Pasadena residents can now order their favorites (or discover new ones) at Dino’s Famous Chicken for pick up and delivery from its new Pasadena location at 55 S. Madison Avenue.
“Pasadena’s always been an area that we wanted to get into,” Nicole Pantazis, daughter of Demetrios Pantazi, the original owner of the restaurant, said. “We grew up close to Pasadena so all of our friends would always want us to open up in Pasadena.”
“When we had the opportunity — a friend of mine who works for Kitchen United said, ‘we’ve got an opening’ — we jumped on it,” added Nicole.
When the first branch on Pico Boulevard was opened in 1969, Demetrios initially served fried chicken because that was the craze back then. A decade after the restaurant opened, he added on the menu his very own chicken recipe after his wife Eleni urged him.
His chicken recipe, born out of his Greek heritage, has created what is now Dino’s Famous Chicken.
After his death in 2017, the legacy was passed on to his four daughters Katerina, Konstantina, Maria and Nicole. Over the years under the ownership of the siblings, the restaurant has expanded and added locations – the latest of which is Pasadena.
They also added new items on the menu through the help of Chef Royce Burke, the former owner of Yarrow and the current owner/operator of Secret Lasagna.
“After 50 years we added two new chicken items on the menu and we’re also going to introduce a fried chicken sandwich in the coming months or weeks. And we also sell our seasoning and we’re going to start bottling our sauce as well soon,” said Nicole.
Pasadenans should try Dino’s Famous Chicken because of its good food, Konstantina said.
“We love what we do. Our food is fresh. We’re family-owned. We are four sisters. We’re woman owned. We have really good food.”
Konstantina added that at Dino’s Famous Chicken, everything is made from scratch.
“We freshly cut our french fries, our hash browns, our coleslaw, our ranch, we make from scratch – everything we make from scratch,” said Konstantina. “So right now, in this day and age, it’s very rare that you’re going to find restaurants that actually do this. And we have a whole slew of people that actually work for us that actually love what they do and they provide the best quality food that we can offer.”
First time goers should try the restaurant’s bestsellers which include its DUI, which is chili cheese fries with Asada and Dino’s famous sauce drizzled on top and of course its chicken, which comes with fresh cut french fries or rice or beans.
“I think once you try our chicken, you will realize that there really isn’t anything else out there that tastes like our chicken,” said Katerina.
“Our chicken is charbroiled, which is where a lot of other places are fried, like they all have that hot chicken. Ours is completely different. It’s charbroiled and it’s just this sauce that my dad created that we drizzle on top that like nobody can compare to. Like there’s nothing that’s anything like it.”
For more delicious information about Dino’s Famous Chicken, visit: https://www.dinosfamouschicken.com/menu
