If you haven't been to Coco's Bakery Restaurant on N. Lake Avenue in Pasadena in the last six months or so, you're in for a pleasant surprise. The new owners decided to remodel the entire restaurant last August 2009, giving it a much-needed facelift with brand new carpeting, updated upholstery for the booths, tables and chairs, modern drop-down lighting, a completely new paint job inside and a remastered menu.
As always, Coco's offers family dining at reasonable prices with a full menu including breakfast, lunch and dinner. A favorite get-together for breakfast meetings, they have their signature griddle combos with bacon or sausage and pancakes ($7.69-8.69), or you can choose between two types of French toast or Belgian waffles ($7.69-8.99). One of my favorite breakfast choices is the Denver potato pancakes made with shredded potatoes, ham pieces, bell pepper, green onion, and cheddar cheese, topped with sour cream and green onions for $6.99. They also have Angus steak and eggs, Angus chicken fried steak and eggs, their traditional mega-breakfast and lumberjack breakfast, or the farmhouse scramble ($8.69-12.29).
If you're watching your calories they also offer five Coco's Fit and Lively breakfasts (with less than 500 calories), like the gourmet mushroom and tomato egg white scramble, multi-grain pancakes and eggs or oatmeal with berries and nuts for ($5.99-8.99). If you're vegetarian you can choose the oatmeal with berries and nuts, a tomato basil egg white omelet, vegetable omelet, Pacific scramble (ask for it without meat) or any of the pancake, French toast or waffle combos without meat.
They have a huge lunch menu including four different burgers, or a Coco's combo which is a burger and your choice of garden salad or soup, or treat yourself to one of their signature salads: the Asian chicken salad, Taste of the Season salad (Julienne chicken breast, bacon bits, sweet candied walnuts, and Mandarin orange slices served over mixed greens with a white balsamic vinaigrette), Southwest chicken salad, traditional Cobb salad, their chicken tortilla soup and salad combination, their soup on a baguette and salad, Caesar salad or the green garden salad made with tomato and cucumber served over fresh greens ($6.99-9.69). All salads and soups are served with your choice of fresh baked bread.
Their specialty sandwiches include the turkey avocado and Jack cheese croissant, the delicious Santa Fe melt made with turkey slices, mild green chilies, fresh avocado and Monterey Jack cheese served on grilled sourdough bread ($8.99), their fabulous French dip sandwich, the Coco's classic club, the tuna melt or the California chicken sandwich ($8.99-9.29).
For those who are watching their carbohydrate, fat or calorie intake and still want tasty, healthy food for lunch try a selection from Coco's Fit and Lively (under 600 calorie) menu which offers their southwest Angus sirloin, a Greek feta salad, the chicken bruschetta and fresh spinach plate, the bistro salad with fresh tomato relish or the gourmet mushroom veggie burger ($7.99-12.29).
Their brand-new Big meals, Big deals menu offers a two course special; you can have your choice of one of five different appetizers or five different desserts and your main course selections which are: Angus bistro sirloin steak, grilled red snapper, Texas Angus chopped steak or the Parmesan crusted chicken ($7.99-10.99). If you're craving more steak selections they have six dinner plates with steak or combinations of steak and grilled shrimp, or scampi style shrimp and pasta ($10.29-15.99) or if you'd like seafood they have the macadamia crusted snapper, Samuel Adams beer battered fish and chip plate, the scampi style shrimp and pasta plate, grilled salmon with Cajun spices or lobster butter sauce, the shrimp trio platter or Golden jumbo shrimp plate ($10.99-13.29). Or you can try one of their three chicken dishes, sun-dried tomato chicken, chicken Viennese (a charbroiled chicken breast with a piccata sauce of mushrooms, artichokes and capers) served over vermicelli pasta with piccata sauce and seasoned vegetables ($10.99-11.69).
Hey, save some room for dessert because Coco's is definitely the king of dessert locations with a selection of 14 different types of freshly baked pies (apple pie, Dutch apple pie, boysenberry, cherry, no sugar added Apple, pecan pie, cream cheese pie, 2 cream cheese pies with fruit topping, lemon meringue, banana cream, coconut cream, chocolate cream pie and various seasonal pies). They also have hot fudge sundaes and hand scooped ice cream, and a broad variety of baked goods, like cinnamon rolls, eight types of muffins, cookies, fresh baked biscuits, coffee cakes and croissants ($1.99-3.99).
Of course, if you're a regular patron you know that the very best part about Coco's Bakery Restaurant is the wonderfully warm welcome you'll get from the food servers; Caroline, Gloria, Sweden, Carmen, Marcus, Roman, Pachita, Christopher, Daniel, Horacio, Adrian and Al (some of whom have been with the restaurant for over 10 years). They are carefully choreographed by their general manager Manny Rubio, who makes sure the place runs smoothly. It almost has a Cheers-like atmosphere as they call you by first name when you step in the door. They treat their customers like old friends, offering a generous Club 55 menu (reduced prices for senior citizens on a selection of tasty dishes) and an e-club you can sign up for to receive coupons and deals that will be sent directly to your e-mail.
Coco's Bakery Restaurant is located at 77 N. Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91106 and their operating hours are Monday through Friday from 6am to 11pm, Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 10pm. Call ahead to order a pie for that next special occasion at 626-449-3156.
Comments