Heroes and Legends
22741 Lambert St.
Lake Forest, CA 92630
This place had a familiar feel to it. You know, the feeling you get when walking into your old elementary school or maybe a former workplace. This place felt like the Heroes in Fullerton and Riverside, right down to the peanut shells littering the floor, but they almost didn't want to advertise the connection between these places. I even asked our server, who played coy, and she told me there was a connection, but she's not sure what it is. There's not even a website for this bar and grill. They do know that this is 2018, right?
Another odd thing about Heroes and Legends is that they have been open for two years, and I'm just finding out about them now. I used to think I was pretty knowledgeable about restaurants, but they kept sneaking up on me. I find it funny that I live and work near this place, and no one has ever mentioned it. It's a secret that no one wanted to share, even though I'm a big fan of Heroes in Fullerton and Riverside.
They may be flying under the radar, but not on purpose. When my sister and I arrived here just after 3pm, we were two of the six customers. As our visit stretched into more regular after-work hours, this restaurant and bar never filled up with more than a handful of people at one time. Unheard of for the Riverside or Fullerton locations. When we inquired with our server whether Heroes and Legends ever really gets busy, she said not and suggested that a lack of a happy hour might be at the root of it.
The menu here is slightly more condensed than its stepsister restaurants, but there is plenty of overlap, even with some of the names. Yes, the famous Chili Nachos come out on a pizza pan and can easily feed three to four people. Both menus have Bud's Chili-size burgers, and a Southwest Meatloaf is also offered here. At this location, they do not match the 100-plus taps that the others possess, but they offer a very respectable 70 beers on tap, one of the largest I have seen down this way. Now, I was intrigued to see if the food would also be the same. Let's check it out.
Here's a bit of a personal note before we go any further. I've been doing this food blogging for nine years now, and in that time, my dining partners have graciously allowed me to take numerous pictures of their food before they have dug in. Since they are nice enough to allow me to do this, I try not to steer them into getting what I want. It's a give-and-take thing. When my sister inquired about these Fresh Oysters on the Half Shell ($16/market price), I was slightly worried about her. She's been dieting and found a new love for oysters a month ago. Oysters in a not-very-busy restaurant and this far from the ocean always make me nervous, but our server assured her they were very fresh. Eight rather large oysters came out over ice, with sliced lemon and a combination of cocktail sauce and horseradish. I tried the oysters, which were fresh and not too gritty. The sauces provided made them go down as easily as oysters can. I will still not get these here on my next visit, but they were fine on this particular day.
No diet for me, of course. I went with one of my favorites at Heroes, the Patty Melt ($12.99). It was the same here at Heroes and Legends. The beef patty is joined on the grilled parmesan by Swiss and cheddar cheese slices and grilled onions. I usually like some Thousand Island dressing on the side with my patty melt, but the juiciness of this negated the need for it. I had asked for this to be medium, but it came out more of a medium rare, which I did not mind. The curly fries were just like the ones at the other locations. Seasoned well, coming out hot, and more than enough to share with my sister, who broke her diet by having a few of these fries. Sorry to blow your cover, sis. Yes, they charge an extra 75 cents for ranch dressing, which is a bone of contention for many online reviewers, but having curly fries without ranch would be sacrilege. I'll gladly pay the three quarters.
Since my sister took me out for a belated birthday meal, some cake had to be had. I'm a big fan of Carrot Cake ($8); this one was all right. They did not make this here but tried to jazz it up with a little extra icing. I appreciated the effort, but the cake could have been more moist and was served ice cold, which led me to believe it came right out of the fridge. I took half home and let it sit out. It was noticeably better when eaten at room temperature.
I left Heroes and Legends excited about the food we encountered this early evening but also perplexed as to why this restaurant and bar were not busier. It could be the business park setting, but more than likely, it's the lukewarm reviews they get on Yelp for their service. We had no issues with the service, except at the start of our meal when it took a few minutes to get things rolling as our server wanted to finish her conversation with the bartender. Nothing too tragic since my sister and I had some significant catching up to do. I look forward to coming back soon and trying more of their menu, including their thick-cut pastrami sandwich, more of their burgers, and chili spaghetti. Hopefully, I will have learned the secret connection between this place and the other locations by then. For now, I'm glad it'll cut down on my long car trips to Fullerton and Riverside.
Out of five bowls of cereal (because Lake Forest is the final resting place for William Hanna, producer of all the best cartoons of my youth, and I watched them all with a bowl of cereal in my lap), five being best to zero being worst, Heroes and Legends gets 3 bowls of cereal.
As I mentioned before, Heroes and Legends has no website, so you can find out information about them from their Yelp Page here: https://www.yelp.com/biz/heroes-and-legends-bar-and-grill-lake-forest
No comments:
Post a Comment