Ernie’s Cafe & Catering

Omgawsh! I have lived ¼ of a mile away from this restaurant for 3yrs and finally tried it today! WTH have I been waiting on??? Everything about this place is awesome! From the extremely friendly staff down to the delicious food! The rolls are the bomb as was the Royal Club sandwich I ate and the Little E burger hubby ate!!! Shame on us for not trying it sooner! We look forward to trying everything on the menu!!!

These guys are only open for lunch and I suggest getting there early. My friend and I arrived at 11am on the dot and we were the only ones there, within 15 minutes there wasn’t an open table.
You are met at the front door by a taxidermy lion and an arch of elephant tusks, which I found odd because the don’t really match the rest of the décor.
Most of the menu is chicken related, I got the BBQ Teriyaki Chicken. Chicken topped with a sauce and mushrooms. For my sides I got fried okra and mac and cheese.
My first bite of the chicken was cold, I asked the server if it could be warmed. It came back fresh from the microwave. Honestly, the chicken just tasted like chicken with BBQ sauce on it. When I go to a restaurant I enjoy getting items that I couldn’t cook myself. The mac and cheese was runny, I am still shocked I didn’t spill any on myself. The okra and yeast rolls were great.

Ernie & Susan run a great restaurant. They hire great help, they cook great home style food, and the reason I know their names and faces is because they take the time to meet you, greet you and care about their customers that come in more than once! If you work in the Beltway 8 & 225 area, you’ve got to try them out!

This place is home to the best salad in Pasadena. I know what your thinking: «Wow. That’s really high praise.» Well, I can hear the sarcasm in your thoughts, so if that’s your attitude you may as well head back up to your $ 20 handful of kale in Montrose with the rest of the hipsters because the Rodeo salad at Ernie’s is packed high with goodness like avocado, chicken (grilled or fried), bacon, and some kind of avocado ranch dressing that soothes the esophagus.
The staff is super friendly, but don’t get in a hurry. In fact, count on spending some quality time with your lunch mates instead of complaining about how long lunch took. If you don’t want to spend time with these people, don’t go to lunch with them.
Or, even better, why don’t you bring a book and exercise your mind? It’s not a real loud place. There’s no Sun Volt blaring or anything. Try reading. You ever think about that? Reading?

Always friendly staff, everything is good from grilled pork chops, ribeyes, pecan crusted chicken but hands down the best grilled chicken salad around these here parts. Rodeo Drive salad = Awesomeness. Rodeo Drive Salad + Mullet Hair style = more awesomeness. Rodeo Drive Salad + Mullet Hair style + 80’s mustache = Pure wicked awesomeness.

This is an old-​school «nicer» restaurant. Very well-​decorated without any particular theme. Cloth placemats at the bar. Not very noisy, which I appreciate.
They’re only open for lunch; they appear to make their main income on their catering. Sandwiches for $ 7 – 8; plate lunches $ 10 – 20. I had the grilled tilapia-​with-​shrimp special with a side salad and greenbeans for $ 13.
Older patrons, mostly a post-​retirement crowd. Lots of comfort food on the menu. Ernie himself came by and greeted me, waitstaff made a fuss over me.
Meal was good, solidly prepared, not outstanding. Tilapia a little dry, the shrimp in a sauce evened it out, tho.