Mallot Commons

After reviewing McConnell Bistro at Pitzer College, I heard that Mallot Commons, the dining hall for Scripps College was even better!! David Allen reviewed Mallot Commons a couple years ago.  So I had to see for myself, how Mallot Commons compares. Mallot Commons is located at 9th Street and Columbia. There is street parking on Columbia. But depending on when you go, there may not be many open spaces.

Mallot is set up, like McConnell Bistro, in that there are many stations. I will review each station and the food offered at each station. The big difference is that Mallot Commons is run by a company called Sodexo Campus Service. So there are different chefs, menus and quality of food and services.

The cost for dinner was $13.50; don't worry I'll talk much more about that, later in this review.




The salad bar was huge, with a large selection of fresh veggies. I just got romaine lettuce and honey mustard dressing. Fresh and crispy. The honey mustard was great. Most honey mustard dressing has a bolder, spicier flavor. But I prefer this more subtle, lighter honey mustard dressing.





The next station was the grill. They have burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese, chicken breast and fried cod.

Fried cod-these were frozen pieces of cod covered in a heavy batter, a lot more batter than fish. I would bet there was a 70/30, batter to fish, ratio. How do I know they were frozen pieces of cod. I saw them frying up a new batch of frozen cod, straight from the box into the fryer. Come on now, make things from scratch. The taste is about the same as a Long John's Silver. In other words, nothing special. Tartar sauce was very good, tangy with a hint of mustard.

The grilled chicken breast was great. Well marinated with a light, I believe Italian style marinate. Grilled just right and full of flavor. My favorite part of dinner. I guess they were meant for sandwiches, but just having a few pieces of chicken, veggies, and rice would make a great meal.

The burger. These are frozen patties grilled up and put under the heat lamps. They are not cooked to order. There is a nice topping bar, filled with all kinds of condiments and fresh toppings. But these burgers are so average. Just like any regular burger.




They had four types of pizza, cheese, veggie, Hawaiian, and pepperoni. The crust was so soggy and just bad. But the cheese and pepperoni were top notch. Tons of great tasting cheese and a spicy pepperoni. But the crust just ruined it. If they made a good crust, this would be a great pizza.



The main entree is next to the pizza but I didn't get a picture. This is the grilled tilapia with pineapple chutney and coconut rice. The tilapia was dry a bit salty. But for some reason this dish was also running low, every time I went by the station. The pieces of pineapple were so hard and chewy, it ruined this dish.

The rice was off. Too sweet, with the coconut. Just make rice pilaf. Keep it simple.






The last station has the nightly special; tonight it was sushi, soups and desserts. I was only able to get a picture of the sushi portion.

Sushi pieces included:

California roll-Fresh avocado and imitation crab. I would rate this a 7.
Tuna roll-Again fresh but the tuna lacked flavor. About a 5.
Veggie roll-Made with mushrooms, pretty good but I wouldn't order this again.
Salmon roll-Nice fresh piece of salmon, good rice and seaweed wrap.
Crab roll-A good piece of imitation crab meat. About a 6.

The soup was clam chowder. Nice and thick, with lots of clams but not much potatoes, a good thing. I did enjoy this clam chowder and it hit the spot on a cold rainy night.

I made a chocolate chip cookie frozen yogurt sandwich. The cookie was freshly baked and was soft, with melting chocolate chips. Very good stuff. The chocolate yogurt was nothing special, even though it was labeled Dryer's brand frozen yogurt.

Mallot Commons is relatively small and I hated how the traffic flowed. There are dining rooms at both ends and the food stations are in the middle of the commons. But it gets so packed in the narrow hallways and the food station. The sushi line was so popular there was a long line that prevented people from getting to parts of the salad bar, the soups and desserts. The dining rooms are loud because of the low ceilings and the small size of the room. Ok, I know this is for college kids but not a good dining experience.

Service, by the hostesses and cashiers, left a lot to be desired. Honestly it was terrible. Though service by the people serving and cooking the food was good. There are two entrances into Mallot. I was meeting a friend but I didn't know about the two entrances. I went into one entrance and asked if I could look for my friend. She was nice and I found my friend at the other entrance. We went to pay and the old lady at the register was rude and slow and should not be working with the public. My friend paid in cash and it took this lady forever to count the money and give change. I mean, when paying $15, it shouldn't take 15 minutes to get chance. I actually got tired of waiting and went to the other entrance. Which brings me to the price.

I went by Mallot earlier in the week and asked the cashier how much was dinner. I was told $8. I didn't eat that night but I wanted to see what they had to offer. But tonight, I went there and they said $13.50. I told them I thought it was $8. They told me, that is the price for staff and professors. I can't help I was ripped off because there are NO prices listed. I mean it can't take that long to price up a price list. What is to prevent the lady from pocketing the extra $5. They need to put a sign with the prices listed!!!

For the very average quality of the food, $13.50 was very overpriced. This is no better than Hometown Buffet, which has more selection. At $8, it would be worth the price. But most of the dishes was average at best.

I was taking pictures of stations and the cashier came up and said no pictures inside. Why not? What do they have to hide? Nothing is top secret in the food business. You should be proud of the food you're serving. Ok she was nice about it and really, why are they paranoid about the somebody taking pictures?

Ok, I realize the dining common is meant for students, who come in, swipe their ID cards and start eating. But these people are dealing with the public, maybe even the parents of the kids. But that doesn't mean they can treat the kids badly either. Sure, kids can be a pain, just look at those comments by that snotty punk Pitzer kid, from my McConnell Hall review, but those kids deserve better treatment by the cashiers. The cashiers really need to learn the meaning of customer service.

I believe Scripps is the all women's college. But there are many male students eating there since students from all five Claremont Colleges are allowed to eat at any dining hall.

I would not go back to Mallot Commons. The food is no better than Hometown Buffet and the overall experience makes one feel as though, they just fought rush hour traffic just to get dinner. Add to that the rude service from the cashiers and you got a perfect combination for a bad dining experience.

Eddie's New York Pizzeria

Eddie's New York Pizzeria
1065 Foothill Blvd
Claremont
909-398-1985

Trying to figure out where to go for dinner. So I talked to a good friend and we went to Claremont,CA to give Eddie's New York Pizzeria a try. This location used to be a Straw Hat Pizza but then Eddie's New York Pizzeria took over. Claremont, the home of STEROID user, cheating bastard, Mark THE FRAUD McGwire. Not only did he cheat and use roids but he is delusion, and thinks it only helped him stay healthy, not hit those home runs.

We go to the counter and take a look at the menu. She had a coupon-buy one pizza, get one free. But I was also in the mood for wings. So I got the best of both worlds, a medium pizza, $13.99, with bacon and pepperoni and order of chile lime wings and chipotle BBQ wings, $8.99, I'll get this later.

New York pizza should have a thin and crispy crust. It should be big enough to fold over and have tons of gooey cheese. The pizza at Eddie's, you get a choice of thin, regular and thick crust. I picked the regular. I came with a good amount of cheese. It isn't bad but it wasn't New York style pizza. Maybe I should have gotten the thin. But at some pizza places, thin crust is like a cracker crust.

The pepperoni was good, though they could have put a bit more on the pizza. The pepperoni had nice spice and flavor. I did enjoy the pizza but learned one thing, bacon does not belong on a pizza-at least regular bacon. This bacon was hard and tough. Not good. I don't think this pizza is worth the $13.99 regular price. At $7 is it fine but I wouldn't order this again.

The chile lime wings are another story. They were HUGE!!! While they weren't crispy, I'd bet they were baked, the wings were just amazing. Full of flavor and meat. I loved these wings. They were not spicy, just very tangy. There wasn't much breading on the wings, like some places do to trick you into think the wings are bigger than they really are.

The chipotle BBQ wings were sweet, not spicy, they tasted a lot like the wings from KFC. Again huge amount of meat on these wings. Though I wouldn't order these again, since I think wings should be spicy not sweet, they were fine.

Service was good. The guy taking our order was nice but a bit slow. He must have just started working there. While eating the chile lime wings, I found out that Wednesdays are 50 cent wings night!!! But I was charged full price, when I placed the order for the chile lime wings. So I went back up to the counter, confirmed wings were 50 cents and just asked for another 9 pieces of wings with Chipotle bbq sauce. He was nice and took care of it. I didn't want money back, I wanted more wings and got them!! As I've said before, it is not about making mistakes, it is all about how a restaurant handles the mistakes. I explain to them the error in a nice calm tone and Eddie's handle this situation perfectly.

I would go back to Eddies for the wings. I would pass on the pizza. The pizza nothing great. But the wings are huge and amazing!!

King Wrap-Closed

King Wrap
373 W Bonita Ave
Claremont
909-447-6815

I read about King Wrap on David Allen's blog. I was looking forward to another Middle Eastern restaurant in the area. But I found this to be more of a sandwich/wrap restaurant. But what I found was more of a sandwich shop that serves Middle Eastern items like gyros, shawarma, hummus, and falafel.

I got the falafel sandwich, $4.99, falafel tahini sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, on pita bread. There were some nice pieces of falafel on the pita bread. It would be nice if the pita bread was toasted and not just out of the package. The falafel was ok but not cooked to order. I've had better. The lettuce, tomato, and tahini sauce was very fresh.

Service is good. A very nice couple owns King Wrap and are very nice and friendly to everybody.

I was hoping for kebobs and while they do have kebobs, it is only the ground beef kebobs. I hate ground beef kebobs. The sandwiches are fresh and priced right but this isn't anything special. Solid? yes.

I wouldn't rush back to King Wrap. This is certainly better and has more options than a Subway or other chain sandwich shopw. But don't expect much in terms of Middle Eastern food.

McConnell Bistro

I found out about McConnell Bistro, the dining at Pitzer College, after reading David Allen's review. To be honest I was surprised that "dorm" food could be gourmet. But further research revealed that the chef at McConnell Bistro was a sous chef at a few 4-5 star restaurants in New York City and all the food in the dining hall is made from scratch, the chef works for the Bon Appetit, a food's services company. So Pitzer College has contracted out their dining services. They made a great choice.

McConnell Bistro is on the campus of Pitzer College, which is part of the Claremont Colleges. McConnell is No. 9, on 9th Street on this Pitzer College Map. Since McConnell Bistro is a college dining hall they are catering to the students needs and hours. So I doubt they are going to be open much during summer and around school holidays. Take a look at McConnell Bistro hours to make sure they fit into your plans. But the public is welcomed to enjoy the great food. Just don't expect a lot of non students when you go. Though I do wish they would stay open for dinner a bit longer on weekends.

The menu at changes daily but usually Sundays are steak night!!! Again the public is welcomed to enjoy dinner, cost is $8!!! Yes, for only $8, you got an all you can eat meal, made from scratch by a well trained chef and his staff. This is the best deal you will see!!!



The Bistro is set up with a greens station; fresh salad, cold cuts, and cheeses.



A sweets station, cookies, pies, cakes, and brownies.



Options area, which was had Mexican items, the night I went. I heard this changes daily. Monday night is Mongolian BBQ, and Tuesday night is Taco Tuesday, where they make their own tortillas, and Friday nights are vegetarian night.



Market Grill has made to order burgers, chicken sandwiches, onion rings, hot dogs, chicken tenders, grilled cheese sandwiches, bratwurst, and quesadillas.



Main Plate which is your entrees and sides.



Steamed broccoli and onion rings. The broccoli was in the Main Plate area. The broccoli was cooked a bit too crispy for me but was well seasoned and fresh. The onion rings were very good!! There was a hint of root beer in the batter. Crispy and with thick cut pieces of onions. My only issue with the onion rings were they were only warm. The onion rings right out of the fryer, would be the best onion rings anywhere!!!




I got a burger and a chicken sandwich from the Market Grill. You fill out the slip of paper with what kind of sandwich or burger you want. Then check the toppings you want. You can then either wait for your sandwich or come back for your sandwich. The chicken sandwich was made of fresh chicken breast. I asked for cheese, lettuce, tomato and special sauce which is a thousand island style sauce. The sandwich was very tasty. A bit small but I understand why they make it small, since this is an all you can eat dining hall, most people aren't only going to eat a sandwich.

The burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato was cooked to about medium rare, fresh and tasted great; juice, good flavor. There are condiments on the tables if you want to add ketchup, mustard etc.




Now onto the Main Plate. The main entree was steak, mushrooms, and mac and cheese. But there was also freshly made gourmet pizza. The steak, I think a sirloin cut, select grade, was flavorful, tender, and cooked just right, medium rare. The steak was seasoned with garlic and ginger. This is very well made steak.

The mushrooms was a perfect side to the steak. Fresh, full of flavor, in a light sauce, more than likely the au jus of the steak.

The mac and cheese was so creamy and rich. This isn't from some damn box. The cheese sauce was perfectly mixed into the perfectly cooked macaroni. Topped with bread crumbs, this is a winning combo.






A treat for me was the gourmet ice machine!!! The had two flavors, lime and mango. The lime was just OK. Nothing special. But the mango flavor was great. A ton of mango flavor, nice and refreshing even when it is 55 degrees outside. I also love the fact that they server Coke, not third rate cola.

I loved the oatmeal raisin cookie. Lots of raisins, cinnamon, not too sweet.

Service is good. The lady taking my money was nice and friendly. She answered all my questions. The staff at Options, Main Plate, and Market Grill were quick and helpful. The food is always hot and fresh and once the food runs out, it is quickly refilled. Since there are a lot of students the food has a high turnover rate, always a plus at a buffet.

But as I was taking pictures one staff member came up to me and asked if I needed any help. I know it is weird to have somebody taking pictures but I don't see why he is asking. I wasn't bothering anybody. He wasn't a jerk about it. But still, why bother?

Of course it maybe a bit uncomfortable eating dinner with a bunch of snotty rich kids but I have no reason to talk to them. And they are so into their own world, they won't even notice somebody who isn't part of their small world.

My memories of dorm food is mashed potatoes made from a box, mystery meat burgers and entrees. It is nice to see that some schools now care about the food they are serving their students. Students, ok their parents, who are paying a good amount of money for that food. Who knows maybe all the whining about terrible dorm food, back then got school's to improve the dorm food offerings.

I would have no issues going back to McConnell Bistro again. Well one issue is parking. There are a lot of parking for students and faculty but not much for visitors. I parked on College Blvd and 9th Street and walked to McConnell. 9th Street doesn't continue east from College Blvd. Again, I understand parking is set up for students but they could have a little more parking for visitors.

But the food is great and you can't beat the price. Don't worry about sitting with a bunch of snotty rich kids. Ok, ok I'm being a bit hard on those kids. Seriously though, give McConnell Bistro a try. You will change your mind about "dorm" food, after your first bite.

Update Dec 6, 2009

I went back to McConnell Bistro on a Friday night dinner, $8, for their vegetarian night. I am not a vegetarian but I told a few friends about McConnell and they wanted to give McConnell a try. I was expecting nothing but veggies but they had a chicken item, pizza, egg rolls, and beef enchiladas and of course their Market Grill for chicken sandwiches and burgers.



The last time I went I didn't try their soup. But it has finally felt like winter and it was a bit colder than normal so I looked at what soups they offered. When I saw clam chowder I was all over it. DAMN, this was so good. The clam chowder was a lot thinner than I'm used to but it had so much flavor!!! Tons and tons of clams and very little potatoes. Such a rich hearty flavor and hit the spot on a cold night.



I also didn't try their salad bar so I made sure to give it a try. I got romaine lettuce topped with cucumbers, mushrooms and carrots with ranch dressing. All very fresh and tasty.



Next up was the cheese pizza and oh gratin potatoes. The pizza was covered with cheese and had a good flavor but I didn't care for the crust. If you combined the crust from Los Olivos at Cal Poly Pomona and the pizza sauce and toppings from McConnell you would have a damn good pizza.

The oh gratin potatoes were nice nicely mixed with a mild tasting cheese. The red potatoes were cut into big ovals and just covered with that cheese. Nice and relatively light.




Next up was the BBQ tofu and garlic asparagus. The tofu was pan fried then covered in BBQ sauce. The sauce would be great on ribs!!! The outside of the tofu had a tough texture and the inside was mushy. I didn't care for this.

The asparagus was great. They were crunchy, which some people may not like, but I do and had a good garlic flavor. A very healthy dish!!



Next I got the all beef hot dog with bacon. Now the hot dog wasn't good. It was overcooked, no snap, and pretty bland. But to give McConnell the benefit of the doubt, I did place my order with them and then went back to my seat and ate something else. So the hot dog may have been sitting there for a long time. I wanted to try as many things as possible so I didn't go back for another hot dog.




The egg rolls and chicken sandwich were up next. I got bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomatoes on the chicken sandwich. Perfectly grilled chicken breast, melted cheese, fresh toppings. A great chicken sandwich!! The egg rolls had cabbage, carrots and maybe some broccoli and were dry fried. Nice, crispy and huge!!!



The meat entree was a garlic chicken. I got the chicken breast and I found it to be dry. Nice flavor but I needed some gravy to moisten it up. I wouldn't go back for seconds on this chicken.

Since it was Friday the dining room was pretty empty; I didn't see as many snotty rich kids as I did on my first visit.

Service was pretty good. I know Friday dinners are tough to prepare for since kids leave campus or go out to eat. They don't want to cook too much food and let it go to waste. But the food was quickly refilled when the serving stations were empty. But that wasn't the case for forks and knives. I had to ask the lady who was refilling the salad bar that they were out of forks at both stations!!

I also was a bit put off by the cashier. The first time I went the cashier was very nice. The cashier on Friday was a bit standoffish. The weird thing was I gave her a $10 bill and she gave me back a dollar bill and four quarters in change. I saw her register and saw she had a lot of bills. Why she gave me four quarters is beyond me. At first when I saw her reaching for the quarters, I thought maybe the price went back to $8.50. But no the price was the same. So why did she give me quarters? Now this isn't a big deal or deal breaker but come on, you have a ton of dollar bills, no need to give me quarters.

Honestly if vegetarian night was my first dining experience at McConnell, I wouldn't have given a glowing review, like I did for steak night. I would say overall it was good but nothing great. The clam chowder and asparagus were the only two items that I thought was great. But nothing else totally wowed me like everything on steak night.

I wouldn't go back for dinner on Friday but have no problem returning for dinner on Sunday.

The Back Abbey

The Back Abbey
128 N Oberlin Ave
Claremont
909-625-2642

July 20, 2009. Please note: It has come to my attention that the person who I had a run in with, and thought was the owner, is in fact, NOT the owner. The person I had the run-in with is an expo, so where I put owner, has now been changed to expo. An expo is somebody who is there to help, whenever it is needed.

The Back Abbey is located in a fairly new retail development in Claremont. The development is the western expansion of The Village.

The Back Abbey is known for their beers and burgers. I got a Backyard Burger, $11, which comes with butter lettuce, red onion, tomato, pickle and 1-year-aged cheddar cheese served on a Brioche bun with a side of red remy. This was a very good burger. A good quality beef, cooked medium rare and topped with good quality toppings. The cheese added a nice flavor to the burger, the bun was soft and had a nice texture. I received a comment asking 'Where's the beef?' And the menu says 6oz burgers or you can get a 8oz turkey burger for the same price. I got the beef and yes it is a bit small. But the quality of the beef and flavor is very good.

The service by the server was very good. But before I went into the restaurant, I took a picture of the outside. Somebody who is an "expo" saw me taking the pictures and I guess the expo was trying to be a comic but failed badly. I was trying to ignore the man but he kept pushing it and I responded to his stupid sarcasm. I guess he was paranoid because other people were trying to copy his original idea of opening a restaurant. So this expo was a jerk, I was trying to ignore him but he kept forcing me to deal with him. He needs to understand he is there for customer service and not be some bad comic or jerk. He also shouldn't act like he is the owner, especially when he isn't the owner.

I was close to telling him off but it is just not worth it, though I told him I didn't find his sarcasm amusing. I then was seated outside and the guy came over and explained why he was paranoid, I just told him, I don't care and it wasn't a big deal. For me it was over after I sat down. But it was good of him to come to me and explain why he was so paranoid. He really should be more concerned about the quality of the food and service, than people taking pictures or copying his brilliant idea of opening a restaurant. And it wasn't like his restaurant was some architectural marvel. Like nobody ever opened up a restaurant in a mission style building?

As most readers of The New Diner know, I feel it is best to remain anonymous in order to give fair reviews. If I told the servers and/or owners that I am writing a review, I know damn well I would get different service than if I was just anonymous. If any owner has an issue with my reviews, I have no problems talking to them face to face. But I never tell a restaurant I'm reviewing their food, though I do get many questions about why I am taking pictures.

I'm hope readers of The New Diner see that I gave The Back Abbey a very fair review, even after having that run in with the owner.

Aside from the run in with the expo, I did enjoy the food at The Back Abbey. I would go back to The Back Abbey because the food and service was very good. I would like to try the Abbey Burger.

Heroes-Claremont-Closed

Heroes
131 Yale Ave
Claremont, CA 91711
909-621-6712

If I lived in Claremont, I would have to pay rent to Hero's since I would be there so much. They serve good quality food in large portions at good prices.

Pictured is the shrimp cesar salad. First and foremost, they give you a ton of shrimp, romaine lettuce and dressing. I couldn't finish this meal. The shrimp served cold, is tender and flavorful. The romaine lettuce is fresh and crisp. I love the dressing, not as overpowering as some other cesar dressing.

Service is very good. They come around so often, you almost want to tell them leave me alone. Hero's has what I call a community server. All servers can and will help you. I had one server take my drink order, another take my order for the salad, and yet another server give me the bill. All were nice, friendly and helpful. I was never lacking for anything.

Hero's is one of the best restaurants around. Good quality food, great service and just a great place to have dinner or have a drink. I would go back anytime.