Food and Entertainment

The Original Graziano’s Pizza Restaurant – Corona, CA

May 22, 2009 by Ole Leave a Comment

Thanks to the Internet, we don’t even have to pick up the phone anymore to get a pizza delivered to our house. The problem is that the pizza from the big chains isn’t always the best (to put it nicely), so we like to venture out to find something better. After we moved out to Riverside, we began our quest for pizza, and found Graziano’s in Corona.

The Original Graziano's Pizza Restaurant

Graziano’s has much more than pizza, including appetizers, sandwiches, salads, pasta and more. We usually start with some buffalo wings or pepperoni bread twists before moving on to the pizza. We get the regular buffalo wings, which have a great taste but aren’t too spicy.

One of my lunchtime favorites is the pastrami sandwich (no pickles), which beats any pastrami sandwich that you can get at one of the many brand name sandwich shops in our area. Fresh bread, lots of pastrami and oven-baked… a great combination.

But for dinner with the family, it’s all about the pizza. I like many different styles of pizza so I can’t say that I actually have a favorite, but this pizza is always good, hot and fresh. Graziano’s makes the dough and sauce for the pizza, and tops it off with 100% mozzarella cheese.

Graziano’s has plenty of space for team parties or meetings, a game room for the kids, and flat screen TVs for us older kids. It is a great place to take the family, have a team party or watch a game.

The Original Graziano’s Pizza Restaurant

333 Magnolia Avenue

Corona, CA

The Counter in Dos Lagos – Corona, CA

May 7, 2009 by Ole Leave a Comment

Update: The Counter in Corona is closed, but The Counter in Irvine is still open.
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My youngest son’s favorite meal is a cheeseburger (yes, it’s one of my favorites too). We don’t eat them all the time, so when we do we want something good. One of our favorite places to get a great burger is at The Counter in the Dos Lagos center in Corona.

The Counter has a few locations, but this is the only one we’ve visited. I like the “simple” look of this restaurant with its concrete floors, exposed ceilings and metallic furnishings (The Counter calls it “industrial decor” on its website).

The burgers are awesome, and I have never seen so many choices. When you are seated, you receive a clipboard with a form that lets you “build your own burger”. First, you choose what type of burger you want (beef, turkey, veggie or grilled chicken) and the size (1/3 lb, 2/3 lb or 1lb). I’m a pretty big guy and the 1/3 lb has always been the perfect size for me. Next, you choose from 10 cheeses, 28 toppings and 18 sauces. You finish up by choosing an english muffin or a bun (you can also skip the bun and have the burger served in a bowl). The Counter’s website states that there are “312,120+ different burger combinations”.

I’m pretty plain when it comes to burgers, so I always opt for cheese and bacon. This seems boring considering the number of toppings I can pick, but the meat is so perfectly cooked and seasoned that I don’t like to drown it with a lot of competing flavors. The way they cook it is also great. The outside of the burger is never greasy, but the inside is amazingly juicy. The Counter states right on its menu that the beef is 100% natural freshly ground angus beef that is raised on a vegetarian diet without hormones or antibiotics, which is nice.

My oldest son, wife and daughter are more adventurous, and have tried various toppings including jalapenos, chili, pepper jack cheese, ranch dressing, barbecue sauce and onion strings.

This brings me to the appetizers. The french fries and onion strings are incredible. I hear that the sweet potato fries are also good, but I don’t do sweet potato fries so you can be the judge. The Counter also makes some pretty good shakes, and features a new shake every month.

If you’re looking for a great burger, The Counter is worth a try (actually, it’s worth many, many tries).

The Counter Corona

The Promenade Shops at Dos Lagos

2785 Cabot Drive Suite 110

Corona, CA

www.thecounterburger.com

Update: Goodbye Counter, Hello Alibi

Original Roadhouse Grill – Riverside, CA

May 5, 2009 by Ole Leave a Comment

Before we moved to Riverside, we stumbled upon the Original Roadhouse Grill in Riverside during a house-hunting trip. It was great. The steaks were perfectly cooked and the service was great. We thought we found our new steakhouse. During the next year or so, we visited Roadhouse many times and found it to be hit and miss. So we stopped going… until now.

On our way home from the AVP tournament in Riverside, my daughter and I passed by the Roadhouse and decided to give it a try. We’re glad we did.

The Original Roadhouse Grill is a casual, rustic place with peanut shells on the floor. We felt perfectly comfortable in our shorts and flip-flops (after all, we did just come from a beach volleyball tournament). After we were seated, we got our bucket of peanuts and proceeded to do our part to add more peanut shells to the floor.

My daughter ordered the 12 oz rib-eye ($18.99) with steamed broccoli and a baked potato. The steak was very flavorful (she was nice to me and let me try a bite) and cooked to a perfect medium-rare.

I started with a caesar salad, and followed with the Robby Gordon #7 rib-eye ($23.99). This is an 18 oz steak marinated in Jim Beam, brown sugar and pineapple sauce, and covered in Spicy Lassos (thin onion rings). This is not the kind of steak I would normally order, but it was very good and cooked to a perfect medium-rare. I also got a side of grilled shrimp ($5.99) and tried some great macaroni and cheese.

Overall, it was a very good meal. We will definitely be back with the whole family.

Original Roadhouse Grill

3838 Tyler Street

Riverside, CA

www.originalroadhousegrill.com

Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler, Corona

April 7, 2009 by Ole 2 Comments

Update: The Corona Chuy’s is closed, but the Chuy’s in Murrieta ~~is still open~~ has closed too. Shamrock’s now occupies this spot.

The next time you’re driving down Magnolia and notice the great white shark sticking out of Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler, do yourself a favor and go inside the restaurant.

This is our first post on RiversideAndBeyond.com, so we wanted to start with a review of one of our favorite places to eat. We have eaten at Chuy’s many times since we first tried it about 4 years ago. We didn’t go quite as much when new management took over, so now that the original owners have returned, we go there frequently again.

I keep going back for the tri-tip and the shrimp skewers. I’m a tri-tip and shrimp fan, so I try it most places I find it. So far, Chuy’s is the undisputed champ. The tri-tip is always well-seasoned and perfectly-cooked, and is not smothered in barbecue sauce. The tri-tip meals are served with rice, beans, cabbage salad and tortillas.

Chuy’s offers much more than tri-tip and shrimp, including chicken, fish, sandwiches, soups, salads, burritos, tacos and breakfast. There are also separate meals for the kids, and a bar for the grown-ups.

The inside of Chuy’s is part comic book and beach shack. The walls and tables are covered with creative murals, and there are a few sharks that pop out of the wall.

The pricing is reasonable for the amount and quality of the food. You can get meals for about $6 – $11, and kids’ meals for about $5.

Chuy’s is one of our favorite places to eat in Riverside County. Check it out.

Chuy’s Mesquite Broiler

1275 Magnolia Ave, #105

Corona, CA