Recently in Restaurants: Pomona Category

Emiliano's, 896 E. Mission Blvd. (at Caswell), Pomona

Open only a few weeks, Emiliano's replaced a seafood restaurant on the outer reaches of downtown Pomona. I met four friends there for lunch last weekend.

It's a large place on a corner with a big, fresh parking lot. The restaurant interior features thick wooden tables and chairs, a ceiling with wooden beams and fans, adobe-like walls and a stage for live music on weekend nights. It's a sitdown restaurant.

After above-average chips and salsa, our table got tostadas with shrimp and fish ($8), quesa fundido ($6), chicken enchiladas ($9.50), skewers ($11.50), huevos rancheros ($5) and, for me, mixed fajitas ($12.50, pictured). I can't remember the last time I got fajitas; these came with shrimp, chicken and steak, onions, green peppers and tomatoes, and made for a filling meal.

Comments from our group were uniformly positive: "This is cool," "I like the atmosphere," "I would come back." Also, "powerful jukebox," a dry reference to the overly loud music that thankfully was only intermittent. Many of the prices on our menus were blacked out and not replaced by new prices, and the service was friendly but a little haphazard; we had to ask for silverware, that sort of thing.

So, Emiliano's isn't perfect. Pretty good, though.

Sabor Mexicano, 180 E. 6th St. (at Garey), Pomona

Sabor is across Garey from City Hall and the Library and ensconced behind a vacuum cleaner repair shop. But -- capsule review -- it doesn't suck.

I'd been to Sabor Mexicano ("Flavors of Mexico") a couple of times five years ago for dinner before council meetings, but the kitchen tended to take longer than I had. It's not a taqueria, it's a real sitdown restaurant. Casting about for a place to meet a friend recently, I remembered Sabor and that it served food from a couple of regions of Mexico poorly represented in restaurants.

Imagine my delight in rediscovering that one of them is Mexico City, which I visited early in 2011 on vacation. When I inquired in print after my return about Distrito Federal-style food locally, nobody mentioned Sabor.

The menu has sections for the DF and Oaxaca, as well as offering tortas, mariscos, jugos and licuados. (A mural outside the restaurant depicts a map of Mexico with Oaxaca pinpointed.)

The DF section (comida estilo Distrito Federal) has alambres, quesadillas, huaraches, gorditas, sopes, pambasos and cemotas poblanas, plus tacos and burritos. Admittedly, I didn't know what some of these were, and many seemed like variations of the same item, but at least it was something.

I went with a quesadilla with squash blossoms (top right), which was familiar. The quesadilla was long, more of an oval than the circular U.S. version, and the squash blossoms were much like mushrooms. (I had a burrito with squash blossoms on the street in the DF, and a homemade quesadilla at my friends' apartment; this was a melding of the two and pleasingly reminiscent of each.)

My friend had a huarache with cactus and beans (bottom right), holding the cheese and onions. A huarache is a sandal-shaped thick piece of fried masa with toppings. She pronounced it "quite tasty." For beverages, she had a horchata and I had a watermelon drink. Our items were $5 to $6; exact prices forgotten.

Service was friendly and bilingual. Windows surround the restaurant on two sides and let in plenty of afternoon sunlight. A telenovela played on the TV. Life could be worse.

2nd on Second Street, 171 W. Second St. (at Thomas), Pomona

Opened in 2004 as the very good Second Street Bistro, serving French and Italian food, this location changed hands three or four times before becoming 2nd on Second Street earlier in 2011. If you think that's a strangely redundant name, join the club.

It may have the most pleasant ambience of any place in downtown Pomona, rivaled only by Sakura Ichi. Housed inside an 1891 storefront, there's exposed brick and a pressed tin ceiling, two slow ceiling fans, natural light and strings of carnival lights. The lights are new, as are a couple of flat-screen TVs that play silently, at least during lunch. Otherwise, the place looks as nice as ever. There's also a sidewalk patio and a shaded patio in back.

The food, though, leaves a little to be desired. (See the menu here.) My first visit, I had a pulled pork sandwich ($8.50) with cole slaw; nothing wrong with it, but nothing exceptional either.

The other day I returned with a friend. We each had the black and bleu burger ($8.50), a burger with bleu cheese crumbles, fries on the side. I asked for mine medium rare, my friend asked for hers medium, and both of us got burgers that were overcooked. That aside, the burger was okay, a half pound of angus, but a little dry, and I've had better for the same price.

Service was friendly but unskilled. The server kept trying to take the jacket with the check despite our having settled back for a long chat and the jacket having been untouched. After two attempts, I half-jokingly placed a saucer atop the jacket. Next visit, she tried to take both.

A friend says he likes the dinners, especially the soups, and the musician on Saturday nights. The fact that the restaurant is keeping regular hours again, and is open until 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, is good news. I may even go back. But warily, and wondering if this version of the restaurant will last longer than the last few.

Jinza Teriyaki, 3425 Pomona Blvd. (at Temple), Pomona

I called a Cal Poly Pomona friend for lunch and suggested Curry Up, a campus-adjacent fast-food restaurant I've wanted to visit based on the name alone. She said Curry Up is nothing special and countered with Jinza. Deferring to the local expert, I met her at Jinza.

Housed in a business center, Jinza's storefront isn't much to look at. If you step inside during a lunch hour, as I did, the first thing you notice is lots of people. There was a line to order at the counter and most of the tables were filled.

The restaurant has a kind of food-hall ambience, with plain wooden tables and chairs, cement-block walls, Japanese screens and paper lanterns. Jinza is so popular it expanded into the space next door.

Jinza is beloved by Cal Poly students and Lanterman employees. On Yelp, one student says Jinza is as close to a a college-town gathering spot as Cal Poly has. It's only open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The specialty is teriyaki bowls and plates, although they also have udon, tempura, yakisoba and a few sushi rolls. I had the vegetable pork bowl with brown rice ($7, pictured); my friend had the spicy chicken bowl.

My humble bowl was actually pretty tasty, my friend loved her spicy chicken, and the portions were large. I wouldn't drive across the valley to eat here, but it was a good experience.

In a nice touch, Jinza offers free green tea and prominently displays glasses for serve-yourself water, both no doubt aimed at the penny-conscious college crowd (although this journalist appreciated it too).

The New Diner blogger likes Jinza. I don't know if he's ever been to Curry Up.

Table to Farm Dinners, Fairplex, Pomona

This will be a little different. For one thing, it's fine dining; for another, my meal was comped, i.e., free. I always pay for these Restaurant of the Week meals out of my own pocket, but $75 was a bit much to absorb, so I took the Fair up on the meal (on their third invitation) rather than not go and not write about it. Take this writeup with all that in mind.

McKinley's Grille, the Sheraton's restaurant at Pomona's Fairplex, has been growing produce on an acre in the FairView Farms area of the fairgrounds for its own use and last year began hosting outdoor dinners there on roughly a monthly basis -- bringing, as the name suggests, the dining tables into the farm area.

I attended Aug. 19. So did a lot of people. After a writeup in the Bulletin's Home & Garden section, attendance was 102, more than double the usual number.

After taking a tram from the Sheraton, you walk past the garden plots, where hors d'oeuvres and wine are offered, and then are seated at communal tables. Food is prepared on a grill a few feet away and in an enclosed kitchen. The effect is pleasingly rustic and yet it's also fine dining, which this night included wine pairings, as a jazz duo played.

Dishes, to quote from the menu card, were Santa Barbara spot prawn with chili-fermented tomatillo; farm tomato with dill pollen, extra virgin olive oil, tomato tarragon jam and crisp pappadam; Hoja Santa steamed king salmon with Thai basil fig compote (pictured); Duroc pork belly with farm muscat grapes (pictured); Colorado lamb loin, farm eggplant and toasted sesame; and, for dessert, a cheese plate, farm strawberry creme fraiche tart and creme fraiche ice cream with ginger mint syrup (the syrup was missing, by the way).

Most of this was good to very good, the tomato appetizer, pork belly and tart being the standouts; the bread assortment was also excellent. The salmon was unseasoned and boring, the shrimp soggy. Two people who had the clam fritter hors d'oeuvre said it was rubbery and unpleasant. In another demerit, the plates given to two of us were dusty and we had to wipe them off with our napkins.

As a non-drinker, the wine pairings weren't of interest to me. My friend was of two minds: Because the wines all came from the same winery in Paso Robles, there wasn't a wide range; on the other hand, everyone received the equivalent of a half-bottle or more, which made the $75 price fair. Service was attentive and friendly, although most of the food was presented family style, and the wine kept flowing.

A couple from Chino Hills sitting next to us were there for the first time and were enthusiastic about the food (except the salmon) and the uniqueness of the setting. "It was absolutely worth it," the man said.

A dissenting view was heard from a man who'd been to previous dinners, saying the usual $50 price was a great deal but that $75 that night was too much, especially without the usual individual service.

It's a lovely setting, a novelty night out and a rare chance for fine dining in the Inland Valley, but the experience wasn't without problems. You'll have to decide for yourself if that's worth your $75. The last dinners for the year are planned for Oct. 7 (details are here) and Nov. 4. Contact McKinley's Grill at 909-868-5915 for reservations.

Next week in this space we'll be back to regular-folks food, where we'll all feel more comfortable.

Senor Baja, 405 E. Mission Blvd. (at Elm), Pomona; also in Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Chino, Chino Hills, San Dimas and elsewhere

Senor Baja, which took over several El Taco Nazo locations a couple of years ago, specializes in fish tacos. On Wednesdays, its fish tacos, normally $1.65, are only 99 cents. I went to the downtown Pomona location recently with a friend who raves about the tacos and the price.

This Senor Baja is in a converted Taco Bell, constituting a distinct improvement. I got three fish tacos and a horchata for precisely $5, a cheap dinner.

The tacos arrived fresh and hot. The fish was crisp, not soggy, and there was plenty of it. One taco had two pieces of fish stacked up. As my friend put it, "Sometimes when they feel like they're not giving you enough they give you a second piece of fish." There was probably more fish on that taco than on any three combined from Rubio's. Even better, the tacos were delicious, perhaps the best fish tacos I've had.

This was my first Senor Baja visit. My friend has been to most of them in the area and says the Pomona location may be the most consistent. The seating is on 13 stools inside and at tables outside.

The menu has tacos, burritos, sopes and tortas, most of them fish-based. A shrimp cocktail, at $9, is the most expensive item. Here's a link to a list of locations.

Photo above: Jeff Malet

Cassie's Soul Food Kitchen, 200 E. 1st St. (at Locust), Pomona

Cassie's opened in April in downtown Pomona, in the Antique Row space off 2nd Street vacated by Pomona Baking Co. There's no indoor seating but you can eat at a table out on the plaza, as I did last week for lunch. It's open daily except Sunday.

I had the smothered pork chop ($11), which came with a corn muffin and two sides; I chose mac and cheese and collard greens. The food arrived in a foam tray about five minutes later. Soul food isn't one of my specialties, but the pork chop was tender and the sides were comparable to other versions I've had. I would go back.

Cassie's also has baked and barbecued chicken, a few sandwiches and homemade desserts including banana pudding, 7-Up cake and lemon cake.

The New Diner got to Cassie's before I did and filed this ambivalent report.

Jeff Malet, who contributed two of the photos here, says owner Cassie Edwards, below, is a native of Mississippi and that her son owns Groom City barbershop next door. Bet I know where he eats lunch.

Photo: Jeff Malet

Babylon, 205 E. 2nd St. (at Locust), Pomona

Pomona is where you go for Mexican food, obviously, but the city also has a minor specialty of Mediterranean food. North Garey has two competing Lebanese restaurants in the same shopping center, while downtown has two such restaurants three blocks apart, thanks to the mid-January opening of Babylon, which joins Aladdin 2, its Second Street competition.

Babylon is on a corner in Pomona's Antique Row in a space that's seen a number of short-lived uses in recent years; it was most recently the Hardy Cafe.

Babylon, however, is an ambitious venture. The owner, who used to run Aladdin in Glendora (the inspiration for Pomona's Aladdin Jr.), sunk a boatload of money into making the restaurant a showpiece. The interior is elegant, with white tablecloths and custom oak carving in the ceiling and columns. Outside, there's wraparound sidewalk dining.

They do a $10 lunch buffet on weekdays with a long table of items, laid out on open platters and in steam containers, like a hotel banquet or Kiwanis luncheon. In other words, no sneeze guard. But I won't complain, because the items were uniformly good on a recent visit. A seat outside on a warm afternoon made for a relaxing meal.

There's a fountain a few steps away and a second fountain across the street. Do those count as the rivers of Babylon?

Babylon is open late, until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights and midnight the other days. On weekends they've been offering entertainment -- bellydancers or singers -- with a meal for an all-inclusive fee of $35 or more.

Too rich for my blood, but you ought to try a weeknight dinner (pictured is the chicken kebab, $13 and very good) or the lunch buffet. It beats the one at the more casual Aladdin 2 down the street.

There's a sequel to this restaurant in downtown Pomona named Aladdin Jr. 2, but this is the original, up on North Garey below Foothill Boulevard. It's in a slightly blah shopping center that nevertheless boasts a couple of very good restaurants, notably Los Jarritos.

Aladdin Jr. has a big, landscaped patio for eating or hookah smoking. Inside, there are booths and tables in the dining room, which is decorated by murals that highlight the Disney version of a romanticized Middle East. Kitschy but cute. If memory serves, the staff used to wear vests and fezzes, but they no longer do.

Aladdin has a lunch buffet that's popular, but on a recent mid-afternoon visit, two friends and I opted to order off the menu for fresher fare. A lamb shawarma sandwich ($6.50) was tender, flavorful and practically as big as a football. The lamb kabob ($14) and chicken kabob ($12, pictured) had generous portions of meat, plus rice and a small salad. Good stuff. The lamb guy took half of his order home.

Aladdin is priced between, say, Saca's on the lower end and Casablanca or Mes Amis on the higher end. You get a good amount of food for the money.

Service, by a man I believe was the manager, was friendly and joshing. He kidded the ones in our party who arrived late (who deserved it, which I can say because it wasn't me). Our only complaint were the persistent flies in the window. Maybe they liked the look of the sand in the murals.

Fox Sports Bar and Grill, 333 S. Garey Ave. (at 3rd), Pomona

This bar and grill opened in August in the former El Merendero space on the corner of Third and Garey, right outside the Fox Theater. The bar has 25 TVs, plenty of natural light through the expansive windows, seating at the bar or at bar tables and female servers in striped referee uniforms. Not really my scene, so before a recent City Council meeting, a friend and I had dinner at one of the quieter outdoor tables along Garey.

I was dubious about the menu, which has burgers, a few salads, the usual appetizers and a couple of Mexican items, including something called fish and chip tacos. My recollection is that cheese was an ingredient on a couple of items that don't typically have cheese.

Skeptical about the expertise of the kitchen, I opted for a burger ($8), figuring that was a safe choice, and my friend had the sliders ($10). The burgers are Angus beef and mine was above average, dense and satisfying. The fries that came with it were fine.

I don't think I'd risk ordering a salad here, but you're probably safe with the sandwiches. It's good there's a moderately upscale sports bar downtown, and in a great location. I hope they do well.

Walking back to my car a couple of hours later, I saw about two dozen people inside watching football, plus another two or three on the sidewalk watching through the windows.

Arby's, 2250 N. Garey Ave. (at Arrow), Pomona

There's no need to review Arby's for the food, is there? I had the Arby's combo ($5.50 including tax), a roast beef sandwich, curly fries and soda. It was fine for what it was. My friends had various combos and were moderately satisfied. Really, we were there for the architecture.

This is the cool Arby's with the original Conestoga wagon-shaped building and the original ten-gallon hat sign, as recounted in my column (which you can read by clicking the "continue reading" link below). Can you believe there are fewer than 10 such Arby's left anywhere?

The cramped interior has three booths and one table. I dig the rock walls and giant window. The place to go is the patio out front, just feet from Garey Avenue. The patio tables are original (except for one modern interloper, probably a replacement). The tilted "umbrellas" are awesome. Even the trash receptacles, with a tray holder on top, look vintage.

For a decade, this Arby's and a companion on East Holt (no longer in business) were the only Arby's in the Inland Valley. Anyone have a fond, or even not so fond, Arby's story to share?

Sanamluang Cafe, 1648 Indian Hill Blvd. (at San Bernardino), Pomona

The only Pomona restaurant with a twin in North Hollywood, Sanamluang is located on Indian Hill Boulevard a few blocks south of the 10 Freeway, coincidentally enough in the same block as Mix Bowl Cafe, another well-regarded authentic Thai restaurant.

Sanamluang's interior is pretty funky, done in avocado, orange and brown, with an open feeling and odd angles. A friend and I got a booth and ordered three items: the Thai salad ($5.95), basically an American salad but with peanut sauce; seafood soup ($9.50), with shrimp, squid and mussels; and General's Noodle, the dried version ($6.50), with noodles, shrimp, beef and pork.

The food was fine, but we weren't wowed, not even by the well-reviewed noodle dish. Sanamluang is certainly popular. It was a Friday night and the place was packed, with several large parties and a line out the door by the time we left. But service was poor. The restaurant was understaffed and no one even refilled our water glasses.

I used to be a regular at Sanamluang, a streak that ended a few years ago when a roach crawled across our table, a server casually killed it and no one apologized or gave us a break on the bill. A friend enticed me to Mix Bowl and I came to love the place.

I wouldn't argue anyone out of liking Sanamluang. (Yelpers are evenly split, giving Sanamlaung and Mix Bowl identical 3.5-star ratings.) The interior is a step up from the neon garishness of Mix Bowl and some would prefer the food. I think Mix Bowl has better food and it inarguably has better service. Also, as my (female) friend put it after a close observation of Sanamluang, "The waitresses are prettier at Mix Bowl." The importance of these things can't be discounted.

Sakura Ichi, 101 W. Mission Blvd., Suite 101 (at Garey), Pomona

Pomona is not exactly a hotbed for Japanese food, but Sakura Ichi has occupied a spot in the Mission Promenade center downtown since 2006.

The interior is a large, high-style place, full of modern design touches, making for one of the more impressive restaurant interiors in the Inland Valley. There's a long, gleaming sushi bar, a lounge that is especially impressive in the evening when the lights behind the bar glow and a series of private tatami rooms for larger groups.

The tatami rooms are great fun. You take off your shoes, put on paper slippers and sit on the floor, dangling your legs into a well below your table. A group of us has done this a couple of times for a birthday or before a concert. There's no extra charge for the rooms.

The food is pretty good too. This recent visit I had the Sakura sashimi ($18), which came with a small salad, a bowl of rice and 12 pieces of sashimi, three each of tuna, whitefish, salmon and yellowtail, served on a bed of ice. Nice presentation, and tasty too. I've been here another half-dozen times over the years and enjoyed my meals.

The main knock that you hear is that service, while friendly, can be spotty. Our previous visit, our group of 10 got our food at various times, with me receiving mine last, maybe 45 minutes later. And I got one of the specials, salmon carapaccio. (On the other hand, I have to admit it was excellent.) This recent visit, we had no problems with the service at all.

Sakura Ichi (the name means "Cherry Blossom No. 1") is not the best sushi, but it's good enough, it's arguably the best restaurant downtown and for groups especially, it offers a fun experience. Sakura Ichi wouldn't be out of place in Little Tokyo, where a reservation for a tatami room would probably be hard to come by, but here it's one of the better-kept secrets.

Jicamex, 604 E. Mission Blvd. (at Linden), Pomona

Jicamex may or may not qualify as home cooking, but it operates from a house, a big old yellow one, a holdover on a busy commercial street. I'd heard good things about this place, which opened in 2009, and checked it out for lunch this week.

Most of the seating is outside on a giant shaded patio; there are a few tables inside. You order from a window outside. Tacos are a mere dollar, burritos $4. A big spender, I got an asada torta for $5 and a jamaica drink for $1.

The sandwich was large, on soft bread, stuffed with meat, beans, onions, lettuce, cheese, tomato, onion and mayo. One of the better tortas I've had. The menu also has quesadillas and sopes. After reading the reviews on Yelp, I'll have to try the costillas, described as a pork sparerib in a taco.

This'll be a nice place to go for lunch or on a warm summer evening. In another plus, Jicamex is open until midnight. I'd rate Jicamex as one of the best Mexican restaurants downtown.

El Merendero, 242 S. Garey Ave. (at 2nd), Pomona

El Merendero, which already had (and still has) a La Verne location, was a pioneer in downtown Pomona, arriving in 1980 and occupying the corner of the Fox Theater building until moving a block away in 2008 to much nicer quarters. Check the lovely mural. The new location has table service too. Alas, two years in, service remains shaky. I'm not sure the expanded menu has adjusted to the new surroundings either.

Five of us ate there prior to a concert at the Fox. Chips and salsa arrived. We liked both but the salsa's presentation in a plastic to-go container, with a lid, hints at the awkward transition to a full-service restaurant.

Our table had two enchiladas ($5.95), a chile relleno and carne asada ($8.50) (pictured), camarones rancheros ($9.25), a chile relleno ($5.95) and a milanesa steak torta ($4.95) (also pictured). The first three plates were enjoyed by their diners; the camarones customer was impressed by the number of shrimp. My torta was acceptable, although I've had better. The solo relleno diner, who's more exacting, said it wasn't cooked through and had a crunchy rather than soft exterior. She doesn't intend to go back.

The service was friendly, when we got it; nobody came to the table for the first 10 minutes (the first-timers began to wonder if they were supposed to order from the cashier) and at the end, the credit card transaction took at least five minutes.

I like El Merendero but have to say it's not my first choice for downtown dining. Somehow I liked it better when it was basically a taqueria and burrito joint in the then-dumpy Fox and you ordered at the counter. The new location raises expectations but can't quite meet them. That mural sure is pretty, though.

Next door is El Merendero's popular panaderia, which moved along with the restaurant and seems to have made a more successful transition.

Rocco's Taccos, 669 Indian Hill Blvd. (at Holt), Pomona.

Yes, Rocco's really does spell its product that way, a joke that may or may not be worth the confusion. Rocco's recently filled a space where every tenant, it seems, is doomed to failure after its year is up. (The most recent victim of the curse was Pittsburgh Broasted Chicken.) But perhaps Rocco's will escape that fate.

I had a quick dinner there Monday before a council meeting. The woman behind the counter was cheerful. I asked if there were any specialties and she recommended the fish and shrimp tacos. At $1.75 each, they were pretty good.

Besides the usual tacos ($1.15 to $1.75) and burritos ($4.50 to $5.50), Rocco's also has an array of tortas ($5). One is the La Cubana. I wonder what's in the one named La Pomona?

I wouldn't say Rocco's lives up to its slogan of "Best tacos in town" (see photo); in fact, last time I checked you could get better tacos across the street at Mariscos de Ensenada No. 5, although you'd have to factor in the time and money for table service. But as a taqueria, and for the money, Rocco's is okay.

If the name or logo ring any bells, the same family also owns Rocco's Pizza in Montclair. Can Rocco's Sushi be next?

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: 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: 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: 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.

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: Nancy's Tortilleria, 348 S. Towne Ave. (at 3rd), 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: Omana's, 1050 W. Holt Ave. (at Currier), Pomona.

Omana's is 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.

Hilltop Jamaican Market and Restaurant, 1061 E. Holt Ave. (at Clark), 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: King's Teriyaki, 1175 E. Holt Ave. (at Clark), 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.)

This week's restaurant: Macho Pollo, 1245 E. Holt (at East End), Pomona.

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.

This week's restaurant: Pomona Fish Market, 295 S. Park Ave. (at Third), Pomona.

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.

Bravo Burgers, 1215 N. White Ave. (at Orange Grove), Pomona; also 4968 Pipeline Ave. (at Chino Hills Parkway), Chino Hills.

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.