Chopsticks House-San Dimas

Chopsticks House
66 W Arrow Hwy
San Dimas, CA 91773
909-394-1122

Chopsticks House is located in south end of the Target shopping center, close to the Trader Joe's.  I've been to this shopping center many times, but never knew that Chopsticks House was there!  It's a corner shaped restaurant with tables as you enter, and then down the left side of the space.  There is a huge counter area, but there are no seats.

I just learned that this is part of a three location mini chain.  I reviewed their location in Chino back in 2011.Their third location is in Ontario!

Shrimp fried rice, $9.25.  This was a small portion.  It came in a small white to go carton, not one of those to go boxes.  The shrimp were small sized, about 6-8 of them in the fried rice.  There were small amounts of carrots, peas, and eggs.  It was good, but not worth the price.

Service is good.  The fried rice came out quickly.

While the food is good, the portions are too small and not worth the prices.

O Sushi & Grill

 O Sushi & Grill
1126 Via Verde
San Dimas, CA 91773
909-592-7536

The only sushi restaurant I have been to in San Dimas is Show Sushi, which is an all you can eat sushi restaurant.  I wanted to try a regular sushi restaurant and found O Sushi & Grill.

It's in the Vons shopping center, which must have a 60% vacancy rate, and is in a residential neighborhood.  

Tuna and crab sushi.  Imitation crab but fresh and well done.  The tuna was a huge piece of tuna, fresh and good flavor.  The sushi rice is excellent!

Tiger roll-$11.50-shrimp tempura,crab meat, avocado, and steamed shrimp.  The shrimp tempura stood out and was very good.  Huge pieces of steam shrimp and good imitation crab meat.

Lettuce wrap-$9.50-crab meat, spicy tuna, avocado, shrimp tempura.  I like unique twists to sushi.  I love the Moonlight roll at Banzai, a salmon, shrimp, crab, avocado, and asparagus inside a cucumber roll!  So I was looking forward to this lettuce wrap. The soy paper was a bit unusual, but I guess it held the roll together.  But, with was a very light, refreshing roll!

Service is good.  I didn't lack for anything and the sushi came quickly!

I would go back to O Sushi & Grill.  I think this is a hidden gem in San Dimas!

Show Sushi

Show Sushi
957 W Arrow Hwy
San Dimas, CA 91773
909-592-2911

A few doors east of Cafe Bagelry, is Show Sushi a very popular all you can eat sushi restaurant.  There are always people waiting outside and people keep coming into the restaurant!

As you walk in you notice two sushi bars and a huge middle area with tables.  There is a little notch with a few more tables.  It can get a bit loud inside, but it's a nice place for dinner.

They have the all you can eat dinner for $26.99.  They have a huge assortment of rolls and the nigri sushi. When going to an all you can eat sushi restaurant, you're not expecting top of the line quality sushi.  I do expect the sushi to be fresh.  That's what I got at Show Sushi.  All the nigiri and rolls were good.  Fresh fish, they could have put more fish on some of the rolls, but overall good. My only issue was that the rice was too loose, it wasn't sticky enough.  You could pick up the sushi and the rice fell apart.

Nigiri sushi- shrimp, yellowtail, and tuna.

Red snapper nigiri

Halibut nigiri.

 Popcorn scallop-deep fried baby scallops, inside crab and avocado.

 Shrimp lovers roll- shrimp and avocado.  Inside-shrimp tempura, crab, avocado, cucumber.

 Hawaiian Roll-tuna and avocado.  Inside-crab, avocado, cucumber.

 Tiger roll-shrimp tempura, spicy tuna, and cucumber.

 Baked scallops- baked baby scallops. Inside crab and avocado.

Cajun tuna hand roll.

I sat at the sushi bar.  Service from the server is good.  From the sushi chef is slow.  The server came around often, refilled drinks and asked if I needed anything.  When I put in my first order to the sushi chef, which included both nigiri and rolls, I got the nigiri very quickly.  But, it took forever to get the rolls!  I even ordered a second round of nigiri before I got my first order of rolls.  When I asked the sushi chef where my order was, he said it was coming!  A few seconds later he realized he placed the rolls on the counter for pickup.  Somehow, even though I was sitting at the sushi bar, he thought my order was for another table.  My later roll orders came out fairly quickly.  I understand the sushi chefs are very busy, but come on get organized!  But, this could be a tactic for all you can eat sushi restaurants who have a time limit, so people don't eat too much.  Now, I didn't see anything that said you had a time limit at Sushi Show.  But, while waiting, it did cross my mind.  I didn't keep track but I'm guessing I spent about an hour at Sushi Show, so it wasn't an issue.   

The hostess could stand to smile and be more friendly.  I walked inside and put my name down, while the hostess rang up some orders.  When she was done, she just asked how many. No, hi, welcome to Show Sushi.

I also think they should have a more detailed menu.  The menu made no mention of hand rolls.  I only knew about the hand rolls, when the couple next to me ordered some hand rolls.  They could also include the price of the dinner.  Nobody told me the price, but I knew the price because people I know recently at at Show Sushi.

I would go back to Show Sushi.  The sushi is good and I'll chalk up the slow service from the sushi chefs to just being off that night.

The Parlor Frozen Yogurt & Creperie

The Parlor Frozen Yogurt & Creperie
1453 W Arrow Hwy
San Dimas, CA 91773
909-599-7610

The Parlor Frozen Yogurt & Creperie is located a few doors down from Mike's Pizza.  It's been opened for almost three years.  A fairly large size store with a few tables inside and two tables outside.  You order at the counter and you can watch them make your crepe.

It's a combination Cold Stone and Yogurtland, expect you don't serve yourself.  They offer about 6-8 flavors of frozen yogurt.  You can choose to have your yogurt in a cup, waffle cone or cup, or on a freshly made crepe.

It was empty when I walked on a Wednesday night in summer and only a group of three people came in while I was finishing my cone.  But had a good amount of people when I went to Mike's Pizza. 

Build your own crepe, $9.95. Choice of frozen yogurt-Pistachio, two toppings- Twix bar and almonds, and choice to flavor drizzle-carmel!

Since this is a creperie,  I decided to get build my own crepe.  I watched as the owner put the crepe batter on the hot pan, and in a couple minutes he was forming the crepe cone.  I then picked the flavor of frozen yogurt, two toppings and flavor drizzle.  They will mix the frozen yogurt and the toppings together, just like Cold Stone.  The flavors all worked well together and if they didn't it was my fault! He used an entire regular sized package of the Twix bar- one and a half pieces mixed into the frozen yogurt and half a piece to garnish the cone! 

I liked this crepe cone, but this is an once in awhile indulgence.  It's too pricey for anything else or unless I win the next big lotto!  Or I could come back for just the frozen yogurt. 

Service is good.  The husband and wife team who are the owners are very nice.  Many Cold Stone locations closed because of the high prices.  Maybe a "mom n pop" type store free from the restraints of a franchise, can stay in business much longer.  I hope The Parlor can stay in business for a long time. 

Mike’s Pizza

Mike’s Pizza
1441 W Arrow Hwy
San Dimas, CA 91773
909-394-3409

I noticed that I have never been to a non chain pizza place in San Dimas.  A quick search led to Mike's Pizza and that San Dimas is not a pizza eating city!

Located in a small shopping center and near a laundrymat,  Mike's Pizza is actually takes two spaces in the center.  One space is the entire kitchen area.  The other is a combination dining and storage area.  They really need to clean up the dining area, which has about 8-10 tables.  They have pizza boxes, soda bottles, and other stuff that needs to be put somewhere else.

Large mushrooms and jalapeno, $16.  I took a menu home and realized that the menu price is $15.40 with tax that is well over $16.  So, I'm not sure how she got $16.  Anyways this pizza was pretty good.  A good solid medium crust with parts of the pizza piled high with cheese, but they missed some the other outer edges.  The sauce was mild, there is plenty of it, but it doesn't over power the pizza.  The toppings were pretty plentiful and fresh.

Service was pretty good.  It's a family run place.  They told me the pizza would take 25 minutes, which is longer than other pizza places say, but I go the pizza in about 20 minutes.  Unlike other pizza places that say 15 minutes but take 25 minutes for your pizza to be ready!  But, I came to the shopping center to got the grocery store about a week ago and they list their closing time for a Saturday night at 9pm.  They were closed and out the door at 8:30pm.  Of course, I don't know if that was a one time thing.  But, that's not good business.

Mike's is a good pizza place, better than the chains, but I'm not rushing back to San Dimas to try their pizza.  Honestly, if you're near San Dimas, just go a little further east to LaVerne, where there is a ton of good choices for pizza!

Ranch Town Market & Deli BBQ

Ranch Town Market & Deli BBQ

1112 N San Dimas Ave
San Dimas 

909-599-9424

Finally!!  After many attempts trying to get the BBQ spare ribs from Ranch Town Market & Deli BBQ, they finally had spare ribs today.  How did I know that a liquor store had BBQ?  Well, while eating lunch at Capri Deli in Covina, in December of 2011, somebody mentioned the BBQ at Ranch Town.  So I went there on a Saturday afternoon about two weeks later but, they were out of spare ribs.  The next time I wanted to go, I called before going and they still didn't have any ribs. This happened about four more times, I called each time and each time they told me they were out of ribs. Today I called and they finally had the ribs!!!  So I drove down there and finally got to try the BBQ.

Ranch Town is a huge liquor store with a deli counter at the back.  The deli has a good number of sandwiches on the menu.  They also have fried chicken on the menu.  But, I came for the BBQ and quickly placed my order.

Half rack of pork spare ribs, $12.99.  Six center cut ribs, there were well seasoned, a good bark, pretty well smoked-making for some tender ribs.  But there was very little amount of meat on these ribs.  I've had four pieces of ribs that had more meat than this batch of six ribs.  But, overall a good example of BBQ.  

Pulled pork sandwich, $6.99.  I normally don't get pulled pork but figured I could eat half the ribs and a portion of the pulled pork and save the rest for dinner tomorrow.  The bbq sauce is too sweet for my tastes and the pulled pork was drowning in it.  There was too much fat and gristle, but the lean meat was pretty good.  But, the BBQ sauce just overwhelms the flavor.

The people were generally nice when I called asking if they had BBQ.  But, actual service was ok.  They weren't that friendly, just going through the motions.  When I ordered the ribs, the young lady asked the lady in the back, in Spanish, if they had ribs.  I was going to cuss out everybody in that damn store if they didn't have the ribs.  Luckily, the ribs were in stock!!

While the BBQ ribs were good, it was a bit pricey for the amount of meat on the ribs and not so good that it was worth waiting about nine months to try it.  I won't go back any time soon.