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View the
Moffett's Family Restaurant Menu
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Moffett's Family Restaurant is located at 1409 S. Baldwin Ave. in Arcadia |
The
kid's menu chicken and noodle plate, just $4.65 |
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The
regular burger |
Order
of fries |
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Salad
comes with dinner entree |
Beef
pot pie dinner entree comes with salad, veggies, mashed potatoes, and
another pot pie |
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Bread
pudding |
Rice
pudding |
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Kid's
meal came with Jello |
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DOT COM DINING
A Look At San
Gabriel Valley Restaurants by SanGabrielValleyMenus.com
Moffett’s Family Restaurant, Good
Food at Good Prices, For Here or To Go?
By Bill Coburn
Moffett’s Family Restaurant, at 1409 S.
Baldwin Ave., (626) 447-4670, opened back in 1975. In 1990, current owner Ralph
Burton bought the restaurant from his sister and brother-in-law, Carmen and
Raymond Moffett. Today, he and his brother Stan are still operating the store,
serving up soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, and their specialty, pot pies.
The amazing thing about Moffett’s, is that they,
unlike most sit down and get waited on restaurants, do somewhere in the range of
half their business in to go food. They are most famous for their chicken pot
pies, which can be ordered cooked or ready to cook, it’s up to you. Chicken
pies to go are just $2.50 each, and a dozen unbaked costs just $24.75, a $5.25
savings. All white meat pies are $3.25 each, with a dozen unbaked costing
$33.75, also a $5.25 savings. They run a pretty good (take-out only) Monday
Night Football Special, where you get 4 pot pies, a pint of coleslaw, a pint of
mashed potatoes, a pint of gravy (more than you need for the potatoes, but
what’s left is great on the pot pies), and a loaf of bread. Cost of this
special is just $12.25 plus tax. You can download a coupon for this special,
and view Moffett’s entire menu online, by visiting www.sangabrielvalleymenus.com/moffetts.htm.
We’ve eaten pot pies to go, ordered baked and
unbaked, several times. We’ve eaten in the restaurant a couple times, too.
This week when we went in, Keelan was hoping to have the chicken and noodles AND
a pot pie. He’s just a kid, but he’s getting bigger and his appetite is only
going to grow with him.
Anyway, he was able to order the chicken noodle
kid’s meal, which came with vegetables and mashed potatoes and gravy. At just
$4.65, that’s a heckuva deal. I ordered the beef pot pie dinner, (dinners at
Moffett’s come with mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables, soup or salad, bread,
and a pot pie. I gave Keelan my chicken pot pie that came with the dinner, and
ate the rest myself. The vegetable on Tuesday this week was peas, which I hated
as a kid (don’t all kids?), but which I really enjoy now. I made Keelan eat
half of his, but finished the rest for him. My dad always made me eat all my
peas. I think that’s probably because he had ten kids, and for him to make that
kind of deal would have meant playing favorites, or eating so darn many peas at
one meal, he’d never want to eat peas again. Since I have only one kid, I’m
more than happy to eat half for him. So I said “Keelan, in the words of John
and Yoko, give peas a chance.” But I digress.
The waitress (Shawnie, who was friendly, helpful and
attentive) asked me if I wanted beans on my salad. I went ahead and got them,
but so you’ll know going into it, it’s kidney beans, garbonzo beans, green
beans, onions, bell peppers and white beans, several (maybe all?) of which were
pickled. I enjoyed my meal, which had a brown gravy on and in the pot pie, with
chunks of beef, carrots, and peas. It’s the first time I’ve tried the beef pot
pie, I’m always happy with the chicken, but I thought I’d try something
different. The chicken pot pies are chunks of chicken, with a white gravy, and
carrots and peas. Keelan’s chicken and noodles came with what appeared to be
the same gravy/sauce that’s in the pot pies. Chicken and noodles are offered as
a dinner entrée, as well, not just on the kid’s menu. I’ve had it and it’s
quite good. Sometimes, we order a side order of the chicken noodles a la carte
to supplement our pot pies and mashed potatoes.
Katie had a burger, which is a 1/3 lb. patty, and
comes with your choice of a cup of soup or a side dish of salad. These are good
burgers, in fact, if I recall correctly, Katie always has a burger when we eat
in the restaurant, because we are a little too far away to have the burger
travel and be as good as it is in house, so she gets pot pies to go and eats the
burgers when we’re there. I’ve had the burgers too, and they’re definitely a
good burger. Not some formula burger pressed out of a machine.
We all had dessert, Keelan had Jello with whipped
cream, Katie had bread pudding, and I tried the rice pudding. Yeah, I know, we
went to a place known for its fruit pies, and nobody had pie, just pudding and
jello. What’s up with that? Well I like rice pudding, and their’s has raisins
in it, which is an imperative for rice pudding in my book, so I thought I’d give
it a try, and it was good. Katie enjoyed her bread pudding, and Keelan? Well,
there’s always room for jello. We’ll try the pies next time.
Moffett’s Family Restaurant is a good place to eat,
and if you’re looking for a good to go meal that isn’t a greasy burger and fries
kind of situation, their pot pies can’t be beat. Actually, they’ll even make
you up a custom pot pies in your own casserole dish. Drop off your casserole
dish, and they’ll fill it with their pot pie filling, and custom make the crust
to fit your dish. It’s just $4.75 a pint. But there’s a 24 hour turnaround on
those, drop your dish off the day before you need it and pick it up the next
day.
Casa del Rey,
with a store in Arcadia, just up the street on Baldwin from Moffett’s, and
another location in Temple City down on Las Tunas, has announced the opening of
a third location in Sierra Madre. They are shooting for an October opening, and
owners Ed and Donna Rey plan to bring Sierra Madre the same fine Mexican
food and service that Casa Del Rey has offered since its initial’s store’s 1972
opening. They are moving into the location at 31 N. Baldwin Ave. that used to be
the home of the Peppertree Grill, which has now moved to the west end of
town (in Sierra Madre, that’s walking distance) at 322 W. Sierra Madre Blvd.,
which used to be Tailgators, Sunset Sierra Madre and the Raven and the
Rose. Peppertree Grill has undergone a major transformation since its
Tailgators days, now offering patio dining with spectacular views of the San
Gabriel Mountain. I stopped by Casa Del Rey, and they are doing some major
renovation in that location as well. We’ll let you know when we hear about
opening dates.
Also on Baldwin just up the
street from Moffett’s (at 1212 So. Baldwin), Federico’s Bakery has closed
down, and Posse’s Sports Bar has opened, sharing space (sort of) with
Anthony’s Italian Deli and Possemato’s Italian Gourmet Restaurant.
The new sports bar features 7 TVs, the complete NFL package, Saturday college
football, and Monday night specials including $1 hot dogs, and a giveaway
drawing each Monday.
Casa Del Rey, Peppertree
Grill, Posse’s Sports Bar, Anthony’s Italian Deli, and Possemato’s Sports Bar
all have their menus posted on the SanGabrielValleyMenus.com website.
Word out of Azusa, though
I’ve been unable to confirm this with its owners (the phone is disconnected), is
that El Encanto, a longtime landmark restaurant is now closed. We’ll let
you know if we hear anything else, hopefully it’s just in transition. I sure
hate to see it go.
Bill Coburn is owner of SanGabrielValleyMenus.com, a
restaurant website featuring dozens of restaurant’s menus, as well as
downloadable coupons. He has nearly 20 years experience in the restaurant
business, and has been eating for much longer than that. |
