My son, being the brainiac he is, won an award at his school for all-around academics, finally justifying the, “My son will buy and sell your honor student”, bumper sticker I have on my car. They gave him a nifty certificate and a free dinner at Red Robin in the Pacific View Mall. Naturally I took this chance to review Red Robin; a place I wouldn’t normally go into, not because I’m fighting the man and his industry but because to me it’s always been an overrated burger joint. I gotta say I was very pleasantly surprised.
Red Robin – Pacific View Mall Ventura
From the inside out it’s your typical, Fridays, Johnny Rockets, or even like the old Hudson’s Grills, if you remember those. It’s very family oriented and very bright and cheerful. They do have a lot of TV’s so that’s always good, and they run your typical family joint burger type menu.
My son, being my son, ordered pizza, because that’s what he orders in every place we go. The only way I can get him to order something different is by going for Sushi. Then again, if the Japanese created some kind of tempura shrimp pizza he would be first in line.
I searched the menu trying to avoid the burgers and other typical burger faire. If I was gonna eat here, I wanted something more exciting. First thing I ordered was right off the American burger time menu. A blueberry shake. I love me a great blueberry shake. When I got it, it looked more like a Sunday, with sprinkles and everything. Normally this would be good but I was in it for the old school vanilla ice cream and fresh blueberries. It was ok, but it doesn’t beat Charlie Browns.
They have the best shakes known to man kind and their blueberry shakes are like a gift from Zeus himself. They are out on the pearblossom highway in Little Rock. No people, not Little Rock, Arkansas.
I then ordered the Bruschetta Chicken Burger. It looked exciting and had a great blend of flavors that told me, “Hey Mikey, check this sandwich out. I think you’re gonna like it.”
The picture was right. It was delicious and a damn good sandwich. It’s your basic chicken sandwich on ciabatta bread. The bread was excellent, very fresh and toasted just enough to be crispy, not hard. They put this great bruschetta salsa on it, with fresh tomatos and red onion. It was outstanding. There is also this wonderful pesto aioli which gives it a very vibrant sexy kick. The provolone cheese was bold and worked great with the pesto sauce, and they had a balsamic dressing that played off the crisp romaine lettuce perfectly. It really was one of the best chicken sandwiches I’ve ever had.
Another great part was that it came with garlic parmesan steak fries, which were excellent. They were wedges of potatoes with a wonderful garlic parm kick; you didn’t need ketchup or any other kind of sauce. I had ordered ranch in anticipation but hardly had to use it.
It was a really great meal and I definitely give Red Robin its props on this dish. It’s excellent. I would definitely give it the fat man’s great sandwich seal of approval.
EatMeCalifornia 
Can’t really call out T-Bone on the pizza when you ordered a chicken sandwich, right?
Ha ha, yeah I’m the only one on this planet allowed to call him out. Plus I had no choice its either chicken or cow at Red Robin. I told T they should actually serve Robin. He agreed if came on a pizza. We ought to get him a kids scale on the PMS chart.