Sizzler #0480 110 Redlands Blvd, Redlands, CA 92373

I had the need to eat in a place with comfortable chairs that sort of served me. And Sizzler fit the bill today. The first (and only other) time I ate at this Sizzler (or as the Host called it, "Sizzler's") I had a steak or some such thing. Today, I had the Salad Bar (as did almost everyone else). The selection was a little smaller (from my memory) than the Sizzler on Waterman in San Bernardino. However, I was surprised to find mixed greens and spinach among the lettuce choices, and hard Parmesan and blue cheese in the cheese area. There were six dressings and oil and three vinegars, I think I chose malted. The check: $6.99 for the salad bar and $2.19 for the drink (Pepsi, sweet as always), .71 tax for a total of $9.89 before tip. I also had some strawberries, ripe, but not as ripe as I like them, non-canned pineapple, some onion rings, a fried sweet corn concoction that was really good, but not labeled, and various other salad toppings. I think Soup Plantation has spoiled me as far as salad bars go. I capped it off with soft serve; the vanilla chocolate swirl was coming out soupy, so I switched to Chocolate. They had tiny cups, so I used a soup bowl instead. I put chopped peanuts, Oreo-type (but definitely not Oreos), and strawberry topping. It was good.
The cheese bread has declined in taste. It was basically white bread with butter. It wasn't the orange-cheese bread as in past years.
I'd probably return if the muse moved me. Do muses move you to Sizzler?

Uncle Howie's Pizza, Lugonia Avenue and Church St.

Good pizza, not as good as New York Pizza, but differently good. Thick crust, large cheese taste. Sort of an out-of the way location, on the corner of Church and Lugonia (Highway 38). They were measuring for blinds when I was there, including a man people referred to as Howie. Could it be the man himself? Or is he mythical like Ronald McDonald? I did not follow up, dear readers. Couldn't beat the deal, though, slice of pizza and a large Coke (20 ounces or so, in a big red plastic Coke "glass," the kind mandatory for family pizzerias, since they probably are issued by the Coca-Cola Company to small business owners), $3.50. Downtown Redlands could use a good Pizza-By-Slice (only) place, sort of like Fat Slice in Berkeley. Mmmm . . . Fat Slice!

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.

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.

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.

New York Pizza 535 W. State Street (909) 798-8389

This is my favorite pizza place in Redlands. However, I have not had every pizza in Redlands because one of my provisos was that the restaurant had to have seating, and a lot of places do not. Now that I've been to every restaurant, I'm trying to not order the same thing over and over. Which is very difficult for me to do.
I like the pizza because it has a very thin crust, with a very doughy flavor, a sauce you can taste on every bite and stringy mozzarella. I have had true New York pizza in New York (it was in Spanish Harlem) exactly once, 21 years ago, if you're not counting some I had at JFK on the way home. So I'm not saying it's authentic, but it has the characteristics of New York-style pizza. Parmesan cheese is always handy at New York Pizza; a trick that I learned at the old Maxwell Street Pizza on Kendall in San Bernardino is that the if you poured enough Parmesan on oily pepperoni, it would absorb the grease. That's not particularly a problem at New York Pizza, but I still like Parmesan on my pizza.
Instead of the lunch special, (I typically get a mini 1-topping pizza and a small regular Coke for 5.35 plus tax), I decided to stop going through all the pizzas one topping at a time. In my restaurant tour, I usually would try a sausage sandwich if given the opportunity. I think that's what I had at Anthony's further west on State to give it a "maybe" rating. Anyway, I ordered a small sausage sandwich (8").
The roll was great, crispy and flavorful. Bread makes a sandwich and it can kill a sandwich too. I believe there was but one sausage; I don't need the fat anyway. You could taste it, it was sweet. The sauce was plentiful. The green bell pepper was uncooked - that's not a complaint. It brought out it's flavor. The chewy mozzarella found on the pizza was present. The onions were cooked with the sausage. Very good.
The best sausage sandwich in Redlands? Hard to tell, I don't remember many on my travels. I think I had one at Venezia on Lugonia that was so-so, but that was in May of 2006, so it's kind of hard to remember.
I ordered a large soda on a suggest-a-sale, when I really wanted a small. I'd say a large was 24 oz, and a small is about 16. You get a free refill, I think, but since you have to ask for it, I never do. I had a Mr. Pibb, because the mix on a Mr. Pibb never seems to disappoint, regardless of the water or ice used. The total for the sandwich and the drink was $7.30 including tax.