General Manager Serkan Ozeken serves up some fresh mango, raspberry and pineapple mojitos

 

A very enthusiastic Serkan Ozeken, General Manager of 300 Pasadena met with me to give me a flavor of what they are all about. “This is not just a bowling alley, we are an entertainment venue, 50% of our revenue comes from the food and drinks,” Ozeken said.

I came for the food but what I got was an education in the myriad of services 300 Pasadena offers. Catering, lunch and bowl, happy hour and more make 300 Pasadena a one-stop shop for all of your special event needs.

“We host a lot of large events here and receive very positive feedback for our food and service,” commented Ozeken.

Serkan Ozeken muddles the fresh fruit and mint for the mojitos

300 Pasadena is also known for their great tasting Mojitos. “We use fresh mint and fruit and also raspberry, citrus or pineapple rum in all our Mojitos,” said Ozeken as he went to the bar to make our fresh fruit Mojitos.

I tried the Raspberry, Mango and Pineapple Mojito and I’ve got to say they were all delicious. Each had its own blast of fruit flavor and it was easy to tell that all the ingredients were fresh; no imitation fruit syrup here just real muddled fruit and mint. 300 Pasadena offers an array of menu items for your dining pleasure.

With a large selection of appetizers, burgers and sandwiches, salads, pizzas and kids choices you can pretty much make everybody happy. To make me happy I tried a new menu item the Fried Calamari, the 300 Sampler and the BBQ Chicken Gourmet Pizza. “The Fried Calamari is a new dish-hand battered with buttermilk batter, fried and served with a garlic aoli,” remarked Ozeken.

Crispy calamari rings with garlic aoli

The coating was light and fried to a golden brown and there were only calamari rings, no tentacles which I really liked. The garlic aoli was mild and the perfect accompaniment.

The 300 Sampler is an assortment of appetizers: grilled quesadillas, BBQ ribs, egg rolls, classic Buffalo wings, fried onion straws and an assortment of dipping sauces. “People love our sampler, they just order one dish and four or five people can share it,” Ozeken said.

It certainly is a lot of food, there are four of every dish and plenty of choice on the sauces for dipping. I found the ribs to be fall-off the bone good and the onion straws sweet and crunchy. The quesadillas, chicken wings and egg rolls rounded off the assortment nicely. Perfect finger food good for a round of bowling or to accompany a tall Mojito.

300 Sampler Platter with assorted dipping sauces

I had yet to try the BBQ Chicken Gourmet Pizza, “we call it gourmet because we make the dough and the sauce in-house,” Ozeken remarked.

For most of us BBQ Chicken Pizza is old news but this one had a spicy twist, in addition to the BBQ sauce, grilled chicken, red onion and cheese 300 Pasadena added a kick with the addition of jalapeno peppers and a sweet touch with bell peppers. I liked this combination; I thought it took the pizza up a notch above the ordinary.

Gourmet BBQ Chicken Pizza

And of course being me I had to have a bit of sweet at the end of the meal so I gave the 300 Cookie Melt a try. Your choice of a jumbo chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin or peanut butter cookie (I choose chocolate chip) is served in a small pizza pan fresh from the oven with a topping of vanilla ice cream and toppings unique to each cookie. The chocolate chip cookie was topped with chocolate sauce. This is a big dessert and is plenty to feed your whole party. The cookie is crispy at the edges and soft in the middle, simply yummy.

Chocolate chip cookie melt

So whether you’re looking for something different to do with the kids want to have a night out with the girls or guys or are just looking for an alternative to the same boring dinner and a movie stop by 300 Pasadena. You can bowl, enjoy a delicious meal or relax with a drink from the bar. Either way you’re in for a treat.

300 Pasadena is located in Hasting’s Ranch at 3545 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. They are open Monday – Thursday, Noon – Midnight; Friday, Noon – 2:00 a.m.; Saturday, 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m.; and Sunday 11:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m. For more information call (626) 351-8858 or visit www.300pasadena.com.