Category: Restaurants

One of downtown Redding’s unique restaurants is Corbetts, on Pine Street. Also home to Shasta Wine Merchants. We recall it as the restaurant across from the Greyhound Station. Alas, Redding’s landmark downtown bus station is no more. But it has been recently replaced with a beautiful building.

Luckily, Corbetts stands alone for their food and atmosphere. We were there near closing for these photos. Usually, the place is teeming with regulars.

You can order anything from the menu, which is breakfast and lunch. Today, The lovely Karry chose the Ribeye Steak Sandwich special on Dutch Crunch. I went for the Turkey Avocado BLT with artichoke. We both noticed the quality ingredients, especially the vine ripe tomatoes. We’ve become spoiled by our own home grown produce. We don’t often find that good quality produce in restaurants, so it stood out.
Open from 7 am to 3 pm daily, or so we think. They don’t seem to have a website. Owners Chris and Mel Corbett are usually there to greet you, (530) 241-2303. Located at 1455 Pine Street, in Really Redding California.

 

Today we’re looking at Lulu’s Eating and Drinking Establishment, located at the terminus of Pine, California, South Market, and Cypress.  “All roads lead to Lulu’s.”At first, you might think it an ordinary hotel/motel based diner. But it’s definitely not ordinary. It’s a full bar too, and you can order drinks. Strong drinks in fact.
Overheard in the booth adjacent, “I want a Steak Diane, but with Chicken.” The waitress hesitated only briefly to consider that menu idea before agreeing and setting a price. “And bring us 2 tequila shots.” No hesitation at all on that afternoon request.

Classic American Diner Cuisine. I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak, and the lovely Karry opted for the Prime Rib Sandwich. “We serve a lot of Prime Rib,” says our waitress. You can order everything from their extensive menu, at all hours.

Maybe next time I’ll order “Prime Rib Sandwich, only with chicken,” just to see if the waitress even hesitates.

It’s bigger inside than it looks from the outside. The decor is meant to be sort of an ersatz Barbary Coast. But that look is hardly an artifice in Redding, which has seen it’s fair share of bordellos. Redding has been a logging, mining, dam building kind of place, and Lulu’s captures our Western essence very well.

Back here in the meeting room, they used to have the Shasta Blues Society jams on Thursday nights. All that’s left of the blues seems to be the carpet.
Lulu’s has a website with menus. And a Facebook page to Like.
Happy Hour starts every day at 3 pm. But you can be happy you came to Lulu’s anytime. It’s Really Redding.

 

Los Gordos is a classic Mexican food place in downtown Redding, at the corner of Pine and Tehama. We usually go for the street-vendor style carnitas tacos.

The dining area is utilitarian, but you can gaze out the windows on a couple of Redding’s busiest streets.
Since we’re here, we recall years ago, eating at this restaurant and watching Redding’s fabled Cruise Night. “The Cruise” was pretty mild craziness by today’s tough street standards. Something of a “Mad Max meets Burning Man with a Deliverance soundtrack” vibe. Wild enough for city fathers to outlaw, even back then. Too bad, really. It was quite a spectacle. We shall say a brief prayer now for “The Cruise” and simpler times.

We usually take-out. Ideal for picnics, these foil wrapped pockets of cilantro-onion-corn tortilla delight travel well. This tastes much better than I can make it look as a photo. Not your cheesy-lettuce style tacos here. Auténtico.

Los Gordos has 2 locations in Redding. The other on Churn Creek near Bonneyview. The Taqueria Los Gordos website also mentions a restaurant in Red Bluff. Looks like they’ve got el estado del norte covered.
Auténtico carnitas tacos. It’s Really Redding.

Edit 2019: Kahunas has moved over to Churn Creek to a location where several other restaurants have failed, including Brick’s Barbeque. So far so good for Kahuna’s though.

Kahunas is one Redding’s more recent new restaurants. They let you build a bowl of your choices of stir-fry type elements, and then cook it in front of you on a super hot flat grill.

Located on Market street heading south, across from Herried Music. They offer a full bar.

Add your cooking choices from a bewildering array of sauces, spices, and oils. They have recipes to follow, if you prefer. Or wing it.

Then watch while your bowl gets grilled. It won’t take long. That grill is HOT!

They hand it over to you steaming and sizzling. It was so delicious looking and aromatic, I forgot to take a photo before digging in.  But here’s after a few bites, along with sticky rice.

 

Terrific choices of craft beers. And the interesting wasabi sauce at the table capped it off.

Kahunas is open 7 days a week, 11 am to 9 pm, which is awesome. No need to wonder if they are open. Go hungry, or you’ll need a to-go box. Kahunas is all about choices, so you can’t really go wrong.

 

This is one of the newer restaurants in town. It’s housed in a former Chevy’s location on Hilltop Drive. And much like Chevy’s, it serves a sort of Cali-Mexi food fusion.

There’s a big banner to remind everyone they won a popularity contest at the newspaper. Redding is an unusually tough town for good restaurants, and the only popularity that really counts is a full house.
Beautiful decor, lighting, and sculptural elements. Click to slightly enlarge.
Doesn’t that Fajita Plate look awesome? All sizzling and popping. Seriously, click on that image.

Cicada Cantina also has an outdoor patio, and a full bar with emphasis on specialty margaritas. Sun – Thur 11am – 11pm   •   Fri & Sat 11am – 1am 530.638.4979  Give it a try.

Edit 2019: Well, one of us starved, evidently. The repainted Big Dipper is currently offline.

Hunger Games from the Big Dipper in Shasta Lake City.

The Big Dipper isn’t all that big. But it’s been open for 75 years or so. Stop in, and avoid starvation. You can’t miss it, in the middle of Shasta Dam Boulevard in Shasta Lake City.

Enjoyed lunch at Damburger Saturday. Here’s a few images of this classic Redding institution. On Placer near Pine Street.

“What would you like?”
“So, what does everyone come here for? What’s the specialty here?”
“Damburger.”
Oh, duh. Of course. “I’ll take one of those, with everything on it.”
It’s a classic American burger. Evoking the burgers of my youth. A no-nonsense treat.

A blue collar place from a more unpretentious era. Popular with locals for good reason.
You can go to the Damburger website, and register for deals via Facebook or Text. Add in a vegetarian burger to the menu, and that’s all the modernity Damburger has needed to thrive since 1938.

A burger with fries that satisfies a hunger for a simpler time. As we celebrate 75 years of Shasta Dam this month, consider a Damburger. Thanks to blogger Marc Beauchamp for the idea.
 
Damburger. It’s Really Redding.