Yardhouse Long Beach

Yardhouse
401 Shoreline Village Dr
Long Beach
562-628-0455

Any place that has between 100-250 beers on tap is going to be my kind of place. Yardhouse is a chain restaurant that serves good food, has a ton of draft beers, and is almost always packed with people.

I have been to the Yardhouse in Costa Mesa, Irvine, Brea, Pasadena, and Long Beach. I'm reviewing their Long Beach location.

I went for their happy hour. Selected appetizers are half priced Mon-Fri from 4-6pm and then again from 10pm-midnight.

I got the blue crab cakes, $5.47, and the seared ahi sashimi, $6.32. The crab cakes came with a mango and papaya chutney, passion fruit beurre blanc and tomato oil. It would have been better with tartar sauce and more crab!! Two decent sized crabcakes came out but when I but into them, I could see it was going to be mostly fillers, breadcrumbs etc. But the little amount of crab was pretty good, I loved the crispy outside. But I thought all this other stuff was out of place. There are many foods that are perfect because they are simple. Crab cakes are one of them. Just give me some damn tartar sauce for my crab cakes. Mango and papaya chutney just do not go with the crab cakes. At $5.47 the crab cakes are a good deal. The full price, $10.95, if served in the same portions would be a bit expensive.

The seared ahi sashimi were blacked with a soy vinaigrette. This was pretty good. The ahi was very fresh, tender, and tasty. I really liked this. I thought it was a better quality ahi than the Daily Grill, and the portions were bigger.

I was at the bar and the service is good. But the Yardhouse is one of the most anal places for checking ID. I've seen men and women in their 50's being asked for ID. I understand it's a big issue but come on there are people, including me, who are and look much older than 21.

I've gone back to Yardhouse all the time. I like the food, though the prices are a bit high. I have not notice much difference in service and food quality at any of the locations I've been to.

Kendall's Brasserie

Kendall's Brasserie
135 N Grand Avenue
Los Angeles
213-972-7322

Kendall's Brasserie is a part of the Patina restaurant group. That sentence, should give you enough information about how overprice and average their food is.

One reason Kendall's gets such a good crowd is that after performances there isn't another place to eat or get a drink. So they have you trapped and they take advantage of it.

The first time I went to Kendall's Brasserie, was after a performance at the Music Center. But I didn't bring a camera so I couldn't do a review. But I went back to Kendall's and it happened to be a special event for locals. A way to network and brag about who makes more money or owns a better car.

The menu for both dinner and late night supper is very limited. Not many entrees and what's on the menu is so overpriced. The two times I went to Kendall's I've ordered the shrimp cocktail, $16. Six medium sized shrimp arrive and I'm not impressed. The shrimp aren't fresh, not even chilled. They were tough and chewy because they had been overcooked. The cocktail sauce is basically ketchup, they don't even put any horseradish in there. For $16 I expect a lot more. It got huge shrimp that were fresh and tasty for $2.50 each at Morton's.

Service was good both times I went. The first time we sat down and ate. The next time I was in the bar area. I have no complaints about the service at Kendall's unlike that Pinot Grill, where I had some of the worst service ever.

Both times I've gone to Kendall's it was filled with pretenious, arrogant, jerk people. I seriously wanted to just go to Kendall's take a picture of the shrimp cocktail and then leave. But I couldn't stand being around pretenious, arrogant, jerk people any longer, so I just ordered the shrimp cocktail and within 15 minutes or so, I was out of there.

I realize judging a restaurant based on appetizers isn't ideal but if the appetizers aren't good and/or overpriced, why would I want to go back for an entree?

I would not go back to Kendall's again. Overpriced, average food and being around pretenious, arrogant, jerk people isn't my idea of a good meal. I only went back this time to take pictures so I can write a review.

Katella Deli

Katella Deli
4470 Katella Ave
Los Alamitos
562-594-8611

I thought I found an actual deli without having to make the long drive to Canter's Deli. But Katella Deli is a very average deli located near the Los Alamitos race track.

I got their Bronx Delight, hot corned beef, hot pastrami, salami, swiss cheese and Russian Dressing on rye bread, $10.50. I hate salami and ordered turkey instead, maybe not the best combination but that's what I wanted.

The sandwich arrived quickly. But the hot meats, corned beef and pastrami were not hot, more like luke warm. Both the corned beef and pastrami were pretty bland and they seemed like low quality meats. No boarshead meats served here.

The turkey was cold and dry. I wish they put the Russiona dressing on the turkey part of the sandwich.

I was impressed with the amount of meat on the sandwich but no the quality.

Service was good. But I sat at the counter and most of the servers speak with a heavy Spanish accent. One older white lady, was a real bitch to the other servers and cooks. One time she asked for something from the cooks and in a very nasty way, repeated the request, in a tone that could only be taken as, Learn to speak English.
But my server was fine, even though she had to ask the manager if I could get turkey instead of salami.

I would not go back to Katella Deli again for the deli sandwiches. Since I was sitting at the counter, I saw the fried chicken dinner and burger that looked very good. So I will try those items if I go back to Katella Deli.

TNT Wing & BBQ-Closed

TNT Wing & BBQ
806 S Gaffey St
San Pedro, CA 90731
310-548-5771

I found out about TNT Wing & BBQ from Yelp. I do look at Yelp but I try not to let the the reviews influence me. But I will say that Kim S guy, who reviewed TNT, is an asshole. Anybody who would write "Thank God for Katrina" is a stupid, idiot, old man.

Anyways I went to TNT with a good friend, even though she did go to USC. Just kidding. :) I ordered the three piece pork rib dinner, $8.10, with cole slaw. I had high expectations but they were not close to being met. The ribs were cooked in an OVEN!!! How can you say BBQ when the ribs are cooked in a oven?? There was no smoke flavor, no smoke ring. Nothing but a tasteless bland ribs. The ribs were also very dry. The sauce was so sweet, I thought it was eating kechup.

Service was very good. The two ladies were very nice and helpful. They kept refilling drinks and were very attentive.

I would not go back to TNT for the BBQ. I may try their wings, they looked very good.

Steelhead Brewing Company-Closed

Steelhead Brewing Company
4175 Campus Dr.
Irvine
949-856-2227

Steelhead Brewing Company is located across the street from Cal State Irvine. Much like JT Schmidt's is a Brewery with very average food.

I got the Grilled Ahi Sandwich, $12.95. The white stuff you see on the ahi is a spciy lemon aioli. The ahi is cooked medium and placed on a wheat bun. The ahi was overcooked, closer to medium well to well done. They dumped so much aioli on the ahi, it was impossible for the ahi to be dry. But the ahi was pretty bland and flavorless. The aoili wasn't spicy was certainly had lots of mayo. The bun and veggies were fresh. They gave you a good sized piece of thick ahi and that's the only saving thing about this sandwich.

The service was good. I went during happy hour and sat in the bar area. The server was friendly and attentive.

I would not go back to Steelhead again. While the portions are big, the food is bland and average.

Open Sesame on the Corner

Open Sesame on the Corner
5201 E 2nd St.
Long Beach
562-621-1698

If Open Sesame sounds familiar, it should. I reviewed Open Sesame a few months back. Since that time Open Sesame build a new restaurant about four stores west of their old location. They have a full kitchen and staff at the new location.

Since I have already been to Open Sesame, I knew I didn't want their more expensive entree plates. I just went with their a la carte items. I ordered the eight piece, filet mignon skewer, $14.99 on top of a side of rice, $2.49. I asked for the filet to be cooked medium rare and I got medium to medium well. That's fine. I just don't like well done beef. But it was pretty bland, not much spice or flavor at all. Filet mignon is suppose to be very tender but this filet wasn't that tender. I might be the lowest grade of filet mignon. I didn't think the portion was that big either. Not for the $14.99 price.

The basmati rice was actually pretty good, light and fluffy. But the portion was very small, especially for the $2.49 price.

Our server was pretty good. He was nice and attentive. But I do have some issues with Open Sesame's reservations and the hostess. I called twice, once to make the reservation and another time when I missed their call to confirm a reservation. Both times that I called, I was put on hold for at least five minutes!!!! What they were doing, I have no idea. I hung up both times and called back. I don't need to be on hold to make or confirm reservations. It's not that difficult. The hostess said if my entire party wasn't there on time, they would give the tables away. Well with a party of 12, we had 9 people there, 2 others who were trying to find parking (both of who came about five minutes later) and one person who was stuck in traffic. Is any business going to turn away 11 paying, hungry customers? We were seated but I just didn't like the way they handled this situation.

Open Sesame is just OK in my book. While it's the best of the three Middle Eastern Places, Magic Lamp and Sunnin, on 2nd St, that's like being the tallest midget.

Daily Grill-Closed

Daily Grill
1 World Trade Ctr
Long Beach
562-753-2170

Daily Grill is a chain that many people describe as over priced, average food. That maybe true of their dinner menu, but I went to their happy hour and I found the food to be good and the prices were great. I went to the Irivine location about four years ago and had their happy hour food. So I decided to review the Daily Grill in Long Beach. Happy Hour at this location ran from 4pm-7pm, Mon-Fri.

Chicken pot pie, $3.95. At first glance this seems huge. But really it's deceiving. The crust is nice and flakey but it's so big and huge it makes you think the chicken pot pie is huge. It's good sized, especially for $3.95. There were nice tender pieces of chicken, mostly white meat, carrots, onions, peas and mushrooms. It was a bit runny for me but overall it was good. A good deal at $3.95.

Calamari, $2,95, had a great crunch but the calamari was a bit chewy and not fresh. The tartar sauce had a spicy taste to it. I would not order the calamari again.

Popcorn shrimp, $2.95. This was a steal. Tempura battered popcorn shrimp served with a Canjun tartar sauce. I would have prefered cocktail sauce. But oh well. The shrimp were good sized for popcorn shrimp and what a great crunch. They were served hot, right out of the fryer. An steal for the quality and quanity, at $2.95.

Seared Ahi Tuna Sashimi, $3.95. This is one of the best ahi tuna sashimi I've ever had. Cooked extra rare, so fresh, and wonderful texture and flavor. The wasbi was also great, very spicy and wonderful.

Service for our large group was good. All my orders were hot and fresh. It was a bit of wait at times but when there are 25 or so people in your group, you expect to that. Our server was hard working and attentive.

I would go back to Daily Grill for their happy hour items. Many of their dinner menu items were pricey, so it owuld have to be a special occasion to go to dinner at the Daily Grill. But I would go back for Happy Hour anytime.

I did find being at the address of the Daily Grill to be unsettling. 1 World Trade Center. Hard to enjoy Happy Hour, when you know what happened to the World Trade Center in New York.

Rose Garden Tea Room

Rose Garden Tea Room
1151 Oxford Rd.
San Marino
626-405-2236

The Huntington Gardens. What a beautiful place. The grounds are filled with all kinds of beautiful flowers and trees. A great place to go. But it's expensive to go. $20 for adults on weekend, $15 during the week. But if you use your Bank of America debit or credit card, you get $5 off admission, until September.

The Huntington Gardens has the Rose Garden Tea Room. First you must make reservations. When I was there they turned down a lot of people because they just don't have the space. The Tea Room is set up for an all you can eat buffet, of finger sandwiches, cheeses, salads, fruits, cheese, and some good desserts. The buffet is $24.95.

The first picture has salmon with dill on pumpernickel bread and taragon chicken and walnut sandwich.

I loved the taragon chicken and walnut sandwich. This was a simple chicken salad, with celery, mayo, and taragon. Very fresh, very good. I went back a few times and I would say I ate about two regular sized sandwich worth of it.

I wasn't a fan of the salmon and dill. The salmon was suppose to be smoked but I didn't get any smoked flavor. It was bland, chewy and not that fresh. I didn't get another helping even when they replenished the buffet table.

The second picture has spicy egg salad and proscuitto and pear. The proscuitto was on marble bread with a blue cheese spread. The pear was sweet and was a nice contrast to the salty proscuitto. The proscuitto is decent quality but nothing special. I wasn't that impressed with the proscuitto and pear.

I did like the spicy egg salad on egg bread. It wasn't spicy and I didn't taste or notice any cayenne pepper. But this was moist, tasty and had lots of good fresh eggs. I went back for more of the egg salad.

The last picture has an assortment of desserts. The fudge brownie was very moist and tasty. The two cakes, pound and chocolate, were also moist and tasty. But the best was the cream filled chocolate cup. The cream was light and combined with the great chocolate, made this the best dessert.

Service was good. The server came by on a regular basis to refill drinks and remove plates. She was nice, friendly and attentive.

For a special occasion the Rose Garden Tea Room is a great spot. I do not think it's worth the $24.95 price. But I think you have to go once. But remember you must also pay the admission into the Huntington Gardens to be able to eat in the Tea Room. So for $50 per person, it better be a special occation.

Hong Kong Express

Hong Kong Express
261 E Willow St Ste B
Long Beach
562-988-3688

Hong Kong Express is another one of those fast Chinese food places. I prefer going to this mom and pop type places than Panda Express.

I ordered the two item combo, teriyaki chicken and chicken with green beans, $5.48, which also included a free drink and egg roll.

The fried rice was just OK. They put some peas and soy sauce and that's it. But something they did wrong was use rice they just made. When making fried rice, always use day old rice. If you don't you get clumps of rice and that's not good. The chow mein had some cabbage and was orange. A bit greasy and I'm not used to eating orange noodles.

The teriyaki chicken was pretty good but the sauce was too damn salty. The chicken itself was tender but there was a lot of fat on the chicken.

The chicken with green beans was OK. But the green beans and carrots were cooked for about a minute in the sauce and was basically raw. If you like very crunchy veggies, you will love this. I prefer veggies to be cooked just a little bit longer. The chicken was a little better than the teriyaki but nothing outstanding.

Service was good. You're greeted as you walk into the restaurant. But I found it funny that the hushand and wife were arguing in Chinese, after she asked what I wanted.

I wouldn't go back to Hong Kong Express. The price is good but the food is average and the portions aren't really that big.

Larry's Pizza

Larry's Pizza
926 W Orangethorpe Ave
Fullerton
714-871-3484

I went to Larry's Pizza in the mid 90's and wanted to see how good their pizza is now. I was surprised at the good quality and freshness of the pizza.

I ordered the Sicilian style pan pizza with pepperoni, $20.45. The dough was very soft and fresh. Good start. There was a lot of cheese and pepperoni and they were not greasy at all. The sauce was pretty good but they could have put a little more on the pizza. But overall a very good, solid pizza.

It isn't Crosby Pizza Stop but it's damn good for Orange County.

Service was good but when I got change they gave it in dimes. I ordered a Corona but they didn't have any limes. They said they just ran out. I told them, they should run next door to Food 4 Less and buy some limes.

Overall I liked the pizza at Larry's and would go back anytime. The square pan pizza was huge and filling and worth the price.

California Pizza Place

California Pizza Place
1770 S Harbor Blvd Ste 140
Anaheim
714-772-7207

Let me cut through the BS and say this is one the worst pizza places I have ever been to. A greasy, soggy pizza served by rude people who can bare speak English.

I ordered a medium pizza with pepperoni and sausage, $15.08 to go. Once I got the pizza, the bottom was moist and soggy, like all the grease going to the bottom. I tried a piece after taking the picture and it was disgusting. So much grease and just junk. The pepperoni and sausage were bland and the pizza sauce was barely there. The cheese wasn't fresh and had a nasty taste to it.

Service was bad too. I called ahead to place my order but I first asked about any specials. None of their specials were want I wanted but when I was trying to decide the girl who took my order kept asking So what do you want to order? I'm like can you wait and let me decide. I get to the place and they are still cooking my order. They tell me 5-7 minutes. No problem, so I figure I would pay. They keep telling me 5-7 minutes, so I finally said Do you want me to pay now or when it's ready? I pay her and the total comes to $15.08. I left a bunch of change in my car, so I told her, I have the eight cents in my car. She said it's ok. I tell her I'll go to my car to get the change because I don't need 92 cents in change. She then say Go ahead, get the change. What gall. Then I waited for the pizza and when I finally arrives, she is holding it while talking to her co workers and another customer. She couldn't say Here's your order? What the hell is that. I'd bet she had the pizza for at least five minutes. Worse than that was they spoke English with a very heavy Spanish accent, making it tough to understand what the hell they were saying. They need lessons in manners and how to treat customers.

I would not go back to California Pizza Place again. Terrible pizza and terrible service. I understand they are within a short walk of Disneyland and cater to tourists but damn at least try and make the pizza decent. What people should do, is just go down the street to Marri's for a damn good pizza.

Chicago For Ribs

Chicago For Ribs
1637 W 25th St
San Pedro
310-832-7774

There is this myth about Chicago beening the rib capitol of US. Part of it stems from the TV show, MASH. When Hawkeye ordered a couple slabs of spare ribs from a fictional place called Adam's Ribs, near Dearbon Station. There is a Dearbon Station but there has never been an Adam's Ribs. While Chicago was the place for pigs to be slaughtered and shipped, Chicago is not a really BBQ city.

I first went to Chicago For ribs when they had a location in Pasadena back in the mid to late 90's. The Pasadena location is long gone but I didn't realize there were other locations in the LA area. So I went to their San Pedro location to see how their ribs were.

I ordered the half rack of St. Louis pork ribs, $17.99 with mac and cheese and Chicago fries. The ribs as you can see are cooked in an oven and have no smoke flavor at all. I asked for no sauce on the ribs and that's a mistake because to get any kind of flavor from these ribs, you have to drown them in bbq sauce. They are not good without sauce. The sauce is full of vinegar. A little bit of a kick but nothing great. I was not impressed at all with these ribs and they are overpriced at $17.99. When I was leaving I noticed they had a daily special for $9.99. I assume the special would have been a 1/4 rack of spare ribs. Tony Roma's is better and that's not saying much. But somehow Chicago for Ribs has been voted the best in the South Bay over and over.

The mac and cheese tasted like they were made from a box. The Chicago fries, waffle fries, were actually pretty good but they were a bit undercooked. About two more minutes in the fryer and they would have been perfect.

I normally don't get dessert but we had the Lake Michigan mud pie, $5.99. A coffee flavored ice cream cake with a cookie bottom. This was very good but I'm not a big coffee ice cream fan. This would have been better if they used just plain vanilla or chocolate ice cream.

Service was OK. The server had a thick Spanish accent and didn't really understand English. We asked what kind of ice cream was on the Lake Michigan mud pie and he kept answering, Ice cream. After the third time asking, it wasn't worth the effort. They need to train their staff on how to sell their desserts. The second rule being, knowing what the hell is in their desserts. The first rule being, ask customers if they want dessert. Our server did ask.

I would not go back to Chicago for Ribs again. The ribs aren't good at all and they are overpriced.

Kona-Closed

Kona
16278 S. Pacific Coast Hwy
Huntington Beach
562-592-1321

I went to Happy Hour at Kona. Happy Hour is from 4-7pm Tues-Fri in the bar area. I believe Kona is closed on Monday. Kona used to be Sam's Seafood but changed to Kona and they developed a Hawaiian style menu.

During Happy Hour many appetizers are $2.95 including sliders, which I ordered. Actually there are two kinds of sliders, a Hawaiian style pork slider or cheeseburgers. I got the cheeseburgers. They were very tender, moist, juicy, and had plenty of flavor. They use good quality ground beef. They also didn't drown the burger with anything. There was a small amount of A-1 steaks sauce and that's about it. No ketchup or mustard. But I liked it, just the meat and cheaddar cheese. At $2.95 this is a steal. Everybody that I talked to in my group loved the pork slider.

Service was good but like the steroid era of baseball, this deserves an *. The server was nice and friendly and worked hard filling orders. But what wasn't good was Kona's management. They had promise to extend happy hour for our group until 8pm. We had 50 people buying drinks and food. But they decided at the last minute to not extend happy hour til 8pm. No explanation, no reason. Nice to see that Kona is doing so well they can turn away 50 paying customers and that they know the meaning of customer service.

Now I would go back to Kona, if only to try the pork slider. Happy hour is a great deal and service by the cocktail waitress was good. But the way management back out of their word, just rubs me the wrong way.