Recently in Restaurants: Chino Category

Jollibee, 4021 Grand Ave. (at Pipeline), Chino

The dominant fast-food chain in the Philippines, Jollibee has locations elsewhere in Southeast Asia and in the United States that are often beloved by Filipino immigrants who remember the food from childhood. Its only Inland Valley outlet is in Chino, a city that must be more exotic than we'd dreamed.

I drove down for lunch one recent Saturday and found Jollibee in the outdoor food court of Chino Spectrum Towne Center, by a Starbucks. The interior resembles a slightly louder Pinkberry, with orange molded-plastic chairs and white tables. One wall is filled by a photo mural of children's faces.

The menu has Filipino takes on hamburgers, fried chicken and spaghetti. I ordered a combo with spaghetti and one piece of chicken with a soda ($6). The dark-meat chicken (the chain calls it ChickenJoy) came with a cup of gravy. The spaghetti had a sweet marinara sauce, a sliced-up hot dog and melted cheese on top.

I can't say this was delicious, but the food and ambience were pleasantly odd. Interesting to see another culture's slightly surreal version of American staples. I might go back sometime to try the YumBurger just to see what that's all about. Service was cheerful but emphatic. Outdoors, there's seating around a burbling fountain, relaxing on a warm afternoon.

This Jollibee also has a bakery, named Red Ribbon, that makes cakes and small snacks. The restaurant hosts children's parties that feature an appearance by the Jollibee mascot, a smiling bee who wears -- why not? -- a blazer and a chef's hat.

Phillys Best, 4320 E. Mills Circle Road (at Milliken), Ontario; also 4047 Grand Ave. (at Pipeline), Chino; and 806 E. Arrow Hwy. (at 57), San Dimas

Phillys Best (note shameful lack of apostrophe) is a chain of cheesesteak shops with 20 locations in SoCal, including three in the Inland Valley (see above). Because the number is so limited, Phillys Best qualifies under my ground rules here of focusing on mom and pop or relatively scarce chain restaurants.

I've been to the Phillys Best on the periphery of Ontario Mills a few times over the years. They have a range of steak sandwiches, hoagies, burgers and chicken sandwiches.

I visited this week for a mushroom steak with cheese ($7.50). It's a hearty sandwich and like the others is served on a soft Amoroso brand roll from Philadelphia. I see in the fine print that the cheese is American and that you can substitute provolone or Wiz, as in Cheez Wiz, which cheesesteak-wise is technically more authentic, albeit disgusting.

They have above-average fries ($2) and, for people with East Coast tastes, Wise brand chips, Tastykakes and Frank's Soda. The decor is sparse but includes boards listing Philly natives and Philly trivia and a blowup aerial photo of the city.

I haven't been to Philadelphia and can't judge how the cheesesteaks here compare, but they taste pretty good to me, and the result seems a lot more Philly than, say, Sbarro is to N.Y. If you've been, what do you think?

La Creperie, 3968 Grand Ave. (at Spectrum East), Chino

Currently the Inland Valley's only French restaurant, after the demise of La Provencal, Brasserie Astuce and others, La Creperie is -- sacre bleu! -- a chain, with two locations in Long Beach. Its third and sole other location is in Chino, of all places, where it opened early in 2011 in the Spectrum Marketplace center.

La Creperie Bohemian Bistro and Bar, as it's called, took over a former Black Angus steakhouse that has street frontage on Grand Avenue. There's an outdoor patio and copious floor space inside, faux chandeliers, a bar, comfortable booths and French murals. The vibe is casual.

I met three friends there for lunch recently. The menu has savory and sweet crepes, omelets, quiches, soups, salads, paninis, and a half-dozen dinner entrees. You can get escargot as an appetizer. Chino will never be the same.

Three of us had crepes -- the Parisian (chicken, spinach, red peppers, mozzarella, basil and feta cream sauce, $11, pictured), the Crepe Monsieur (ham, cheese, bechamel sauce, $11) and the Ratatouille (tomatoes, onion, roasted red peppers, zucchini, pesto and herbs, $10) -- and the fourth had an omelet, the Belmont (spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, Feta and ricotta cheese, $10).

Well, we all liked our meals, although the Parisian's sauce didn't agree with me, making me the least enthusiastic of our group. The one who added a cup of French onion soup ($7) pronounced it fantastic. (Or perhaps "fantastique.") Service was fine and water glasses were refilled frequently. The desserts, by the way, sounded delicious (one passed by, bound for another table) but we were too full to try one.

La Creperie isn't great French cooking, but it's okay, and far better than no French restaurant at all. It's a nice, not to mention unexpected, addition to Chino.

A mural in the bar area.

Avocado House, 11618 Central Ave. (at Francis), Chino

An old house with a country feel on the northern tip of Chino was converted into a restaurant in February 2009. A couple of readers have recommended it, and I pass by it frequently, so on a recent Saturday a couple of friends and I met there for breakfast.

The property still has a couple of outbuildings, one of them a small house, plus an enormous avocado tree, a tree swing and a parking lot that's not large enough for the restaurant's popularity. They have seating on the wraparound porch and several tables in the homey interior, which has wood floors, a fireplace (with Christmas decorations on the mantle in our early December visit) and cupboards.

Very charming. I was a little surprised that ordering is done at a counter that fronts the kitchen rather than at your table, but the system must work for them. They bring the food out to you. Overall, service is competent but not quite as welcoming as you might think from the grandma's-house setting.

The food, however, was quite good. My friends had the garden omelet and the meat lovers omelet (each $8.50), canceling each other out I guess, but each ending up impressed. One bought a gift certificate on the way out. I had the country breakfast ($8) with two eggs, diced potatoes, sausage and toast. Mine was what you'd expect, although the potatoes were notable. I don't have any complaints, I just should've tested the kitchen with something more exotic.

My friends also got the avocado toast ($2.75), which is two slices of bread spread with a thick layer of avocado. They pronounced it delicious. I've never been an avocado fan, so I took their word for it. Pictured is the avocado toast and garden omelet.

Avocado House also does lunch. Some of the sandwiches and salads sound awfully tempting. Check the full menu here.

Guasti Homestyle Cafe, 13526 Central Ave. (at H), Chino

Some of you may remember when the Homestyle Cafe was in Guasti, the old winery village near Ontario Airport, and was beloved by truckers and families alike who liked the big portions and homey atmosphere. After its demise, the restaurant was bought by the Tole House Cafe people and reopened briefly as Guasti Cafe before having to move in 2007 due to pending redevelopment.

Now using both names, the cafe is 7 miles southwest in Chino, in a former pizza parlor with a sprawling layout, stone lions out front and a small chapel in back. The masonry building dates to 1923.

I don't know how many customers made the move, but on a recent visit, I recognized several employees from the previous location, including the longtime cashier and a couple of the servers. The manager is Tommy Hornbake, formerly of Ontario's Iron Skillet.

The menu is pretty similar to the old place, emphasizing breakfast staples but also adding soups, salads and sandwiches for lunch; weekday hours are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., and until 3 p.m. on weekends.

I've never been there for lunch but I've made it in for breakfast a couple of times. The pancake combo ($9) provides two pancakes, two sausages or bacon strips and two eggs. The eggs and sausage were fine; the pancakes are a foot in diameter and nearly an inch high in the center. I'm not a "big food" fan, but if you are, this is the meal for you.

They'll give you a pizza box in which to take home your uneaten pancake portion. That's my kitchen counter and takehome pancake-and-a-half at left. Plop the pancake on a plate, put a paper towel on top and zap it for 45 seconds or so. I got five meals (!) out of this one order: one in the restaurant and four at home. Not bad for the money, although I didn't feel like eating a pancake again for a couple of weeks.

Lee's Sandwiches, 3938 Grand Ave. (at Spectrum East), Chino

Lee's is a San Jose-based chain specializing in banh mi, which are Vietnamese sandwiches. A Lee's opened a few months ago in Chino, of all places, its first Inland Valley incursion. The shop is in the food court of the sprawling Chino Spectrum Marketplace shopping center on the north side of Grand.

I only knew Lee's by its excellent reputation. I checked it out for a recent lunch. They have Asian and American sandwiches on 10-inch baguettes and European sandwiches on croissants. (Remember the French influence in Vietnam.) A neon sign in the window announces "Hot Baguettes Now," akin to Krispy Kreme's donuts sign.

I had the grilled pork banh mi, which comes on fresh-baked bread with pickled daikon and carrot, onion, jalapenos, cilantro and mayo. The price was an absurd $2.79. The mango smoothie I got to wash it down was $2.95, also a good deal.

There's only a four-seat counter inside for dining in, but a large patio sufficed on a comfortable day. The sandwich was excellent, especially notable for the bread, and was filling, and the drink was good too.

Banh mi can be found at some Vietnamese restaurants locally, and I know of one banh mi shop, Super Sandwiches in Montclair. If there were a Lee's closer to our Ontario office, I would eat there all the time.

Taylor's Cafe, 7049 Chino Ave. (at Euclid), Chino

Perhaps the Inland Valley's only weigh station/steakhouse combo (unless Fleming's in Victoria Gardens has added truck scales), Taylor's is a delightful contradiction. The intersection itself shows Chino in transition: tidy tract homes on one corner, cows or fields on a couple of others, Taylor's and a few semi-trucks on another.

The window-free restaurant and bar is nothing fancy: a paneled bar with a bug zapper and an adjoining room with equally austere furnishings that include a vintage, but empty, cigarette machine. The cafe has been there for decades and caters to an oldtime Chino dairy crowd. It's relaxed and informal.

I've been to Taylor's a couple of times for breakfast, but I'd never had a steak. A friend who swears Taylor's has the best ribeye around invited me out recently at lunchtime. We sat in the paneled bar, the TV news showing hopeful news about the oil spill, and had the ribeye lunch ($14) with salad, fries, French bread and slices of bleu cheese.

The steaks, medium rare, had a peppery tang and minimal fat, and were enormous, probably close to a pound each. Excellent for the price, and awfully good for any price.

They also have top sirloin for $10 and porterhouse for $16, plus burgers for $6. Cheeseburgers are also $6. Breakfast, served until 3 p.m., includes pancakes, eggs, huevos rancheros and Basque sausage. Some swear by the carne asada burritos.

I wrote a column on Taylor's a couple of years ago; you can read that by clicking below. A long review on Yelp can be read here and a neat writeup with photos can be found here.

Papachino's Grill and Greens, 14501 Ramona Ave. (at Eucalyptus), Chino

Papachino's is a locally owned restaurant in the Home Depot center in an industrial area a few blocks east of the 71 Freeway. The casual eatery opened in 2009 and offers salads and seafood items, all priced below $10. Orders are placed at the counter and food is brought to your table. You can eat in the vaguely tropical interior or outside on the expansive patio, which is shaded by large umbrellas.

I visited with three friends last weekend. Our table got two wraps, a salad and a fish plate. The veggie wrap ($5.49) had zucchini, bell peppers, sweet onions and asparagus (!); the shrimp wrap ($6.99) had the same plus shrimp. Each came with fries. The grilled chicken taco salad (price forgotten; it was the daily special, not on the menu) came in a tortilla bowl. I had the grilled mahi-mahi ($8.99), which came with rice pilaf and pineapple cole slaw.

All four of us left satisfied, to a person describing the food as tasty and the portions as filling but not enough to leave us stuffed. But we didn't leave for a long time, opting to enjoy the warm afternoon on the patio.

I like the concept of a reasonably priced place to get seafood, most of it unfried. If I lived or worked closer to Papachino's, I'd probably be there often. As it is, Papachino's is a long haul for me, but I do hope to make it back. Yelpers say the fish and chips are especially good, and many other menu items looked enticing.

You can view the menu here.

* The New Diner visited a few days after we did and reports: "I would go back to Papachino's any time."

Pizzaioli Ristorante Italiano, 3920 Grand Ave. (at Pipeline), Chino.

I'm not sure how you pronounce the name exactly -- "pete's-ay-ee-oh-lee," perhaps -- but I sometimes think of adding an "ee-oh-ee-oh," as if we were yodeling. Anyhow, I met up there for lunch last weekend with readers Doug Evans, Hugh McBride and Elizabeth Casian, allowing for a four-way review.

Pizzaioli, in the Chino Spectrum center, has been in business since 1995. Despite the shopping center setting, the interior greets you with a well-stocked bar and an elegant feel. The dining room is adjacent and there's also patio seating. The ambience is upscale-casual, reminiscent of Macaroni Grill. The menu boasts fancy pizzas, paninis, salads, pastas, seafood, steaks and chops, with entrees ranging from $10 to $30.

Our table had eggplant parmesan ($15), described as "fantastic"; chicken al vino ($15), "very good"; manicotti ($13), called "okay" (blah cheese, decent sauce, but a large enough portion to take home half); and chicken with spinach ravioli ($15, pictured), mine, which I'd say was "not bad," although the presentation looks more slipshod than it seemed at the time. Some of these items were daily specials not on the regular menu. We also had dinner salads ($7 each). Service was attentive but they knew to leave us alone to enjoy a long, chatty lunch.

Overall, good, although perhaps a few bucks pricier than strictly necessary. You could do a lot worse. Apparently it's especially popular for weekend dinners. Pizzaioli-oh-lee-ay!

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.

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?

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.