Jinky's Cafe Coming to Oakbrook Plaza in Thousand Oaks This Fall

Final Update: Jinky's Cafe Thousand Oaks opened on Wed, December 26th!

Update 12/14/12: Jinky's Cafe Thousand Oaks at the Oakbrook Plaza is opening REALLY soon. Here's a nighttime view of the soon to be opening eatery! Visit www.facebook.com/JinkysCafe for updates.

Original Post 9/12/12: Jinky's Cafe will be opening a second Conejo Valley location sometime this fall in Thousand Oaks! Jinky's will be in the space previously occupied by Kohinoor Cuisine of India at the Oakbrook Plaza, 1724 E. Avenida de los Arboles, Suite A, Thousand Oaks. This 3,700 sq ft space is located just south of Cisco's Mexican Restaurant.

Jinkys specializes in breakfast, with a full range of freshly made pancakes, crepes, waffles and their speciality flaky french toasts. Jinky's also has over 20 flavors of chili, burgers, sandwiches and large salads, as well as pizza, pasta and dinner specials. Jinky's started out in Sherman Oaks in 1992 and has since expanded to four (soon five!) locations in Santa Monica, Studio City and Agoura Hills. The Agoura Hills location opened in early 2011.

My Agoura friends love this place! Visit www.jinkys.com for more information. Already hungry? Try Jinky's Kanan Cafe at 29001 Canwood Street, Agoura Hills (just north of the 101 freeway, east of Kanan). Their phone is 818.575.4216.

(Thanks to CVG Facebook visitor Scott B for the heads up!)

Burger King in Thousand Oaks On Deck to Become Another McDonald's

Update 12/15/12: Hey look! The new McDonalds at the old Burger King location at Oakbrook Plaza in Thousand Oaks next to Taco Bell, is now open. Time for a late night junk food fix!

Original Post 6/14/12: Many Thousand Oaks residents are aware that the Burger King at 1908 Avenida de los Arboles has been closed for close to 6 months. There was a sign on the building indicating an application with the City of Thousand Oaks "to allow remodel of a fast food restaurant and deletion of parking spaces."

Aside from the oddness of "deleting of parking spaces" (which to geeks like me makes it sound like the parking spaces will be removed with a backspace key), I had assumed they were planning to just upgrade the existing Burger King.

But...nooooo...tipped off by a CVG Facebook Page follower, I asked the City planner as to the plans for this Burger King. I was informed that indeed, the plans are to convert this Burger King into a McDonald's!!

Time frame of this transition is not known, but we will stay abreast (as in Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips) of the situation.

The next closest Burger King locations are in Agoura on Roadside Drive (cross street Kanan), Simi Valley (2 locations) and Camarillo.

This McDonald's will be located less than 2 1/2 miles from the McDonald's on Moorpark Road at Janss and 5 miles from the location across from the Auto Mall on Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

On a geographically related note, nearby P&L Burgers, also located in Oakbrook Plaza, serves up some of the most delicous onion rings in town IMO. And the veggie burger I had there was quite tasty, something I cannot say about many veggie burger offerings out there. They are just a few doors away at 2000 Avenida de los Arboles. www.pandlburgers.com  P&L is a favorite among local accountants!

Sage Room Agoura Osteria Bar & Grill at Lindero Country Club Opened November 12th

Sage Room Osteria Bar & Grill opened its doors at the Lindero Country Club, 5719 Lake Lindero Drive, Agoura Hills on Monday, November 12th. Sage Room offers up "country-style home Italian cooking with a twist, with menu items including pastas, small organic salads, entrees such as pollo saltinbocca (free range chicken breast), pale ale braised pork shank ossobuco, bistecca di manzo (black Angus prime New York steak) and other items. The lunch menu has panini, pastas, salads and more.

This is the second Sage Room location in the area. The original Sage Room Ristorante Italiano has operated at 28915 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu (at the corner of Kanan Dume Road and PCH) since December 1999. Owner Claudio Borin grew up in San Remo, Italy, moved to the United States, and opened his first restaurant in Malibu, "Tradinoi," in 1991.

Visit www.sageroomagoura.com or call 818.735.3530 to learn more.

Five Guys Burgers Opening at The Collection at Riverpark in Oxnard on November 15th

The 3rd Ventura County location of Five Guys is opening on Thursday, November 15th at The Collection at Riverpark, 2730 Portico Way, Oxnard. To get to The Collection at Riverpark, take the 101 west, exit on Oxnard Boulevard and turn right. Turn right again on Town Center Drive into this beautiful new retail center.

Five Guys was founded in 1986 in Arlington, Virginia and is known for grilling burgers made-to-order with freshly ground beef. Five Guys claims there are no freezers in their locations. Nothing is frozen (well, maybe except for their ice cubes).  Five Guys uses only peanut oil and claims their menu is completely trans-fat free.

There are now over 1,000 Five Guys locations across the country, including this Oxnard Location, Thousand Oaks (487 N. Moorpark Road) and Simi Valley (2650 Tapo Canyon Road).

Burgers are made to order and delicious at Five Guys. My only mistake here was not adding cheese!

We've been to the Five Guys in Thousand Oaks a number of times and I can vouch for the deliciousness of their burgers. Very fresh and very beefy. You custom order your burger any way you want with nearly 20 different toppings. My only "beef" so to speak is that I often order veggie burgers. Five Guys does not have a veggie burger, though you can order a "veggie sandwich" that consists of a bun and whatever veggie toppings and cheese you'd like.

Five Guys is also known for massive quantities of fries and I love their help yourself peanuts in a shell (thankfully I have zippo peanut allergies, yeah!). They also have tasty sound hot dogs that I have not yet tried. They keep their menu pretty simple at Five Guys.

Five Guys notes on its website www.fiveguys.com that they do not offer coupons or discounts, which to me is kind of refreshing. Enjoy your burgers!

Lemonade Restaurant in Westlake Village

Today was the Federal Veterans Day holiday as well as the grand opening of Lemonade at The Promenade at Westlake (at the former home of CPK ASAP). I just happened to be in the neighborhood so I was one of the lucky ones to try this brand new restaurant out!

This is the 10th Lemonade location, so they must be doing something right! I stepped inside the completely redesigned restaurant and was impressed by the visually appealing new stainless steel, white, gold and yellow toned theme. I arrived during the noon lunch hour and it quickly was buzzing and bustling. Kind of noisy in fact, but it was kind of fun. They retained the outdoor patio area and many took advantage of it.

I'm a pretty lean guy (and in fact I ran a full marathon yesterday) and I noticed the chairs seemed somewhat narrow, even for my skinny rear. Curious to hear others' observations about that.

Lemonade bills itself as fast-casual cafeteria style cafe serving up a diverse range of fresh, high-quality and innovative foods. Now that I've eaten there and seen what they have to offer, I agree with this description. The food was very fresh tasting and quite interesting. I tried the caprese sandwich and several of their "Marketplace" items, including diced sweet potato with pistachios and a "Char siu" chicken dish with pineapple, cashews and other interesting, healthy ingredients.

Your first visit to Lemonade may be somewhat confusing as they have such a diverse array of choices. It truly is cafeteria style, where you can choose from at least a dozen Marketplace items, all of which looked really good, "Land & Sea" items like salmon, chicken and seared ahi tuna, tossed salads, sandwiches, fresh soups served with grilled rustic grain bread and really tempting array of desserts, including cupcakes (only $1 for a mini cupcake!), brownies/bars, cookies and macaroons.

Basically you order, pay, take a number and they bring your food to you. For some reason that didn't happen with me...I sat there at a table with my iced tea and a number and they called it out for me to retrieve. But 30 minutes later my friend received his chicken sandwich order at his table. That was the only "glitch" of my first experience.

I get a good feeling about this place. I like it. I think you will too. The pricing is not "cheap" but for the quality I think it is fair. To me this is a great place for a group of 4 to share a variety of items, particularly the Marketplace choices.

Visit lemonadela.com for more information or call 805.778.9100 for more information. I noticed the sign on the door indicates their hours are 11 a.m. to 9:05 p.m. The Promenade at Westlake is located at the southeast corner of Thousand Oaks and Westlake Boulevards.

CPK ASAP at The Promenade at Westlake is Closed; "Lemonade" Coming Soon

Update 11/12/12: Lemonade opened TODAY! Pretty neat place that lives up to the description below. More will be posted soon.

Original Post: 6/1/12: A surprised CVG Facebook follower filled me in today that the CPK ASAP at The Promenade at Westlake was closed! I was equally surprised and disappointed because this was a frequent quick-stop place for me and my kids. Sure enough, according to a voice message, CPK closed its doors last Sunday, May 27th.  BUMMER!

Then I found out that another new restaurant is coming to The Promenade sometime soon: Lemonade.

Lemonade offers seasonal, Southern California comfort foods. According to the Lemonade website:

The concept is best described as Seasonal Southern California Comfort Food in a fast-casual cafeteria setting. A comfortable place where locals and visitors enjoy a rotating daily spread of deliciousness: from ruggedly roasted Brussels sprouts to grain salads from around the world to stewed short ribs falling off the bone. Our dishes stress simple preparations with global taste, and are a perfect fit for today’s on-the-go lifestyle and perceptive palate.

Lemonade caters to people looking for a quick lunch or a healthy “grab and go” dinner for the family. The cafés have an emphasis on convenience and affordability, while serving the same fresh, high-quality, and innovative modern cuisine that the brand has become known for.

The food at Lemonade is as creative and diverse as the city’s inhabitants. Our marketplace salads, unique sandwiches, and slow-simmered stews taste as though every culture stirred a bit into the pot. For example, the skirt steak with grilled onions and piquillo peppers with its smoky depth, ping-pongs perfectly with our snappy salad of Chinese long beans, pluot plums, and scallion vinaigrette.

Currently there are Lemonade locations in 6 Los Angeles locations (Downtown, MOCA, Beverly, Venice, Brentwood and USC) and Pasadena, with 3 additional planned openings in Manhattan Beach, Thousand Oaks (Westlake Village) and LAX (Terminal 5).

I checked out one of their menus and it looks pretty reasonably priced, healthful and quite interesting, such as these $5.50 to $6 "Land and Sea" options at the Pasadena Lemonade.

Citrus poached salmon filet

Char Siu chicken lettuce cups

Avocado salmon louie

Seared ahi tuna, crushed orange-ginger ponzu

Curry chicken salad

Buttermilk chicken breast

Tomato, mozzarella and basil stack

Stay tuned...