It makes me so sad to write this negative review for Angelo's since I have loved their half and half spaghetti and garlic rolls since I was a child having grown up in Loma Linda, however ever since the new ownership, the food has just not been the same (and not in a good way).
The food may, for the most part, look the same but if you've had it before the change of ownership, you'll definitely taste the negative differences in flavor and decrease in both freshness and quality. The bread rolls are now hard and bland, the marinara sauce is subpar in a way that seems like it was from a jar/can (and not even very good store bought sauce either), and even the cheese seems of lesser quality somehow. On top of all of this, it doesn't seem like you get as much cheese or sauce with a half and half spaghetti order as you used to and so when I mixed it together to eat, the sauce/cheese to noodle ratio seemed sparse which resulted in it being a bit plain and dry to eat.
I kept giving it another try every now and then before passing off any true judgement because previously I had hoped it was just a learning curve from the new owners and/or chefs getting the hang of the recipes, however with how many years it's now been, it just hasn't gotten any better and honestly potentially has gotten worse (the last time I went, I only ate one or two rolls and had to throw the rest away because of how bad they were and the marinara tasted overly sweet in the same way that super cheap canned/jar sauce does and so if it turns out it's not store bought, it's just straight up not very good or done well). To be completely honest, it seems as if they tried a bit harder in the beginning to replicate the Angelo's recipes and now have just given up on the Angelo's menu altogether and potentially began cutting corners on ingredients and food prep as time went on (yet somehow it still takes a weirdly long amount of time to make your order despite the decrease in quality?). It truly feels like the new owners just took it over and kept up the Angelo's name for the purpose of pretending to keep the tradition going when in reality they seem to just be using Angelo's local popularity to help their own separate, personal restaurant that they put in under the same roof and kitchen when they took over. They should have just gotten their own location with their own name on the door and left Angelo's to find better new owners who'd actually have kept the legacy alive properly instead of riding on its coattails and ruining it while pretending they were doing something good by keeping the local favorite open when the previous owner retired and none of their kids wanted to pick up the torch.
I might still go every once and a while for the nostalgia (or as close as we can get to that anymore) and out of the misguided hope that it might one day get better again, however at this point I don't have much hope left for it anymore since it's been so long without any positive changes (and out of principle will not ever be getting any food from their new "sister restaurant" and will simply get my Mediterranean food elsewhere).
The only reason I didn't put a lower star rating is because the food is still decent enough, but it's definitely not very good anymore either. Like stated previously, I will likely still occasionally order food here so a 2 or 1 star rating didn't seem fair, however I cannot see why anyone who hadn't previously eaten here before the change in ownership would eat here now for the first time and think to themselves that it was good enough to eat there again. I can only see people eating here more than once for the nostalgia of what it used to be because what it currently is now is not good enough to stand on its own. read more