Yard House

Yes, it's a chain. No, that doesn't settle anything, because the tap wall does: more than a hundred beers on draft, the biggest pour list in Rancho Cucamonga by a comfortable margin, gleaming behind the bar like a pipe organ. If you drink beer at all, the board rewards attention — handles rotate, and there is always something up there you haven't tried.

The menu runs the length of a short novella and covers most of American cooking's greatest hits, which is precisely why Yard House keeps winning the group-dinner argument: the pickiest person at the table finds a burger, and the beer person was sold at the door.

It anchors the restaurant stretch of Victoria Gardens, which makes it the default before-or-after stop for whatever else brought you to the mall. Come for a game, stay for a flight, and let somebody else drive home.