I'm Hungry! Blog - Conejo Valley Guide

Kids Eat Free!,

Rewards Programs |

Tuesday

09Mar2010

Places Where Kids Can Eat Free in Ventura County!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 09:10PM

Here's a list of restaurants that have "Kids Eat Free" deals around Ventura County that has been updated regularly since summer 2009! This list is subject to change at a moment's notice, so make sure to call the restaurants in advance!. Let me know of any changes or additions! At last count, this list has over 80 different Kids Eat Free opportunities!

Kids under 12 eat free at El Torito on WEDNESDAYS (updated 3/1/10; previously Saturdays) with paid regular adult entree. Locations at 449 Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks (805.497.3952), 2498 Erringer Road, Simi Valley (805.522.6882) and 1720 E. Ventura Blvd., Oxnard (805.485.4887).

Kids under 12 eat free with paid adult entree on certain days of the week at most IHOP locations.

Newbury Park IHOP 2315 Michael Drive (805.499.5840) does this 7 nights a week from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Camarillo IHOP 1620 Daily Drive (805.484.1346) currently has the deal from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., Mon-Thurs.
Agoura IHOP 5031 Kanan Road (818.991.4957) offers Kids Eat Free Sunday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. (current as of 3/10)
Simi Valley IHOP 2525 Erringer Road (805.582.0702) UPDATE 11/09: Does not offer Kids Eat Free at this time.

Kids 10 and under eat free at Denny’s on Tuesdays and Saturdays (most locations) from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Up to 2 free kids meals for each paid adult entree! Locations:

Thousand Oaks 50 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd. (805.379.0045)
Newbury Park 2830 Camino Dos Rios (805.498.4440)

Click to read more ...

5 Comments |

Kids Eat Free! |

Monday

01Mar2010

California Pizza Kitchen - Another Good Choice for Kids

Monday, March 1, 2010 at 02:05PM

California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) was founded on March 27, 1985, which makes CPK nearly 25 years old as of the day of this posting. Nearly all of us have eaten there and have enjoyed their pizzas, pastas, soups, salads, sandwiches and other specialties. I can honestly say through the years that I've never had a bad meal at CPK. My personal favorites include the BBQ Chicken Pizza, Chicken Tequila Fettuccine, Moroccan Chicken Salad and Sedona Tortilla Soup. Food portions are always good, so plan to bring some home.

CPK has what I believe to be a fairly priced kids menu, with pizzas, pastas and chicken dishes currently ranging from $5.49 to $6.49, including beverage. And desserts are only 99 cents. CPKids menus is for ages 10 and under. You can also sign up the kiddos for the CPKids Birthday Club and they get a FREE meal on their birthday month!

Visit the CPK website at www.cpk.com. Local Ventura County locations as of 3/1/10:

Simi Valley Town Center, Simi Town Center Way #790 (805.522.0030)

The Lakes at Thousand Oaks, 2200 Thousand Oaks Boulevard (805.777.1778)

Pacific View Mall Ventura, 3301 E. Main Street (805.639.5060)

Promenade at Westlake, 100 Promenade Way (805.374.2727) (This is a CPK ASAP, a quick serve CPK location where you order and seat yourself. They have a condensed menu here but food is equal to traditional sit down CPK locations.)

Good for Kids,

Kids Eat Free!,

Pasta,

Pizza |

Saturday

20Feb2010

Daphne's Greek Cafe is Always a Good Choice

Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 09:19PM

I really enjoy Daphne's Greek Cafe because I feel like I'm getting good value and the food tastes great and is healthy. My kids have enjoyed Daphne's savory fresh-carved gyros meat since their baby teeth grew in. We all like the rice and tasty pita. My wife loves the falafel, hummus and spanakopita. The Greek salad is always fresh. We always feel full but not "stuffed" when eating at Daphne's. They don't overdo it. But if you have room, they offer baklava for only a $1!

We visit the Newbury Park location, where Niko, the amazingly outstanding manager has worked for many years. This guy is "on it" - completely in control of that restaurant, ensuring customers are happy. He is excellent at multi-tasking. He's taking orders while keeping an eye out on the tables, making sure everyone has what they need. They serve you the food at your table. I tried to clean off my table when we finished but he wouldn't let me!

This is "healthy" fast food. What I like is that I've NEVER had a bad meal here. Very consistent quality. And the place is always immaculate...at least the Newbury Park location that I frequent.

Ventura County Daphne's Locations (as of February 2010):

Newbury Park: 1015 Broadbeck Lane, Unit F (805-480-0449)

Thousand Oaks: 265 N Moorpark Road, Suite A (805-418-1775) (Janss Marketplace)

Camarillo: 2390 Las Posas Road (805-389-0575)

Moorpark: 888 New Los Angeles Ave. Suite A (805-531-9310)

Simi Valley: 2667 Tapo Canyon Rd. Suite B (805-526-0450)

Ventura: 1708 S Victoria Ave., Ste B (805-477-0276)

Visit www.daphnesgreekcafe.com for more information and menu. You can also order online for either pickup or dining there, which is pretty cool. Although I haven't used the online order system, it looks really easy to use.

tagged

Ventura | in

Greek |

Saturday

13Feb2010

Presto Pasta is My Kids' Favorite Pasta Place

Saturday, February 13, 2010 at 07:28PM

Hands down, Presto Pasta is my 4 and 6 year old boys' FAVORITE place to eat. Literally they ASK to go there. This may be hard to believe, with McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Taco Bell and all the other fast food places offering up toys with their meals, but it's true! And I'm very happy about it! Why?

Not just the kids love the food there! I do too! I love the simplicity of the menu...pick a pasta, pick a sauce, pick an "add-in" and pick a size. And we've never gone wrong with the food at Presto Pasta!
The quality of the food at Presto Pasta is very consistent. I usually order tortellini with tomato meat sauce and by golly, it tastes good every single time I eat it! For another $3 or so I get a combo meal with a salad and drink. Of course we're not talking fancy here, so don't expect a gourmet fancy meal. But this is the place to come for a quality, budget meal out.
The kids usually order rigatoni with butter and parmesan and again, the quality is always solid and they enjoy it. The combo kids meal costs less than $5 and comes with pasta, bread, drink and a cookie!
Presto Pasta is always clean, the staff always smiles and service is quick. We order, sit down and I attempt to entertain the restless troops, and thankfully within 5 minutes we usually have our food. Suddenly it gets really quiet at the table (trust me, this is a very rare event)!

I can feed my family a healthy, enjoyable meal from Presto Pasta for only $20 to $25. Gotta love that!

Visit the Presto Pasta website at www.prestopasta.com. Ventura County locations are at 1025 Broadbeck Road, Newbury Park (805.498.7737), 5722 Telephone Road, Ventura (805.658.2898) and 1701 Daily Drive, Camarillo (805.445.7737). Camarillo location also has drive-thru! We have been to all 3 of these locations and they all have inside seating.

1 Comment |

tagged

Camarillo,

Newbury Park,

Ventura | in

Italian |

Tuesday

09Feb2010

Islands Restaurant "Gets It" When it Comes to Kids

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 11:04PM

I've had an Islands "Gremmie menu for surfers 12 and under" on my desk for 2 months as a reminder I wanted to write about this place. Note that I had to look up what "Gremmie" is and according to Urban Dictionary means a "young or inexperienced surfer, especially one whose behavior is objectionable." The latter part of that definition aptly describes my 4 year old.

But I digress. We never go wrong at Islands. We being me and da boyz. The kids absolutely love the food at Islands and I appreciate the fact that it is priced right. As of February 2010 most kids' meals are $4.99 (including hamburger, grilled cheese, quesadilla, hot dog and mac & cheese). The crispy chicken tenders are $5.99.

Each kids meal comes with a drink and fries. But the fries can be substituted with carrots AND applesauce, which I think is OUTSTANDING that they offer up this healthy alternative! If the kids want fries, they share some of mine...the serving is HUGE!

To top that off, they offer up a $1.29 "jr. sundae" with vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, whipped cream and a cherry. Once again, Islands NAILS it because not only the price is right, but the serving portion is right! Not too much, which I think is great.

Even the kids menu activities are perfect for the kids. My 7 year old enjoys the puzzles and word search games while the 4 year old busys himself smashing and gnashing his crayons the menu (and intermittently on the table).

Other than the great, cold, refreshing draft beer and the decent margaritas, I've tried and thoroughly enjoyed Islands' burgers (tried the Hawaiian burger with pineapple, terriyaki sauce and swiss and it was delish), definitely the excellent fries and the bottomless tortilla soup. I tried the fish tacos once and for whatever reason didn't like those as much (probably because while my head told me order the fish, my gut was telling me to go with the burger...note to self...go with the GUT).

There are currently 3 Islands in Ventura County:

Newbury Park, 935 Broadbeck Drive (Near Home Depot/Target) (805.498.7481)

Agoura Hills, 29271 Agoura Road (at Kanan) (818.879.8550)

Simi Valley, 1212 Simi Town Center Way (805.577.0693).

Visit the Islands website at www.islandsrestaurants.com for more information and a menu.

tagged

Agoura,

Newbury Park,

Simi Valley | in

Burgers,

Good for Kids |

Monday

30Nov2009

Full Service Delis in the Conejo Valley

Monday, November 30, 2009 at 12:33PM

There's a lot of places where you can buy a roast beef sandwich, but there's only a handful of delis in town that make it that really THICK deli style way. You know, thick enough to feed two people, thick enough take out half the meat, bring it home, and make 2 more sandwiches out of it. Price references below were current as of January 2009.

Brent's Deli, established in Northridge in 1967, opened its second location at 2799 Townsgate Road, Westlake Village (in front of the Westlake Hyatt) in Summer 2006. Phone is 805.557.1882. Their website at www.brentsdeli.com contains a menu. This place was immediately popular. Big, beautiful, well-appointed restaurant. Great place to have breakfast! A roast beef sandwich with a side order and pickles is $11.95. Sounds pricey, but when you see the size of the sandwich you'll understand. The only minor complaint I have about Brent's is that they don't have a kids' menu. I've never been disappointed her.

Established in 1991, Roxy's Deli is at 1345 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Thousand Oaks (just east of Rancho Road). Phone is 805.379.6767. Roxy's Deli on GetDining.com. Roxy's used to be my personal favorite before Brent's came around, but they are still an excellent choice. They are o.k., though not quite as consistently good as Brent's. But they still get plenty of my business. A large roast beef sandwich here is also $11.95. This is a large, comfortable deli with indoor/outdoor seating and lots of TVs.

Agoura's Famous Deli is located at 5915 Kanan Road, Agoura Hills. It was opened in 1997 by the Lovi family. Though I don't get over there often, I have enjoyed the food there when I have. This deli doesn't have the ambience of Brent's or Roxy's, but they serve excellent, New York style food In fact, I believe the food at Agoura's Famous Deli is better than at Roxy's...just my humble opinion. Same $11.95 price here for a roast beef sandwich. Website http://robjordan.biz/Pickles/Agouras_Famous_Deli.html and phone 818.889.9113.

A friend of mine loves the soup at Pickles Deli in Newbury Park, located in the Kohl's Center at 1940 Newbury Road. My 5 year old loves the chicken strips and hot dogs there. My 2 year old loves the eggs. So you can't go too wrong there. Pickles was opened by the Lovis (see Agoura's Famous Deli) in 1996. Once again, $11.95 for a rare roast beef sandwich. Staff are always very pleasant. Website http://robjordan.biz/Pickles/Pickles_Deli.html and phone 805.480.4800.

Jack's Deli is located at 966 Westlake Boulevard in Westlake Village, across the street (Townsgate) from the Hyatt and Brent's Deli. Phone is 805.495.8181. Jack's is still popular, even with Brent's Deli lurking next door. Large quantities and good food here along with a great selection. Mexican dishes are good here too. No website. Roast beef sandwich here is only $9.95!

The Old New York Deli & Bakery Co. has been in business in Camarillo (4972 Verdugo Way 805.484.DELI) since 1994 and it is a popular joint. On 11/18/08 they opened a new location at 2700 Teller Road, Newbury Park (805.375.DELI) in the new Loehmann's Shopping Plaza. They have tables but unlike the other delis listed you order from the counter and seat yourself. So this place is kind of a combination of a bagel/bakery shop and a deli. The menu is pretty large like the other delis, which to me makes the ordering process intimidating because you're standing there with your neck craned up at a menu the size of the Bible while they await your order. So to alleviate this just grab a paper menu as you walk in the door.

The food is pretty good! Roast beef sandwich is $8.59. The Turkey Reuben was o.k., though a tad dry. The hot dog was huge and delicious on a homemade bun! The fries were decent. The onion rings were a bit soggy but I'd try them again. Baked goods are awesome. Nice selection of colorful little cookies for the kids (AFTER their meal of course!). Every single employee I've interacted with in both locations has been very nice. They seem well trained, friendly and focused on the customer. I tried the FREE WiFi with my laptop in Newbury Park and it worked well, with download speeds at moderately fast 2.9 Mbps. Visit www.OldNewYork.com for more information and a menu.

Paraiso Deli located in the Paraiso Town Center (CLOSED IN 8/09)

In November, the venerable Nate 'n Al Deli that has been operated since 1945 in Beverly Hills opened a new location in what used to be Sushi Ko at The Lakes in Thousand Oaks (2200 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Suite 150). I have not been there yet but am certain it will be great.

One unique feature of Nate 'n Al's is that there is a 5 hole putting green adjacent to the restaurant. Kind of a cool way to wait for your table!

Feel free to submit additions to us or add comments to this post!

1 Comment |

tagged

Agoura,

Newbury Park,

Thousand Oaks,

Westlake Village | in

Delis,

Sandwiches |

Saturday

03Oct2009

Pizza Patrol in the Conejo Valley

Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 05:36PM

Pizza is the perfect food. It is easy to order over the phone. Easy to pick up. Easy to deliver. Pizza does not require utensils and thus saves time on cleaning and dishwashing...thus it must be good for the environment! Though often greasy, it provides us with all 4 major food groups (keeping in mind tomatoes are really a fruit). Kids love pizza. Pizza can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, snacktime or dinner and does not require heating (at least in my house). And of course, pizza makes a very good accompaniment to beer. What's not to love about pizza? Here is an alphabetical list of pizza places in the Conejo Valley and neighboring areas:

Ameci's Pizza and Pasta is at 1560 Newbury Road, #3, Newbury Park (805.499.8300), 30651 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd, Agoura (818.889.7722), 1724 Avenida de los Arboles, Thousand Oaks (805.493.2914), Westlake Village (DELIVERY ONLY) (818.889.7778), 302 W. Los Angeles St., Moorpark (805.529.3399) and 2780 Tapo Canyon Blvd., Simi Valley (805.581.9770) www.amecipizzaandpasta.com (Check the Ameci's website for coupons!) Fifteen years or so ago when I was on a tight budget I would cut coupons and buy the largest Ameci pizza and eat it for days. A nice, thin, simple pizza. And cheap! Good place to go on a budget. Mostly delivery and take out.

Cafe Topanga is at 171 North Reino Road, Newbury Park (805.498.2166) Decent food at this place. They deliver. I've only had their pizzas a few times and they were pretty good. Anyone have comments?

California Pizza Kitchen is at 2200 East Thousand Oaks Blvd.,Thousand Oaks (at The Lakes) (805.777.1778), 100 Promenade Way, Westlake Village (CPK "ASAP" fast service CPK with limited menu), (805.374.2727) and 1555 Simi Town Center Way, #790, Simi Valley (Simi Valley Town Center) (805.522.0030) www.cpk.com Tasty pizza with a large selection. Can't go wrong. Beautiful, clean chain of restaurants. I like the pasta dishes there more than the pizza. Recently visited the Thousand Oaks location with the kids and they both ordered the Mac and Cheese kids' meal. Large adult-sized portion came in a large bowl and I thought it was tasty. But they only ate 4 or 5 bites of it. Problem is that kids envision Kraft Mac n Cheese everywhere they go and usually at decent places like CPK they serve regular Fusilli pasta with cheesy sauce. Like I say, I liked it but they didn't. Live and learn. Next time it'll be back to pizza.

Chuck E. Cheese's is at 130 West Hillcrest Drive, Thousand Oaks (805.497.2522) and 4714 Telephone Road, Ventura (805.644.9777) www.chuckecheese.com (Prior location in Simi Valley has been closed.) I'm embarrassed to admit that I actually enjoy taking the little ones to this place. Where else can you enjoy yourselves with the kids (well, maybe 100 of them running around at the same time), drink beer, enjoy decent chicken ciabatta sandwiches, watch the kids enjoy their PIZZA (which by the way has the consistency of chewy cardboard, but that's o.k....they love it and I consume their crusts), and play some fun games.

Costco is at 5700 Lindero Canyon Road, Westlake Village (818.597.3900), 2001 East Ventura Blvd., Oxnard (805.983.4200) and 2660 Park Center Drive, Simi Valley (805.578.3301). (And allegedly one of these days we will see a Newbury Park Costco near the 101 and Wendy). www.costco.com I love Costco pizza. Huge slices of pizza for small sums of money. My top choice for bargain pizza that is well stocked

Click to read more ...

Italian,

Pizza |

Wednesday

02Sep2009

Two Good Indian Restaurants in Camarillo

Wednesday, September 2, 2009 at 08:36PM

I'm no food connoisseur but I know when I like something and I like to write about it. I'm happy to report that I LIKE the only two Indian restaurants I've frequented in Camarillo.

Cafe India is located at 1775 E. Daily Drive in the LazerStar/Presto Pasta strip mall. I've eaten there probably 10 times and have never been disappointed. The first time I went there was with an Indian friend who, with my full approval, ordered a vegetatian dish and a chicken dish with rice and naan. I asked him 4 times the name of the dish but between my ignorance for retaining Indian words and my practically lapping up the delicious sauce from my plate like a dog, I can't remember. He mentioned it was an Indian cheese sauce. The chicken was delicious too.

An update: My friend indicated we had Shahi Paneer, which is paneer (a homemade farmers cheese), nuts, raisins, cooked with fresh tomatoes, ginger and garlic with fenugreek (whatever that is). He says this Makhni Paneer is good too! I'll be back soon!

I've had good success with the lunchtime buffet at Cafe India, where you can get an assortment of all well prepared Indian goodies that will certainly please most palates. There's usually a salad, several veggie dishes, a meat dish or two, chicken, rice and a yummy Indian rice pudding dessert (I'm a sucker for good rice pudding).

The seating is comfortable in Cafe India and the place is very clean! I've not been there for dinner but I would love to do so sometime!

Visit their website at www.thecafeindia.com or call them at 805.987.8537. Their online menu is pretty cool, with turning pages. Quite useful actually as it shows pictures of each and every dish!

On the Mission Oaks side of Camarillo is The Curry Leaf, located in a Vons strip mall at 5253 Mission Oaks Boulevard, kind of in the middle of nowhere if you ask me. But worth going out of your way for!

A very good friend of mine told me to meet him at this great new Indian place in basically a residential section of Camarillo in early 2009 (the place opened in February I believe). This is probably my most anal retentive friend (you know who you are) who would never steer me wrong. Anything he recommends, I don't do any research on. I just buy, do or eat. In this case, I ate.

And boy did I eat! Every single morsel of food on the interesting "variety pack" lunch plates, where you get to sample multiple tastes. The curry, the Chicken Korma, the lamb and veggie dishes, the yogurt dipping sauce, rice, naan. All was consumed and inhaled with joy. I've been back there 3 or 4 times since then and the quality and consistency has always been very good.

The Curry Leaf is a pretty small restaurant with fairly spartan but tasteful decor. They don't have the cushy booths that the more traditional Cafe India has but there is a calm, clean look and feel about this place buried in the middle of a strip mall in the burbs of Camarillo.

You will not break the bank at either of these places. You will leave satisfied and with a wallet that is not significantly damaged.

I'm not aware of a website for The Curry Leaf but you can call them at 805.482.8880.

tagged

Camarillo | in

Asian/Indian |

Tuesday

11Aug2009

The Counter® Has Opened in Westlake Village! Custom Burgers!

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 09:50AM

For those of you not familiar with The Counter, let me tell you this. My wife first heard about The Counter from the Oprah show 3 years ago. Apparently Oprah mentioned it was her favorite burger and people went Counter crazy. We drove down to Santa Monica to the original The Counter and the whole family enjoyed it.

Soon thereafter, my wife begged me to open up The Counter in the Conejo Valley. We did not pursue that (I prefer to visit restaurants, not own them) but someone else did! The Counter Westlake Village, located at 30990 Russell Ranch Road (corner of Lindero near Costco), opened on Monday, April 6th. Visit www.thecounterburger.com/westlakevillage or call 818.889.0080.

The Counter has an amazing menu (see below) that has over 312,000 different burger combinations (can I get a statistician to verify this?). Wow, the Octomom and each of her family of 15 could each eat a different burger at The Counter for 57 years!!! As you can see, there are 4 burgers, 10 cheeses, 28 toppings, 18 sauces and 3 types of buns to choose from.

I originally posted this on 4/9/09. Over the last 4 months, my wife has dined there approximately 20 times. She and my family are huge fans. The kids love the mini burgers. The teenager enjoys the big, fat, juicy burgers. The wife enjoys turkey burgers. I eat whatever leftovers they bring home and pay the credit card bill. Mouthwatering (the food, that is, not the credit card bill)! The Crispy Fried Onion Strings and Sweet Potato Fries are delicious too. My wife also brings out of town guests to The Counter and everyone has given it rave reviews!

1 Comment |

tagged

Westlake Village | in

Burgers |