Philly's Best- Walnut-Closed

Philly's Best
368 N Lemon Ave
Unit B
Walnut, CA
909-598-3650

Philly's Best is rapidly expanding and one of their newest locations is in Walnut. The place is kinda of hard to find but it's in the Von's shopping center on the corner of Lemon and La Puente Rd.

As with all Philly's Best location the restaurant is very clean. I ordered the cheesesteak with prolone and easy onions for $5.83. There is no quality difference between the Walnut location and any other Philly's Best locations I've been to. But the amount of meat and cheese seem to have gotten smaller. The San Dimas location you couldn't see any part of the bread since it was covered with meat and cheese. I don't carry around a scale but I would be this cheesesteak weighed less than the San Dimas location. Dispite the small size, the cheesesteak was very good. Nice blending of cheese and meat. All their products are shipped from Philly.

I went back and ordered an American Hoagie, which is ham, salami, bologna and cheese. Top picture. All the ingredients were very fresh. The hoagies come with oil and oregano but I think they overpower the sandwich, so I have them put mayo instead. I like the hoagie but again is on the high side. A good once in awhile place to go.

I asked the cashier, if this owner also owned the San Dimas location. He said no. Then while eating I noticed his t shirt that listed the Walnut and the Buena Park locations. So I assume the same person owns both places. The cashier might want to mention that or the owner might want to inform his employees about that. But the service was good and fast.

As I mentioned in the San Dimas review, the food is good but on the expensive side. I wouldn't make this an everyday place to pick up lunch but they have good quality food and service. Can't ask for much more.

Backwoods BBQ-Closed

Backwoods BBQ
4300 Green River Rd Ste 102
Corona, CA 92880-1506
(951) 371-7227

I found Backwoods BBQ while doing a search for BBQ places in the Inland Empire. So after about a year, I decide to finally try Backwoods. It's pretty easy to get to, right off the 91 freeway at Greenriver.

I go at about 4pm and nobody was in the restaurant. But the restaurant is huge and has a few pool tables and a couple TV's to watch games. I order the one meat dinner with tri-tip chili and macaroni salad as my two sides. for $9.69. I wait about ten minutes for the food to arrive. The cashier seemed like the only worker actually in the restaurant. Two other workers are outside on a smoking break. One of the worker comes back and I gets my order ready.

The meal finally arrives and it looks good. Four decent sized spare ribs and nice cups of chili and mac salad. I taste the tri tip chili first. Big mistake. It is very spicy and spicy food isn't for me. There were small bits of tri tip in there but mostly it was filled with beans. I would have liked to seen more balance between the tri tip and beans. To calm down the spice, I try the mac salad. Nothing special about it, I bet it's one of those premade mac salads you buy at Costco.

Finally I go onto the ribs. Not that impressed. First of all it seems as though the ribs were reheated in the microwave and not on a grill. The ribs were very tough and they left that membrane on. Hey if you're going to have a BBQ place, please take off the membrane. There was no smoke flavor, even though they say it's mesquite smoked. The BBQ sauce is ok but nothing special.

I wasn't impressed with Backwoods and I wouldn't go back.

Morons

The only downside of a blog is some morons who have nothing better to do than write crank emails. So to honor them here are their emails minus some of the four letter words they used.

From a MORON named Pete Champion

petechamp@hotmail.com

I read some of your "reviews." Man, you are an idiot....Moron.

Moron Number Two.

Frank Rizzo

babab00ee@yahoo.com

hey fat ***

i read your restaurant reviews. if you're looking for a big, meaty, good tasting hot dog to put in your mouth, just ask your buddy to unzip his pants. that way you don't have to worry about not having "the right kind of mustard"...do everyone a favor- go back to baltimore. you pickle sucker. and before you leave, take all of your reviews and stick 'em up your ***!

Senor Baja-El Taco Nazo-Closed

Senor Baja
635 E. Bonita Ave.
San Dimas
909-599-3712

The sign outside says El Taco Nazo but Senor Baja has taken over. Senor Baja is at the corner of a strip mall. All of the stores in the strip mall have been closed for a long time. But Senor Baja was doing a steady business the day I went.

As you maybe able to tell, every Wednesday is 99 cent fish tacos!!! I am very impressed with their fish tacos.

The fish is lightly breaded and very moist and flakey inside. The toppings are all fresh. You feel as though they caught the fish right that morning and served it up in the afternoon.

Senor Baja has 18 other locations. I was very impressed with their San Dimas location. A very clean dining room and very quick friendly service.

Colima Burger-Closed

Colima Burger
19811 Colima Rd.
Suite 520
Walnut, CA 91789
909-595-7355

Colima Burger is your average "greasy spoon" restaurant. As always I ordered the burger combo with well done fries for $4.75 which is about average for burger places.

I usually order no onions but I just forgot tonight. The burger is loaded with onions and I might have scraped off 8 ounces of onions!!! The patty is pretty thin and flavorless. The thousand island dressing was ok and the tomato was cut very thick.

The fries weren't close to being well done. They tasted as though they were sitting under heat lamps for awhile.
Overall not impressed by Colima Burger. Burger Depot which is about seven miles away serves a much better burger at a great price after 2pm, 99 cents!!! Some of their other items like the chicken sandwich and chicken fried steak sandwich are pretty good.

The figure you see is a Frank Thomas Starting Lineup. As of 9pm PST,Wednesday December 7, 2005 , Frank Thomas will not be a member of the Chicago White Sox after 16 great seasons. Many times he was the only player worth watching on the White Sox. I can understand why the White Sox let him go, it will be weird seeing The Big Hurt in another uniform. I could bring myself to eating a Chicago style hot dog or pizza.

Tito's Taco

Tito's Tacos
11222 Washington Place
Culver City, CA
310-391-5780

Tito's has been serving good tacos for as long as I can remember. The food at tacos are comfort food. It's not real Mexican food but it's damn good. I ordered two tacos with cheese and a large strawberry soda for $4.85. Cheese is 40 cents extra on tacos.

The tacos are shredded beef and deep fried. I love the crunch of the taco shell. The beef topped with lettuce and cheese, which are always fresh.

Tito's is the place for good food at cheap prices. Keep in mind that lines can be very long. Waiting 20 minutes for food is normal.

Pollo Campero-Long Beach-Closed

Pollo Campero
281 Willow St.
Long Beach
562-981-8938

WOW what can I say. I've heard stories about this place. The SEVEN hour wait when they first opened in LA. The good tasting chicken. So I decided to try it myself. I went to the LB location and they had a $1.99 Try It Menu. I ordered the breast and fries. Well what a great deal. The chicken is one of the best around. The skin is crunchy enough but too salty for my taste. But the chicken is sooo moist and tender. As you know breast pieces can be very dry. But as I sliced open the chicken juices were everywhere. The best fast food style fried chicken in LA.

I would go back again and again. There are currently 10 locations in the LA area.