Dino's Chicken & Burgers

We went to Dino’s Chicken and Burgers for lunch on Saturday, March 22 to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of my move to Socal (actual date on March 15).  I first heard about Dino’s when I read a review in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune on another restaurant, Mr. Pollo.  The review said that many reporters believed that Mr. Pollo’s chicken was second to Dino’s in the San Gabriel Valley.  We also saw an ad for Dino’s in the Penny Saver advertising their $4.50 half chicken special.  We thought the ad was a coupon but it turned out to be their regular price.

Dino’s isn’t very far from our home, just west down Arrow Highway.  We arrived just after noon and there were several customers there.  They had a large menu on the board behind the counter that listed chicken, many different types of burgers, breakfast food (that they serve all day), sandwiches and Mexican food.  However they had an entire section of the board devoted to the half chicken special alone.

We ordered two specials at the counter.  While waiting we read a review posted near the wall from the Azusa Herald News.  I didn’t know my hometown had a newspaper.  It said that the Azusa location isn’t the only Dino’s.  There’s also one in L.A. near Pico and Berendo.  Dino’s has been chosen as one of the top 75 restaurants in L.A.

We sat in a booth by the window.  A TV showed the March Madness college basketball game between Duke and West Virginia.  The server brought us our orders on two large plates.  Each had two pieces of chicken: a breast and wing piece and a leg and thigh piece on a bed of thin fries and a container of coleslaw on the side.  The chicken was marinated in a spicy citrus (lime?) marinade giving it a reddish color.  It was then cooked over a flame.  The marinade flowed from the chicken onto the fries.  Each order also came with three corn tortillas with which we made little tacos with the chicken and fries.  The chicken was fully cooked and flavored through with the marinade.  The white meat wasn’t dry at all.  I could taste why this chicken is considered the best in SGV.

Our orders came with so much food that we took home most of the fries and the coleslaw and made another meal out of them.  We got to have the delicious marinade twice for the price of once.