Portofino Cafe, 404 East State Street, Redlands, CA 92373 (909) 798-3798

I had to be back for a meeting, so I ordered to-go. Despite my pledge to eat different things at restaurants I like, I keep getting the same thing at Portofino. I'd like to nominate it as best sandwich in Redlands.
It's called the Capi, and ordered the 1/2 Capi. It's capicola, my favorite sandwich meat, on a cheese foccacia, with lettuce tomato and some sort of mild white cheese. It comes with pasta salad. I ordered a 250 ml Pellegrino. The total, was $8.61, $2.00 of which was the Pellegrino. They do not skimp on the capicola, either.

Fox Coffee House & Patesserie, 101 Cajon Street, Redlands (909) 335-6787

I was still hungry from lunch, when I went in through the side door. I really like the door knob on the side door. I ordered a Double Chocolate Ice Blended Mocha (formerly called the Chocolate Chip Ice Blended Mocha) ($3.95) with whipped cream, 16 ounces.
Very good. I liked the ground-up chocolate chips. Recommended highly.

El Pollo Loco, Store 5790, 210 W. Colton Ave. Redlands, CA 92373 (909) 335-2232

So I saw an ad on TV for Grilled Chicken Nachos at El Pollo Loco. I can be highly susceptible to television advertisements for food. On my next visit to El Pollo Loco, I ordered the Grilled Chicken Nachos combo with a small drink ($6.45 including tax) to eat at the restaurant on Colton Avenue. It's on the very busy corner of Tennessee and Colton Avenues. I wonder who permitted a drive-through on such a small lot. The access is terrible. But I digress...
The dish was good, with certain buts. According to the website, which I visited post-visit, the nachos have 1060 calories, 55 grams of fat (21 g of saturated fat, 1 gram of trans fat (still? KFC has (or will have) none, but El Pollo Loco has some? Really?) 110 mg of cholesterol, 98 carbs, and 3,041 mg of sodium. Ouch! According to the Institute of Medicine, the Dietary Reference Intake (the new RDA is 1.5 grams of sodium. That means, one meal gave me two days' worth.
Other than that, it was pretty good, with a few problems. Nachos should have copious amounts of cheese. There was also very little of the advertised queso cheese sauce. The highlight was the chicken, which was moist and available. [Available?].
The El Pollo Loco website claims that the dish has queso cheese suace, sour cream, chopped boneless chicken breast, jack cheddar cheese, tortilla chips, pico de gallo salsa, guacamole, refried beans, and sliced pickled jalapeño peppers. The jalapeños were an option when I ordered, and I'd recommend them as essential; they cover-up the shortfall of cheese. The chips were fine, they were not stale like as often is the case in Del Taco's Macho Nachos.
As served, mine didn't seem to have any salsa; no matter, I was eating in and availed myself of the salsa bar.
Because of the nutrition, I wouldn't eat the nachos again. Unless the Lakers were playing.

Antonious Pizza, 1546 Barton Road, Redlands CA 92373 (909) 335-0173

It's in a former Little Caesar's, what more can you say. Actually, it's more complex than that. In my quest-to-eat-at-every restaurant*, one of the provisions behind the asterisk was that I didn't have to eat in any restaurant that did not have at least one seat. This one, I can now attest, has zero. I had the lunch special, a one topping 8" pizza, a small salad, and a 32 ounce fountain drink for $5.38 including tax (even though it was take-out. Strike one!). I was third in line, and there was only one worker. She had to give someone two slices of pizza (they get, er, mad props for selling by the slice), and she had to make a sandwich for another man. It was about a fifteen minute wait. Not exactly fast food. My pepperoni (to compare pizza, I think you have to order pepperoni) pizza came with eight pieces of pepperoni. The sauce was used sparingly. The dough was limp, and at times, gave a slightly stale note. There was a lot of crust, and the taste of oregano in the sauce. My soda was a Cherry Pepsi with an OK mix -- nothing special. I'd probably equate the quality to Dahlia's. The salad was about two cups of iceberg lettuce, a quarter cup of cut bell pepper, 1/4 of a tomato, a tablespoon of cut, but not chopped, raw white onion, and maybe three sliced black olives. I chose Italian dressing; it came with a quarter cup on the side. During my wait, on those Little Caesar's hard benches, I stared at the "Lower Back tattoo" temporary tattoo machine offering butterflies for $.50.

Romano's Macaroni Grill, 27490 W. Lugonia Ave. Redlands, 92374 (909) 798-4142 (Citrus Plaza)

Sometimes I like Macaroni Grill (a lot), and sometimes I'm disappointed. I was not disappointed this afternoon. I had the Chicken Cannelloni ($8.79), which according to the Macaroni Grill website, is described as a "Hand-rolled pasta stuffed with oven-roasted chicken, melted cheese and spinach, then baked in an Asiago cream sauce. Topped with tomato sauce." I like the herb bread they bring with the olive oil and cracked pepper to dip the bread in. We went at 11:45 a.m., which if you have a flexible lunch hour works really well. I love asiago cheese, which made the Chicken Cannelloni. They brought me a piece of chocholate cake in fudge sauce that was excellent. For inventory-control purposes, it cost the princely sum of $.01. I, of course, have mixed-feelings for chains, but often they give a variety and consistency unavailable elsewhere. Chains contribute to the economy, too. If a franchise-owner lives in town, some of the profit stays. Both chains and local restaurants pay sales-tax. Chains create jobs. Half of the University of Redlands seems to work at Macaroni Grill. A debate for another day.

Sierra Lakes Golf Club, 16600 Clubhouse Drive, Fontana, California

What was I doing in Fontana at a country club? That's a good question. However, I had two and a half meals, and I was impressed. The breakfast buffet had fluffy pancakes and crisp bacon, and good breakfast potatoes. I skipped the sausage and scrambled eggs.. The coffee was unremarkable, and they only had creamer. For lunch, since it was so close to Cinco de Mayo, there was a variety of Mexican dishes. I skipped the rice, the chile relleno (my nemesis, eggs), had a small corn tortilla based enchillada (very good), and went to the burrito/taco bar (the tortillas were in between), took a little carne asada, a little sour cream, a little shredded cheddar, and some green salsa. Iced tea to drink. Very good. The coup de grace were the snacks of chocolate chip cookies and I had some tea from a bag. Not bad. My only complaints was that there wasn't a wider variety of drinks available without going to the bar.

La Costa II, 621 Colton Avenue, Redlands, CA 92374 (909) 792-1337

A family favorite, I eat their weekly. When it burnt, we shifted to the San Bernardino location at 464 South Mt. Vernon (off Mill) , and they're very different restaurants. We also go to the one in Mentone. Today, I ordered the lunch special chile verde burrito. It was huge. The burrito was about seven inches long, a very large flour tortilla, with chunks of fork=tender pork, served semi-wet (there was no sour cream) with tomatillo sauce and cheese, with about half a cup of refried beans inside the burrito. It came with about 1/2 a cup of green salad with ranch dressing. It was very good, even if I prefer beef to pork burritos. It was an extremely good value at $6.95. I had it with a large (32 ounce) water with a lemon. I always enjoy the little things at La Costa, from the King Puff mints with the check, to the orange slice. Very Redlands. Always full.

Phoenicia Restaurant, 1560 Barton Rd, Redlands, CA 92373

This is a perennial favorite of mine. I was ordering to-go, so I ordered two plates: The Falafel plate ($6.75) and the Shwarma beef plate ($8.95). They charged me tax, even though it was a to-go order. Each plate came with two refined wheat pitas, about a half to two-thirds of a cup of hummus, 1/4 cup of tahini, about a cup of basmati rice cooked with onions, a green salad with oil and vinegar, topped with about four small pickled turnips. The falafel came with four average size falafel balls, and there was roughly a cup of shwarma. The Shwarma was cut in front of me, and it was a little dry for my taste today. The falafel was wonderful even after I traveled a distance to eat it. The hummus was good; it was fresh with oil drizzled on top.
I'm not sure what the deal with the shwarma was. I had just seen a Food Network feature on the Mad Greek in Baker (which I recommend), that showed how they made Shwarma. That probably influenced my decision to order. Probably an end-of-day problem. No matter, I'll be back.

Blimpie Subs & Salads, 27512 W Lugonia Ave # C, Redlands, CA 92374

I can't remember why I was near Citrus Plaza, but I decided to go to Blimpie. Breaking my rule, I ordered what I'd had before, Blimpie's Best. According to Blimpie's website, it has ham, hard salami, cappacola ham, prosciuttini ham, and provolone. I had it on the Parmesan crust bread (which I would recommend). Though they do not have the same assortment of included vegetables as Subway, the onions, lettuce and tomato were just right. I asked for it to be grilled (they don't normally offer it, but they'll do it for you) on their pannini press. This sandwich is the closest in the area to Queens' (may it rest in peace) combination grinder.
It could have used more grilling, and I was not offered, but should have ordered it with oregano, and oil and vinegar. They did offer, but I did not accept, mayonnaise and mustard. Disgusting. The six-inch sub was $4.69, the combo of a 22 ounce drink and 1 1/8 ounce Baked Lays was $1.99. With tax, a total of $7.20. I'd recommend it, get it the way that I suggest, rather than as ordered.