Recently in Dining Out Category

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Penfold's Cafe experience.

Over the weekend we were visiting the Old Town Temecula Farmer's Market and decided to try nearby Penfold's Cafe for a late breakfast. The restaurant serves breakfast and lunch and is a well-known location among locals.

Jennifer Dean/The Press-Enterprise

We encountered a bit of a line but were seated outside on the patio within about 20 minutes.

Our first look at Penfold's reminded me of a cross between Bob's Big Boy and the Midwest chain Cracker Barrel. The décor is bright and airy with a comfortable feel.
The food fits with the comfort theme. Penfold's is known for its biscuits and gravy, chicken fried steak and something called "The Mess: Everything but the Kitchen Sink," which includes eggs, hash browns, onions, spinach, mushrooms, pepper and ground beef topped with cheese and salsa with a side of biscuits and gravy or toast.

Our server was fast and friendly. We ordered breakfast dishes made up of scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, a muffin and biscuits and gravy (I had to see what all the fuss was about).

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Los Primos Mexican Food experience.

We were doing some shopping in Perris over the weekend and by the end of the trip, I had some hungry kids. We spotted a little Mexican food restaurant nearby and decided to stop.

The interior of Los Primos Mexican Food was bigger than it appeared outside. It's a quick-service restaurant, so we placed our orders at the counter before taking a seat.
The restaurant is part of a family-owned chain that has two locations in Murrieta, one in French Valley and another in Chino Hills, as well as others in Orange and San Diego counties.

Each restaurant is decorated with handmade murals depicting a different location in Mexico. Those featured in the Perris location were lovely, brightly colored paintings.
The menu includes traditional Mexican food dishes, as well as hamburgers.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Famous Betty's Hamburgers experience.

School started up again and after the first successful day, the kids and I thought we deserved a treat. So we stopped at Famous Betty's Hamburgers in downtown Redlands for some first-day-of-school grub.

Betty's has been around for quite a while now, although I seem remember a time when it went by a different name. The name and ownership may have changed a few years back, but the retro-diner décor is still as cool as ever.

As soon as we walked in my son was drawn like a magnet to the big old jukebox and was busy picking out a playlist for our meal.

They're famous, so we had to stick with the burgers, which came in a combo meal with fries and a drink for just over $4 each. Betty's burgers come with thousand island dressing, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. We're a picky trio, so one came with no lettuce, another with no lettuce or tomatoes and one with no tomatoes.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Polleros Mexican Food Show experience.

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Chris Medrano starts a customer's order with fresh tortillas.

On a recent trip to Wildomar, we stumbled across a brand new Mexican food restaurant that was quite a find.

Polleros Mexican Food Show at Bear Creek Village is a bit like Chipotle and a little like El Pollo Loco, but with a lot more options including Mexican pizzas, salads, soups, nachos, quesadillas and wings. The décor is also a bit more upscale, but still very comfortable for families.

The restaurant, which opened about four months ago, features both "build-your-own" options for burritos, tacos, bowls and sandwiches, "design-your-own" options for the chicken plates for individual or family meals, as well as a full kitchen for a variety of other meals.

After talking to the owner, Alex Medrano, I wish I had sampled the pizza during my visit. The pizza options include BBQ chicken, tostada, carne asada, enchilada and fajita.
"We decided to try a new concept with the Mexican pizzas and went with traditional crust - not a tortilla," Medrano said. "They are really good."

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Guadalajara Mexican Grill experience.

It's back-to-school shopping time. Since it's our tradition to visit the Lake Elsinore Outlets for our yearly shopping trip, we went exploring for lunch while we were there.
We ended up at Guadalajara Mexican Grill in downtown Lake Elsinore.

The restaurant has a traditional Mexican grill feel, with a brightly colored décor. The location - on Main Street - was great, with plenty of other shops and restaurants nearby.
We were hot and hungry, so we ordered some cold drinks right away and started mowing through the chips and salsa. I appreciated the large drinks with lids for the kids - we had one knock-over - since someone is bound to tip a drink over or bump-and-slosh at some point.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Claim Jumper experience.

There aren't many restaurants with baby back ribs on the children's menu. That said, we managed to find one this week. The kids and I had dinner at Claim Jumper in San Bernardino the other night - the perfect cool, shaded atmosphere after boiling in the heat all day.

After being seated, the kids were given their "Gold Rush Gazette Jumper's Menu." This is no ordinary kids menu. We're talking eight pages of puzzles, mazes, riddles and word games - along with the list of menu items for both "Little Jumpers" and "Junior Jumpers."

Despite being tempted by the baby back ribs, my kids chose mac 'n cheese and mini corn dogs for their entrees. The meals came with two sides and a drink. One went with seasoned french fries and apple slices with caramel dip; the other had mac 'n cheese and the fries.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Jose's Mexican Food experience.

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My kids are finally branching out. For so long they have ordered the same dish at any given restaurant. American food: Cheeseburger with french fries. Mexican food: Bean and cheese burrito. Italian food: Spaghetti with meatballs.

This week we dined at Jose's Mexican Food in Yucaipa and, lo and behold, they went outside the box. We were seated in a booth and given our menus, which included puzzles, pictures and a pack of crayons for the kids.

My daughter chose the chicken taco meal and my son went with cheese enchiladas. I thought, 'If they can branch out, so can I,' so I went with the bean, rice and cheese wet burrito. I'm usually a cheese enchiladas girl.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Cafe Society experience.

Cafe Society always has coffee ready. It's conveniently located behind Loma Linda University Medical Center, a plus for caffeine-craving medical students and staff.
Since I'm also a coffee fan and I've heard the cafe has a tasty breakfast, I took the kids for a meal early one morning this week.

Breakfast, served all day, includes the usual eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast and omelets items. There's also a breakfast bagel, breakfast burrito, pancakes and oatmeal on the menu, as well as a variety of sides.

We had a mix of items. I chose the eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. The kids preferred the cheese omelet plate served with hash browns and toast and the eggs, sausage, hash browns and toast.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Baskin Robbins experience:

It is officially summer and it's beginning to feel like it. My kids are starting to grow gills they're spending so much time in the pool. After another long weekend of swimming, we decided we needed a treat so we visited Baskin Robbins for something cold and sweet.

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Since we've been on a frozen yogurt kick lately, it has been more than a year since we last visited. I had forgotten just how many options the frozen dessert chain offers.

We each topped our sugar cones with a different flavor. I chose the cherries jubilee and my daughter got her favorite Oreo cookies and cream. My son went with the flavor of the month, Baseball Nut, which included vanilla ice cream swirled with black raspberry ribbon, mixed with cashews.

I have got to say, there's nothing like good ice cream on a hot summer day. And no one spilled their ice cream. What a great day.

During the month of June, Baskin Robbins' locations have a baseball promotion going with mini helmets that serve as bowls with all the MLB team logos and colors. We didn't notice the bowls until after we were already snacking, which resulted in a lot of "pleeaasssee mom," "please can we get one?" So we'll probably have to go back soon for helmet bowls.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Cosi experience:

Jazmin Rossi, 6, of Temecula, eats her handmade S'more with her family at Cosi.

Most visitors to Temecula know about the wine country and Old Town. But some exploring turned up a tasty new dining find. The family and I had lunch at the Parisian-style café Cosi in Temecula this week and found a seriously good selection of flatbread sandwiches, melts and pizza, as well as soups and salads.

Best known for its signature flatbreads, Cosi bakes fresh rustic and Etruscan whole-grain flatbreads daily in a large, open-flame hearth. Everything we had during our lunch was delicious, but the flatbread was the icing on the cake.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Hong Kong Cuisine experience:

I've got one child who loves Chinese food and another who wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot chopstick, but despite the picky eater in the house, we decided to give the new Hong Kong Cuisine in Redlands a try.

The quick-service restaurant, located at the corner of Brookside Avenue and Tennessee Street, opened last week. It features fast food and sit-down options and a bright, clean decor.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Tin Lizzy's experience:

Vanessa Franko/The Press-Enterprise

I had heard good things about Tin Lizzy's Cookie Cafe before our visit earlier this week. The building, located in a small strip mall in the Mount Rubidoux area of Riverside, has a modest front. But the cookies are anything but modest.

The cafe is best known for its cookies, which are made from scratch daily. Open weekdays, the restaurant also offers sandwiches, soups, salads and coffee.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Pat & Oscar's experience:

I like variety. So do most kids I know, especially the picky ones. This week, we chose Pat & Oscar's in Temecula for that very reason -- variety. And we had one pint-sized picky eater who was sure to find something appealing if we had enough options.

The restaurant chain has several Family Value Meal packages that can feed up to six people, with food to spare.

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Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Nubi Yogurt experience:

This week, the weather started feeling like summer. Shorts came out, swim suits went on and we spent a lot of hours in the pool. We wanted something cold and sweet after a hot swim, so we headed to Nubi Yogurt in Redlands for do-it-yourself frozen yogurt creations.

Nubi locations have a variety of frozen yogurt and sorbet flavors, as well as an array of fresh fruit, cookie, cereal and candy toppings. Most of the yogurt is fat free or 98 percent fat free.

Some of the regular flavors offered include vanilla, cheesecake, peanut butter, plain tart, blueberry tart, café latte, coconut, raspberry and green tea. The evening we visited Nubi, there was also red velvet cake (a hit with the kids), toffee nut and raspberry pomegranate tart.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Burger Town U.S.A. experience:

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It's state standards testing week at my kids' school, and we needed a solid breakfast to kick off the day right. So we made an early trip to Burger Town U.S.A. in Redlands to fill up some little tummies before the big tests.

The restaurant is a small burger joint, easily missed on Redlands Boulevard close to downtown. While the burgers are good, I like the breakfasts even better.

We ordered two breakfast specials. One special came with two eggs, hash browns, toast and four pieces of sausage or bacon (we chose sausage); the other came with four pancakes, two eggs and four pieces of sausage or bacon (we chose bacon).

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our A&W experience:

When I picked my son up from school he was hot and tired. He was also craving something cold and sweet for an after-school snack.

So we made a quick trip to A&W in Mentone for root beer freezes. I've been drinking them since I was a kid, but my kids hadn't tried them yet -- always overcome with the need for straight ice cream or a root beer float during previous visits.

My daughter had gone to a friend's house for a play date, so it was just me and my son. While I ordered, he stocked up on a few items from the toy machines after a quick rummage through my wallet for quarters.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Chuy's Mesquite Broiler experience:

It was too cold to hit the beach last weekend, so we did the next best thing and took a trip to Chuy's Mesquite Broiler in Murrieta.

Ever seen the quirky airbrushed T-shirts sold at beachside locations? The clever sayings and larger-than-life caricatures featured on those shirts also line the walls of Chuy's.

The kids thought the "Catch of the Day" artwork featuring two marlin with fisherman dangling off their lines was totally weird, but very funny.

Chuy's Tex Mex menu features "We Surf Breakfast" items, "Hit the Beach" family packs, appetizers such as the Killer Mahi Sticks and the Rip Curl Platter, soups and salads, taco platters, fajitas, burritos and sandwiches.

The kids were starving (as usual), but I didn't want fast food. The naughtiness was increasing, and I knew we needed full bellies, fast.

So we compromised with a trip to Farmer Boys -- a choice that combines home-style food with fast service.

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Each location in the restaurant chain features decor in a farmhouse theme, which gives it a much warmer feel than the average fast-food joint.

We placed our orders at the counter and then settled into a booth to wait for our food. The kids had a choice of a chicken, fish, junior cheeseburger, grilled cheese or hot dog meal, which came with a side and drink.

The menu offered me lots of variety -- from a fish and chips platter to chili or soup to an array of hamburgers and sandwiches.

The kids went with a junior cheeseburger and a hot dog meal, both with french fries. I chose the Chicken BBQ Ranch salad with an iced latte for dessert.

We really enjoyed the comfortable atmosphere, and I appreciated the fast service -- hungry kids can be a scary thing for a parent, not to mention other diners.

The kids' meals are large, and we all agreed that Farmer Boys has excellent french fries.
My salad was piled with breaded chicken, fresh greens, diced tomatoes, shredded cheese and layered with ranch dressing and barbecue sauce. The kids polished off half of my salad in addition to making a big dent in their own plates -- always a good sign.

As much as I enjoyed the food, I have to rave about the iced latte. I'm a coffee lover, and the latte was delicious. I've taste-tested these at many fast food locations, as well as the coffee house chains. The Farmer Boys lattes would give even the best coffee house a run for its money.

After polishing off the last of our meals, we left with full, happy bellies and much improved attitudes. I'm thinking Farmer Boys might be our new "treat" location. I'm hoping for a strong report card or a good teacher note sometime soon so we have something to celebrate.

FARMER BOYS
Visit www.farmerboys.com to find a location near you.
Menu: Burgers, salads, fish, chicken, soup and chili
Cost: $3.39-$3.99 kids meal; $4.99 salads; $2.69-$4.99 burgers; $2.99 soups; $3.29 chili
Information: www.farmerboys.com

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our Silver Dollar Pancake House experience:

When the large silver dollar sign on Sixth Street in Corona came into view a cheer went up from the back seat of the car. My kids were on spring break last week, so we hopped in the car early Thursday morning for a trip to the Silver Dollar Pancake House.

Cheryl A. Guerrero/The Press-Enterprise

We hit some heavy traffic, so by the time we arrived at the restaurant we were good and hungry. Even on a weekday morning the Pancake House - a Corona landmark according to many residents - was sporting a line of about eight groups ahead of us.

We spotted a couple empty barstools at the circular bar up front and snagged those instead of waiting for a booth or table. Soon enough we had waters and menus.

The pancake house is known - not surprisingly - for its pancakes. So we knew we needed to sample those. On weekdays the restaurant has some excellent specials, including the two eggs with three pancakes or two eggs with toast and hash browns for $2.99.

Weekly Family Dining Profile: We're looking for places that are kid friendly, have good prices and healthy menus. Here is the rundown on our zpizza experience:

I've heard rumors of a great little pizza place that started in Laguna Beach and has an Inland location in Chino Hills. The place, zpizza, looks a little quirky, and I'm not just talking about the lowercase "z."

So my son and I headed in for a slice or two and found there was a lot more to the little shop than regular ol' pizza. Diners have a lot of choices.

When you build your own pizza, you can choose regular organic, wheat or gluten-free crust. Sauce choices include basil pesto, barbeque, chipotle pesto, roasted garlic, Thai peanut, or organic tomato.

I won't go into all the different meat and vegetable choices - there are a lot - but I will share the cheeses, which include feta, gorgonzola, mozzarella, parmesan, provolone, ricotta and vegan.

Diners can order full pizzas or single slices. We each ordered a meal that came with two slices of pizza and a fountain drink for about $6.

I chose a slice of the Napoli pizza, which included roasted garlic sauce, mozzarella, tomato rounds, parmesan and fresh basil. Our other three slices were all pepperoni. Both flavors were delicious.

The pizza slices were made with crispy wheat crust and were big enough that we had to use both hands to eat.

The service was great and very kid-friendly, despite the fact that my son left face prints on the glass pizza display (maybe some drool too). The restaurant also offers a variety of entrée salads, pastas and sandwiches.

Visit www.zpizza.com for all locations.
We'll definitely be back for more pizza and to try some other z-creations.

Reach Jennifer Dean at 951-368-9336, jdean@PE.com or http://blogs.inlandsocal.com/iguide.
All meals are paid for by The Press-Enterprise.

ZPIZZA
There are in-store specials or you can order online at zpizza.com to take home.
Where: 3090 Chino Ave., Chino Hills
Menu: pizza, sandwiches, salads and pastas
Cost: $9.95-$21.50 for small to extra large pizza creations; $7.25-$16.50 plus toppings for build-your-own; $8.50 salads; $4.95-$6.95 sandwiches, calzones; $7.50 pastas
Information: www.zpizza.com