San Pedro is a destination for many Orange County residents. The World Cruise Ship Terminal is the embarkation point for many vacationing Orange County residents taking trips to Mexico, Hawaii and even around the world trips. The newest attraction in San Pedro is the battleship USS Iowa, one of the most famous ships afloat. Add to that Port's of Call, the Cabrillo and Maritime Museums and you have many reasons to go to San Pedro. One other reason to go to San Pedro is the Gaffey Street Diner. For the last 10 years, they have been providing some of the best breakfasts and lunches around.
Barbara, the owner and Rudy, the chef, go back a long ways with diners. They met at Eat at Joe's, the Redondo Beach diner with a reputation for some of the best diner food in the South Bay. After Joe died, they decided to go out on their own and create their own diner. For the last 10 years, they have been providing some of the best diner food in the state.
Breakfasts at Gaffey Street are hearty. The John Wayne Breakfast, one of their specialties, is a tortilla topped with home fries, two eggs, cheese, Spanish sauce and surrounded with sausage. The Country Fried Steak is tender, hand battered and accompanied with eggs and home fries. It is one of the best versions of this dish you can find. A wide choice of omelets, french toast, breakfast burritos, pancakes and egg specialties such as Eggs Florentine round out the breakfast menu. Of course, there are the old standbys such as steak and eggs and ham and eggs too. For something with a little kick to it, there are scrambled eggs with Ortega chiles and the Gaffey Street Special, a chorizo and cheese omelette topped with guacamole. In case there is a special combination that tempts you, there is a whole section of customized omelets where over 20 ingredients can be added to an omelette to make it exactly the way you want it. Besides the regular menu, Gaffey Street has daily specials written on a board. A plate of potato pancakes with eggs, one of the daily specials, is an amazing version of the humble potato pancake.
For lunch, the Country Fried Steak reappears with potatoes, vegetables and a biscuit. Diner specialties include liver and onions, grilled salmon, pork chops and Black Angus top sirloin steak. For the person who prefers a salad, a Chef's Salad with ham and turkey is an excellent choice. Other options include a Chicken Tostada salad and Tuna salad. Of course, if salads are not your choice, there is always the Chili Cheese French Fries to satisfy your taste buds.
The Chili Size is a dish invented in Los Angeles and many places make it now. Gaffey Street Diner's version, however, is the definitive one. A grilled beef patty, served open faced with chili, cheese and onions, this is the best Chili Size around. The chili is homemade and not out of a can and the taste shows it.
For lunch, Gaffey Street has a wide selection of burgers and sandwiches. The California Melt is one of the specialties, with turkey, bacon, Ortega chile and Swiss cheese on grilled sourdough. A hot turkey sandwich comes with potatoes vegetables and cranberries. It is a holiday on a plate. There is a wide choice of burgers with toppings including bacon, mushrooms, Ortega chiles and cheese. Grilled cheese, ham sandwiches and BLT's are but a few of the other sandwich choices.
The Gaffey Street Diner is located in San Pedro, just where the Terminal Island Bridge and the Harbor Freeway end at Gaffey Street. It is a great place to begin a day of sightseeing or to have a delicious breakfast before you board your cruise ship for a vacation. And if you have a hankering for some good old diner food, there is no better place to go than the Gaffey Street Diner.
Gaffey Street Diner
247 N. Gaffey Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
310-548-6964
Comments