Slater's Bacon-tacular New Menu Items! - CLOSED

Slater's 50/50

17071 Beach Blvd. 

Huntington Beach, CA 92647

The transition from summer to fall is a busy time for restaurants. This is the time when restaurants are changing their menus. We have noticed this a lot lately with the number of announcements and tastings we have been invited to. For the last month, we have been asked to at least one restaurant weekly to try new menu items and some old favorites. Needless to say, I was excited when an invitation to Slater's 50/50 showed up in my inbox. Katie had to work, so I brought my good friend Rob to Slater's Huntington Beach location on a recent Wednesday afternoon.

Slater's has been making some noise lately. They are opening their Pasadena location next month and have announced plans to open a South OC location in Lake Forest, in the old Hooters location right next to the 5 Freeway. That will be their fifth Southern California location, and rumors are swirling that they will then try their hand at an out-of-state location. That's in the future, though, and their new menu items are here today for us to try, so let's see what they have in store for us.

Slater's started us off with enough appetizers to call it a night, but there was more to come. Leading off the appetizer parade was the Beer Cheese Fries. These fries are layered with Slater's signature chili, a beer cheese sauce, pepper jack cheese, and jalapenos. It's an updated take on Irish nachos. The chili was a little milder than I like, but the jalapenos remedied that situation quite nicely. This did not lack in that department with the two kinds of cheese here. Even with all the stuff on top of the fries, they remained crunchy throughout this appetizer, a significant feat.

I grouped all these following appetizers together because these can all be combined to create your perfect combo plate of appetizers, from a Pick 2 to a Pick 6 (sorry, the Sweet Potato Fries and Beer Battered Onion Rings are not shown here). What is shown here are the Slater's Fries, which come with Slater's bacon ketchup. Yes, you read that right, bacon-infused ketchup. I could taste the smokiness in the ketchup. Next up was my favorite appetizer of the night, the Beer Battered Jalapenos served with a cilantro-lime sour cream. These were addictive. I knew I would eat a lot here but could not escape these. Most of these were not crazy hot, but I used the cooling sauce to slow down the burn with the ones that were.  Fried Dill Pickle Chips are not among my favorite things, so I tried only two. Rob and I thought these tasted better with the Tapatio ranch than with the mustard sauce these were served with. It is a familiar menu item, but the Fried Bacon Mac and Cheese Balls are another favorite. These are perfectly fried on the outside, and the inside keeps the perfect mac and cheese texture. For an extra flavor, not that these needed it with the cheese and bacon, these come with the Tapatio ranch that went so well with the fried pickles.

Salads at Slaters? Yes, some people who come here might not be into burgers (crazy people!). We got to try two samples of their new salads. The Top Ramen Salad really reminded me of my childhood. My Mom used to make a salad that was very similar to this one. Iceberg lettuce, napa cabbage, and shaved carrots join crunchy ramen pieces and chicken breast into a salad that features a ramen-seasoned vinaigrette. This salad was a straightforward salad, which was very light-tasting. It's surprising from a place known for big flavors and shocking us. A salad that was more in the Slater's wheelhouse was the Bacon Cheeseburger Salad. This is a house salad with bacon bits, red onions, tomatoes, Thousand Island dressing, dill pickle chips, and a ground beef patty covered with cheese on top of the salad. Another pretty simple salad, but I liked this one. The warm patty contrasted with the colder greens well, and the bacon bits were real bacon, so that can always be good. This would be my choice if I had to have a salad here.

Do you love Panda Express orange chicken? Have you ever wanted to make a sandwich out of it? If the answer to those questions is yes, you need to get to Slaters as soon as possible. It's not the best picture of this sandwich, but the Orange Chicken Sandwich tasted like a higher quality Panda Express orange chicken piece. The sauce was very sweet, but to counteract that, they added a Sriracha mayo to give the sandwich a little bite. Add some coleslaw for texture, and you will have a unique chicken sandwich I am surprised no one else has ever thought to make.

To be utterly truthful to everyone at Slater's the other night, I did not try this World's Greatest Turkey Burger. I know it is topped with fresh Gouda cheese, red onions, pesto sauce, and a portobello mushroom, which all sound delicious, but I wanted to save room for the stuff I know is terrible for me. I did hear that other people liked it, but I did not try it myself.

Now, this is more like it! Luckily for my cholesterol count, we were only given quarters of the burgers, although I did sneak an extra quarter of this one. The Frito's Crunch Burger had to come from a kitchen experiment where a hamburger was combined with a Frito Pie. This fantastic burger starts with a ground beef patty and is then topped with chili, cheddar cheese, a layer of Frito's, and Thousand Island dressing. Both Rob and I really enjoyed this creation. It wasn't crazy over the top, just a solid, good-tasting burger.

Do you like bacon? Do you really like bacon? If yes, this is the burger for you. The B' B' B' Bacon Burger is every bacon lover's dream come true. Bacon is included in almost every layer of this. Starting with the signature 50 percent ground beef, 50 percent ground bacon patty, a bacon thousand island dressing, bacon American cheese, strips of thick-cut bacon, and a sunny-side-up egg, all situated on a bacon pretzel bun. Wow, our first bite of this set off a euphoric bacon experience like none other. This burger was excellent but might be too much for some people, but not me.

My buddy Rob had never been to Slater's before, and while we were there, he was looking over the menu. The burger that caught his eye the most was Slater's Classic, the Peanut Butter and Jealousy. This burger meets PB and J sandwich starts with a ground beef patty and then topped with bacon, peanut butter, and strawberry jelly strips. I know it sounds odd, but this burger really works. I have had issues correcting the suitable peanut butter-to-jelly ratio, but this burger is always a hit. Of course, the whole wheat bun makes it healthy, right?

After the burgers, we also got to sample some of their new Mac N' Cheese creations. The one on top is the Baked Potato Mac N' Cheese. This one was made of mashed potatoes, sharp cheddar cheese, bacon, green onion, sour cream, and a Parmesan-panko crust. Basically, it's anything you would want on your loaded baked potato. This was good, but I could not hold a candle to the Buffalo Chicken Mac N' Cheese. This is different from your typical macaroni and cheese out-of-the-blue box. The macaroni is paired with a three-cheese Alfredo sauce, buffalo chicken pieces, chopped celery, blue cheese crumbles, and a Cheez-Its crust. I would have liked some Franks Hot Sauce or another buffalo sauce to go along with this, but it did have a good texture, and the Cheez-It crust was genius.

Food is not the only thing new at Slater's. They also now have Beer Cocktails. I tried two of these concoctions while we were here. The first one I had was called the Elementary School Teacher. I now know what my teachers were drinking after school. Amaretto, apple and lemon juice, simple syrup, and a pale ale made up this one. A little on the sweet side for me. I liked IPA Cocktail #2 a lot better. The IPA was mixed with amaretto and appeal and topped with fresh lemon. A lot less sweet than the other one I tried. It is not new, but we had to try the Bacon Mary. The bacon-centric cocktail uses Three Olives Bacon Infused Vodka, bloody mary mix, and just for good measure, the rim of the glass is coated with bacon salt and garnished with a piece of bacon. Now, you can drink your bacon for breakfast!

Dessert time at Slater's, and you would not think they could use bacon in dessert, but you would be wrong. We tried the Maple Bacon Milkshake. This had a decent maple flavor, but the real bacon bits added a slight smokiness to this well-made milkshake. Another favorite for us was the Chocolate Pop Rocks Shake. It has probably been about thirty years since I have had Pop Rocks, but I have never had them in ice cream. They still popped, just like I remembered. A lovely nostalgic trip back in time, drinking this milkshake.

I liked some of the new menu items on Slater's. The Frito Burger, Orange Chicken Sandwich, and Fried Jalapeno Rings were all hits, in my opinion. For my friend Rob, who had never been to Slater's, this was a great introduction to this one-of-a-kind restaurant. He really loved the over-the-top aspect of it. Claiming that he never eats like this, he came home happy and full and vowed to do an extra session at the gym the next day.

We really wanted to thank everyone at Slater's 50/50 for the chance to try all of this great food. We met Scott Slater, founder of Slater's, who was even gracious after I brought up the Chargers awful season. His mother was also there and shared some great childhood stories of Scott. Thanks also go out to Jody, the Manager of this Slater's location. Thanks for taking care of us so well, Jody! Also, thanks to all the servers and staff who brought the food for us and made us feel comfortable during our stay tonight. Lastly, a big thank you to Beth Chee of Downing Street Public Relations for the invite to this great event. It has always been great working with you, Beth!

For more information on Slater's 50/50, click here: http://slaters5050.com/