Free Firecracker Chicken Breast! Free Firecracker Chicken Breast! Free Firecracker Chicken Breast!

Panda Express will be celebrating the return of its Firecracker Chicken Breast by offering a coupon for a free single-sized portion of Firecracker Chicken
Breast to its Facebook fans on Thursday, February 3.

February 3, not coincidentally, is the first day of the Chinese New Year celebration.

The entre consists of strips of marinated chicken breast, red, green and
yellow bell peppers, sliced onions and red chili peppers cooked with Panda’s original “firecracker”
sauce.

The limited-time menu item is available now and will only be available until March 1.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Asian grocer on the way

99 Ranch, the Asian supermarket
stalwart, is planning to open at the end of the year on the southeast
corner of Archibald and Base Line in Rancho Cucamonga. 99 Ranch (or is it 99 Rancho?) will
be catty-corner to the 99 Cents store.

The grocery store will
replace Albertson’s, which closed April 2009. It will be the second 99
Ranch in the Inland Empire. The other one is in Chino Hills.

Shrimp giveaway at Panda Express on Wednesday

Attention Panda Express fans!

38401-honeywalnutshrimp.png

On Wednesday (March 10), you’ll be able to get a free single serving of their new honey walnut shrimp…if you’re a fan of theirs on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

They’ll be posting coupons for the free entre on those social networking sites.

We here at Dine 909 are Facebook holdouts. Or you could say we’re Twitter snobs.

Of course, Panda Express has only tweeted twice. I guess they don’t have much to say.

But we’re now following them on Twitter, so we can get our coupon!

The new dish is “made with fresh tempura shrimp, wok-tossed in Panda’s signature gourmet honey sauce and topped with glazed walnuts,” according to a press release.

Sounds delish…log in and get ready for Wednesday!

Update: Follow this link for the coupon.

P.F. Chang’s new Happy Hour prices make us really, really happy

Earlier this month, P.F. Chang’s launched a new Happy Hour, which runs from 3 to 6 p.m. every day.

Every day.

EVERY DAY.

A quick glance revealed nearly all of the items on the Happy Hour menu are at least $2 off their usual prices. Most of the items I compared were $3 less.

Happy Hour items are priced from $3 to $6…get it? 3 to 6 p.m. — $3 to $6 prices? Clever, huh?

Of course, there is one item (a glass of Pabst Blue Ribbon) that’s only $2, but let’s pretend we didn’t see that.

We stumbled upon the Happy Hour this past Friday afternoon at the Victoria Gardens location in Rancho Cucamonga.

The result? For $20 and pennies per person (including tax, but not tip), we had a delicious, filling meal that included a wide variety of food, a high-end Margarita and dessert.

Follow the jump for more details.
Continue reading “P.F. Chang’s new Happy Hour prices make us really, really happy” »

What’s for dinner tonight?

Once again, our friends at Pick Up Stix have graced our email inbox with notifications of deals.

So, we here at Dine 909 are passing them along to you, Our Gentle Readers.

And their timing couldn’t have been more perfect, since one of the deals occurs on Tuesdays and the other takes place on Wednesdays.

In actuality, the dated deals are extensions of currently-running offers. Tuesdays (after 5 p.m.) brings two chicken entres, steamed white or brown rice and two vegetable egg rolls for $9.99. Wednesdays, you can purchase their cream cheese wontons for only 25, with a minimum purchase of two.

No coupon is necessary for either of these deals.

However, you can either click here for a coupon that gives you a free entre with the purchase of another, or you can click here for a gaggle (I believe that’s the correct term) of coupons that includes that buy-one-get-one-free coupon and others, including $5 off $20.

Thanks again, Tom!

If you work for a restaurant and want to send us some deals to share with our readers, feel free to email us at dine909@inlandnewspapers.com.

Well, at least somebody’s been reading this blog

Dine 909 got a little note the other day from Tom over at Pick Up Stix restaurants. He wanted to let us know that they are having a buy-one-entre-get-one-free deal going on right now.

Pick Up Stix has 10 locations in the Inland Empire: San Bernardino, Fontana, Riverside (Canyon Crest and Riverside Plaza), Rancho Cucamonga, Mira Loma, Corona, South Corona, Upland and Chino Hills.

There are a few exceptions to the deal, or course: It’s not good on their Dragon Deals value menu, kids meals or the $5.99 chicken wok combo. Nor is it good on specials or appetizers. Um, and don’t even think of photocopying the coupon.

You have to follow this link and print out the coupon to take advantage of the deal. The coupon is good until the end of May.

However, if you follow this link, you’ll find the buy-one-entre-get-one-free coupon and several more, including free cream cheese wontons with the purchase of two entres, $5 off a $20 purchase and any entre salad for $4.99.

So have at it!

Thanks, Tom!

‘Lainey heads to San Bernardino for lunch

Wow, that Elaine Lehman sure gets around.

I mean, she works for the Daily Bulletin in Ontario, but she eats here and there and everywhere.

Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana…Yucaipa.

And San Bernardino.

This isn’t her first visit to our fair city, and I’m sure it isn’t her last.

This particular trip was to an old standby, The Little Dragon on Highland Avenue.

Continue reading “‘Lainey heads to San Bernardino for lunch” »

Glad because it’s Friday…

…and Friday always brings new reviews.

Well, that, and the obvious.

This week, we’ve got David Cohen’s review of AK Lotus Garden on Hospitality Lane in San Bernardino.

Don’t know where the “AK” came from, but Lotus Garden is a longtime mainstay on Hospitality Lane. I haven’t been for years, but from what I remember, it was pretty good.

Cohen agrees…he gave it four stars.

However, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d consider $25-35 per person “relatively economical.” For that price, and a sampling of 10 dishes, I’m sure you’re going to be carrying home lots of those cardboard take-home cartons though.

My last visit to Lotus Garden was with a vegetarian friend, and he ordered all faux meat dishes for us. They were very delicious and if nobody told you they weren’t meat, you probably wouldn’t guess.

Read David’s review here.

Out in Fontana, Elaine Lehman reviews Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, on Sierra Lakes Parkway (just down from the brand-spankin’-new Mimi’s Cafe…more on that later).
Continue reading “Glad because it’s Friday…” »

Dim sum virgin no more

Dear Diary: Today’s the day I lost my dim sum virginity.

A co-worker (Hi, Karen!) had invited me several times out to join her at Empress Pavilion in L.A.’s Chinatown, but it never came to fruition.
Until today.
Despite having worked until 1 a.m., I dragged myself out of bed and was on the way to the Sierra Madre Gold Line station in Pasadena at 8:15 a.m.
I arrived in about an hour, parked the car, climbed up the stairs and crossed over the freeway, caught the rail line to Chinatown and met her and her husband and two of their grandchildren at the restaurant shortly after 10 a.m.

Continue reading “<i>Dim sum</i> virgin no more” »