Ground House Burger
Trade Food Hall
2222 Michelson Dr.
Irvine, CA 92612
This will be one of the shortest reviews I have ever written. Part of the reason for this is that it was just me visiting Trade Food Hall, as I was in the area to pick up Katie at John Wayne from one of her recent business trips. I came here to specifically try one thing I have seen plastered across my Instagram feed, which resides at Trade Food Hall in Irvine.
Trade Food Hall is overlooked as one of the premier food halls in OC. I have always enjoyed my time here, even though parking can be challenging, to say the least. Even this Thursday evening, I had missed some great parking spaces as they got snatched up right before I got there.
Once you have safely parked at Trade, my best bets include the chicken sandwich from Two Birds, the Stoner Papas from Dos Chinos, and the Mediterranian food from Gyro King. I'm sad that Pig Pen Delicacy and their Mac Daddy Burger are no longer available here, being replaced by Ground House Burger earlier this year. The good news is that they are owned and operated by the same people. But the Mac Daddy is now only available at the SteelCraft Food Hall in Long Beach or the Corporation Food Hall in Downtown LA. Definitely worth a try if you are in either of those areas, though.
Back to OC and Ground House Burger. They have a basic menu of five burgers, priced at under ten dollars, but if you combine them with fries and a drink, your meal will be at most $13.49. They love their Pinoy Burger, which uses a 50/50 blend of ground beef and longaniza, a Spanish sausage closely resembling linguica. I admit I was intrigued by this burger, but I had another burger that captivated me ever since I saw it scrolling through my Instagram feed. I quickly ordered it at the register and hoped I had enough time to finish it before Katie could get off her plane and wait for me curbside.
So here she is, one of the most photogenic burgers, The Lone Star Burger ($13.49 with fries and drink). Two pieces of Texas toast with a ground beef patty, blue cheese crumbles, two slices of bacon, beer-battered onion ring, jalapenos, caramelized onions, and a horseradish BBQ aioli. This burger had a lot going on with it naturally. First, it was the juiciest burger I've had in a while. I liked it, but some components came through less than I would have liked. I only got a little of the blue cheese coming through. The very well-made onion rings were better once they were removed from the burger for easier eating and dunked in what I believe to be the same horseradish barbecue aioli that was on the I liked the sauce, which was oddly satisfying with its conflicting notes of horseradish and sweetness from the barbecue coming through at different times. The Texas toast hung on as long as possible but dissolved into a sloppy mess near the end. A good burger, but I'll try the Pinoy or Santa Fe burger on my next visit. The fries were overly salted and tasted like fast food, even though the menu board claims they are fresh-cut here. I'd get the excellent onion rings over the fries next time.
Okay, this review wasn't as short as I had planned. Sorry about that. Ground House is a good addition to the Trade Food Hall, which needed a burger place to replace the pork-centric Pig Pen Delicacy. This Lone Star Burger was good, but as with the case with burgers, sometimes more straightforward is better. This burger had a lot going on, but the big flavors canceled each other. On my next visit, I'm going to go simpler. The guy taking my order was amiable and checked on me repeatedly. He was also delightful to the other customers who drifted towards their booth after me. I ended up finishing my last bite of the burger just as Katie called me, letting me know she was waiting for me curbside at the airport. Perfect timing.
Out of five cacti (because the number one destination out of nearby John Wayne Airport is Phoenix, Arizona, where you will see tons of cacti), five being best and zero being worst, Ground House Burger gets three cacti.
Hi thanks for sharing this.
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