Stubrik's Steakhouse and Bar
118 East Commonwealth Avenue
Fullerton, CA 92832
I was looking over some of my older reviews, and was pretty embarrassed by some of the pictures I used in the early days of this blog. I know I'll never be a great photographer, but the camera I was using back six year ago looks like it maybe had two mega pixels, and the pictures looked even worse in low light.
One of those early reviews was for a place we were going to be eating for our good friend, Jamie's birthday. I felt this was a great opportunity to of course do an updated review, but also help me get over the sub-par pictures that I took of the food at Stubrik's Steakhouse in Downtown Fullerton.
Stubrik's has been one of the stalwarts in Fullerton for well over ten years. I don't even remember the first time I was here, but it was a long time ago. If I remember the story correctly, this place was opened by two friends, Stub and Rik, who worked in the restaurant business together, and then wanted to open up their own joint. They wanted a spot that was not overly stuffy, served good food, and at a relative value.
Located right next to the Fullerton Train Station, Stubrik's does have a laid back vibe. The restaurant is pretty dark, with lots of exposed red brick throughout the place, and an open ceiling revealing many wood beams. Towards the front of the house there's a bar that runs the length of the room, and near the back entrance, there's some comfy, secluded booths. I've never been upstairs, but I know there's a couple pool tables, and a lounge in this loft-like space.
The menu here is pretty diverse, and most people will have no problem finding something here to eat. There are of course a good number of steak options, along with seafood, chicken, and pasta dishes. Most entrees are in the mid twenty dollar range, with some cheaper, and some a little more expensive. Our party of ten finally all made it here after battling traffic on a recent Monday night, finding parking in this very crowded lot, and made some quick decisions on what to eat. Let's see if Stubrik's is still as great as we remember.
My best friend Chris, and his wife Adrienne are perennially late for almost everything, but they made it here just as our first appetizer hit the table. Very proud of you guys. First up was this Garlic Cheese Bread ($6). This sourdough loaf was nicely sliced, which enabled easy sharing, and was topped with garlic butter and cheddar cheese. This was an okay garlic cheese bread. The garlic was not as noticeable as I would have liked, and the bread needed more of a crunch to it. This one was a little too doughy for my taste.
Steak Fries ($5) were out next, and these were your basic, straight out of the bag french fries. Not bad, but nothing that would make you take notice. They were seasoned with salt and a little bit of pepper. These resembled the fries from Red Robin.
The birthday girl, Jamie does not eat meat, so this might explain why these appetizers were a little on the tame side. The trend continued with this Corn Bread ($6). This was a pretty average cornbread. One of the positive points is that this was not really crumbly, like a lot of our cornbread experiences we've had recently. Unfortunately, this was not very moist, and was kind of boring. It was only jazzed up a bit when slathered with the provided honey butter.
I don't know what it is about salads that have sunflower seeds included in them, but I'm starting to really like this trend. Entrees at Stubrik's come with your choice of soup or salad, and of course I went with this Traditional House Salad. Mixed greens, red onions, a pretty solid blue cheese dressing, and of course those sunflower seeds are included here. Fresh produce, the good flavor from the red onion, and the nutty essence of the sunflower seeds made this an above average dinner salad.
Not in the mood for a steak, Jamie's goofy brother Jake had this Meatloaf ($16). He was even generous enough to give me a bite of this, and I have to admit it was pretty good, as far as meatloaf goes. The meatloaf here is topped with a wild mushroom sauce, which contained plenty of fungi. Very moist meatloaf, with a good sauce over it, made this a winner in my book. This came with some veggies, which were alright, but the scalloped potatoes shined here. Cooked crisp, with some real nice bark on the outside, and a tender inside, these were one of the better scalloped potatoes we have had. Not a bad dinner option when coming to Stubrik's.
Most of the rest of us had steaks at Stubrik's, but I was sitting at the end of the table, so I only got shots of mine and my friend Chris's plates. All of the steaks were basically the same looks wise, but Chris went big and had the 24 Ounce Porterhouse ($42). I had the 16 Ounce Ribeye ($29) served black and blue style, which means this steak was stuffed with dry blue cheese, and covered in a burgundy blue cheese sauce. This is probably the way to get the steaks here, because these are not the best quality of steaks, and it kind of hides that fact. I understand that ribeyes have a good amount of fat included in them, it's a trade off for adding more flavor, but the one I had here was more fat than beef. The sauce is good, if you are a blue cheese fan, but the blue cheese is not as overpowering as you may think. The steaks here come with some veggies, and garlic mashed potatoes with gravy. The potatoes were devoid of any garlic flavor, and the gravy did not add much either. Maybe subbing the scalloped potatoes is the way to go instead.
Taken for what it is, Stubrik's is a pretty average steak house. If you come here expecting to be blown away by your steak, you will probably leave here disappointed. The steaks are better than the ones at Outback, but then again, which ones aren't. Stubrik's is probably in the same company as Black Angus and Lone Star Steakhouse. I thought the prices were a few dollars too much, for the quality of the beef you get here. Nothing on this trip really stood out as anything memorable, or something that we will definitely have to come back for. Service was pretty good, which is always a crap shoot when you are a party of ten. Our waitress was right on top of everything we needed. It was good getting together with our friends, and also good that we got to do an updated review and pictures of this place.
Out of five red hats, (because Fullerton is home to the founder of the Red Hat Society), five being best to zero being worst, Stubrik's gets 2.5 red hats.
For more information about Stubrik's, head to their website here: http://stubriks.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment