La Mirada: Sizzler… And Groupon 

This is a family steak house. It’s like going to a Denny’s that serves steak and salad.  It is not Ruth Chris or Mastro’s.  If you’re looking for high end steak, expect to shell out $50, not $15.  So your expectations should not be set that high.

This location is off Rosecrans, and La Mirada Blvd., in the corner of the shopping mall parking lot, near the La Mirada one dollar movie theater.

My dad came across a Groupon, but unfortunately did not see the fine print that it was only for the La Mirada location. Lucky for me I live near La Mirada, so I scored a $20 Groupon off my dad. When you use a Groupon, chances are there’s a catch.  For this place, you cannot order the value meal or use the senior discount. So I ordered the 8 ounce sirloin steak $12.99 and Karen had the double Malibu chicken $11.99. She added a root beer, I just had water (as I’m not a fan of the Pepsi products). After calculating tax, we just had to pay $10 extra out of pocket. Still, $30-something is pretty darn cheap for 2 people.

We chose not to get the salad bar because it wasn’t a very impressive one. They have a traditional salad bar with a romaine lettuce mix, and toppings like some cut veggies (tomato, cucumber), canned fruit, cottage cheese, a variety of canned vegetables, some fresh melons, and some cold salads like potato and cole slaw.

In addition, they have a hot food section with chicken wings, meatballs, onion rings, mac & cheese, and other similar hot, finger food or bar food type items.. mostly fried or full of carbs. They have a soup bar with 2 types of soup (ie: chicken noodle, minestrone), and probably came from a can.  They also had a self serve ice cream and dessert bar with a cobbler looking thing and pudding.  The salad bar simply wasn’t worth the extra calories or carbs.

Our waiter came to our table within minutes of sitting down, and gave us a basket of the cheesy bread. That was pretty much the only time we saw him, aside from him bringing us our dinner. Not once did he offer a refill on drinks or checked on our food satisfaction.

The dinner wasn’t spectacular, and fact I’ve had much better. My sirloin had a lot of tendon, and I fought with my steak more than eating it.  The Malibu Chicken tasted like a Swanson or Tyson chicken breast and they added a slice ham and melted Swiss on top.  It reminded me of a TV dinner. Meh.

Overall it wasn’t that bad of a visit. The place was clean, the food came out hot, and we couldn’t really complain since it TECHNICALLY only cost us $10.  3-stars for the quick service at a nicely renovated venue.  Otherwise, if it wasn’t for my dad’s Groupon, I’d probably never think of stopping here for dinner.