Wheel Inn - Cabazon, CA

Posted By Michael Stern on December 26, 2012 5:15 AM

The Wheel Inn is a roadside classic, known for the life-size dinosaurs that are like gargantuan lawn ornaments. It has long been a truckers' favorite, and its round-the-clock hours make it a convenient stop for traveling night owls. While it is immensely colorful, the real reason to visit is for the food: hearty comfort food, prepared by a chef who really knows how to cook.

The hot turkey sandwich is a good example. It is made of meat from a roasted bird (not from a “turkey loaf”), and it is accompanied by mashed potatoes actually made from potatoes (not dehydrated potato flakes). French fries to accompany hamburgers or other sandwiches are delicious. They are made fresh on the premises, served hot and salty, just oily enough to make perfect culinary sense alongside a half-pound “Dino burger” (two quarter-pound patties) on a whole-wheat sesame bun with tomato slices, lettuce, pickle, a small cup of 1000-island dressing, and (optionally) raw or grilled slices of onion.

For dessert, you want pie. Preferably banana cream pie. It isn't elegant, but it is immensely satisfying.

Overall Rating

pie

Date Milkshake

Biscuits & Gravy

breakfast

dino burger

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Posted By Karen Krieger on June 27, 2012 3:32 AM

Wheel Inn is a mystical oasis from the past... or future. I first ventured inside its slightly smeared glass front door after seeing "PeeWee's Big Adventure" and falling in love with the funky 50s kitsch of the dinos in the parking lot.

My first meal was chicken-fried steak, and iced tea that was my companion's daily guzzle. Pure comfort food. Walking through the oils and velvet art of the back room, I could only feel that I was wandering through the family room of a small town, working class aunt and uncle pair of years gone by. Surreal.

On another visit, I tried liver and onions -- not to be revisited, but worth the try, especially since I pushed the plate aside and ordered a burger and fries.

What more can be said about an adventure that's at the entry point of the Mojave and Grand Canyon? And Dateville USA.

Overall Rating

dino burger

pie

Hot Roast Beef Sandwich

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Posted By Jerry Flora on April 2, 2012 6:54 AM

My wife and I have driven by the Wheel Inn several times but finally had the time to stop b for lunch. What a dump that badly needs upgrading. The clam chowder we had for lunch was filling, properly prepared, but not spectacular. The bathrooms were in the back of the building through a large room that smelled like it was several hundred years old.

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Posted By Suz Simanaitis on November 28, 2011 1:47 PM

Driving from PHX to LA on Saturday night and coming out of the desert's "radio silence," I suddenly heard familiar voices discussing truck stop food. Reception of that station faded as soon as I descended into Indio so I didn't get to hear the rest of the Sterns' interview, but it did inspire me to stop at the Wheel Inn for a late night slice of banana cream pie. Yum.

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Posted By Kristy Dahlstrom on November 9, 2011 4:05 PM

Been coming here for years. It's always the dinner stop on the way out to Blythe (family house on the river). Fun waitresses, good food, and fun little knickknacks.

Overall Rating

pie

Coconut Cream Pie

Spaghetti

Biscuits & Gravy

Hot Roast Beef Sandwich

dino burger

Fried Chicken Dinner

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Posted By Bren on August 7, 2011 4:35 PM

This place was very nice, clean and friendly. The food was terrific, and I mean terrific. I hadn't been there for many years, and my son and I were looking for somewhere different to eat breakfast, so we drove down the freeway and decided to eat at the Wheel Inn. We were so glad we did, and we'll surely be back again. Thank you to all the wonderful people who work there. We enjoyed every minute we were there.

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Posted By Dean Olson on April 18, 2007 2:23 AM

Wheel Inn is one of my favorite stops on the way from Phoenix to Orange County. If I pull out of PHX early, I always wait until I see the big EAT sign, to stop in for a bite. The interior is so kitschy, from the "art" on the walls and in the back room (which you go through on the way to the bathrooms) to the middle-aged waitresses dressed in Wilma and Betty outfits.

Food is always top notch; I really enjoy the biscuits and gravy, and the omelets are very good. The pancakes? Well, you better be hungry. Can't say as I've ever eaten anything but breakfast at the Wheel, but the selection of pies looks mighty tempting.

Overall, the Wheel Inn is an oasis in the desert, and a welcome break from the long drive between the two cities.

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Posted By Duane Tendick on March 30, 2007 11:28 AM

If you're driving on I-10 and looking for a non-chain place to eat, this is the place. It reminds me of the kind of places that served travelers before the corporations took over that job.

Our server was great; she steered me away from the split pea soup. When I wanted a piece of coconut cream pie, instead of the dessert that came with the meal, she didn't charge me extra because it was the last piece and looked it. It still tasted good, better than most. The chicken fried steak with sausage gravy was very good. The roll that came with the meal was huge and delicious. Don't order the baked potato.

All in all, a worthy place on the way to or from LA.

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Posted By Elise on September 12, 2006 1:33 PM

On a recent trip to Coachella, my boyfriend and I visited The Wheel Inn twice. On the way out, we arrived at about 10 pm., and I felt like I was in a David Lynch movie. It was very dark, which made the profusion of gigantic steer horns a little spooky. Our server had no teeth and spit all over the table when she talked. The prime rib sandwich was good, but not great. The fries were just amazing though, and my boyfriend said his french toast was probably the best he had ever eaten. When the server set down my peanut butter pie, she pulled her thumb away and it was covered with whipped cream. I looked at my pie and there was a big thumb indentation in the side. She noticed the whipped cream on her thumb, and looked so blase as she walked away without mentioning it or offering me fresh pie, that I honestly expected her to lick it off right in front of us. The pie was so good, though, we just ate around the thumb mark. On the way back, it was around midnite as we drove through Cabazon, and there was just nothing else open. We were laughing about a hankering for thumb pie as we pulled into the lot. The same server greeted us, so we ordered our food to go. The grilled cheese sandwich was like mom would make, but the pecan pie was only so-so. I'd take peanut-butter thumb pie over the pecan any day.

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