Unlike low-brow establishments, cafés carry an air of wistful romanticism fostered by an association with Danielle Steel novels and being swept off your feet and onto the back of a dashing centaur. Treat your heart and your stomach with today's deal: for $10, you get $20 worth of café fare at Happy Trails Catering in Pasadena. This cozy establishment is only open for lunch, which is served from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Rather than engraving offerings in a block of unforgiving granite as most restaurants do, Happy Trails Catering keeps eaters on their phalanges with a weekly rotating menu of fresh, eclectic entrees, sandwiches, and salads. Previous patrons have enjoyed delicate quiches (tomato, basil, and parmesan or roasted vegetables and goat cheese, $9.50), hearty lasagnas (basil pesto or beef and marinara, $9.50), and a delectable meatloaf sandwich on ciabatta ($9.50). Mindful masticators wishing to achieve a Zenlike meat-and-bread balance can indulge in gourmet sandwiches ($8.50) such as the Nordic sage-roasted turkey breast with lingonberry cream cheese and caper mayonnaise or the herbivore-friendly roasted vegetable with lemon-dill mayonnaise and provolone cheese.
Glucose-gluttons can satisfy a whole grin of sweet teeth with a slew of cookies ($2) and dessert bars ($3.50), and smaller biters can satisfy a meager appetite with a side salad ($5). While feasting, lavish languidly under the canopy of the café's camphor tree or on its serene brick patio. Partnered with plates of elegant edibles, Happy Trails Catering's peaceful outdoor seating sets a serene backdrop for a blushing debutante's formal garden hoedown.
Reviews
Four Citysearchers give Happy Trails an average of five stars, and three Yelpers give it an average of three:
- if you enjoy amazing food in an amazing dining setting this is the place for you. They have the prettiest back patio to sit and eat at. lights drape the giant oak tree it [sic] the back its one of my favorite places in pasadena. – smplesftspkn, Citysearch
- Happy Trails is a tiny shop on Fair Oaks that the eye can easily miss, but once you try it, I'm sure it will be hard for you to resist making it your regular dining spot for lunch. The menu is brief and not overwhelming, and I have yet to try something on it that wasn't delicious. – Foodie999, Citysearch