Recently in Restaurants: La Verne Category

Roberta's Village Inn, 2326 D St. (at Bonita), La Verne

The Village Inn is a diner, not a hotel, in downtown La Verne, open since 1969. I wrote a column about the restaurant, but that was about the ownership change and the people aspect. (I'll put the column at the end of this writeup.)

Roberta's is a charming place with Coca-Cola kitsch, gingham curtains, a counter with swivel seats, two dining rooms, a lot of regulars, a friendly staff and a homey atmosphere.

They do breakfast and lunch at Roberta's, with all the staple items. I had breakfast there with a friend Monday. He had the special, chorizo and eggs ($6, pictured), which he liked. I had pancakes and sausage ($5.75) and had no complaints.

They also do dinner at Roberta's now, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The menu only has a half-dozen items, but there's always a special or two. Back in December I had chicken parmigiana over fettucine ($10), which was not only pretty good but enough food to take half home.

I returned two weeks ago for dinner and had lobster ravioli (ooh la la), price forgotten but probably $10 (pictured). The Italian wedding soup is excellent, the ravioli was good (perhaps oversauced) and it's a good thing for my waistline there were only two garlic knots. Desserts included a couple of cobblers.

So, Roberta's is a neat little place, where the food is solid but unspectacular. Dinner, though, is better than you'd expect.

Warehouse Pizza, 2340 D St. (at Bonita), La Verne

Anchoring a prime corner in downtown La Verne, Warehouse practically anchors the entire downtown. Its website says it's been there 23 years, but that seems to refer only to the current owners. A University of La Verne alumnus friend says he was eating at Warehouse as early as 1971.

Either way, it's an expansive place -- could it have been a former citrus warehouse? -- with a large, open interior and exposed industrial ceiling. Equally large is the patio, only a portion of which could fit into the above photo. Warehouse is a favorite of ULV students and professors, as well as Bonita High students, sports teams and families.

The menu has a dozen sandwiches and three salads, plus beer and wine, but the pizza is the main reason anyone goes (the beer may be second). A 14-inch mushroom ($13.95), pictured, comes loaded, the sauce tomatoey, the crust chewy, but crispy at the edge.

For its size, La Verne has a lot of homegrown pizza parlors (Red Devil, Sal's, Pizza Barn, Pizza N Stuff and maybe one or two I've forgotten), with Warehouse perhaps the best, and certainly the most fondly regarded.

Two ULV alums are said to have opened Warehouse knockoffs in Hawaii and Colorado, duplicating the interior to the last neon beer sign, hanging ladder and miniature gas pump. The original is a classic college-town pizza parlor. Long may it bake.

Aoki, 2307 D St. (at 3rd), La Verne.

Aoki has been a fixture in downtown La Verne since the '90s, anchoring a busy corner near the university. Outside there's a protected patio; the interior is homey, with photos of customers along one wall and a mom and pop atmosphere.

I've been there a few times over the years and dropped in for lunch on Wednesday.

I got a two-combination lunch ($7.95), choosing sushi and sashimi. This comes with a bowl of miso soup and, as can be seen above, rice and a small salad. The sushi and sashimi both included salmon, tuna and yellowtail. It was a satisfying lunch and a good deal for the price.

It may be another year or two before I make it back, but I suspect Aoki will be there waiting.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Sal's Pizza and The Bagelry, 2095 Foothill Blvd. (at D), 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?

Angel's Place, 2325 D St. (at 3rd), 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.

The Tenderloin, 2080 Foothill Blvd. (at B), 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.

Mr. Fish and Chips, 1453 Foothill Blvd. (at Wheeler), La Verne.

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...