Mr. G's

Mr. G
2767 Diamond Bar Blvd
Diamond Bar, CA 91765
909-598-9400

A buddy and I did a taste test for G best pizza in Diamond Bar. We tried Papa G's and Mr. G's. Mr. G's, is suppose to be a NY style pizza place. But their personal pizza wasn't the thin crust NY style pizza. It was regular crust pizza.

I didn't actually go here. My buddy picked up the pizza, so I'm not sure how the service was. They are doing a lot of renovation to that shopping center, so that's why you see that plain sign.

But the pizza had a good amount of sauce. Most pizza places put as little sauce as possible. I'm glad to see Mr. G's didn't follow in their footsteps. They didn't put a lot of cheese on the pizza and I thought there could have been more pepperoni. I thought their crust was very soft and chewy. Some may think it's too "doughy" but I thought their crust just fine. Overall a solid good pizza.

As I mentioned before, I didn't actually go to Mr. G's. My buddy paid for the pizza from Mr. G's and took it to Papa G's. I thought both pizzas were good and would order from both places anytime. When I go back to Mr. G's I will update this post with prices and the quality of their service.

Update:

The price of the small pepperoni pizza is $5.95. A steal for such a good pizza. Service is good. The owner is very friendly and helpful.

A bit of trivia for The New Diner readers, this location used to be Taqueria Azteca, that was reviewed on March, 2006.

Pizza Mania

Pizza Mania
1785 Palo Verde
Long Beach
562-594-4889

Ok ok not many people go to a pizza place for sandwiches. But the sandwiches at Pizza Mania are fresh, huge, tasty, and are priced right.

Pictured is the half sandwich lunch special, with salad and a soda for $5.25. The salad was from their salad bar. Fresh veggies and salad dressing. You don't need to see a picture of that, do you?

I got the roast beef sandwich, swiss cheese, mayo, tomato and lettuce. This is so fresh you think they just picked the veggies that morning. The roast beef isn't the best quality roast beef but it's good and they pile it high. The Italian roll is very soft and has a great texture.

Service is good, though they speak with a heavy Mexican accent.

Maybe one day I'll try the pizza at Pizza Mania but the sandwiches are so good.

Deano's Pizza

Deano's Pizza
6333 W 3rd St
#310
LA
323-935-63733

The Farmer's Market has a ton of places to eat. Across from the Gumbo Pot is Deano's Pizza. Deano's offers many other choices besides pizza. Pasta, grilled meats. But I wanted to try their pizza. So I got their pizza deal for $5.75. A slice of pizza, salad and a soda.

The pizza was just OK. I was in the heating tray for awhile but even if it was fresh out of the oven, there was something missing. There could have been more pepperoni. The sauce could have been better. The crust could have been better. I just wasn't impressed with this pizza. I would have been better off baking a frozen pizza.

The salad was filled with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, and croutons.

Service was pretty good but the kid didn't give me a receipt, even after I told him, yes I wanted a receipt.

I would not go back to Deano's for their pizza. But their grilled meats, chicken picatta looked very good.

Cafe Sierra

Café Sierra
555 Universal Dr.
Universal City
818-509-2030

WOW talk about a seafood buffet. For $39.99, Cafe Sierra offers a great seafood buffet. Lobster thermador, king crab legs, shrimp, prime rib, all kinds of good stuff. Cafe Sierra is in the Universal Hilton Hotel. For the seafood buffet that is offered Friday and Saturday, they basically put buffet tables outside Cafe Sierra and have people sit all over. Our table gave us a great view of the parking lot.

The first food pictured is the king crab legs. They are served cold but are sweet and tender. Oh soooo good. They are already cut in half, ready for you to dig in. This was so great, I went back 2-3 times. The crab legs alone is worth the price.

The next picture is the prime rib and the lobster thermador. Since this was all you can eat, I just ate the tail. They were sweet and tender. The prime rib was rare. But with any buffets, it depends when you get the food. The prime rib was pretty tender and juicy. Maybe one of the better examples of buffet prime rib.

The next picture is the albacore and the beef rib. The beef rib was pretty bad. Not much meat and it was very tough. I loved the albacore. They put the albacore in a brown gravy, with tons of mushrooms. This was sooo good. I put it over rice. The albacore was tender and there were huge, I mean huge pieces of albacore.

Their famous shark fin soup is pictured next. It was thicken with lots of tapicoa. I've hadn't had shark fin soup enough to know, if they shredded pieces of meat were the real shark fin or not. But this was very good.

The next picture is the assortment of crab. They had duness crab, which had a ton of meat and was tasty and some of the king crab legs. The crab was served cold. The best thing about the crab is that they were not salty at all. Many places use a very salty brine to boil the crab. Cafe Sierra does it right.

The next picture is medium to large size, peel and eat shrimp. These were firm, tender and tasty. The cocktail sauce had a nice kick to it and added to the flavor.

I love Cafe Sierra. There are many other items served during the buffet. But it gets to be too much. I just worked on eating the king crab, lobster and prime rib. Service was good though our server answered her own questions. "Do you need any more drinks?" No, thank you." But she was attentive after she asked us twice what we wanted to drink.

I would go back to Cafe Sierra anytime.

Paradise Pastry and Cafe

Paradise Pastry and Cafe
1815 West Glenoaks
Glendale
818-545-4000

Trying to find some new places to have lunch and maybe a quick dessert, I found Paradise Pastry and Cafe. This a Middle Eastern cafe. They have kebobs, lamb, and many other Middle Eastern items.

I just stayed low key and ordered a turkey sandwich on a baguette. The baguette was very tough and chewy. I didn't like the texture. The turkey was simple processed turkey that was pretty tasteless. The lettuce and tomatoes weren't the freshest either. Not worth the $3.59 price.

The strawberry roll for a $1 wasn't a bad dessert. It wasn't too sweet, something I like. It was sponge cake filled with strawberry jam and topped with coconut. It was pretty good and worth the $1 price.

What wasn't worth it was the service. It was very slow, rude and just plain racist. Of course many of their customers are Middle Eastern. But they actually serve the Middle Eastern people ahead of other non Middle Eastern customers. I didn't realize we were back in the Jim Crow South.

I would not go back to Paradise Pastry again. Very average food and the worst type of service, rase based.

Papa G's Pizza

Papa G's Pizza
303 Diamond Bar Blvd
Diamond Bar
909-861-3939

Papa G's has been in Diamond Bar since the 1970's. But I've never been there and decided to give it a try.

The interior is 1970's interior, complete with brown wall paper. But the pizza is very good. Pictured is a personal pepperoni pizza $7.40. While the pepperoni wasn't covering the pizza, it was nice and flavorful. I did like that they put a ton of cheese on the pizza. What's up with pizza places putting next to no cheese on their pizza? The crust was crispy, yet soft and chewy. They did not overcook this pizza.

Service was good. The owner's daughter, a high school aged teenager, was nice and friendly. She was fairly attentive and while not waiting tables, she had her head in a HS biology book.

I would go back to Papa G's. I'm surprised it took me so long to go there but I won't wait too long to go back. I think Papa G's is one of the best pizza in Diamond Bar.

Green Field- West Covina

Green Field
281 N. Azusa
West Covina, CA 91790
626-966-2300

I used to like Green Field a lot. But after my experience at their West Covina location, I will not go back again. I went on a Sunday night. I was hungry and ready for some meat.

Pictured first is the beef rib. Very salty and lots of fat. I didn't even finish it.

Next came the pork chop. Very dry and salty. Not tender at all. What a waste.

Bacon wrapped turkey. The bacon was cooked unevenly, parts were burnt, others were cooked just right. The turkey was processed turkey which made it very salty. The turkey would have been dry if not for the bacon.

Sausage. Nothing special about this sausage. Wasn't too flavorful.

Beef Shish kebob. They needed to be on the fire a few more minutes. The onions were barely cooked, the meat was dry and salty.

Sirloin was so red, I thought they just killed the cow. This was also salty and very chewy.

The last picture was either the skirt steak or roast beef. Either way it was salty, tough and just plain bad.

The meat was terrible. But what was worse was the service. I waited at least ten minutes from the time the pork chop was served until the next meat came by. This happened all night. It took forever for the meat to arrive. And they lack any kind of variety in the meat. Where was the tri tip? The pork loin? I think they just use the leftover meats on Sunday. That maybe fine, if they lowered the price. But it was still, $25.95. What a damn ripoff.

Again the meats at Green Field was very salty and lacked flavor. I would not go back there again. What a waste of time and money!!!!

Wahoo's

Wahoo's
120 Main St
Huntington Beach
714-536-2050

Yes, I know Wahoo's is a chain. I'm not big on chain restaurants but some chain restaurants have some damn good food and/or do one or two things very well.

But even for a chain, Wahoo's has some of the best fish tacos around. They use fresh grilled halibut and then top it with fresh cabbage and white sauce. It's a very fresh and tasty fish taco.

The fish taco's are $2.26 and well worth the price. The Huntington Beach location can get very busy but the service is pretty fast and the cashiers are fairly friendly. The food comes quickly and it comes hot, not luke warm.

I enjoy going to Wahoo's and would go back anytime. The interesting thing is that the Huntington Beach location is the only location I've been too. I must pass at least 4-5 other locations on the way to Huntington Beach.

Sugar Shack

Sugar Shack
213 Main Street
Huntington Beach
714-536-0355

I was very surprised to find a good breakfast place in Huntington Beach. But Sugar Shack was great.

Pictured is the two eggs and bacon with hash browns, $6.55. I asked for the eggs over hard and they were cooked perfectly. No running yolk at all. I really like the fact that the eggs weren't salty. Some places just dump a ton of salt onto eggs. The bacon was cooked perfectly. I like the chewy type of bacon. I'm not a big fan of the crispy, fall apart after one bite bacon. The bacon was huge and very tasty. The outside of the hashbrowns were a little overcooked for my tastes. But inside they were soft and tasty.

Service was good. You have to sign in on the clipboard to get in line. There isn't really a hostess. But the servers are nice and friendly. I never lacked for ice tea.

I would go back for breakfast at Sugar Shack anytime. Very good, quality food at good prices.

4th Floor Grille and Sports Bar

4th Floor Grille and Sports Bar
Chaparral Suites
5001 N. Scottsdale Rd
Scottsdale AZ
480-949-1311

Normally I wouldn't think a hotel bar/restaurant could have great food. But to my shock, the 4th Floor Grill and Sports Bar at the Chparral Suites had a great item.

The all you can eat fish fry for $12.95. The fish is huge. I think believe the fish is cod and they are deep fried to a golden brown. They come hot and they taste great. They have a nice crunch and the fish is flakey and so flavorful. Who would have thought a restaurant in the desert could have such good fish??

Service was poor. There was a convention at the hotel and they were not prepared for the amount of people. I sat at the bar since it was so crowded. It took at least 20 minutes for me to get my second piece of fish, even though the bartender placed the order in, right away. So their kitchen was either messed up or one of the servers forgot to bring me the fish. Either way, the third piece of fish came quickly. The bartender was nice and helpful. I could see he was overwhelmed with the lack of support.

I would go back for their fish fry anytime. The fish fry is only offered on Fridays and you must eat there. I'm not sure when I'm going to get back to Arizona but I will stop back for one of the best fried fish I've had. What a treat!!!

RA Sushi

RA Sushi
3815 N. Scottsdale Rd
Scottsdale
480-990-9258

Again I'm surprised a dessert city has such great seafood. But Scottsdale has some great seafood. Saw RA Sushi and decided to go in.

Pictured first is the King Crab sushi ($7.50) and the yellowtail sushi ($5). I've never heard of King Crab sushi but I was surprised how tasty this was. The King Crab was sweet and tender. The sushi rice didn't fall apart when you dipped it into the soy sauce. Very good stuff and worth the high price. The yellowtail was fresh and tasty. Better than most sushi places I've been to.

The lobster-shrimp roll was very tasty, lobster cucumber, and avocado on the inside and topped with shrimp on the outside. The Asian pesto sauce added a nice flavor to the roll. The roll was very fresh and oh so tasty. There were a decent amount of lobster in each piece and the shrimp was huge.

Service at the sushi bar was very good. The young lady was nice and friendly. We didn't want for anything. But it took awhile for the lobster-shrimp roll to arrive. We had to remind the sushi chef about our order. But otherwise very good service.

If was back in Scottsdale, I would go back to RA sushi anytime. Very fresh, very good sushi.