The Good Pizza-Closed

The Good Pizza
7929 Emerson Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310)-215-1883

The Good Pizza has been on my list of places to try since 2010.  I was nearby The Good and decided to finally drop in.  Located in a very dark strip mall that has a liquor store, cleaners, beauty salon, and a dance studio and across the street from a Vons. The Good Pizza has two tables inside and about four more outside.  I'm guessing they do a lot of delivery and take out.

18in with 5 toppings of your choice minus some prime toppings like steak; $23.  I got jalapenos, mushrooms, red onions, and spinach. 

The crust is awesome!  Very flavorful, great texture, soft yet chewy.  The cheese they use has a lot of moisture, so the pizza got a bit soggy.  The toppings were plentiful and fresh.  But, there wasn't that much sauce-which was pretty good, well balanced flavor. 

Service is good.  Nice friendly people.

Some people may complain about the high prices, but this is a larger pizza than most pizza places, and the quality is much better than any damn chain pizza, and blows some mom and pop pizza places away!

Mambo’s Cafe

Mambo’s Cafe
1701 Victory Blvd
Glendale, CA 91201
818-545-8613

I first heard of Mambo’s Cafe on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives and it has been on my bucketlist of places to try since 2010.  Finally, I made it to Mambo's!

While their location is Glendale,  it's not the part of Glendale most people know.  It's on the order of Burbank and just south of the 5 freeway.  It has to be a former gas station in a former life, but a nice restaurant now.  A nice counter with about eight seats and a good sized dining room.  They have live jazz every Tuesday.

Camarones Al Ajillo (with Vegetable Rice & Sm. Salad) Shrimp Grilled, topped with Special Garlic Sauce, $16.95.  

While this was a very good dish- the vegetable rice had onions, corn, peas, and cooked in a broth that made it very flavorful, the seven medium sized shrimp were well cooked and the garlic sauce had a nice flavor, the portion size is terrible!  I mean even when ordering shrimp fried rice you get about a dozen shrimp and most places it's around $10.  Yes, I know I am comparing a Chinese dish with a Cuban dish.  But, I could do the same with a Peruvian dish-shrimp with noodles.

Service is pretty good.  While they came around often, were friendly, they never once asked how everything was!!

I wouldn't go back to Mambo's Cafe.  While the food was good, the portion size and price do not make this a good value.

Señor Fish

Señor Fish
618 Mission St
South Pasadena, CA 91030
626-403-0145

Senor Fish is a chain.  I've been to their now demolished location in Little Tokyo, but never posted a review, which was demolished to make room for the Regional Connector for Metro Rail.   So when I recently had dinner at their South Pasadena location, I figured I should post a review.

Orange Roughy over baby greens-avocado, tomatoes, jicama, baby greens, $11.45.  Orange roughy is a very expensive fish if you can find it the average price is about $20/lb.  I seriously doubt this is orange roughy, especially such a big piece for just $11.45 plus the cost of the veggies, ok veggies don't cost that much, but you get the point.  This fish was well cooked, maybe a little too salty.  I haven't had orange roughy in a long time, but this did not taste like orange roughy.  The veggies were fresh.  This salad is fine, but no way is the fish used orange roughy!

Service was good.

If you go to Senor Fish, stick to the Mexican food. 

Pacific Seafood Grill-Closed

Pacific Seafood Grill
230 S Lake Ave Ste 3
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-583-9000

Pacific Seafood Grill is just a few doors down from Dupar's which used to be Hamburger Hamlet and Veggie Grill.  Pacific Seafood Grill is very much like Pacific Fish Grill, hell even their names are almost the same, fresh seafood served in a fast casual setting.  Doing a quick search and I find that Fish Dish was the last restaurant here, and it was also the same concept. 

Pacific Seafood Grill has a few tables at the front of the restaurant and some tables outside on the porch.  Since the porch is along Lake Ave, a very busy street, I would sit inside.

Ahi tuna with white rice and sauteed vegetables, $13.99.  I asked for the ahi tuna to be cooked medium rare, it came out rare.  It was a good sized portion and well cooked, even if not cooked to the doneness I asked for.  The rice was lukewarm and the veggies-cauliflower, zucchini, carrots and squash were sauteed in oil-this would be better if it was steamed.  Overall a pretty good dish worth the price.

Service is good.  But I find the restaurant a bit dingy and not a pleasant place to enjoy a meal.

I wouldn't go back to Pacific Seafood Grill.  I think Pacific Fish Grill is much better.

Grill ‘Em All-Moved

Grill ‘Em All
19 E Main St
Alhambra, CA 91801
626-284-2874

Grill ‘Em All has been on my list of places to try since 2013.  I finally made it to Grill ‘Em All, which is not far from Hot Red Bus, a mediocre and pricey fish and chips restaurant.   It's a very different restaurant.  You feel like you stepped into a Kiss/heavy metal concert.  Black paint everywhere, a few tables with chairs straight from a classroom, heavy metal music on the TV and the coming from the speakers, a different setting.

Winger aka the Stewart Burger – with a veggie patty, American, lettuce, tomato, pickle, thousand island, $10.  All their beef burgers are half pound.  But, you can get a veggie or turkey patty, no extra charge, instead.  Their veggie patty is made with black beans and corn, very tasty.  But, this burger is dry.  They need to put more thousand island dressing.  The bun was good and the veggies were fresh.  Besides being dry, this was a good burger.

Service is acceptable.  The girl who took my order was fairly nice and friendly.  But, when helping the customer before me, it took forever!  I'm not sure what the issue was, I saw three other people come help,  but damn, what the hell took so long?

I won't go back to Grill ‘Em All.  The burger is good and service is acceptable, but the entire theme-heavy metal, is a huge turnoff.  The burgers aren't so great that I can overlook the heavy metal theme.  If heavy metal is your thing, you'll love Grill ‘Em All!  It's just not my thing.

Brü Grill & Bar-Closed

Brü Grill & Bar
336 S Lake Ave
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-787-1444

Brü Grill & Bar, which opened about a six months ago, replaced Trattoria Neapolis that closed in 2015.  It's a very nice bar and grill, with tasteful decorations and beautiful exposed brick.

It's a long narrow restaurant with an upper section with more tables, the middle bar area, and the front seating area.  Their happy hour starts at 2pm Mon-Fri.  Mon-Thrs happy hour ends at 7pm, Friday ends at 6pm.

 Happy Hour fried green beas, $4.  Regular price, $6.  This was great!  Who knew something so simple could taste so great!  I doubt the green beans were frozen, since they tasted great!  Very light and crisp outside, a better french fries!

Happy Hour fries, $2.  Regular price, $4.  I asked for the fries to be well done.  They came out normal.  They were good, but would be better well done!

Service is good.

I would go back to Bru again for happy hour.  I think some of their regular menu prices are high, but maybe the food is worth the price. 

The Upper House

The Upper House
352 S Indian Hill Blvd
Claremont, CA 91711
909-621-1855

The Upper House was reviewed by David Allen last week.  About five stores down from Pollos Kikiryki, is The Upper House-a sit down Chinese restaurant that took over a fast casual Chinese restaurant called Royal Panda.

Lunch special shrimp with broccoli and snow peas, $9.95. with soup-hot and sour and white rice.  The hot and sour soup was served warm and wasn't that spicy.  It did have a nice tangy flavor.  The shrimp was plentiful-about a dozen medium sized shrimp cooked perfectly.  The broccoli could have been cooked a little longer.  It was practically raw.  The snow peas were cooked perfectly.  The sauce was a bit bland, a little more seasoning this would have been very good.

Vegetable lo-mein, $8.95. Snow peas, green onions, cabbage, bean sprouts.  A very good dish, well seasoned and cooked.  A lot of food for the price.

Service was good but they are suppose to open at 11am.  I got there at 11:20 and the server was knocking on the door!!  What was weird was she had to knock a couple times before they opened the door for her!  Come on be professional!  If your sign says open at 11am, open at 11am.  While eating she was very nice, came by the table often, and took care of the other 2-3 tables.  So, no complaints about the service while dining.

I would go back to The Upper House, but their prices on the regular menu seem a bit high.  The vegetable lo-mein is the regular menu price, but the shrimp with broccoli and snow peas is $13.95!! They better give you a ton of shrimp for that price!