Pei Wei Asian Diner - Seal Beach / Los Alamitos Review

Pei Wei Asian Diner in Seal Beach opened just about one year ago and serves up tasty Asian fusion cuisine for a decent price. The chain is owned by the folks at PF Changs, and that influence is apparent in the quality of food, the service, and even the attention to the decor with dark, angular Asian forms and plenty of wood, stone, and water environmentals. There’s seating available inside, but my daughter and I opted for take-out and ordered from the menu attached to the front counter. We were taking home food for the whole family, and as always, finding something other than corn dogs or grilled cheese that my four- and six-year olds will eat is a challenge. Happily, I saw that Pei Wei offered very reasonably-priced kids choices including the Lo Mein which is chicken with egg noodles. For the rest of us I ordered the shrimp fried rice, the honey seared chicken, and sweet and sour chicken on fried rice. Brown or steamed rice is included, or you can opt for fried rice with any entrée for only one dollar more. All three of these large-portioned main dishes were packed in easily-resealable clear lid containers which made both food identification and carting the left-overs to work a breeze.

Taste
All of the food was excellent, in par with what I remember about PF Changs typical fare. I would have liked to see more egg in the fried rice, but that’s a matter of preference, and for my wife, who doesn’t like egg all that much, she’d probably like to see less. Unlike the majority of food we get from our other local Asian take-out, Pick Up Stix, the food at Pei Wei was distinctively flavorful and fresh. It’s common that carton carry-out food can taste rather homogenized as if all the food came from the same pot. This is especially the case of Asian foods where several flavors are held captive in a single box and the time from pan to plate allows all the flavors to congeal. Somehow the food we brought home from Pei Wei avoided that problem, or perhaps it was just so good that our taste buds were giddily preoccupied and we ignored it. Within a few bites we knew that Pei Wei was going to replace Pick Up Stix as our Asian food choice. With competitive prices, kid-friendly foods, and potentially addicting vittles, we’ll be back soon for sure.

Mel's Drive-In Seal Beach - Three Strikes

It's rare that a reviewer (or casual blogger) gives an establishment three tries to get it right. I'm sorry to say that my third trip to Mel's, although better than the previous two, still left my wallet too light and my appetitie unsatisfied.

(You can read my first two reviews of Mel's HERE and HERE.)

I will say that our server, Maria was fantastic. Prompt, polite, and very friendly. I'm a firm believer in giving props to my servers and not blaming them for things they have no control over. In fact, my only gripe this time was the prices were still too high. I'm sorry, but a toasted egg bagel should NOT cost $3.00, or, (gasp!) $3.50 with cream cheese.

The photo here shows my whole grain pancakes ($6.75 - as shown, not including coffee). This was the normal size order - 3 pancakes. There's also an option for a short stack. I don't know how many pancakes you get with that - 1 1/2? Anyway, these tasted fine, but aren't pancakes usually one of the cheapest items on most menus? Mind you, this is a DINER, and a "DRIVE-IN" diner at that. These pancakes should be no more than $5.00. The bagel - $1.75 or $2.25 with cream cheese. I'm suggesting these prices in hopes that someone from Mel's corporate office accepts my invitation to read these reviews and adjusts their prices down to where a normal family who's paying $4.00 a gallon for gas to arrive at Mel's can actually afford to eat there.

Yes, I realize that the days of $5.00 breakfasts (at least in Southern California) are gone. I've witnessed the radical, recent jump of lunch prices from $7 - $10, and have eaten my share of $11.00 burgers. But breakfasts, especially ones in 'diners' should be reasonable. Or not. It's up to Mel's to decide if they want to stay in business. I, for one am not going back until the prices become more appropriate relative to the portion size and the 'diner' genre.

Buster's Beach House - Long Beach - Review

I purposely waited until our second visit to Buster’s Beach House before I wrote this post because I wanted to give it a fair shake. I’m pleased to say that this visit was nearly as enjoyable as our first. Only the service suffered this time, but I’ll get into that later.

Buster’s is located in what was once called Seaport Village in Long Beach, California. It’s off the beaten path, in a picturesque little village on the Seal Beach border. The restaurant is in the building previously occupied by the Jolly Roger restaurant. Long-time locals will remember that the Jolly Roger was there for decades, and, in fact, Busters is owned by the same parent company, Aloha Restaurants. Somehow it’s comforting for me to know that the Jolly Roger of my youth didn’t go out of business, but was simply ‘swapped out’ for a new model. But I digress.

Come for the food. . . Busters offers a good variety of dishes that span the spectrum from pizza (served on a scaled-down surfboard) to prime rib, to fresh seafood, salads, and even a Thai lettuce wrap. To be honest, we’ve only tried the pizza, chicken sandwich, cheeseburger combo, tortilla soup, and clam chowder, but all were very good. Even something as seemingly easy to pour out of a can as tortilla soup tasted particularly good as if Buster’s actually put thought into the ingredients instead of making it taste like every other tortilla soup in town. Portions are generous as well, so bring your appetite or plan on taking some home. For desert, try the Fruit Fantasia, a large, pizza-sized fruit pastry served on a surfboard . . . tasty and somewhat healthy – can’t beat that!

Stay for the view. . . We were fortunate to sit in the same part of the dining room during both visits, and I recommend asking the hostess for a table with a view. Buster’s is situated at the head of a jetty overlooking Alamitos Bay, and offers one of the most picturesque vistas in Long Beach.

Service is adequate, although, on our last visit, our waitress visited our table about half as much as we needed – considering we were dining with our three children. This can’t be blamed on how busy she was because I could see her just standing in an area near the kitchen, apparently waiting for someone to snap their fingers. By contrast, service during our fist visit was very good. So much for consistency. This averages out to an ‘adequate’ rating in my book.

The combination of great good, big portions, and a fantastic view make Buster’s one of Long Beach’s more unique family dining experiences. Let’s hope that its location doesn’t work against it as it has to so many other failed restaurants in the same little village. Spread the word!

You can find Buster's Beach House at:

168 N Marina Dr
Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 598-9431
Get directions

The Small Cafe - Long Beach California

Decided to go somewhere besides Mel's last night, and that kind of rash decision making paid off. The Small Cafe in the heart of Naples Island in Long Beach proved somewhat of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the food at The Small Cafe is very flavorful. However the wait for the food, the overall atmosphere (very bright lights at eye level over each table), and the odd tasting grilled cheese sandwich left us wondering if we should give this diner a second chance.

The 20 minute wait for our food could be explained by the fact that there's only one cook in the tiny kitchen. Granted, he's a great short-order cook, but when there's only two other tables occupied in the restaurant and we had to wait that long, it makes us wonder how long of a wait there would be if the place was packed.

I had the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich which was one of the best I've ever tasted. It came with my choice of side dishes, and I chose a small salad. My wife had the vegetarian sandwich which consisted of a variety of grilled vegetables topped with a slice of mozzarella. This was also quite good. My oldest son had the tripple-decker club sandwich which was delicious. The sandwich had a couple of nice touches not usually found on clubs - thick bacon and good quality turkey. Those two ingredients may have bumped the price up by a buck or two, but certainly also made for a more memorable meal.

My daughter's grilled cheese was just plain off. I don't know if they used Velveta cheese instead of American, or if they ran out of both and used a dollup of Frito Lay nacho cheese, but it just tasted wrong. Not spoiled, mind you, just not right. The waitress happily offered another meal, but my daughter chose the blueberry muffin instead.

The muffin was so good that we decided to get four of them to go to have for breakfast this morning.

So yes, The Small Cafe does go the extra mile in selecting quality ingredients and even making something as mundane as a blueberry muffin memorable. This cafe serves up tasty food, and if you don't mind the possibility of having to wait a little while, this cafe may be worth putting on your regular lunch list.

Mel's Drive-In Seal Beach - Take Two

I'm not usually one to add salt to my food, but this morning I made an exception when faced with Mel's version of a vegetable omelet. Perhaps I've been spoiled by the wizardry of such established egg and potato masters as The Porch, Chuck's, and The Potholder - all in Long Beach, or Cafe Del Sol, here in Los Alamitos. Maybe Mel's just needs time to become 'seasoned' in their food preparation. Is it fair for me to expect greatness from such a new kitchen? I just figured that since it's part of a chain, the chef's would be with the program out of the gate.

With my omelet, I had my choice of Mel's Special Grilled potatoes or regular hash browns. I suppose I started worrying about this meal when I asked the waitress which one she recommended and she said the hash browns. They had even less taste than the omelet which had only one taste that rose above all others - burnt. It wasn't scorched, just singed enough to become the dominant taste of the entire dish.

My daughter's French Toast was fine, but unremarkable. My dad had two eggs, scrambled and an English Muffin - nothing there to complain about.

Trust me when I say that I really want to like this diner. I live close by and have been looking forward to its opening for nearly a year. That being said, we will continue to visit Mel's to try out different menu items, and I'll continue to have faith that one day soon I'll experience a meal there which will leave me smiling with the comforting realization that our neighborhood diner has finally arrived.

I look forward to writing that review.

Mel's drive-in - Seal Beach - First Impressions

Just when you thought that the nostalgia craze was over, Mel's drive-in restaurant opens in Seal Beach - just skipping distance from our doorstep. Mel's occupies the building that housed The Parasol restaurant which closed its doors 15 months ago under pressure to remodel from the folks who bought and renovated Rossmoor Town Center.

I remember The Parasol for several distinct family dining memories, but unfortunately, not for the food. Mel's serves up similar helpings of Americana fare, but adds the much needed element of flavor which was sorely missing from its predecessor.

While The Parasol held close its 1950's design and old-school charm simply due to the fact that the owners never remodeled the interior, Mel's spent significant time and money remodeling the inside to mimic a classic diner from the 1950's. "Excuse me, waitress, I'll take the Irony Burger with a side of humility please.

With such a small sampling as we had tonight it isn't fair to generalize about the quality of the food. I can say that so far, it's better than The Parasol, but, then again, such can be said about the majority of our local eateries and most, if not all, bait shops.

I had the Mel's Burger with fries, while Ema had the Santa Fe salad. Nick had a BLT and the two little ones had kids meals served up in cardboard vintage Chevy's. The burger was tasty, but not outstanding. The salad was dry, and although the chicken was cooked well, moist and tender, the iceberg lettuce bed left us wanting a greener, more flavorful lettuce variety.

Nick's BLT was very standard, but that's what people want when they come to a place like Mel's. People don't want surprises or exotic ingredients like Romaine lettuce. Mel's has taken a bold move to be. . .un-bold. Tradition is not only accepted at Mel's, but expected as well. Mel's does what any good greasy spoon should - it delivers what people expect.

We will eat at Mel's again soon, and I'll write up another quick review of that experience as well. I'm hoping it's a repeat of this one. I don't want or need any surprises.