Jolly Jug — Restaurant in El Monte

Our journey to experience LA's oldest restaurants continues with a visit to El Monte's "The Jolly Jug"! They've been there since 1946! We very much enjoyed the charming old-school ambience from the amazing sign to the round booths! The woman who ran the place was SUPER friendly and welcoming! I loved how she took pride in being around for so many years! She asked if we'd been there before and when we said that this was our first time, she told us how they have been around for 71 years (72 at this point I believe) and showed us menu highlights and favorites! I love this! I can't tell you how many of these old historic restaurants I go in and there is no mention of it... in fact, I sometimes have to tell the staff how old it is and they are surprised! So it was wonderful to meet someone who was so prideful of their history.

The food was good. They are famous for their beef dips and pastrami dips, and my wife and I both went for the pastrami, which was great! I wish there had been more to the kids meal than just chicken fingers and fries. There should be a vegetable or fruit in there as well... but that's something many places struggle with these days.

We're so glad we went. They also have a bar on the other side of the place. They close the restaurant side at 9pm and the bar stays open late. Check out her collection of turtle figurines that people give her from all over the world. Our son loved it!

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Open since 1947 this awesome little diner is my favorite in El Monte. I actually drove out from West LA specifically for this place because I am working through a list of all diners in LA County. I’m extremely happy that I visited because I had a great meal. It’s a true retro LA diner, but with a bit of an Asian twist. I say that due to the staffing and a lot of the cool options on the menu like Loco Moko and various other things. Our server was extremely polite, very attentive, and checked in on us often. Everything that we ordered came out very fast and they have a pretty large menu filled with all sorts of classics. There’s also a free parking lot attached so there is plenty of free and easy parking.

Inside is pretty large and one side of the building is a 21+ bar and on the other side is the diner with tons of booth seating. It’s actually larger on the inside than it looks from the outside so it can really host many different sized groups, and quite a lot of people. For my meal, I decided to order the Hamburger Steak & Eggs and thought it was great. I was so hungry that day that I honestly forgot to take a picture of it, my apologies. I will say that the coffee tasted a little bit more of a dark roast and I prefer more of a medium roast, but that’s just personal preference.

Overall, a great diner and someplace I would recommend to anyone looking for that...

This place is awesome,and by no means take my rating on the food as bad,I'm not partial to all of the food on the menu, but what is the best thing about their food is their hot sanwhiches,the roast beef and philly cheese steak and beef eater are my favorites,and their au juis is awesome,a bit diffrent asian inspired w a hint of nutmeg and ginger,but you'll only get it if you ask,their portions are good and you can split one sanwhich w a friend and be very satisfied and full,the kids menu is great too,very simple which cuts down on headaches and indisive children and inexpensive,decor is a diffrent situation,as this place has a dimly lit sports bar w an awesome internet juke box which plays a lot of modern music,it has booths and I sit in there w my kids,the service is cool too,especially the bartendersThomas ,which will take your order and goes out of his way to make the kids happy and is very attentive,the other bartender is good too and offers his advice on your order when asked,the owner is allright but I hate when she makes the drinks,she's a little light,the other portion of the restaraunt is geared towards an older crowd(senior citizen type) very...