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.

Shakey's Pizza

Shakey's Pizza
5639 Holt Blvd
Montclair
909-988-5431

After reading an article in the Daily Bulletin that said Shakey's Pizza in Montclair, was the oldest chain restaurant in the Pomona Valley I decided to try it. Shakey's always had the lunch buffet deal with all you can eat, pizza, fried chicken, mojo potatoes, pasta bar and salad bar.

I got to the Shakey's at about 11:30am and there were two other people there. The lunch buffet, once called the Bunch a Lunch, was $7.04. Pizza and chicken still weren't out on the steam trays. The pasta, rice, and vegetables looked as though they were on the steam tray forever. I got some salad, the normal iceberg lettuce and tomatoes with ranch dressing. Nothing exciting or special about the salad, hell I didn't even take a picture.

After finishing the salad I went back to the steam table and pizza and chicken were there. They had a pepperoni pizza and a sausage pizza. The pizza has a very thin, crispy crust. Not my kind of crust. But the pizza sauce has a nice tangy taste and is well spiced. There were a good amount of toppings. Nothing special about the pepperoni or sausage.

The fried chicken, a breast piece, had a very nice crunchy skin but it was also very salty. I was drinking tons of water. But the the inside was very moist and tender. None of the salt got into the meat so it was very good. Among the best fried chicken I've had in terms of moistness and tenderness. They need to cut down on the salt on the coating.

I try not to eat potatoes anymore but I had to try the mojos potatoes. The mojo potatoes had the same salty coating as the fried chicken, just not as thick. They were ok but again way too salty.

I know it was early and nobody else came in while I was there, but the pizza and chicken were filled only once. I got another breast piece and when I went back they had the same thigh and wing piece sitting there. After the pepperoni and sausage pizza were gone, they didn't put out another pizza. While I understand only three people were eating, they still need to put more food on the trays.

Service, other than the lack of restocking food, was good. I was quickly greeted, the guy took my order and was nice about it. The owner or manager was also very nice when I asked her about the article and if the article brought them more business.

I would go back but later during the lunch rush. Sure there would be more people but there should also be more food.

Panda Garden Buffet-Closed

Panda Garden Buffet 5136 Plaza Lane Montclair, CA 91763 909-398-1838 Though the picture above is at night, I've only been to Panda Garden for lunch. The lunch crowd was pretty steady, we arrived at 12:45pm and there was about 30 people the entire time we were there. So that means a good turnover of food. Lunch is $6.89. The first picture has fried rice, beef and broccoli, and General Tsao chicken. The fried rice was pretty basic, with very little peas, onions and scrambled eggs. It was good and is wasn't greasy as many fried rice combos tend to be. The beef and broccoli I had seemed to have been on the steam table a little too long. The broccoli was a mushy and the beef was tough and overcooked. Maybe a bad batch so I went again and they did put out a fresh batch. The beef was tender and the broccoli was crispy. The gravy was a little salty but overall I'm glad I gave the broccoli another chance. General Tsao chicken is basically orange chicken. Panda Garden's version the orange flavor doesn't overpower the dish. It was only a hint of orange flavor. But the actual chicken was just covered with batter. I would say the pieces were 20% chicken and 80% batter. At a buffet, it doesn't matter too much as you can get as much or as little as you want. But I would like to see less batter and more chicken. The second picture is a lobster roll, fried scallops, hunan chicken, and smoked chicken. The lobster roll was pretty bad. First it had been sitting on the steam table for a long time. So because of that, there was no crunch and the inside was imitation crab and fish paste that lacked flavor. I didn't bother trying the lobster roll again. The fried scallops were pretty damn good. A nice crisy outside and a hot, tender scallops inside. The Hunan chicken is basically broccoli chicken. It was pretty good with large pieces of chicken cooked just right and crisp broccoli. The smoked chicken had a ton of black pepper which really flavored and overpowered the chicken. The chicken was tender though and I thought the dish was good overall. The third plate had BBQ chicken, buttered corn, string beans, and shrimp. The BBQ chicken was basked with a light hint of BBQ sauce. The chicken was tender and good. The string beans was very crisp and the sauce/gravy they used, I'm guessing a little soy sauce, some garlic and maybe some pork, was great. The butter corn was so sweet and tender. The corn wasn't mushy at all. It was almost like eating corn on the cob. A great dish. But the shrimp was lacking in flavor. I don't mind the head of the shrimp on there. But the shrimp was overcooked and I just didn't like it. Overall Panda Garden is a good buffet. But they do lack variety. Sure there are plenty of chicken dishes but only a couple beef and seafood dishes. The food is good though and if you like their dishes and hate seafood or do not eat meat, you'll be very happy at Panda Garden.