "I Will Survive." I pretended the lyrics were being sung from the point of view of a tenacious fish or defiant deer.

The server brought out a small loaf of tasty, sugar-topped bread. The cajun pineapple tilapia came lightly blackened, with a sort of chutney on top. I liked it. The grilled scallops were even better. The rice was OK, the fries were above average and the vegetables slightly mushy. Service was attentive.

Overall, a better meal than expected, or even necessary. While not as good as Market Broiler in Ontario or Kings Fish House at the other end of Victoria Gardens, I'd go back.

This week I tried So Fresh Salads and More, 1 N. Indian Hill Blvd., Suite 103, which is part of Claremont's Village Expansion.

So Fresh looks like a franchise, as does the Pita Pit next door, but both are homegrown Claremont operations. (Update: I'm told Pita Pit really is a franchise. So Fresh is local, though.)

Pita Pit seems like a popular lunch spot, especially with the college crowd. I had a gyro there a while back and have to say it didn't meet my expectations of a gyro. The sandwich maker -- it's like Subway or Quizno's, where someone asks if you want each individual condiment -- was ready to put all sorts of questionable items on my gyro. But that's not really their fault. It's not a Greek restaurant, it's a place that sells wraps, albeit ones in pita bread rather than tortillas.

So Fresh, to pardon my own interruption, has salads, wraps and panini sandwiches. It was moderately busy at lunchtime Monday. You order at the counter and in a bit they call your name to pick up your food. I got the Garden Salad (spring mix, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers, carrots, green peppers and goat cheese) with balsamic dressing, plus an iced tea, for $7.77.

There were some problems. A customer who came in after me got his salad before I did. And when my salad came, it was in a to-go container, not the for-here bowl.

The bigger problem was the amount of dressing. My salad was coated. There was probably twice as much dressing as I would have liked. I ate most of the salad but the dressing was so overpowering that I couldn't finish. By mid-afternoon, I was not only $7.77 poorer, I was hungry again.

Maybe this experience was an anomaly, but if I go back, it will be for a panini, or I'll ask for dressing on the side. Anyone else try this place, or the Pita Pit? I'm happy to see locally owned businesses in the Expansion and certainly wish both restaurants the best. They weren't to my taste, though.

This week's restaurant: King's Teriyaki, 1175 E. Holt Ave., Pomona.

This is a new place near Clark Avenue and across from Minit Man Car Wash. Until recently it was a burrito joint named something like El Amigazo. I looked the address up in a reverse directory at the library recently and learned the building was originally an Arby's, which makes perfect sense; it's got the same curved-roof chuckwagon design as the Arby's on North Garey.

Anyway, King's has the usual array of chicken, beef and teriyaki bowls and plates, plus shrimp and fried fish teriyaki. For chicken, you could get a small bowl ($3.25), a medium bowl ($3.75), a large bowl ($4.25) or the plate ($5.25), which comes with a small salad and two gyoza. Scanning the menu too hastily, I got the plate, which with a drink cost $7.08 and arrived in a foam container.

Why too hastily? A small or medium bowl would have sufficed. Two people could have split the plate. Decent teriyaki, and I liked the salad and gyoza too. But I got through only half the teriyaki, if that. What was left seemed almost as much as what I started with. Could the teriyaki have been self-replenishing? Well, I took it home, so my $7.08 will have bought the equivalent of two meals, so all's well that ends well.

Odd fact: The napkin was imprinted with the logo/address from an Upland restaurant, Sho Sushi. I didn't have a chance to ask why.

My favorite teriyaki place, by the way, is Posh Burgers and Beyond on East Holt Boulevard in Ontario. There the chicken is chargrilled and I like its crispiness. The King's version is fine, though, and I hope they make a go of it. I'll give a wave in the direction of King's and Macho Pollo (see recent review) when my parade car passes by on Saturday. At least now you have some post-parade dining tips. And don't forget the pho places, or the quite good Chalio Birreria, in an original Denny's on Holt just west of Indian Hill.

(Incidentally, I won't be dining anywhere: The parade ends at noon and Sunday's column, which common sense will tell you has to be about the parade, must be written from scratch and filed by 3 p.m. Yikes! Maybe I can grab a burrito at Juanita's and eat at my desk.)

Recently I wrote about Langer's Deli in L.A., which makes what has been called the best pastrami sandwich in America. Charles Bentley asks:

"What about a 'best pastrami in the IE' competition? Personally, The Hat was always a big winner with me, although others love Farmer Boys, Grinder Haven, Burger Town (the one on Archibald in Ontario) and even Togos. And is it just strictly pastrami as in pastrami sandwiches, or is it also pastrami as found on pastrami burgers? One friend tells me it’s a completely different requirement, like the difference between bacon for breakfast and bacon for a bacon cheeseburger.

"It’s just something else to heat up your nights and your readers’ imaginations -- not to mention the heartburn, oy!"

I'm a fan of the Grinder Haven pastrami and I admire The Hat. Haven't tried the pastrami at the other places and have never tried a pastrami burger. Readers, what are your favorites?

This week's restaurant certainly isn't Lela's. It could have been Pueblita, a Mexican restaurant apparently in Montclair city limits (although it's in the Upland Business Center) at Arrow Route and Benson Avenue, where I had lunch early this week. I'd heard good things, but I would rate it only as average. If I worked in the neighborhood, I'd eat there, but since getting there meant driving past several better Mexican restaurants, I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to try it.

Instead, I'll pick a chain operation: Fatburger, in Rancho Cucamonga, across from Ontario Mills.

Fatburger doesn't make my favorite hamburger. That would probably be Molly's Charbroiler, a stand on Vine Street a block below Hollywood Boulevard that is a favored stop when I go to the ArcLight. I also like Pie 'N Burger in Pasadena, which not only makes a fantastic burger but sells you fresh-baked pie afterward.

In the Inland Valley, I'd go for Golden Ox, with three Pomona locations to serve you better. And innumerable small operations make hamburgers far tastier than McDonald's and its ilk.

But Fatburger, just east down Fourth Street from our office, is a convenient spot, and there's an attention to quality and freshness that puts it up there with In N Out. Fatburger's signature item is fat, juicy and cooked to order, and loaded with shredded lettuce.

The skinny fries are pleasantly crispy, the onion rings lightly battered. They even have Cherry Coke in the dispenser. The shakes are a little disappointing and the "fat" fries are mushy for my taste, although friends like them. Fatburger also sells quite good chicken sandwiches and turkey burgers. You can even get a bacon and fried egg sandwich, which I tried once and liked.

The seating is comfortable, moreso than In N Out's, with actual tables and chairs, plus booths. There's a nice vibe to the place. One day my food was brought to my table by an employee wearing silk pants, like he was stopping off before hitting the clubs. The jukebox plays great R&B, rock and soul classics. Friday I heard Sly and the Family Stone, the Coasters, the Spinners and Janis Joplin.

This may reflect the clientele. This Fatburger, at least, is popular with the black community. Sometimes half the diners, as well as a majority of the employees, are black. The place opened in October 2005 and feels like it's made a niche for itself.

If nothing else, it outlasted its next-door neighbor, Mi Tortilla, which closed a few weeks ago.

This week's restaurant is Casablanca, the Mediterranean place, named for my favorite movie, that opened in the Claremont Packing House last summer. There seems to be a split opinion out there in the blogosphere at the M-M-M-My Pomona site, with comments varying wildly -- even between the couple who moderates the blog.

Well, I liked my meal there. There's an inviting atmosphere and a decor with a lot of dark wood, balanced by copious windows. The service was attentive. A friend and I shared a hummus appetizer that was superior. I had the chicken kabob and was pleased with it. My friend got the lamb shanks and if anything it was better than the kabob, very tender. Why, I could have led a sing-along of "La Marseillaise" but restrained myself.

This post is based on one visit, so your mileage may vary, as others' has. The place was worth my dough. The owner himself came out to ask how things were as we left. A liquor license is pending, he said happily, but in the meantime, they do serve wine.

No matter to me. I came to Casablanca for the waters.

Before last Monday's Pomona council meeting, I stopped at a place I'd passed by for years: Macho Pollo.

It's a fast-food joint on East Holt near East End Avenue with a drive-thru. Its distinguishing characteristic is the monument sign at the curb featuring, to match the name, a cartoon of a shirtless chicken showing off his biceps. Weird but amusing. This time, instead of smiling as I drove by, I pulled in.

Macho Pollo isn't much to look at inside: a counter, a few booths, a mirrored wall and a couple of tabletop soccer games, the kind with players attached to rods. The menu on the wall was a little confusing: all items appeared to be complete meals, including one with four tacos and one with a hamburger, but no chicken sandwich and no a la carte menu obvious. Maybe I only wanted three tacos.

A bit dazed by the menu, I told the man waiting to take my order, whom I soon judged to be the owner, that this was my first visit and I wasn't sure what to get. A friendly fellow, he assured me "everything is the best" and gave me a plate with a thigh and some tortilla chips, just as a sampler. The chicken was astonishingly good. So I ordered the chicken breast meal, plus a medium horchata ($8.11).

The chicken is lightly spiced, grilled and served on a styrofoam plate with grilled onions. I would say it's like El Pollo Loco but several orders of magnitude better. Rice, beans and tortillas came with it.

Macho Pollo has been on Holt for four years. The sign at the entrance optimistically calls the restaurant "Macho Pollo No. 1"; I don't know if there are others. But there should be. I'm still a Donahoo's man, but for non-fried chicken, this is tasty stuff.

"Tell your friends. Risk-free," the owner joked as he handed me my plate.

Well, you're all my friends, right? Check the place out. Macho Pollo is mighty (get it?) good.

I don't usually list in this feature all the new places I visited in the past week, just my favorite. But as I've tried several new-to-me restaurants since last week's entry, let me mention them all.

First there was Lily's Tacos, on North Garey in Pomona, the little stand with the vinyl rain guard near M&I Surplus, where I had a superior al pastor burrito. Second came Bua Thai, a new Thai place in the Claremont Village Expansion, which had a line out the door but to my taste was only average. ("Thai food for people who don't like Thai food," one friend remarked.) Next came Sushi Shiro, in Upland, in the former Cafe Provencal space, where I had a decent sushi lunch and saw a rarity, a woman training as a sushi chef.

But I'll tell you in detail about the place I had lunch Thursday: Pondok Salero in La Verne, perhaps the valley's sole Indonesian restaurant.

Pondok is in a storefront on Foothill Boulevard, in the strip center with Shogun. It teeters on the brink between fast food and sit-down, being wider than it is deep and with a steam table at the counter, and yet with table service and an inviting gold-painted walls and tasteful art. (There doesn't seem to be a buffet; the server dished up my food from the steam table.)

I'm a novice at this, so I got Paket Rames Ayam ($7.25), which is a piece of chicken simmered in coconut milk. It came with rice, a spicy egg (a hardboiled egg with red chili), cabbage with green beans and a small mound of chopped green chili. The menu also lists serundeng, but as I seem to have accounted for everything on my plate, I'm not sure what this is.

The side dishes were too spicy for me, but then, I'm not good with spicy food. The chicken was tasty, and the rice and cucumber cooled my tongue from the rest. I wouldn't be opposed to trying Pandok again. It may be catching on; although only one other table was filled at 1 p.m., a sign near the cash register proudly reads: "Now we open 7 days/week."

After lunch I walked three storefronts up to O-Lime, one of the innumerable Pinkberry knockoffs, where I got a pomegranate frozen yogurt with strawberries and pineapple ($3.45). Very tasty.

Out of all these places, the one I'm likeliest to revisit is Lily's Tacos. But I love that stolid La Verne has an Indonesian restaurant and a Korean frozen-yogurt place about 20 paces from each other.

Toward the end of my Flo's Cafe column on the women in the back who do all the baking, the pair said their bread pudding was something special. In print I expressed the desire to go back and try it sometime.

Well, three friends corraled me into hitting Flo's with them for a Friday lunch, to be followed by bread pudding. (It's made on alternate Thursdays; banana pudding is made the other weeks.) So we made the trek to Flo's, the one at the Chino Airport, on Merrill Avenue just east of Euclid Avenue.

I'll say upfront that I can take bread pudding or leave it. The Flo's version was tasty, though, and we agreed the bread was chewy, not soppy, and not too sweet. We asked the waitress how it's made, and she said the bread is actually the bakers' housemade cinnamon rolls. How about that?

Incidentally, the manager and I exchanged a wave from across the room midway through lunch. My guess is that she told our waitress that the writer of the Flo's column was at the table. I say this because as my retired friend Ken, who had bantered with her throughout the meal, paid the tab at the register, she told him, "That was a great article you did on us, and I liked your column a couple of days ago too." He had to tell her the writer was the guy standing over there.

I suppose she naturally assumed the writer must be the witty guy, not the quiet guy. Not the first time that's happened to your shy scribe. Oh well, as long as she likes my column...

At last week's Rancho Cucamonga council meeting, a proclamation was given to Anthony's Italian Kitchen in honor of -- wait for it -- 10 years in business. Does a decade in young Rancho Cucamonga qualify you as historic?

Despite the arguably premature award, I had to admit I hadn't eaten at Anthony's, nor had I even heard of it. To erase my shame, I headed to the Albertsons shopping center on Milliken just below the 210 for lunch Monday to try it out. The center doesn't appear to be thriving. Anthony's is one of just two or three restaurants.

It's a real hole in the wall, with just four tables. Two were occupied by sheriff's deputies, who soon had to rush out on a call, and the other by a lone diner.

The walls are crowded with plaques from youth sports teams and testimonials from fans. A postcard from one admirer begins: "In the Last Judgment, Anthony's Pizza will sit at the right hand. It's that good!" The far wall (which isn't that far) has three video games and a pinball machine with a "Demolition Man" theme, a tie-in to the 1993 Sly Stallone-Sandra Bullock movie.

More deputies came in, and a steady stream of people arrived to pick up take-out orders, including a man with an eight-ball tattooed on his neck; I hope he had better luck with his meatball sub than with the rest of his life. The lone diner told me I looked familiar and asked if I'm a writer. I replied that I write for the Daily Bulletin and my picture is in the paper. "Brewster?" he inquired. Stifling a sob, I gave him my name, and he said he likes my work, although I'm wondering if he was complimenting me or Lou Brewster.

I'll tell you now that my gold standard is San Biagio's New York Pizza in Upland, where I always get the single slice, salad and soda combo, for $5.12. There is no single slice-salad combo at Anthony's, so to get a salad I got the No. 3 combo: two slices of cheese pizza, a salad and a soda, all for $6.89.

The Anthony's salad is very similar to Biagio's, being iceberg, shredded mozzarella, tomatoes and black olives. The pizza is similar too, thin crust with a lightly spiced sauce, but with (maybe) a bit more cheese, marginally thicker crust and a slightly wider cut.

Excellent stuff, and at first blush I'd rank Anthony's a close second to Biagio's for Inland Valley pizza. (If you prefer a medium or thick crust, you'll have your own opinions.) The menu includes a dozen specialty pizzas, hot and cold subs and a range of pastas.

I thank the Rancho Cucamonga council for tipping me off to a good restaurant, and hope Anthony's makes it another 10 years, and beyond.

With time to kill before Monday's Pomona council meeting, I thought I'd try a south Pomona taqueria for dinner. But once I hit downtown I swung by the Pomona Fish Market, a take-out place at Third and Park streets.

I've always been curious about the market, which has a vintage neon sign (restored a few years back) and seems out of place in the neighborhood. But the view from my car always made me unsure if one could dine in, as the front window has big letters reading "Fish to Go."

Not to worry, the interior has seating for eight, plus an outdoor patio. My order was taken by a woman behind the supermarket-style display case, which was about half-stocked with fish on ice.

There's a limited menu of fried fish plates, such as sole, sand dabs, oysters and shrimp, served with fries and cole slaw and all priced under $7, as well as a couple of sandwiches. I got the catfish plate ($5.95). Well, the slaw was a bit dry, but the fries were acceptable and the fish, fried in a light coating of (I think) flour, wasn't bad at all. I'm not a fried fish guy, but if I were, I'd probably go again. The food's a darn sight better than Long John Silver's.

The Fish Market has been in Pomona for decades. In researching city character Urban Ziegler on Progress-Bulletin microfilm last summer at the library, I found an April 1, 1937 ad for the market, meaning it's at least 70 years old.

Prices included haddie, 35 cents a pound; cod, 20 cents a pound; sea bass, 29 cents a pound; and halibut, 25 cents a pound. The ad boasted: "An Exclusive Fish Market is the Best Place to Buy Fish." Oh, that snooty Pomona.

Rancho Cucamonga, which has a Central Park, now has a Big Apple-themed deli. Gandolfo's New York Delicatessen, in a strip center at 7th Street and Milliken Avenue, is a chain operation with an array of sandwiches, all with NY names: the Holland Tunnel, the Yonkers, the Greenwich Village, the Throgs Neck Bridge, etc.

I went there a couple of weeks ago and had the Little Italy, a cold deli sandwich with ham, salami, pepperoni and provolone ($5.49 half/$8.49 full). Not bad. I went back on Thursday with an East Coast transplant who grew up in Rhode Island to get his take on it. He had the Bronx Barbecue, with roast beef and cheddar ($4.49/$7.49), and I got the King of Queens, with pastrami and Swiss ($4.69/$7.69).

We were mixed on the experience. Service-wise, we had to pick up our order at the counter despite being told it would be brought to us. My friend wasn't impressed by the sauce or the bread on his sandwich. I found my sandwiches acceptable both visits. But we agreed the place was a little cute for our tastes. Keep in mind I'm not generally a fan of chains.

Still, a NY-schooled friend who has seen the menu is enthralled by the place names, and other New York expatriates may find Gandolfo's a nice haven. Bear in mind that according to the corporate website, there are no Gandolfo's in New York, and the headquarters is in Utah.

With plans to attend the La Verne council meeting Monday evening, I carefully pondered my options for dining in that city, which is too remote for me to get to from Ontario on a lunch break. Should I try the Caribbean place? How about the Indonesian place? The city's online dining guide (find it here) was a big help in evaluating the possibilities.

Alas, I delayed too long at the office trying to wrap up a few things and by the time I got to La Verne, I had under half an hour for dinner. Oopsie. So I tried a new-to-me spot close to City Hall, to cut my travel time, and where I guessed I could get a quick meal: Mr. Fish and Chips, in the CVS shopping center on Foothill.

I ordered the fish sandwich, with onion rings as my side, from the friendly woman behind the counter. Without a drink -- who had time? -- my tab was $5.29. A sign asks customers to be patient because the food is made to order. My own order arrived on a plate in the shape of a fish, a cute touch. The verdict? The sandwich was surprisingly good and the onion rings were also a cut above. The batter on both was light and crispy, not heavy as you might fear.

I'll have to go back sometime when I don't have to inhale my food in 15 minutes. Although that Indonesian place will probably get my business next...

Journeying from Ontario into upper Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, I had lunch at Corky's Kitchen and Bakery, a fairly new place at 6403 Haven, just above the 210 Freeway.

The interior (cheerful, bright, with an inviting bakery case and country clutter-type decor) and the menu (pancakes, sandwiches, salads, homey dinner entrees, pies, muffins) remind me of Polly's Bakery Cafe, a SoCal chain I like. Corky's is ambitious: It's open an astonishing 24 hours a day. At least until it sinks in with the owners that no one in Rancho Cucamonga is up past 8:45 p.m.

At any rate, I ordered my baseline sandwich, a tuna melt on sourdough, which proved better than average. The sandwich came with a dinner salad that showed some effort. As Corky's had a half-dozen pies on hand, I tried a slice of Dutch apple. It was practically a meal in itself, bursting with tart apples. Corky's is pretty far out of my way, and yet I can see myself going back on a long lunch hour sometime. Unless the mood strikes me at 3 a.m.

UPDATE: Corky's, I've since learned, was opened by Mike and Jennifer Towles after closing their Tole House Cafe in the same shopping center. It's named for Mike's late grandmother.

Before Monday's Pomona council meeting, I dropped into Bravo Burgers for a bite. It's apparently a small chain operation, with an outlet in La Verne, among other cities. The one I visited is in Pomona, at Orange Grove and White avenues, next to DiCarlo Liquor and its neon champagne bubbles sign.

Nicer inside than you'd expect -- Bravo, not DiCarlo -- and my $2.85 burger was hot and satisfying, with a thick tomato slice, lettuce, pickles and onion. I like how it came not only wrapped in paper, but served on a paper plate. Made me think of a more genteel era when this newfangled item might have been called a hamburger sandwich.

Overall, I'd rank the Bravo experience up there with Golden Ox, Classic 66, K 'n F and Samo's, Pomona's other contributions to burger excellence. I say bravo.