Restaurants in Altadena

Like when the tech world first put a camera into a phone, something many assumed impossible, Chop Stop brings healthiness to speedy dining with more than a dozen signature salads for dine-in or carryout. They also offer custom salads to allow diners to blend a choice of greens with a dressing and up to six toppings from a selection of more than 40. The eatery's commitment to human health dovetails with their responsible practices toward the planet itself, using locally grown produce and compostable bowls and cups that vanish off the face of the Earth in a manner almost as sustainable as bowls made of a magician's ace of clubs

Does your mouth have a passport? If not, that’s ok. For nearly 25 years, La Bamba Island Cuisine has been sending taste buds on flight-free Caribbean excursions via dishes inspired by the culinary traditions of Cuba, Jamaica, and Mexico. Owner-chef Chris oven roasts shredded pork for menu items as varied as cuban sandwiches with ham and pickles to their popular St. Thomas burrito with guacamole and pico de gallo. Soft taco shells wrap themselves warmly around eight different meats, including chicken, fried cod, or grilled mahi-mahi. Wine and special seasonings flavor Panama shrimp with bell peppers, and, like the hermit crab who writes restaurant reviews for the New York Times, the seafood burrito stuffs mahi-mahi, shrimp, and salmon into its monstrous shell.

At L'Scorpion Tequila Bar, sommeliers pour nearly 200 varieties of tequila, including a premium collection of blancos, reposados, anejos, and mezcals. The vast, expertly curated selection earned it a spot on the Huffington Post's list of LA's Best Tequila Bars.

Fittingly, the focal point of L'Tequila is the bar, where dark stone arches frame row after row of tequila bottles illuminated by the nearby wrought-iron candelabras. Brick walls envelop plush leather booths, which serve as private enclaves for sipping margaritas or spelling out social-security numbers in limes. To complement libations, L'Scorpion also serves a menu of tapas and tacos.

Outside of Arunee House, two giant signs and a dark-green awning bear the eatery’s MO: to serve up a mix of more than 100 Thai and Chinese dishes. The kitchen staff tosses chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp into six different types of thai curry and mixes chantaboon noodles with chili powder and sprouts to create generous portions of pad thai. Servings of spicy squid prelude the house-special vegetable plate, a cornucopia of snow peas, chinese cabbage, bamboo shoots, black mushrooms, and freshly weaned baby corn. Eaters can augment their meals with glasses of thai iced tea or finish things off with a dessert of sweet sticky rice with mango.

When Ronn Teitelbaum opened the first Johnny Rockets location in 1986, his goal was to create a restaurant where people could escape the postmodern blues of everyday life and experience a taste of time-honored Americana. The name itself is a nod to this ideal. It combines the star of a classic American fable, Johnny Appleseed, and a classic car, Oldsmobile’s beefy Rocket 88.

That explains why during dinners at the famous burger joints, you’ll see signs of simpler times, starting with the cooks and servers—dressed head to toe in white, including white paper hats, they look like they’ve fallen out of a wormhole from the 1950s ready to sling shakes and cook up some eats. Behind a stainless-steel bar lined with red leather stools they tend to their traditional diner fare, including burgers and melts with sides such as chili-cheese fries and onion rings. Riding sidecar to each meal is a collection of hand-dipped and hand-spun floats, shakes, and malts topped with whipped cream.