Pee Wee's Famous Hot Dogs and Hamburgers-Closed

Pee Wee's Famous Hot Dogs and Hamburgers
5942 E Edinger Ave
Ste 104
Huntington Beach
714-846-3100

Simple customer service can go a long way. If people open a restaurant and lack customer service skills, they need to learn them quickly or get out of the business. The most basic customer service is just greeting customers with a simple; "Hi." How hard can that be?

For Pee Wee's Famous Hot Dogs and Hamburgers, it was too hard. The hot dogs are pretty good but customer service sucks.



Polish dog, $4.95- Mattern Polish sausage with mustard and onions on a baguette. I know I picked the polish, but then I got to thinking, I could just go to Mattern Sausage and Meats, and get a damn Polish sausage. I didn't have to drive all the way to Huntington Beach in the middle of pretentious jerk people.

The polish was grilled, with a good char. The sausage was fine, but when I got out to eat, I want something that I can't make myself. I could have gone to Mattern and grilled up the Polish, for much less.

The baguette was nice and soft, with a chewy texture. I like the baguette but it did overwhelm the sausage, even though the sausage was 1/3lb.

I'm not sure but maybe all their signature hot dogs and sausage are from Mattern. If so what's the point of going here?



Classic hot dog, Vienna beef hot dog, mustard and onions; $2.75. The hot dog was ok, but a bit overcooked, too much char. But Vienna beef hot dogs are good quality and this was no different. The bun was straight out of the bag, not toasted, but it was fine.

Service was below average. I don't believe that asking to be greeted when I walked into a restaurant, is asking too much. I walked in and there were two people in front of the counter, I asked if they had ordered, they had, and went to the lady behind the counter. She looked at me but never greeted me, never said one word to me. I placed my order, she asked if I wanted fries with my order, I didn't, and then gave me the total. Greeting me would have been nice and that's something all restaurants should do.

While I was eating, she came out to clean the area and she noticed me taking pictures of the hot dogs. She must have thought the pics were going on that other food review site, because when I left, she said Thank you for coming. Now, I bet she would have never said that, if she hadn't seen me take pictures. I mean, I was standing right in front of her and she didn't even greet me, so I know she lacks any kind of customer service skills. The only reason she thanked me, was in the hopes of getting a good review. Well, that didn't happen.

I wouldn't go to this place ever again. Bad customer service and a polish sausage that I can get from the source, why should I bother coming back?

Duke's- Huntington Beach

Duke's
317 Pacific Coast Highway
Huntington Beach
714-374-6446

I did a review of Duke's in Malibu, and now I will review the happy hour at Duke's in Huntington Beach. The Duke's in HB is right next to the pier and right on the water. It is a nice location but you gotta put up with the pretenious, asshole, jerk people of Huntington Beach.

But Duke's has a great Taco Tuesday special. Mahi Mahi tacos, either grilled or fried, for $2.50. These tacos are great. A huge piece of mahi mahi, I ordered both the grilled and fried, on top of fresh cabbage, tomato, and a white sauce. The grilled mahi mahi is very fresh, flakey, nice firm texture. The fried is firm and tasty ont he inside and has a nice thick crispy batter on the outside. All the veggies are fresh. What was missing was salsa, gucamole, and sour cream for the tacos. I saw other people get them. I got my tacos in a plastic basket with no salsa or sour cream.

Service is OK. The $2.50 tacos are only served in the bar area. But the server I had wasn't around alot and the bar area was not that crowded. So I'm not sure where she was.

I would go back to Duke's for their Taco Tuesday specials. Otherwise I wouldn't be anywhere close to Duke's.

Lou's Red Oak BBQ-Closed

Lou's Red Oak BBQ
21501 Brookhurst St
Ste D
Huntington Beach
714-965-5200

I do like Santa Maria style BBQ. But the last two experiences at Santa Maria style BBQ makes me want to stop going to any Santa Maria style BBQ places.

I have known about Lou's for over three to four years but I just haven't been down there.

But much to my regret, I did make it down there. I got the rib combo plate, $16.99 with tri tip, and Kraft mac and cheese and corn on the cob. I know Santa Maria BBQ is all about tri tip but this tri tip was terrible. They said cooked medium but what I got was tri tip cooked rare, the pictures do not lie. Now I'm not too picky, I just don't like well done. The tri tip was tough, not much flavor, and lots of fat. They do not season their tri tip well at all. It seemed as though they flashed cooked the tri tip because they were running out.

I love BBQ ribs and I always get BBQ ribs at BBQ places. I'm not expecting smoked ribs but damn the ribs were bad. First of all they say they are St. Louis style ribs, they aren't because the tips were on the ribs. St. Louis style means no tips. But they were grilled and lack flavor. They also had a lot of fat and grizzle. Not good at all

Now they say real Kraft mac and cheese is a side option. But damn, can't you can't make your own mac and cheese? The corn on the cob was cold and pretty flavorless.

Service was OK. We were greeted and seated quickly. But after that we didn't see the server for at least ten minutes. They were on their Iphones and texting everybody. But after coming back to take our orders the server was good, refilling drinks and was helpful.

I would not go back to Lou's again. I thought the prices were very high for the amount and quality of food you get. A Santa Maria style bbq place better make a damn good tri tip but Lou's falls way short. If I lived in Huntington Beach, I would make the drive to Culver City and get the best Santa Maria style BBQ at Santa Maria BBQ.

La Rocco's Pizzeria-Closed

La Rocco's Pizzeria
101 Main St #112
Huntington Beach
714-374-2555

La Rocco's Pizzeria is a New York style pizza place. As with any NY style pizza, I compare everything to Village Pizzeria. La Rocco's is good, matter of fact damn good. But it doesn't rate as high as Village Pizzeria. It maybe the best NY style pizza place in OC but there really aren't that many NY style pizza places in OC.

I got their special, two slices and a soda, $6. I got a cheese and the Bronx special, pepperoni, meatball, sausage. The first thing I noticed is that the slices are smaller than Village Pizzeria. They reheated the two slices but they were barely luke warm, so they could have kept it in the over a little longer. But the cheee was damn good, good tasting sauce, crip crust but lacking the gooey cheese.

The Bronx special also had the same sauce, crispy crust and lack of gooey cheese but they had plenty of sausage, pepperoni, and meatball.

Since I had a whole pie from Village Pizzeria earlier this week, I only ordered the slices. Ordering a whole pie is always the way to go for a fresh pizza. I have had fresh pizza from La Rocco's before and it was good.

Service was OK. They had three guys, one who must be the owner, screwing around when I walked in. After a couple minutes one of them took my order. I know they want to get the hell out of there but come on. At least pretend you want to be there.

I'm rarely in that area because parking sucks and it's filled with a bunch of surfers. But if I was in the area, I would go back again. You can always eat your pizza and watch all the girls with silicon and botox during the summer.

Centerfield Sports Bar

Centerfield Sports Bar
17296 Beach Blvd
Huntington Beach
714-848-0113

I came to Centerfield Sports Bar to see my BALTIMORE RAVENS get their asses kicked by the NY Giants. But I ate breakfast before the game so my review isn't a reaction to ass kicking my Ravens suffered.

I ordered the Full Court Breakfast, $7.99, three eggs over medium, bacon, hashbrowns, and wheat toast. The eggs were not over medium. They were overweasy. Now I'm not really that picky about my eggs. I do like overeasy but I prefer over medium, and I do know the difference. Over medium doesn't mean a running yolk. But the eggs were fresh and good, not salty at all. The bacon was chewy, which I like and it was big. I hate some size bacon. If their burgers are any good, this bacon would make a great topping. The hashbrowns were ok, but they were not hot, they were barely lukewarm.

I always ask for dry toast. I hate it when they just soak the toast in butter. So I usually keep it dry and make a sandwich out of the eggs and bacon. But either the server got the wrong order, maybe since the eggs were over easy, or she is just bad.

Service was below average. My server did not smile the first few times she saw me. She gave the attitude she didn't want to be there. My order was messed up and some of it was cold.

I would not go back to Centerfield again for the food. But for a sports bar there were some cool people there. Most times at sports bars you get jerk people. But when I walked in, wearing a Ravens shirt, somebody said Good Luck today. I then noticed his Giants cap he had on backwards and the NY logo. So I said Thanks, good luck to you guys too. Even the Traitor fans were cool. Loud but it's a damn game, so what's the big deal?

Chicago Ribs-Closed

Chicago Ribs
9901 Yorktown Ave
Huntington Beach
714-963-7427

I was really looking forward to going to Chicago Ribs. But when I got there, I found that this was really a Chicago For Ribs, that was brought out by a different owner, but it was still Chicago for Ribs.

I got the half rack of baby back ribs, $16.99 and the chicken breast and fried shrimp, $17.99. The ribs are cooked in an oven, covered in BBQ sauce and served up. They are OK but nothing great. I got double mac and cheese and the mac and cheese tasted like it came out of a box. Hell I can do that at home.

The chicken breast as thin and a bit dry. The BBQ sauce was the same sweet sauce that covered the ribs. The shrimp was good size and had a nice crunchy. But they weren't hot when they came out. Otherwise I don't really have many complaints.

Service was below average. It was a fairly small place but the server took away to refill drinks, take my order, come out with the cornbread and was generally slow. Maybe he was watching the World Series? Or just goofing offf. But he wasn't around a lot.

I would not go back to Chicago Ribs again. Wasting money on below average food isn't my idea of dining out.

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.

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.

Gyu-Kaku-Huntington Beach

Gyu-Kaku
7862 Warner Ave
Huntington Beach
714-842-8333

Japanese BBQ. Much like Korean BBQ, Japanese BBQ is where you cook the meat yourself. Gyu-Kaku has seven locations in the LA/OC area. I went to the Huntington Beach location and came away impressed.

The meats are served al carte and they are a bit pricey. I got the half order of the Kalbi Short rib, $7.95, aburi style ahi tuna, $7.95, and the Yuzu pepper chicken breast, $5.50. They come marinated in a light soy sauce and after you cook them on the grill you can drip them into the sauces they provide. I didn't put any other sauce on the meat.

I posted pictures with how each meat was raw, on the grill, and finally done. The first was the short rib. The ribs are boneless, sliced thin, and cook up really fast. They are marinated in a light soy sauce and topped with green onions. I thought the ribs were nice and tender but even with the marinate, lacked flavor. If I went back I would order another beef item.

I loved the aburi style ahi tuna. This was so nice and flavorful. I cooked the first batch a little too well done but the second batch was perfect. The tuna had a wonderful texture and flavor. This is a good quality ahi tuna they use.

I also loved the yuzu pepper chicken. The yuku pepper is a spicy marinate and wow does this taste great. The chicken is cut basically into cubes, they are thicker than the short ribs and ahi tuna, so they take a little longer on the grill. The spiciness wasn't from the pepper but the yuku which I have no idea what it is, but I really like.

Service is good. The people are nice and friendly and take the time to explain their menu and how Japanese BBQ works.

I would go back to Gyu-Kaku. But I do think they are pricey and the portions can be bigger. If you go with a large group, consider ordering the Prix Fix combos that include rice, salad, and veggies.

Kabuki-Huntington Beach

Kabuki
7801 Edinger Ave
Huntington Beach
714-898-9239

Yes, I have been to the Kabuki in Old Town Pasadena. Kabuki is coporate sushi place. I mean you can't tell whether you're in the Pasadena or Huntington Beach location. Generally the food is the same, though as you'll read, there was a big difference at the Huntington Beach location.

I had the yellowtail suhi, $3.95, Kabuki roll, $8.95, tuna, salmon, yellowtail, crab and avocado, crab sushi, $3.50, and the shrimp roll, $3.95.

The yellowtail and crab sushi were both very fresh and they used good quality fish and crab. The Kabuki roll was good. But I didn't like the tuna. It was chewy and not that fresh. I eat one piece and noticed the chewy, non fresh fish and wanted to see which one it was. So the next one, I eat each fish one by one and found it was the tuna. They need to be more careful of what they put into rolls. The shrimp roll was fresh and good.

Service was pretty good, comparable to the service at the Pasadena location.

It would take a lot for me to go back to the Huntington Beach location. I wasn't happy about the tuna not being fresh. I've never had that happen at the Pasadena location. But it was only one fish, not every fish, so I'll cut them some slack.

Catalina Fish Kitchen-Closed

Catalina Fish Kitchen
19171 Magnolia
Huntington Beach, CA 92646
714-963-9921

Catalina Fish Kitchen is a damn good place to get any type of seafood taco. Every Tuesday is Taco Tuesday and tacos are anywhere from half off to 25 cents off.

I ordered the tiger shrimp, scallops, and lobster taco. The tiger and scallops taco were $4, regular price, $4.29 and the lobster was the regular price $4.29. All tacos come on flour tortilla, with cabbage, cheddar and jack cheese and cliantro. For no additional charge you can get corn tortilla. Then you have a full salsa bar selection to add to your taco. All tacos are chargrilled but you can also ask for seven other seasonings including tomato herb and white wine sauce, olive oil and thyme, soy oil and lemon, and lemon garlic. I had all three tacos chargrilled and only added salsa.

I loved the tiger shrimp taco. There were about three huge tiger shrimps, chargrilled to perfection. The cabbage and cheese were fresh. With just a little salsa this is one of the best tacos I've had in a long time.

The scallops weren't so good. They were fresh and everything but somethings just don't belong in a taco and scallops are it. Maybe it's the texture or flavor but whatever it is, scallops don't work well with tacos.

The lobster taco was OK. Nothing special about it. The lobster was the slippery lobster version. They are a bit tougher and not as sweet as the Maine lobster. Again this is the case where this type of seafood doesn't belong in a taco. I didn't like the combination.

Service was OK. The people are nice and friendly but they orders can take longer than they should. I ordered the lobster taco after I ordered the tiger shrimp and scallops tacos, and they completely forgot about the order. Then it took another ten minutes before I got the taco. Now the people were nice about things but I think service needs to be faster.

I would go back to Catalina Fish Kitchen and try some of their other seafood, salmon, mahi mahi, and their seasonings. I would not order the scallops or lobster. But their tiger shrimp tacos are a winner.

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.

Fred's Mexican Cafe

Fred's Mexican Cafe
300 Pacific Coast Hwy.
Huntington Beach
714-374-8226

Fred's Mexican Cafe is a nice Mexican restaurant in Huntington Beach. After eating at Fred's go for a walk on the Huntington Beach Pier or just watch the sun set while sitting on the beach. A very beautiful site.

Pictured is the mahi mahi tacos with spanish rice and black beans. $8.95. The mahi mahi were grilled, which is nice. None of that deep fried stuff. The mahi mahi was moist and they gave you a good sized portion. The white sauce, pico de gallo, onions and tomatoes in the tacos made for a tasty combination.

Service was below average. It took awhile for the server to greet us and take our drink order. I did see her looking at us but she didn't bother coming over. Why? I have no idea. All she had to do was ask if we had been helped. It would have taken her four steps, she must have been tired. I didn't have any silverware and I had to ask the server for silverware. She took forever to get us our check and didn't come back for a long time after we were served.

Fred's is OK, nothing great. I call it Americanized, Mexican food. It's good food but nothing outstanding. I wouldn't go out of my way to go back to Fred's but it wouldn't be that bad to eat there again.

Secret Spot

Secret Spot
3801 Warner Ave Ste B,
Huntington Beach
562-592-4494

Before going kayaking, my girlfriend and I wanted to get something to light to eat. So we found Secret Spot and I was very surprised at how good the food is here.

The Secret Spot is a very health conscience place. They are also vegan friendly. I ordered a tuna fish burrito, $7.99. The burrito comes grilled and is huge. The burrito is filled with tuna fish, black beans, and avocado. It was very tasty.

Service is good here. The girl behind the counter was helpful and friendly.

I would go back to Secret Spot again. I enjoyed the food. It's a great place to go after spending the day at the beach.

Update August 17, 2008.



I went back to Secret Spot and had their Chicken Wrap, $7, grilled chicken breast and mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes, hot sauce on a wheat tortilla. What a wonderful wrap this was. This came hot and fresh off the grill, the mushrooms were dripping with tons of flavor. The chicken was moist and flavorful. Everything was so fresh and tasty. This was just a wonderful wrap.

Service was pretty good. The young girl who took my order was very nice and helpful. When she rang up my order, she said that will be $7. Well the menu listed the chicken wrap at $7.25, so I told her that can't be the right amount. But she said that's the price that rung up, so I said as long as you're ok with it, I'm fine with it.

But it took a very long time for the order to arrive. Yes, it was crowded, about 5-6 people in front of me. But damn, I could have walked across the street, went body surfing and looked at the some of the silicon on the beach and the wrap still wouldn't have been ready. But I can live with this because the wrap was great. They need to either hire another cook or the current cook, needs to work faster.

TK Burger-Huntington Beach

TK Burger
110 Pacific Coast Highway
Huntington Beach
714-960-3238

TK Burger is one of the best burger places I've been to. The burger is great and the location, right across PCH from the beach, near Huntington Pier is awesome.

I ordered the Bargain Special, cheeseburger and fries for $4.49. The bun on the burger is a spongy, very soft bread. It kinda reminds me of the buns at In n Out. The meat is grilled to perfection. TK Burger adds 1000 Island dressing, which is more mild than other 1000 Island dressings, not as tangy as most. Tomatoes and lettuce. I asked for no onions and no pickles. All those great flavors combine to make the best burger in Orange County. Nothing comes close, especially for the price.

The fries were good but a little salty.

The service is good. But it's the typical high school kid working the register. Her boyfriend was there and she spent more time looking at him than taking orders. But the burgers come up quickly and on a hot summer day I know the view is awesome to see.

TK Burger has two other locations in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.