Heroes, Coming to Save the Day in Riverside?

Heroes Restaurant and Brewery

3397 Mission Inn Avenue

Riverside, CA 92501

If you don't believe that the Orange County restaurant scene is a powerhouse, then you have not been paying attention. A lot of our beloved restaurateurs in OC have started opening restaurants in other counties and other states. This is definitely a sign that our culinary pedigree has evolved. We aren't just getting restaurants from other areas, OC restaurants are expanding to show the rest of the nation and the world that Orange County has some pretty good food to share with everyone.

There are numerous examples of OC restaurants opening in other locales. Bruxie started in a tiny space in Orange, but now has locations in Chino Hills, and is opening their first Colorado retail space later this month. One of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Sol Cocina, started on PCH, but now has a location in Scottsdale, Arizona. Slater's 50/50 began in a sleepy little shopping center tucked into Anaheim Hills, and has now opened spots in Rancho Cucamonga and San Diego. Probably the most ambitious expansion I have heard of is the one Slapfish is doing. Not only are they opening their second OC location in Laguna Beach, but they have already opened in Dubai. Yes, that Dubai in the Middle East.

I could go on and on, but the fact remains that OC restaurants are big-time now. I was excited to hear that another long-time favorite of mine was expanding to another area. Heroes Bar and Grill has been a mainstay in Downtown Fullerton, since I was in high school, (which was a long time ago). About six months ago they opened up a new spot in Riverside, right by the Mission Inn. This used to be the location of the Big Cheese Pizza Company, which closed about a year ago.  Like that business, this new Heroes is brewing their own beer at this location. Head Brewer John Novotny, who used to be at Bootlegger's Brewery, is overseeing five different styles of beer here. We did not try any of the beers, but we grabbed our friends Sabrina and Anthony and headed out to see if Heroes has found a following in the Inland Empire.

I would say that they have gained quite a following. We arrived at Heroes at about 7PM on a recent Saturday night. We were met with a 45-minute wait and a long line of people standing close to the entrance. If you have never been to Heroes before, getting your name on the list for a table can be a little confusing. There's no hostess stand, you just need to find the guy with the pad of paper, who's calling out names when their tables are ready. Any employee can point you in his direction if you have trouble spotting him.

This restaurant has an odd layout for it. When you walk in, there's a bar to your left, and a bar to your right, with a large covered patio overlooking the parking lot. Probably bigger than the Fullerton location, the larger of the two rooms even feature a deli counter, which reminded us of Roscoe's Famous Deli, which is also owned by this restaurant group. The menu is pretty much the same as the Fullerton shop, but they have substituted some local Riverside names into the menu items. After our close to a forty-minute wait, we were seated and hungry. Let's see if the food is as good here, as it is back in OC.

Heroes Chili Nachos ($12 for a half order) is pretty legendary, and we were all famished, so this part of our meal was a no-brainer.  Yes, this is the half order of nachos. The full-size order comes out on a pizza plate and is so huge it could feed six or more people. We've learned our lesson and only order the half order now. The tortilla chips are covered with chili, a good amount of jack and cheddar cheeses, tomatoes, black olives, green onions, sour cream, and guacamole. A good-sized mound of food. Even with all of this piled on top of the tortilla chips, they still somehow managed to stay crisp. It could be that we ate these so fast that they did not have time to get soggy, but we'll give them the benefit of the doubt here. The chili is not a spicy chili, but it does add some moisture to the plate. A very solid plate of nachos, where you get a good amount of toppings in each bite.

Sabrina has been on a real health kick lately, so I was not surprised when she ordered the Veggie Sandwich ($9). This sandwich had almost the whole produce section on it. Avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, red onions, sprouts, provolone cheese, sweet-hot mustard, all placed between two slices of toasted squaw bread. She was pretty pleased when this sandwich was placed in front of her, but the sweet-hot mustard totally overpowered this for her. She felt this was more hot than sweet. It did not prevent her from eating most of this sandwich though. She was pretty excited for the cheat part of her meal, the Curly Fries.

Anthony has also been working on getting healthy, by eating right and also riding his bike for like 100 miles at a time. I could barely drive 100 miles, let alone bike it, so I'm pretty proud of my good friend. He decided he would go big at Heroes and have an epic cheat meal, the Chorizo Burger ($11). This 50 percent chorizo, and 50 percent ground beef patty is topped with two fried eggs, imported Spanish ham, pepper jack cheese, and chipotle mayo, all on a potato bun. I'd say that's a cheat meal for sure. I mean, if you're going to eat bad, you might as well go all out. Anthony was pretty glad that he got this rich burger. It really hit the spot after his long bike ride earlier in the day.

Five years into our relationship, and I still usually have no idea what Katie will be ordering when we go out. On this night she went with the Tuna Melt ($10 and add a dollar for the side of Potato Salad). Albacore tuna salad, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and tomato are all sandwiched between grilled Parmesan bread. She liked this sandwich as much as she liked the one at Heroes' sister restaurant, Roscoe's. The tuna was fresh, and the bread was grilled nicely. The only thing she was not so happy about here was the potato salad. She thought it was too tangy, possibly from too much mustard being used in it. She said this tuna melt will remain in her rotation when we visit Heroes in the future.

I have been craving a good Patty Melt ($11) for a while now, and this one at Heroes did not disappoint. A half-pound patty, with cheddar and Swiss cheeses, and the same grilled Parmesan bread that was used on Katie's tuna melt. The menu called for this to have grilled onions on it, but mine came without any. I liked the two different kinds of cheese used here, and the bread was grilled just enough to provide a nice crunch to it. A very filling patty melt, and I would totally get this sandwich again. I had wanted my side item to be the curly fries, but this came with steak fries instead, which were just okay. I'm never partial to steak fries. I feel that sometimes they are cooked too inconsistently because of their size.

So you would expect Heroes to get a pretty high score with us, but as with a lot of new restaurants, there are some growing pains that they are going to have to work through. This is kind of the reason that we like to wait six months to a year to visit a new restaurant. Give time for the front of the house and the kitchen to settle into a routine, and not have service become an issue. The service was an issue on this night. Heroes goes with the style of service that everyone is your waiter or waitress. This works fine if your wait staff works as a team, like the Fullerton location, but on this night in Riverside, they did not. We sat for nearly ten minutes with nobody coming to get our drinks orders, or welcoming us. Once we flagged down someone, the service became a little better, but the kitchen was slammed, and food made its way out in a very slow, drawn-out process. We started the order process at 8, and did not pay the check until after 10, so this was a long night. I'm sure things will get better, with veteran Heroes employee, and my good friend Geoff Neely being the General Manager here. He was working hard expediting food on this night, and we only got to say hi as we were on our way out. With Geoff as the leader here, the service will definitely get better, and I'm sure the kitchen will run more efficiently. It's no surprise that Heroes is one of the OC restaurants to expand to a new territory, now the only question that remains is who's going to be the next OC restaurant to expand out of OC?

Out of five golf tees, (because the first golf course in Southern California was built in the city of Riverside), five being best to zero being worst, Heroes Restaurant and Brewery gets 3 golf tees.

For more information about Heroes Restaurant and Brewery, go to their website here: https://www.heroesrestaurantandbrewery.com/

Another Night in the IE at Anchos

Anchos Southwest Grill and Bar

10773 Hole Ave.

Riverside, CA 92505

Getting back from our vacation, we were going to be swapping pictures with Sabrina and Anthony, who live in Corona. Since we've been back we had not had Mexican food in a long while. Meanwhile, my Uncle Jerry has been raving about this restaurant in Riverside since September. So it seemed like Anchos would be the natural choice for us to quench our Mexican food cravings, and satisfy my Uncle's request that we try this restaurant. It was off to Anchos we go.

Anchos has been anchored in the Inland Empire for over twenty years now. Almost everyone that lives in the IE knows about this restaurant. They have won numerous awards for their food. Anchos has been mentioned in "Best of Lists" from Inland Empire Magazine, the Press Enterprise, as well as other media sources. We arrived here on a Saturday night at about 7:30, and the place was packed. The location is a little odd. They share a shopping center with the County of Riverside Health Agency. This shopping center is kind of off to itself, in a heavily residential area. It was promising that even with the hidden location of this restaurant, we still had a ten minute wait for a table.

The outside of Anchos reminded me of what some of the old El Torito's used to look like. White stucco buildings, with wood logs sticking out near the roof line, lending to the hacienda kind of vibe. The inside was one giant room, full of tables. They must have had at least forty tables in this restaurant. The large, boisterous  crowd really gave this place a life of its own. The inside of this restaurant really reminded me of a Chevy's. The menu here is pretty large, but we finally decided what to order. Let's see what this Riverside culinary landmark had in store for us.

Most places just give you Chips and Salsa, but at Anchos they also give you a refillable basket of flour tortillas. I had not noticed it while we were being seated, but in the middle of the dining room was a tortilla making station. We all really enjoyed this touch. They even gave out butter to go along with these tortillas. There is something magical about freshly made tortillas. They just make the world a happier place. Thank goodness for the tortillas, because the tortilla chips were not the best here. They are made here, but are very thin and needed more substance behind them. The salsa is also made at Anchos. This salsa did have a little heat behind it, but I like a chunkier salsa than this overly blended one.

As is customary when it is on the menu, Katie always has to order a side of Guacamole ($4.00). This guacamole featured very fresh avocados, but the guacamole needed to be seasoned a little more. Not the worst guacamole we have had, but it needed something extra added to it.

We already had the tortillas, so it was natural that we get the Queso Flameado ($9.99). I have had something similar to this called Queso Fundido in other restaurants, so I was looking forward to Anchos take on this dish. This stringy and thick dip is made of cheese and chorizo. This is a very heavy and greasy appetizer, but it is oh so good. Kind of hard to scoop out of the bowl, but it went well with the tortillas and the guacamole. The chorizo added a nice bite to the dip, and helped prevent a cheese overload. We all would get this appetizer again.

Before we delve into each of our meals, I wanted to show how crowded our table got after they brought out the food. Yes, for some reason they serve their rice and beans on separate plates at Anchos. They also had separate plates for the chiles rellenos that came with mine and Anthony's combo meal. Maybe to conserve space and eliminate waste, Anchos should consider serving their beans and rice family style, out of one bowl for an entire table. Just a thought I had after looking at this picture.

Starting off our entrees will be Sabrina's selection for the evening, the Chicken Enchiladas ($11.99). At this point of the blog, I would usually say something sarcastic about my table mate Sabrina, but I am going to refrain from this. It is the holiday season after all. Speaking of the holidays, Anchos gives you a choice on what sauce you want over your enchiladas; red, green, or Christmas sauce, which is a combination of both red and green sauce. The menu says this is a specialty of the Santa Fe area. Sabrina probably does not even know where Santa Fe is, but she thought these enchiladas were just okay. She liked the green sauce better than the red, and felt the chicken was just average. The serving size of this meal was on the large size, even without including the rice and beans. I know Anchos is busy, but they definitely need to work on their plating. From the looks of this plate, they just plopped these two enchiladas down.

The Chicken Fajitas ($14.99) are done a little differently here at Anchos. They do not come out steaming hot and sizzling, and they do not include bell peppers. Besides the grilled onions buried underneath the chicken, all of the other produce is placed on yet another plate. I am not a big fajita fan. I actually like that these fajitas did not come with bell peppers and I did not miss the sizzle that makes other diners in the area take notice. I applaud you Anchos for taking a stand on how you prepare your fajitas. That is where the accolades for this dish stop though. I felt awful for Katie to have to try to get through this meal. Lesson number one about Anchos, skip all chicken. This chicken was so dry it was like sand paper going down. No amount of refried beans could make this taste any better. After getting home and reading the reviews, everyone seems to be in agreement that the steak is the way to go at Anchos. Sorry Katie, I wish I would have known this before we came here. Not only was the chicken dry, but it was also flavorless. It really needed more seasoning. I took her leftovers home, but could not make them edible the next day either.

Both Anthony and I got the same thing, which usually means that I have to write less, but at Anchos, Our Number One Combination Dinner ($15.50) came on a whopping four plates, so no shortage of writing for me. Let's start with plate number one. This combination meal came with two chicken enchiladas, a crispy beef taco, and a tamale. The chicken enchiladas came Christmas style, with both red and green sauce. Both of these sauces were pretty pedestrian. Not too much going on with these enchiladas. The chicken was dry, but not as dry as in the fajitas. The tamale was probably the best thing in this combo meal, and even that was not memorable. I'm not even sure if it was a pork or beef tamale. I remember it being semi-moist, but not big on flavor. The Beef Taco was probably the most disappointing thing on this plate. It was not filled with very much beef, no cheese anywhere to be found here, and the tortilla had a supermarket shelf quality to it. I only ate half of it. Taco Bell makes better tacos than this.

Plates two and three were the Beans and Rice. Again the theme of the night went unchanged, because both of these tasted like nothing. I liked that they had hunks of chicken in their rice, but then I realized it was the same dry, flavorless chicken that was in the fajitas. The refried beans were a little on the soupy side, and were only useful when trying to make other items we had more moist. When we packed some of our food to go, both of us left these two plates on the table.

The last of our four plates was the Chile Relleno. At Anchos they make their chile rellenos with Poblano chilies. The Poblano chili is a very mild chili, so this relleno lacked the bite of other ones we have had. They stuffed the Poblano with jack cheese, then doused it with a red sauce that almost resembled tomato sauce. I was a little more forgiving about this chili relleno than Anthony, who said it, "tasted like nothing. No flavor whatsoever." I thought it was okay, but nothing I would get again.

So if you have made it this far through our review, you know this is not going to be one of our highest rated restaurants. I do give Anchos some leeway here though. They are not claiming to be a Mexican restaurant. It's in their name that they are a Southwestern grill, so that will explain the lack of heat in their food, but it does not explain the lack of flavor or the overcooked chicken. Our meal started out good with the freshly made tortillas and queso flameado, but after that it was just one low light after another. Maybe we should have just stuck to their Southwestern specialties like their ribs, skirt steak, or bacon wrapped shrimp. These are the items that get praised on-line at Anchos. The prices were pretty high here. There are no combination plates that are under $14, but you do get a lot of mediocre food with these combination plates. The service the night we were here was pretty solid. Our waiter had a very pleasant personality and checked on us often enough. It is safe to say we will not be going back to Anchos anytime soon. This place is all yours Uncle Jerry.

Out of five navel oranges, (because the city of Riverside is not only home to Anchos, but it is also the birthplace of the navel orange in California, way back in 1874), five being best to zero being worst, Anchos Southwest Grill and Bar gets 2 navel oranges.

For more information about Anchos, check out their web site here: http://www.anchos.net/

Does Simon Say to Eat at Simply Simon's?

Simple Simon's Bakery and Bistro

3639 Main Street

Riverside, CA 92501

It is not every day that I make it out to Downtown Riverside for lunch. In fact, to be more precise, I have never been to Riverside for lunch. I had to give a deposition for a work situation, so I did a little research about restaurants in the area where I was going to be. I had about three places picked out, and based on time and location I picked Simple Simon's.

Simple Simon's is located right in the heart of downtown, right near the Mission Inn. Lots of shopping and dining options around this area. I got to the restaurant a little after midday, and there were about six people in front of me. Simple Simon's was full of business professionals on their lunch hours. I was a little worried about finding a table, but there were plenty of seats inside, and they also have a patio out their back door.

Ordering is done at a counter. The line moved quicker than I had anticipated. Besides ordering your sandwich, you can also order drinks, salads, and baked goods along your way to the cash register. After I was done paying for my food, it was ready in about two minutes. Let's see how this lunch turned out.

I was not sure what I would be having when I walked in here, and I did not need to look any further down the menu than the first specialty sandwich listed, the Grilled Pastrami and Swiss. The bread was very good here. It was a very sturdy sourdough. Held the contents of the sandwich well, with a mild sourdough flavor. Well made bread. The pastrami was a little under spiced. It could not really stand on its own. It was made better with the spicy mustard served with this. I kind of liked the thicker cut of this pastrami for a change. With my sandwich, I was allowed to pick one side, so it was Potato Salad for me. This salad really had a nice texture to it. Some bites were smooth, while others you could really taste the rough cut of the celery and onions.

Since Simple Simon's is not only a bistro but also a bakery, I had to order one of their Chocolate Chip Cookies. Glad I did. This cookie was very solid. Plenty of chips and baked perfectly. Nice crunch around the outer edge and little chewier in the middle. I should have gotten a few of these to go, or at least have tried some of their other baked offerings.

Simple Simon's really reminded me of some of the delis I have been to back east. Not saying they are as great as some of the ones we went to in Boston and New York, but they are still pretty good. The style of Simple Simon's is what really reminds me of our back east trips. The dark woods, the high counters, and the bustling employees working hard to get the sandwiches out quick. Parts of the sandwich I had here were really good, but the pastrami was a slight let down. The cookie was excellent though. Prices for all the sandwiches are under $10. Not a crazy price for a solid sandwich, but not much of a bargain either. Be advised that Simple Simon's is only open for breakfast and lunch. They close at 5 on weekdays and are closed all day on Sunday. I would not hesitate to come back and try other sandwiches on their menu the next time I have to give a deposition for work. Hopefully, it will be soon, so I can have another cookie.

Out of five piemen, (because in the nursery rhyme Simple Simon, Simon met a pieman on the way to the fair), five being best to zero being worst, Simple Simon's Bakery and Bistro gets 3 piemen.

For more information about Simple Simon's Bakery and Bistro, visit their website here: https://www.simplesimonsbakerybistro.com/