Chef Tim’s With Spices

Chef Tim, you’ve got to come back man, we miss your food!
SRSLY THO! COME BACK!

FOOD: Soul Food! I love the food. The taste goes very well all together. I got the pulled pork with 2 sides: mac & cheese and fries. The pulled pork is AMAZING i’d recommend that! And the mac & cheese… delicious! But the fries are pretty average. I just wish the portions were bigger, it’s a bit small.
PRICE: It’s a little pricey for the portion they give. I know it’s amazing, but $ 7+ for small portions… eh.
TIP TIP TIP! I suggest coming on a Tuesday! $ 5 for an entrée and 2 sides!
SERVICE: Very friendly, has that family atmosphere in there.
OVERALL: ANYONE WHO LOVES SOUL FOOD! COME HERE :] The next time I go I’ll probably get the pulled pork again with 2 mac & cheese.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, their restaurant right now is currently closed down right now :(Not sure when they will re-​open, but I believe they are moving to another location so I’ll be waiting for that, but they still are doing catering still if you’re interested.

Disappointing Ribs. For a place that takes pride on their ribs being voted best in the area… eh. no thanks. I went for the first time based on the reviews on Unilocal.It was a Tuesday and I passed on the $ 5 deal because I was hungry. I got $ 7.99 deal for two entrees and two sides.
So.on to those ribs. Disappointing in that I only got two ribs and they didn’t really have any meat on them. OK, not a good value, that happens. But for a place that is proud of their ribs, why the hell would you overcook them!!! The sauce was pretty good though.
I asked the nice lady that worked there what else should I try and she suggested the basa fish. This was pretty good I must say. The basa was cooked perfectly, unlike the ribs. It was a pretty good size piece as well. It was spicy but not overwhelmingly so.
For sides, I got the mac & cheese and the yams. Both were really good. The mac & cheese weren’t bland like most places and they actually give some those awesome burned parts with it. Def would get that again. The yams were pretty awesome too. Very well seasoned with what I’m guessing is is brown sugar but I’m no expert.
I gave them 3 stars because of the ribs and the amount of food for $ 7.99. I usually try to give places a second try so maybe they can do better next time. It did take a while to get my order even though I was literally the only customer in the place @ 5:20pm on a Tuesday. I guess that’s why my ribs were overcooked.

70%
Very good fried chicken & waffles.
***Short Review
Came here for a weekend lunch on Aug ‘11
It’s a great place to stop by driving from LA to Vegas, or if you’re going to CA Speedway.
Chicken and waffles here are really well made.
Waffles are light & tasty.
Fried Chicken has a nice light batter and the meat is juicy.
Peach Cobbler is also great, although they don’t serve it with ice cream.
Food takes quite a while to arrive, so call in advance or bring something to read.
My fried chicken and waffles took around 30 mins to arrive after ordering.
Owners here are very friendly, personable, and helpful.
Despite not being a ‘sit-​down’ restaurant, they end up being a whole lot more professional than most.
No cash policy & $ 2.50 ATM charge is a bit of pain.
Also note there are no Chase ATM’s close by in the area.
***Detailed Review.
I really enjoyed my Lunch at Chef Tim’s. I did not have high expectations. I came back from a driving event in CA Speedway and wasn’t too familiar with the area. Found this place using the Unilocal app on my phone.
Although the food I tried was limited, I felt the chef here did a great job with the execution of the dishes. Although these are relatively simple dishes, you can tell a lot of care and consideration has gone into the cooking. It feels as if it’s a very good home cooked meal. If I lived in the area, I’d certainly consider visiting often.
To the chicken & waffles,
The waffles are more of a nice fluffy Belgian cut and have a delicious spice flavor to them (guessing probably cinnamon and/​or nutmeg). They’re good waffles by themselves, but really shine when combined with the syrup and fried chicken. I feel that a sweet sauce is usually what ties fried chicken to an appropriate starch, so they syrup is essential here. Thank goodness the syrup was not overtly sweet or thick.
Fried chicken is prepared wonderfully here. I feel it’s better than Roscoe’s. Chicken meat is nicely moist and juicy, cooked nicely. Dark meat is obviously going to have more flavor and juiciness, but the breast meat is still fairly juicy. Batter is pretty light and has a spicy, peppery hint. I felt the seasoning was dead on. Batter or chicken isn’t too greasy at all. For fried chicken, I felt ‘Chef Tim’s’ was relatively light and executed far better than most.
Portion sizes are a tad on the smaller size, but the commendable value more than makes up for it. My half chicken & waffles came out to be under $ 9 after taxes (vs. around $ 14 – 15 @ Roscoe’s. A full fried chicken was $ 9.99.
Peach cobbler (around $ 3 or so) was very delicious and tasted home-​made. There’s a good balance between cobbler and peach. Sauce is thick but not too sweet. Portion size was reasonable. Unfortunately they don’t offer ice-​cream with the pie. I felt this would have been nice if it were implemented. I took mine ‘to-​go’ instead. heated it up back at home with ice-​cream. Good cobbler.
Great place to have a satisfying, hearty, affordable, and very laid back lunch. Recommended.

Atmosphere:
The interior décor was nice. It had a homely feel to it. There were plenty of tables inside and a few outside which I might use if I take my dog. The place was definitely clean. (1 Star)
Taste:
AMAZING! Simply amazing! There was so much flavor on the pulled pork that I ordered. And the baked beans were great too. I also had steak fries which were good, but not exploding with flavor like the pulled pork and baked bean. It had been a while since I was THAT impressed by food. I was so impressed by the food that I am making it a goal to try different things every time I go. My wife had pork ribs, twice baked potato and steak fries. They were also really good. After we were done, we wanted more food to try. We opted for dessert and we got the Peach Cobbler. Man, that had so much flavor! I am definitely coming back for more. I plan on trying Basa, Mama Cleo’s Greens and Hushpuppies next time I go. (1 Star)
Price:
The price can be a little high, but most small businesses have a little steeper price than franchises to begin with. The best day to go is on Tuesday when you can get 1 Entrée and 2 sides for $ 5. The flavor on the food is worth the price. (1 Star)
Service:
As soon as we walked in, Chef Tim greeted us. I told him it was our first time there and he made sure to fill us in on the food. He personally brought the food to us and made sure we enjoyed our first time there. How often do you get the Chef to come out and interact with you! The place definitely isn’t «fast food» either. We waited about 15 minutes for our food which I didn’t mind at all. (1 Star)
Overall:
If you’re in the area and are want GOOD BBQ… this is the place to go. The service and food were great. I will make sure to send more friends to this place. I hope to become a regular. (1 Star)

Five stars well earned. Good meat, fantastic sides and warm service. Finally, a soul food joint worth planning a trip around.
BTW, the best meat they have going on is definitely the pulled pork. The best three sides are greens, yams and mac and cheese. Sodas in a bottle and *allegedly* gumbo on the first weekend of the month. Can you guess where we’ll be first weekend in August? Getting our jumbo bowl of gumbo on :))))
Great job, guys!!!

I found this place on Unilocal.We happened to be driving up Haven and were hungry. I am so happy that Unilocal continues to guide me to great local restaurants.
My faith in Unilocal has increased! (32)
Food is pretty dang decent. The flavor on the BBQ Chicken was nice and smoky, and the hot links were simply fantastic. I had 2 pieces of chicken, 2 hot links in a bun, red beans and rice, and mac and cheese. Cash only, but it wasn’t terribly expensive imo. Chef Tim and the rest of the staff were really friendly and went out of their way to check on us. Chef Tim even kicked me down a blue sports drink as he decided I looked thirsty!
The wait for the food was somewhat long but this isn’t fast food, and the music was good and there were fun things to look at on the walls. There was also a cup of dice and a couple chess sets if you were thoroughly bored with the TV or music.
Legacy Menu is a hilarious idea, I loved it. Bernie Mac n Cheese, lol.
We’ll be coming back for Saturday breakfast and first week of the month non-​pork gumbo for sure.

Thank you Unilocal.I would have never found this place had Unilocal not been around. Please continue to support small bussinesses.
I called and Chef Tim answers the phone. I told him «I’ve never been there, Can you make me something that’s gonna make me want to come back». Whenever I ask restaurants this question, they usually fart around and don’t know and ask what you want. Chef Tim knew right away, he said «OK I got you». When I picked up the food he said «This will make you come back once a week, if it doesn’t, then I’m not doing my job». I got 3 ribs, shrimp and basa fish. Side dishes were mac n cheese, beans, sweet potato, and potato salad. It was Excellent!!! Ribs were full ad thick. Meat came right off the bone, with no effort. Shrimp was seasoned well and the basa was juicy. The side items were delightful. Service is like no other. I will definitely be back.

The service at this place was spectacular. I ordered the pork links with mac &cheese and greens. They brought out beans instead of greens and when I pointed this out, they apologized and brought out the greens. I was going to eat the beans anyways so I offered to pay for them, but the girl wouldn’t let me. Now, that’s great customer service.
The pork links were good, the mac & cheese was better, and the collard greens were the best. I’ll be back often!

*The best BBQ I have ever had!
The soulfood/​side dishes were so delicious! :)
Coming back for sure!

After working in Alta Loma for the past 4.5 years, I never tried Chef Tim’s until today and boy, do I regret waiting so long. I phoned in my order and picked it up almost 1 hr after I had called it in but it was still delicious! I meant to get it fresh after it was ready but I’m still not disappointed. I have to say that the catfish was some of the best catfish I’ve had. I also got bbq chicken (a la carte), mac and cheese, and black eyed peas as my sides.
Portions are generous. He doesn’t lie when he says that the fish is off the hook. The BBQ chicken has a nice smoky flavor — mMm. However, it looks like he was running the joint on his own today and I would hate to see this place go down in this economy because the food is SCRUMPTIOUS. I can see how the service would take long but I’ll probably just call in my orders from here on.
Well done, Tim.

Thank you Tim. I cannot wait to come back and try all of your menu.
This is equally as good as food I’ve had in Tenessee, Mississippi, Texas, North Carolina. Fresh and heck, full of flavor.
I tried the chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, cornbread, mac and cheese and banana pudding. Well, not at one sitting, I had some take out. All seriously excellent. And not in a «well, its really impressive, so I’ll give it 5-​stars». It was all TASTY. All of it. Every single bite. The fried chicken was so dang good– crispy skin, no weird fat or scary parts. It was like magic! OMG, can’t wait to come back. Also, enjoyed talking to other customers, really felt like a trip to the south!

I ate BBQ Chicken, Greens, Mac n Cheese, Slaw, Black Eyed Peas, Yams, and Cobbler all one one trip. I am not a fat man. That is how good this is. I went from 160 to 170 just sitting there eating.
Further ever since moving to CA 20 yrs ago I have looked for good southern food. I dont freaking care about décor, sodas, or service. I can about the quality of the food. This is hands down the best southern food I have had in CA. And I have eaten everywhere. Also been to every southern state. This holds its own to the south.
Thank you Tim. You can spit in my face and take an hour but please keep giving me your food. I am now addicted.
God bless you.

After reading the numerous reviews I was so excited to get my soul food fix. I don’t claim to be an expert but I’ve had my fair share of BBQ ribs, Mac and cheese, catfish, etc.
We ordered the 12.99 for 4 entrees and 2 side dished and got 2 ribs and 2 basa with the yams and corn. Also got the shrimp po boy sandwich with the greens and added on another side of Mac and cheese while watching their YouTube video play on the tv in the restaurant
The 4 entrée is just 4 pieces of whatever entrée item so for our order we got 2 strips of fried basa and 2 ribs. I was a little disappointed with 1 rib equaling 1 entrée. I figure maybe 2 or 3 ribs would be equivalent to 1 entrée
The ribs had a great sauce and flavor to them. But they were a little dried out for my taste however. Ribs aren’t supposed yo be super juicy, but you can tell these were sitting around a little longer than usual
The shrimp po boy was very good. Nice fresh bread (which to me is key. You can ruin any good sandwich with stale bread) with flavorful sauce and fixings
The basa was good, not orgasmic by any means
Now to the sides, which is the real reason for soul food. We got 4 sides to get a good sampling of their offerings but this was the real disappointment for us. None of the sides were all that good really. The Mac and cheese was nothing special. Regular baked Mac and cheese recipe but not cheesy at all. The yams were overly spiced. The greens were just okay and the corn on the cob was the same you’d get from kfc
I wanted to like this place so much but I probably won’t be coming back here
Chef tim himself is very nice and a funny guy, I enjoyed talking o him but I wish I enjoyed his food more

yes im the one that put this place on the map, check it! lol
We went here for the tuesday $ 5 special. you get 2 meats and 2 sides.
Now you dont get 2 meats, you get 1 meat but i guess 2 pieces or 2 portions of it.
We got the mac n cheese which is still great and i tried the basa for the first time and i loved everything about it, the texture, the flavor, everything.
I also got the cornbread and yes it was great too.
My wife got the pulled pork with mashed potatoes and french fries. The fries are ok and the mashed potatoes has a nice flavor. Suprisingly the pulled pork was my least favorite thing of the night. Very strong bbq flavor, you definitly need to put it in between some bread.

I’m sad that Bob does’t like this place since I was going to invite him for $ 5 Tuesdays at Chef Tim’s. Let me first say that Chef Tim himself is very nice and incredibly hospitable. He gave my kid a lollypop after seeing him enjoying the food.
As for the food, here’s what we ordered: fried chicken (good flavoring and cooked well), pulled pork (not too much sauce actually, and i like the flavor of the BBQ sauce), BBQ Chicken, fried catfish (I liked this the best), basa (in the catfish family; fried & less flavor than the catfish though); waffles (can’t go wrong with waffles), and twice baked potato (it really is mashed potato with some pork product in it, which was very good). Overall, I loved the catfish and twice baked potato the most. I might have to make a meal out of those 2 items alone on a Tuesday. Bob… interested?

Let me start by saying Chef Tim himself is awesome. This was my first time at the restaurant and he was very warm and inviting.
This is the best BBQ I’ve had in the IE. My meal consisted of:
1) Fried catfish: DELICIOUS, especially with a little hot sauce
2) Fried battered shrimp: Very good
3) BBQ ribs: Sweet and Tasty
4) BBQ chicken: Same as above
5) Mac and Cheese: The low point of my meal, is was par
6) Corn Bread: PHANTASTIC!
The meals are made to order so be prepared for a wait. I would highly recommend calling the order in beforehand as it took about 20 minutes for our food to come out.
The prices are a little steep as well, but on par in comparison to other BBQ joints like Lucilles.
If you’re craving BBQ, definitely goto Chef Tims!

Those of you who have read my previous reviews know that I’m Southern and therefore a die-​hard bbq snob.
That said, I found Chef Tim’s bbq very good. The pork ribs were very meaty, the pulled pork was smoky and flavorful (just like we make it in GA) and the spicy sausage was delicious, too. The fried chicken was SO good that I purposely took only a couple of bites because I wanted to have some to take home for the next day!
The sides: The green beans were spicy, which I liked, but also greasy and had way too much water. In fact, we watched as the waitress dipped up the green beans, put half of them back and filled the cup with the green bean water, which made me feel kind of ripped off. The mac n’ cheese was okay but really nothing special – no bubbling cheesy crust at all. I could tell it was homemade but it didn’t taste like it as baked. My FAVORITE by far were the collard greens. Now THAT made me homesick because they tasted just like my grandma made them!
I found Chef Tim’s by buying a Groupon, which was a great bargain. If I’m ever out that way again I’d like to try the Basa because I hear it’s fabulous.

Sorry Chef Tim for the late review!
So how did I find this place? Unilocal of course!
I was in the area last week, not this past week, the week before that. I was hungry and I GPSed a lot of places. Since this place had the best reviews I backtracked my car and headed in the opposite direction I was originally heading toward.
Now this place isn’t easy to find if you don’t live in the area. Why? Because when you enter the tiny strip mall, you think «WTH? Am I in the wrong place?» Well that’s what I thought.
Upon finding parking and looking at it, I was all «why not? I’m here already.» So I walked in and there’s wasn’t much to be honest. It was pretty plain inside, just tables, fountain machine and the counter. They have this buffet type little counter where you can see the sides (that are covered). The lady in the front was nice. As far as I can tell there was only two of them there, the front counter lady and Chef Tim (whom I didn’t meet yet).
I looked at the menu and was a bit confusing at first. I was slow ok. Hungry and slow. You get to choose from 2,4,6 piece plates that comes with two sides. Depending on how many pieces you want depends on the price, but the price doesn’t change if you choose between meat or poultry or fish.
Upon recommendation from a customer (who looked like a patron), I ordered the Basa (hybrid fish), mashed potatoes and mac n cheese. The only thing that disappointed me is that there was no ice tea. I was forced to drink sprite or which ever clear soda it is. So I sat and talked a lot to the patrons that recommended the Basa. I couldn’t help it, when I’m hungry I talk. LoL.
When the food came out, presentation kind of lacked. I mean I wasn’t expecting a gourmet restaurant, I just, I don’t know to be honest. lol. So the first thing I tried was the mac n cheese. The lady at the counter gave me a sample, but I didn’t really fully enjoy it at the time. The mac n cheese is good. It’s probably better when it’s fresh and it wasn’t the last of it. It wasn’t creamy or anything, but it has good flavor. A nice contrast between the cheese and the salt. For some reason I tasted salt. The potatoes were ok, they’re not bad. It has bacon so be forewarned vegetarians.
Then I looked at the fish. Three pieces of fried Basa. I snapped it half and to my surprise, it was flaky and looked moist. I then dipped it into the homemade tartar sauce, and wow. That piece of Basa is money. It’s golden brown on the outside, and flaky and moist on the inside. The coating has a nice flavor too. If anyone decides to try this place, try the Basa, it’ll probably be the best «fried fish» you’ll have this side of the county. I’m not joking, it’s better than Little Fisherman’s in Redlands, and that fish is as fresh as it gets. I was told you can get the fish grilled too, but I didn’t think about it at the time.
I had a sample of their Banana Pudding. It was a bit too sweet for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great for those who love really sweet sweets!
Because I wasn’t going to be back here for a while, I decided to take some Red Snapper home. Unfortunately I didn’t eat it fresh, but still it was pretty good. I still think the Basa is much better.
Chef Tim actually came out and handed the patrons next to me, his gumbo. He came out and handed me my to-​go order and let me sample the dessert. Overall this place has game. Chef Tim and the front lady are really nice and very interactive.
When you get here, don’t expect any type of special décor, don’t think twice about not walking in because of the location. This place is definitely awesome. I will have to try something other than the fish though.
I will definitely be back here with more people! It’s just sad that I was here alone.

I ordered one of their combo dinners to go, getting the pork ribs, pulled pork, and the chicken links, along with 3 sides In terms of flavor, they were all really good, although some purists would argue that they had too much sauce However, I am not one of those purists, so I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, we I got home, i discovered I only received one of my 3 side orders. That was not cool, so they lost a star for that.
The service was friendly, and the place was small, but clean. If I’m in the area again, I’d definitely drop by for another visit.