Bacon Coma at Slater's 50/50 - CLOSED

Slater's 50/50

17071 Beach Blvd. 

Huntington Beach, CA 92647

My love for Slater's 50/50 is probably well-known to almost anyone who reads this blog, checks out our Facebook page, or reads our Twitter posts. I always inform people about the latest happenings from the home of the 50 percent ground beef and 50 percent ground bacon restaurant. Writing this blog, we only sometimes try too many restaurants twice, or even more than that, but Slater's is in a relatively consistent rotation of places we frequent.

Why do we go to Slater's so often? I will not tell you that Slater's is the best burger I have ever had. I will not tell you that Slater's is the best burger we have in OC today. We keep coming here because they constantly add new things to their menu. They almost always hook me with their burger of the month. This was the case for our July visit. Also, we had yet to review their Huntington Beach location, so that was enough reason to head over to HB.

Here is a brief history for the three of you who need to learn about Slater's 50/50. This restaurant is the concept of owner Scott Slater. An avid San Diego Chargers fan, he was tailgating with his buddies when the idea of bacon and ground beef patty came into the conversation. He toyed with the idea for a while, and then in 2009, he teamed up with Executive Chef Brad Lyons to open up their first location in Anaheim Hills. This restaurant rocked the OC food scene and brought many people to this out-of-the-way shopping center. Two years later, they opened another location in HB, with a San Diego spot quickly following. Today, they are expanding yet again, with the announcement of a new location in Pasadena.

Slater's offers customers the choice of creating their own burger off of a checklist of almost anything they could imagine on a burger. They offer 5 kinds of breads, 20  sauces, 30 toppings, and 12 types of cheese. The combinations are nearly endless. Not in the mood for their signature 50/50 patty? They also offer six other kinds of meat to stuff between the buns. For those who have difficulty making decisions, Slater's already has 10 designed burgers and other sandwiches and salads. I had no indecision on this visit. I knew what I was coming here for. So, let's get to the food.

I am always a fan of dips, and the Slater's Vampire Dip ($8.95) never disappoints. This garlic, cheese, and artichoke dip is served in a sourdough bread bowl and fried pita chips. You will want to share this very rich appetizer with friends. The dip is best with the bread bowl I think. Always a great choice to start with.

As much as I like the Vampire Dip and the burgers at Slater's, I have never been too excited by the appetizers. One good thing about them is that Slater's offers you a sampling of any number you want. We went with the Pick Three ($6.95), which gave us our choice of three. We selected the Panko Fried Mac N' Cheese, Sweet Potato Fries, and Beer Battered Onion Straws. The fried mac n' cheese served with a Tapatio ranch was the best. How could fried macaroni and cheese ever be a bad idea? Sweet potato fries are not really my thing, but the pumpkin sauce served with them made them bearable. The onion strings were very light, but I could not taste the onion here. The breading also broke away from the onion too easily. With the appetizers done, it was time for the burgers.

Okay, not a burger, but Katie proves that you do not have to eat 4000-calorie burgers when you come to Slater's. She went with a Chicken Sandwich ($8.95). She added avocado, garlic aioli, onion, spring lettuce, tomato, and asparagus to this sandwich. As for the bread option, Katie had them put it on a ciabatta roll. This sandwich's highlight was the chicken, which she called well-cooked, and the asparagus, which she claimed was very fresh and added an excellent flavor to this sandwich. Katie was not too excited by her choice of the ciabatta roll here because it was too much with all these toppings. She will also forgo the garlic aioli in favor of the pesto aioli next time because the garlic aioli overpowered the sandwich.

Most of the time, people tell me I overdo it and shrug them off. On this trip, even I knew I should not have done this! What you see here is the burger of the month for July, The 'Merica Burger ($14.95). This burger was a 100% bacon patty with a sunny-side-up egg, two strips of bacon, bacon island dressing, and bacon cheddar cheese. Talk about bacon overload! To make matters even worse, I let the waiter talk me into getting the pound size of this burger because he had not seen anyone order it and finish it. Man, I am a sucker! After the first bite, I was in bacon heaven. Bacon flooded all of my taste buds. As I ate this burger, though, the bacon really became too much. There was nothing to cut the bacon taste other than the egg, and that was too tough of a job for this poor egg. After eating this, I could feel the bacon course through my veins for the next few days. Yes, I finished this burger, to the great amazement of my table mates, the waiter, and curious onlookers, but I will never do it again.

After a bit of snafu with her burger, Kat got her Build Your Own Burger ($11.95) almost when I finished mine. She got the two-thirds-pound all-bacon patty but managed to only eat less than half of it. Kat filled out the next item I will show you. She got this burger with Swiss cheese, baconnaise, pastrami, more bacon, tomato, onion, and vampire dip. I have never seen Kat finish anything, so Slater's conquered her.

Kat ordered the Maple Bacon Shake ($5.45) if we did not have enough bacon. This shake really tasted more like a vanilla shake with bacon bits added. We only got the bacon flavor when we sucked up a piece of bacon, which by the end of our bacon odyssey, was a nice change of pace.

This trip to Slater's was not the best I have had. You can say that I overindulged to the highest degree. I will not make that mistake again. The HB location is larger than the Anaheim Hills location. We still had about a fifteen-minute wait at 4 o'clock on a Sunday afternoon. The service was as good as we have always gotten at Slater's. All the workers seem to be having a good time here. I understand that Slater's is not for everyone, but I like it. It could be classified as the ultimate in "guys' food." It is not something I would eat every day, but even after my experience here, they already got my attention with their next burger of the month. I am not going for the whole pound, though.

Out of five Porky Pigs (because I felt like I ate five pigs on this trip to Slater's), five being best to zero being worst, Slater's 50/50 gets 3 Porky Pigs.

For all things, Slater's 50/50, check out their web site here: http://www.slaters5050.com/