The Madison-Closed

The Madison
102 Pine Ave
Long Beach
562-628-8866

The Madison is housed in an old bank on Pine Ave in Long Beach. I sat down and when I got the special menu, I noticed it was half price food if you sat on their front patio. So I quickly asked to sit in the patio.

I had thought about ordering the filet but I ordered the rib eye, $31 with a bleu cheese red wine sauce. The steaks are served al carte, no potato or veggies. The rib eye was a huge piece of steak and cooked just as I ordered it, medium rare. The lean parts of this rib eye were great, very tender and juicy. But there were a lot of grizzle which I wasn't happy about. Even though the steak was half priced, there was just too much fat and grizzle. Not what I expect from a place known for their steaks.

Service was below average. The server was very nice and friendly when he was around. But he wasn't around much. After we sat down outside he said he would come back and take our drink orders. About ten minutes later he came back to take our order. He then came back with our drinks and then came back another 10 minutes later to take our dinner orders. When he came back with our dinners, he forgot the potatoes au gratin somebody else at our table ordered. We asked again and about half way through our meal, he finally got his potatoes, terrible service. There weren't that many people inside the restaurant so I don't know why he was taking so long.

The good news was the busboy was very friendly and helpful. We saw him much more than the server. The busboy refilled our drinks and always made sure we had everything we needed. He even placed a rush order on the potatoes au gratin after the server forgot. The busboy should have gotten 90% of the tip.

Sitting on the patio is a great people watching place but it's very windy and cold there. I didn't think it was too cold but if you're going to sit outside, bring a sweater or windbreaker.

I'm glad I only paid half price for the food at Madison. The food was just OK in my book. Nothing overwhelming and not worth the regular prices. I would go back to The Madison if the food was half priced. I would not pay the full price.

Sharky's Tustin

Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill
2463 Park Ave
Tustin
714-258-2255

Ok, readers of The New Diner maybe asking, what the hell is he doing reviewing a chain? I know it's a chain but I've never been to Sharky's and wanted to give it a try.

I ordered the tempura battered Mahi Mahi $3.49 and the charbroiled fish taco, $3.49.
The tempura battered Mahi Mahi has, cabbage, cheese, pico de gallo and salsa on a flour tortilla. This was a fairly big piece of mahi mahi, with a nice cruncy and flakely moist inside. They could have put more pico de gallo but adding salsa from their salsa bar made this less dry.

The charbroiled fish taco was made with mahi mahi. I didn't care for this too much. There wasn't that much mahi mahi and again it was dry. The little mahi mahi was nicely charbroiled and tasty. But there just wasn't enough. Not worth the $3.49 price tag.

Service is good and the food comes fresh and hot.

This location of Sharky's, is at the new, The District shopping center. Many mapquest and GSP do not have The District listed. They will send you to someplace in Irvine.

I prefer other places like Rubios and Baja Fresh to Sharky's. I think Sharky's is fairly pricey and not worth the high prices.

Gallagher's Pub

Gallagher's Pub
2751 E. Broadway
Long Beach
562-856-8000

Came here to watch the Lacker game and decided to have a few buffalo wings, $7.95. The first thing you notice about the wings, is that they aren't drowned in sauce. While I don't like BBQ ribs drowned in sauce, I do love buffalo wings drowned in sauce. The wings themselves are big, had a cripsy skin and a lot of meat. They weren't your mini wings you see more and more. They weren't overwhelming but they aren't bad. I still say Clancy's has the best buffalo wings in Long Beach.

Service was a bit slow. The server was nice enough but there were just not enough staff for the amount of people. I had to wait a long time for a refill on soda. I had to wait a long time for napkins and you know that buffalo wings require a ton of napkins.

I may go back to Gallagher's Pub and try something else but I hate mick bars. Too many drunk idiots and just a bunch of jerks. Hmm sounds like Notra Dame fans.

Zubies Dry Dock

Zubies Dry Dock
9059 Adams Ave
Huntington Beach
714-963-6362

Somebody told me that Zubies Dry Dock was one of the best deals in OC. So I decided to give it a try. Thursday nights are $11.95 prime rib night and the prime rib does look very good. But I ordered the Ahi, $11.95 with corn and baked potato. I should have stuck to my guns and ordered the prime rib. The Ahi was way overcooked. Ahi is best served rare to medium rare. This was well done. There wasn't much seasoning to the ahi either. Even adding some salt and pepper would have done wonders for this meal. The meal includes all you can eat salad bar, which has your basic veggies and was fresh, rolls, pre made rolls served hot, which were decent, baked potato, very hot and you can load it up with anything you want from the salad bar, and corn, from a can and nothing special.

Zubies is the type of place that you order at the counter and bring it back to your table. The cashier didn't know the menu that well, since he had to look and see if they served Ahi but he was Ok. Nothing outstanding and nothing bad about him. The floors are covered in saw dust. Thursdays are very busy with little league kids filling the place. It's very loud and crowded. The parking lot is too small since they share the lot with a karoke place that has some specials on Thursdays.

Zubies is better than The Reel Inn but that's not saying a lot. I did like the fact that my meal was served hot, prices are reasonable, portions are huge, and there wasn't an extra charge for everything like The Reel Inn. I think I will try their prime rib deal, if I can put up with the noise on a Thursday. If I do order their ahi, I will ask them to cook the ahi rare and hope they cook it to medium rare. If I get another well done ahi, I'm sending it back.

Ristorante daVinci-Closed

Ristorante daVinci
2801 E Spring St 3rd Fl
Long Beach
562-685-8111

Ristorante daVinci is located at the Long Beach Airport. If you still outside on the patio, you will see planes landing and taking off. It's quite a view.

I went their for their happy hour, where bottled beer is half priced and they offer free pizza slices. But I decided to order some appetizers, though they were full prized.

Mistro Mare, $14, which is seafood ceviche, with avocado mouse and radish. This was a very nice tasting ceviche. They had scallops, shrimp, calamari, and onions. This wasn't as sour as other ceviche and was very well made and presented. Was this worth $14? Not even close. It's good and they give you a good portion but $14 is a bit overpriced.

I got the pepperoni pizza, $10. This was a very thin crust topped with tons of cheese and pepperoni The crust was a little on the under cooked side. But otherwise this was a good pizza.

Service was OK. Happy Hour was crowded so the server took awhile to get to us. But they were nice and friendly, though they did seemed overwhelmed with the big crowd.

I think Ristorante daVinci is a special occasion type place. I think the prices are a big high. But for that special birthday or anniversary, it would be fine.

Black Angus Happy Hour-Closed

Black Angus
Many locations.

The pictures are of the Black Angus restaurants in Chino Hills and Tustin, both of which are now closed. Montclair is the other picture. Monday-Friday, Black Angus offers half priced appetizers from 3pm-6pm. Wednesday most location extend the hours until closing!!

The first picture of the shrimp cocktail, $5.40, is from the Tustin location. Sorry no picture of the location. The shrimp were huge and very fresh. The cocktail sauce is weird. Very spicy but they use another type of spice, no horseradish, more hot sauce, mixed with ketchup. I almost always order this when I go to Black Angus.

The crab cakes are from the Chino Hills location, also, $5.40. The cakes are filled with tons of fresh good tasting crab, with very little filler. This is a steal and well worth the price.

The next three pictures are from Montclair.

The crab cakes her are also filled with tons of fresh, good tasting crab. But this was undercooked. They needed to pan fry the cakes a lot longer.

The chicken tenders, $4.31, were hand breaded wtih panko bread crumbs. They were nice and crispy and tender juicy, white meat inside.

The shrimp cocktail wasn't as big as the Tustin location. But they were very fresh and tasty, with the same weird cocktail sauce.

Black Angus is a chain and the food is pretty much standard at every location. Service at all location was pretty good. They do get pretty busy during Happy Hour and you may wait awhile for another drink or appetizer. But they are working hard and trying to serve everybody.

I would go back to Black Angus for Happy Hour. I liked everything I ordered. I doubt I would go when it's full priced but at about $5, all the appetizers are a steal.

Delius-Closed

Delius
2951 Cherry Ave
Signal Hill
562-426-0694

WOW, WOW, WOW. What a great dining experience I had at Delius. It didn't start off good but the food was wonderful and the food service was exactly what it's suppose to be.

I started off with spicy crab cakes, $11. They weren't really spicy but had a lot of garlic. They were a bit thin but there was little filler, just a lot of crab. I thought the crab wasn't as fresh as it could be. Maybe they used canned crab. I also thought it was a bit pricey for the amount of crab you got.

I loved, just loved my entree, bacon wrapped, blue cheese stuffed chicken breast with a rosemary cream sauce, $17. What a wonderful dish. The entree started off with a salad filled with mixed greens, carrots and tomatoes. The salad was fresh and tasty.

I was a bit concerned because rosemary can overpower a dish. But they used the right amount of rosemary. But the bacon wrapped blue cheese stuffed chicken breast was awesome. The chicken was a bit on the dry side but had wonderful flavor and the cream sauce helped add some moisture to the chicken. This was very much worth the $17.

What I liked about Delius was the serving size was just right, that you could have a four course meal without feeling stuffed.

I normally don't get dessert but I got the chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla ice cream, $7. This was so good. Hot, fresh chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla ice cream. The goeey rich cookie filled with tons of chocolate chip and topped with that cold ice cream was just awesome.

Table service was the best I've ever had at any restaurant. But before I tell you our table service, I want to talk about the worst experience I've had with a hostess in a long time. This is what I meant by 'it didn't start off good'.

I walked into Delius and the hostess was on the phone. I grabbed the wine list and sat down in the lobby less than five feet from the hostess. The hostess and I made eye contact when I walked in. There is NO WAY that bitch didn't see me. Well for the next five minutes or so, she NEVER said ONE WORD TO ME. Not even HI, may I help you. When my dinner guest arrive, the hostess barely said HI. She didn't ask how many guests. She didn't ask if our party was here.
I had to tell her we wanted a table for three and we wanted to sit down at our table and would wait for the third person to come. This is NOT the way to make a good first impression. She was not friendly or welcoming. She was flat out a bitch. The hostess should have said, Sorry, I was on the phone. How can I help you? Or Welcome to Delius. Are you waiting for somebody? But no, this bitch said NOTHING. Terrible, just terrible. If I had a restaurant I would fire her on the spot.

But this was forgiven, I never forget, because of the wonderful service we got from our server. The server's name was Michelle and she should write a book about how to be the best server. She was so nice and friendly. She answered all our questions and even gave us a tour of Delius' two private dining rooms. We were never lacking for anything. If our drinks were half empty, they would be refilled quickly. She knew everything on the menu. She knew the list. She always made sure everything was ok and if we needed anything. Michelle was the best server I've ever had.

I would go back to Delius anything. If I saw that bitch hostess, I would be rude to her. She needs to learn how to be a hostess or find another job. But the food is great and table service is outstanding.

UPDATE: June 12



I went back to Delius and ordered the chipotle mac and cheese, $12.

But before I talk about the mac and cheese, I want to talk about the hostess. I didn't have the bitch as the hostess. I had a very nice young woman who greeted me as I walked into the restaurant. She was nice and friendly, everything the bitch wasn't.

Maybe the bitch was fired? Or the owners of Delius read my review and had a talk with the bitch and the rest of the host staff to ensure proper service. Or maybe they didn't and this hostess takes her job seriously and wants to do a good job? Who knows? But whatever happened, I much prefer this hostess than the bitch.

I ordered the chipotle mac and cheese because the first time I went, I had a taste of the it and it was wonderful. But when I got the order I wasn't as impressed. The top part was basically burnt crisp. Not good. It had been in the over too long. Once I got past the burnt stuff the first thing you notice is the chipotle. There is a kick to this mac and cheese. There are four cheeses that included gorgonzola and romano. I thought they could have used more chese throughout the dish. Towards the middle and at the bottom of the dish, it was basically all mac.

Table service, as always with Michelle, was great.

If I had to do it over again I think I would have ordered something besides the mac and cheese. I wasn't impressed and really I should have sent it back.

I may go back to Delius to try another dish but I hope the bitch isn't the hostess.

Famous Dave's Pitt BBQ

Famous Dave's Pitt BBQ
300 S Pine Ave
Long Beach
562-436-9260

Famous Dave's is a chain located in Texas and Colorado, I believe. They opened a location Long Beach, trying to get the tourists around Shoreline Dr and maybe all the white people who think good BBQ is Lucille's.

I got the four St. Louis ribs, $12.99, with no sauce or naked as they called them. These were among the fattest ribs I've ever had. There were barely on real meat on the bones. The little meat that was on the bone was OK, a small hint of smoke flavor, but certainly nothing great. Porky's and LBQ, both beat Famous Dave's, and it's about half the price. The coleslaw was nice and creamy, certainly not from a box. But the mashed potatoes were too bland and really needed gravy. To their credit people in my party mentioned that they chopped pork and brisket was pretty good. I rarely if ever eat that stuff so I have no idea whether or not it was good.

Service was pretty good but I noticed the server called everybody either Darling or Honey. Interesting, must be a company thing.

Famous Dave's is too surburan and fancy for me. Give me the bulletproof glass and take out of Phillips BBQ anyday. Yuppies, white people who think they know what real BBQ is, and tourist may like Famous Dave's but people who have had real BBQ, would try it once and would never go back.

Update August 30, 2009.




Ok, I know I said I would never go back to Famous Dave's but the HOTTIE I went to EJ Malloys with invited me to dinner at Famous Dave's and I couldn't pass an offer like that up. Sorry no pictures of the HOTTIE, but trust me, she looked HOT in that summer dress!!

The night we went they had a special offer, anybody named David or Dave, got a free entree up to $15 or if their middle name was David, got half off, up to $7.50. So a good deal, if you know somebody named David.

So I got the St. Louis ribs and brisket combo, with cole slaw and potato salad, $18.99. Wow was I in for a big surprise. The ribs were very good. Nice smoke flavor, hickory I believe, good bark, and so tender!!! The bark wasn't spicy but well seasoned. There was more meat on these ribs than the first time I tried Famous Dave's. So that is always a plus.

Now the brisket, wow, was this great. I'm not a brisket kind of guy. I'm not much of a fan of BBQ beef of any kind. But was I very impressed with the brisket. Very well smoked, tender and just wonderful.

The coleslaw was very good. Mayo based, not too soggy and had a nice kick, they add horseradish to the cole slaw. The potato salad was average and they put too much onions in there.

Service was average. The server took forever to greet us after we sat down. She only came by when she felt like it and there were long periods of time where she wasn't around. She was nice at first, explaining the 5 BBQ sauces they have on the table. But then she rarely came back.

I'm glad that I am so opened minded about going back to places that were bad or average. Because you never know how the BBQ maybe. I'm glad I did give Famous Dave's another try but I now have concerns about the inconsistent quality of the ribs.

So I will go back to Famous Dave's, especially if the HOTTIE invites me again.

Moonlight Pizza and Chicken

Moonlight Pizza and Chicken
9895 Warner Ave
Fountain Valley
714-963-4488

Ok, I know you're not expecting to see Mediterranean food from a place named Moonlight Pizza and Chicken but this place is great. They offer a $9.99 all you can eat buffet with a soda, of Mediterranean food, everything from kebobs to salads.

The buffet does not include beef kebobs but almost everything else. I got the chicken kebobs and they were awesome. So moist, juicy and tender. Just wonderful. The kebobs weren't as heavily spiced as otehr places but still outstanding. The only thing about the chicken kebobs was that they didn't refill the steam tray quickly. There were long periods of time before the kebobs were refilled.

The rice pilaf was pretty good too. Not overpowering spicy but well spiced and flavorful.

The hummus was also outstanding. Very smooth and tasty. A wonderful treat. The pita bread wasn't heated, which would have been nice. But the hummus is outstanding.

The beef stew was OK. There were good amount of beef but the beef was a little tough. They were also pretty small but they had enough beef in the stew to make it ok. The dish wasn't that spicy. Again just OK.

Another thing that was just OK was the pizza. They sauce was very different. Much sweeter than other pizza sauces. The crust was OK and the pepperoni and cheese was good. I would have liked the pizza better if the sauce was different.

The rotisserie chicken was a bit dry. I believe this is the chicken served whole and/or with pizza. The chicken was fresh from the oven and had been in the over too long.

Service was good. The owner is a very nice lady. She makes you feel right at home. They do not come around often to clear plates off your table. But overall a nice experience.

I would go back to Moonlight anytime, just for the chicken kebobs. What a wonderful dish. Most places charge from $10-$12 for two skewers of chicken. This place is all you can eat for $10. Why wouldn't I go back? Next time I may ask for some shish kebob and see what kind of deal she would give me. They charge $11 for shish kebob, which includes rice, salad etc but if I got the kebobs for $5 or so, with the buffet, I would do it.

Your House

Your House
2838 E. PCH
Long Beach
562-498-4949

Your House is another Thai and sushi fusion restaurant in Long Beach. I've been to Aki Sushi but I've only tried their sushi. I thought the sushi at Your House was very good.

I ordered my standard chicken satay, $6.95. The chicken was tender and flavorful. I liked this much better than the chicken satay from Phuket Thai. They were lightly grilled but not burnt. As you can see from the picture they are huge. Nice and flavorful and well worth the price.

Then I decided on the sushi. I got the Angel roll, $10, with shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, spicy crab, and topped with Ebi (shrimp) WOW, this was wonderful. A great roll. Very fresh, very tasty. The shrimp tempura was so crunchy and combined so well with all the other ingredients, especially the shrimp. One of the best rolls I've ever had.

I was so impressed I decided to order the Cherry Blossom roll, $10, crab and avocado wrapped in tuna, the core is two pieces of salmon rolled together. I wasn't as impressed with this roll. The salmon that was in the middle wasn't fresh at all. It was very mushy and just plain bad. The actual crab and avocado wrapped in tuna was very good and freshy.

Service was below average. It took forever just to get water and when the water finally came, there was no ice. So I had to ask for a glass of ice, twice. They were very slow with everything, clearing the table, the empty glass of ice was there until I handed the glass to the server and even serving the food. I have no idea why? It wasn't that busy. The server never bothered to ask how everything was and it seemed as though they were hiding. They weren't around much.

I would go back to Your House again. But I would only go during their special Happy Hour, where all rolls are $7. I would not order the Cherry Blossom roll again, though and would sit at the sushi bar in hopes of better service

Porky's BBQ- Long Beach-Closed

Porky's
937 Redondo Ave
Long Beach
562-434-9999

As readers of The New Diner know, I've been to the Porky's in Inglewood well they opened up a take out location in Long Beach. Some of the differences between the Inglewwood and Long Beach location is that Long Beach do not have the Golden Bird fried chicken and Long Beach is mainly take out, there are a few tables and chairs but you're better off going to a park or taking it home to eat.

I ordered the lunch portion of their pork ribs, $7.99, with cole slaw as my side. Of course this being take out, you're not going to get the presentation that the Inglewood location gives you. But the ribs are about the same. They are good sized and taste OK but hardly overwhelming. A friend and I went to a nearby park to eat our meals but the ribs weren't very warm when we got there. The park isn't more than a mile from Porky's and it only took us about 10 minutes to get there. The ribs should have been much warmer. They also could have been more tender and they put way too much rub on there. I could take the brown sugar and I believe cuman.

Service was good. Since they had only been open for five days, they had somebody passing out menus to everybody. He was very nice and friendly. I told him how I had been to the Inglewood location. The lady who took our order was very nice and friendly too.

I don't see any difference in the food between the Long Beach and Inglewood location. OK food but nothing great. In Long Beach I still prefer LBQ. I would not go back to Porky's, even if I'm in the area. I would just make the trip up to LBQ.