Time Is Flying by as We Swing by Stacked

Stacked

7490 Edinger Ave. 

Huntington Beach, CA 92647

The years are just rolling by now. It seems like we just went to out last Ducks game a few weeks ago, but in reality, it was mid-April when they were swept out of the playoffs against the hated San Jose Sharks. A sure sign for me that the holidays are right around the corner is when we get the chance to get together with my parents and my good friend Steve to pick the games we want to see our Ducks play in the upcoming year. As is our custom, we always meet near Huntington Beach, and it's always my job to pick the restaurant. This year I selected Stacked as the place we would hold our season ticket draft spot.

Stacked is located right across the street from the busy Bella Terra Shopping Center in Huntington Beach. The Edinger Plaza, which is anchored not only by Stacked but Nordstrom Rack and Dick's Sporting Goods is a lot more convenient to find parking, which is already a big plus for me before we even reach the front door of Stacked.

Stacked has been open for nearly three years now in Huntington Beach. There are also locations in Torrance, Cerritos, Thousand Oaks, and San Diego. This HB location is the only one that serves breakfast, and I hear it's amazing, and their Instagram feed gives some good glimpses of this. Stacked was one of the first to primarily use a tabletop ordering system to order your food. They really want you to build your food from the ground up, or in this case stack your entree the way you want it. Customization is what it's all about here. Not handy with anything with a screen, like my parents? Don't worry they will assist you in placing your order through the tabletop tablet.

When you are sat at Stacked you will be presented with a menu that features plenty in the way of appetizers, salads, burgers, sandwiches, a build your own mac and cheese option, and desserts. Since customization is the thing here, there are no prices listed on the hard copy of the menu, which was a little disconcerting at first. The prices are displayed prominently on the ordering tablet, and as you add ingredients for your perfect meal the price will show exactly what you will be charged after each item is upgraded. Before we got to the business at hand of picking our tickets for the upcoming Ducks season, we ordered some food. Let's see how it all came out for us at Stacked.

Chili Cheese Fries ($3.60) was first up for Katie and I. They offer two sizes here, and we opted for the small size, which was perfect for the two of us. Fries are topped with plenty of cheddar and jack cheeses, a beef and pork chili, green onions, and a sour cream drizzle. Not a bad version at all. These had plenty of cheese on them, the chili, even though it had beans, was tasty with a little spark of spice, and the fries stayed relatively crisp during the short life of this appetizer.

My mom was pretty eager to try this Margherita Flatbread ($9.33) as she had looked at the menu before we got here. Guess I'm not the only one that pre-scouts the restaurants where we will be eating. This was a large-sized flatbread for my mom. She only managed to eat half of this and took the rest home for lunch the next day. This came with plenty of sliced tomato, basil, mozzarella, and dollops of burrata covering each of the tomatoes. I was sitting quite a distance from my mom, but she seemed to like this a lot.

My dad is very particular about pastrami when he eats out. It always has to be sliced paper thin for him to be happy, and he doubles and triple checks with the server to make sure he can see through it once it reaches the table. He got exactly what he wanted when he received this Pastrami Sandwich ($13.16). This sandwich was started off with some very solid marble rye and joining the pastrami between the two sliced of bread was some coleslaw, pickles, and a spicy brown mustard. My dad loved this sandwich. It had a good crunch from coleslaw, the brown mustard added some zippiness, and the marble rye held everything together wonderfully. He would not hesitate to get this sandwich again.

Katie got something that I have not been able to find on the online menu at Stacked, and she can't recall what it was called, so we'll call it a Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese (?). It came out with shredded pork, a light barbecue sauce, melted cheese, and grilled sourdough. She described this sandwich as very moist and rich, and a good representation of a pulled pork sandwich. She liked it but is eager to try something else when we make a return visit to Stacked.

I have been in a blue cheese mood for the last few weeks, so when I saw the Stack N' Blue ($10.04) on the menu, I knew it was going to be what I was going to have. It must have also gotten to our good friend Steve too because that's what he got as well. Great minds apparently do think alike. This Angus burger was stacked high with plenty of crispy onion strings, blue cheese crumbles, two slices of bacon, a roasted shallot mayo, and a finishing touch of balsamic glaze To get my mouth around this thing I took out almost all of the onion strings and ate them solo. This was a pretty tasty burger, but I'd definitely ask for extra mayo next time, which I think would tie everything together better and help tone down the stronger than I expected blue cheese. I'd also probably explore more of their sauce options, with maybe some garlic aioli, chipotle mayo, or even their curry ketchup. Good solid burger though.

Not that we needed them after our chili cheese fries, but we also tried the Garlic Parmesan Fries ($3.29) and Onion Rings ($3.95). I had a love-hate relationship with these garlic fries. I thought that they were way too strong in the garlic department, but my love for garlic kept me picking at these until they were almost gone. They could be the strongest garlic fries I have ever had, as I think they use a garlic paste on these instead of the little specks of garlic that other places use for their garlic fries. Definitely a must for people that love everything garlic. The onion rings were done very well. They use Spanish onions for these and the breading was nice and solid and did not break away from the onion, which is what I look for in my onion rings. I'd definitely get the onion rings again.

We had no time for dessert as we had to get down to the business of picking out the Ducks games we were going to be heading out to this year. Stacked turned out to be an excellent meetup spot, way better than the BJ's we had met at the last few years. I was a little worried that the ordering was going to be a problem, but our server was more than amicable about showing us how to use it, and even used it for us to order our beverages. I do look forward to returning to Stacked to customize my perfect meal using the tablet. The food was pretty solid, and I'd equate it to a much better version of BJ's, which is probably no coincidence since Stacked was founded by former co-CEOs of BJ's. Stacked might just become our new spot for picking our Ducks tickets for years to come.

Out of five old books, (because this restaurant is located in Huntington Beach, a city named for Henry Huntington, who also lends his name to the excellent Huntington Library in San Marino which is named after him as well), five being best to zero being worst, Stacked gets 3 old books.

For more information about Stacked, head to their website here: http://www.stacked.com/