Pepper Shaker Restaurant — Restaurant in La Habra

Since that first experience the restaurant has improved incrementally over the last couple years. While I haven't tried the French toast since that first time - partially because it doesn't seem to be any different and I don't want to be disappointed, but mainly because I have been in love with the ultimate frittata. There is still room for improvement, but we keep going back because their prices are generally better than others in the area and everyone has found at least one dish that is consistently great. Still, with my love for french toast I can't help hoping they will add a premium option with some nice thick, fresh bread slices that they really give time to completely absorb as much batter as possible, and comes out of the kitchen hot and ready to melt in your mouth 🤤.

Old review: First visit to Pepper Shaker. Went for breakfast Sunday. Wasn't very busy at all. Overall impression: "Hmm... Not bad... But not really good either." Three stars seems too few, four stars seems too many, so let's call it 3.5. BIL said was just a typical diner, and he's right. I prefer to support local restaurants vs. chains like Denny's, but that's kinda what it felt like: like someone copied a Denny's 30 years ago and never updated or changed anything over the years. The staff was nice, but everything was just kind of, okay. Passable. Unfortunately the place looks kind of dated, and when driving by it in the past we weren't even sure it was still open for business. Definitely feels like the place could use some updating and a spark. Some innovation and energy. New dishes or at least interesting tweaks on the classics. There are so many different ways to make french toast instead of just using the standard cheap bread and same old batter recipe. And as much as I appreciate the effort to offer extra choices, serving sorta-lousy pre-made cinnamon roll with a side of butter had us all look at each other like 🤨...🤷‍♂️. I'm not saying they need to do a collab with Cinnabon, but they can do better than that.

I really want places like this to succeed, and maybe they are doing fine financially, but my gut tells me this place needs to make some changes to survive long-term. I'm sure we'll be going back at some point to try other dishes, and I hope I'll be able to provide a more glowing...

I love this little country diner! I am working through a list of all the well-known diners in and near Los Angeles County and of course Pepper Shaker was on the list. I would call it a local country diner and all senses of the word, of which I am a big fan. All of the servers were extremely polite, way more than I usually get which was one of my favorite parts of the whole experience. Also everything that we ordered came out very fast and they did a great job maintaining the refills. Inside is pretty large, they have booth seating, tables, and a counter area. I love that it looks like a traditional California diner and bet countless people have enjoyed this place over the decades. There is also a large free parking lot attached so parking was really easy.

The menu has a lot of the diner classics which made it hard to choose what to order. To start we shared a Cinnamon Roll, which was pretty small and not as fluffy as I’m used to, but it had great flavors and was a really nice start to the meal. I followed up with the Chicken Fried Steak and thought it was fantastic. Everything about it was done perfectly and I was really happy that I ordered it.

Overall, a great diner, and I would recommend to anyone...

The food was delicious and the waitress was extremely sweet and helpful. Overall I think we will be coming back for sure. It was a little pricier than expected but not too bad. Update because I can’t figure out how to leave a second review:

They have the best corn beef and cabbage! I’ve had it at other places for St. Patrick’s day and the others pale in comparison. I will never go elsewhere for my St. Patrick’s day meal. My only complaint is that they close at 3pm due to staffing shortages (temp hours are 7-3) so they don’t have dinner service. I had to leave work way early to get my traditional Irish meal today. I really wish this could be the one day a year they have dinner service.

The owner is very sweet and all the staff I’ve encountered have been really helpful and professional and generally I feel at home here, even though I’ve only been a handful of times.

Dine in and takeout experiences have been great. No wonder this place has been...