The Rookery Alehouse and Grill
117 W 2nd St
Pomona, CA 91766
909-865-4400
Interesting!! Sometime in 2018, The Rookery Alehouse and Grill moved to the space where The Burger House used to be!!
The Rookery Alehouse and Grill replaced Joey’s Bar B-Q. The family that owned Joey's decided to change concept and turn it into a burger place. David Allen reviewed The Rookery back in 2015. What is interesting that Burger House opened a couple doors down and just across Garey Ave., is Big D's Burgers! So, why has Pomona exploded with a lot of burger places? I think the credit goes to Gordon Ramsey!
On his Kitchen Nightmares show he featured Lela's-an upscale dining experience where the chef used mashed potatoes from a box! In the makeover, Ramsey felt an upscale dining restaurant in Pomona wasn't needed. What was needed was a good burger place! So, he introduced a new menu and it featured the Pomona Burger. Lela's was so mismanaged it closed before the time they filmed Kitchen Nightmares to when the show actually aired! I went to a restaurant that took the same of Lela's; Aladdin Jr.
The Rookery is huge, with a bar and same tables in the front room and long tables in the back room. When I went there were only four other people in the restaurant at about 7pm.
The vegetarian house made veggie patty, red onion, tomato, swiss, garlic aioli, $10. This was a lot of food for $10. The veggie patty was black bean and house made, good texture and firmness. The toppings were fresh, but there was only a very small amount of garlic aioli which made the burger dry. I added some ketchup and it helped. I would ask for more garlic aioli the next time.
The fries were very good, cut thick, well seasoned with the skin on.
Service was good. I was greet by one of the two people working behind the bar when I walked in. They answered my questions and were helpful.
I would go back to The Rookery, but I'm going to try the other two burger places nearby first.
