Marie Callender's is a chain of bakery/restaurants in the western US. I went with four friends to the Marie Callender's in Rancho Palos Verdes for dinner. The Marie Callender's here is located at the corner of Trudie (it's also Capitol) and Western Blvd.

We were seated immediately, as there weren't that many people in the restaurant. There's a pie display at the front. Marie Callender's is known for it's pies. In fact, on Thanksgiving morning, I've seen lines go around the corner for people to pick up their Thanksgiving pies.

The atmosphere was a bit quiet, as there were only 4-5 other tables with diners. Our server came over and took our drink orders. When she returned, we gave her our orders. My friends ordered the Beef Stroganoff, Spicy Guacamole Burger, Aged Cheddar and Jack Cheeseburger, Spicy Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, and I ordered the Triple Decker Traditional Club Sandwich.

We waited and chatted amongst ourselves for about 10-15 minutes before our entrées arrived en masse. All of our entrées looked pretty good. All talking stopped as we worked on our meals.

I liked my Triple Decker Traditional Club Sandwich, which has turkey, ham, bacon, lettuce, and tomato on parmesan bread. My main problem was that the triple decker sandwich was so thick it was difficult to fit in my mouth.

My friends liked their meals too. My friend's Spicy Guacamole Burger was tasty, but he found it messy to eat, as the burger's juices dripped off the burger and onto his hands. My other friend's beef stroganoff was quite good, but he did say the sauce was a bit waterier than he would have liked, but it tasted quite good. I chuckled as some of the Stoganoff sauce splattered around as he twirled the noodles prior to taking a bite.

We were quite full after finishing our meals. You wouldn't normally think that burgers and sandwiches with fries or a noodle dish would fill us up that much, but we were really full. We had initially planned to eat some of Marie Callender's wonderful pies for dessert, but we simply had no more room.

Our total bill including 4 soft drinks, 5 entrées, and taxes came out to $66. Not bad for tummy stuffing meals for 5. Marie Callender's is known for it's pies, but in this case, we found that the sandwiches and burgers are quite good too. I've dined at other Marie Callender's locations and the food is more or less consistently good.

We had just finished a morning of La Brea Tar Pits and it was time for lunch. We thought about driving into West Hollywood or the updated Farmer's Market on Fairfax and have a "nice" lunch. We had parked the car on Wilshire (easy street parking in this area) and heading back we walked by a restaurant called CALLENDERS that looked very nice and upscale. We ditched our more elegant plans and thought we can enjoy a nice lunch on the Miracle Mile.

It didn't hit me that the name CALLENDER'S was actually an upscale Marie Callender's. Not only was the Marie name dropped, but it was far from the average strip mall Marie Callender's. It was an elegant brick building with a lovely patio out front.

We went in and found it dark and clubby with a lot of dark wood, glass and brass. The hostess stand directed us to the back for seating. We walked through the restaurant and found it almost empty at noon (a very bad sign). We walked along a full bar, that seemed well stock, but void of bartender or patrons. We found the hostess stand and nobody was manning it. We waited, we waited and we waited. Finally, I went to the counter where a woman was boxing pies and asked if anyone is seating people. She glared at us and said she was also the hostess and grumbled all the way to our table that she had to do too many things and they didn't have enough help. (A nice welcome!) We then had to wait for a waiter. Finally, a very cute Hollywood actor wannabe-type with a big smile got to our table. He was so cute that it was hard to be angry. He took our order and was great to the kids.

The menu was exactly like the Marie Callender's we have down the street at home, except the prices have been jacked up a bit for the more fancy decor. You get the same dry corn bread. I checked out the salad bar and it looked wilted and hardly fresh. The kids had burgers and we had salads off the menu. The food was okay, but nothing special. It was a Marie Callender’s and nothing more. The one good thing about it are the yummy pies, that are their trademark.

It looked to me like an attempt to upscale Marie Callender’s, but the attempt was failing miserably. There was a baby grand piano with no body playing, about one tenth of the tables had people sitting in them, the wait staff was always hard to find and busy, it indeed seemed understaffed. My grandfather had an expression that seemed to fit Callenders: "You can put lipstick on a pig and it's still a pig." They may call this place Callender's, but it's still Marie Callender's.