308 South Coast Highway
Oceanside, CA 92054
It's nice getting back into the traditions that we missed in the last year. Katie and I have the custom of heading down to the outlets in Carlsbad so she can get a new purse at one of the high-end stores. No, I'm not partial to shopping, but it does give me a chance to pick a restaurant to eat at in an area that we normally would not get to. After some very careful research, I selected Local Tap House and Kitchen in Oceanside for our post-shopping meal.
Local Tap House gets a lot of love online. Their Yelp rating is very impressive, with four and a half stars, and over 2000 reviews. There's also plenty of mentions in the local press. Their website touts their executive chef as Daniel Pundik, but he opened a new barbecue restaurant in Fallbrook last year, so I think he is transitioning out of Local Tap House. Nevertheless, when we arrived here at half-past five on a Saturday evening, we were faced with a forty-five-minute wait for a table underneath their heated tent located in their parking lot.
As we waited for our table we cozied up to the bar, which seemed like a unique experience since we have not been able to sit and watch bartenders work for the last 14 months. It was quite a show watching our very friendly bartender making some pretty labor-intensive cocktails and pouring one of the 30 local beers available on a rotating basis. She deftly filled drink orders, all the while answering numerous questions from other patrons about the beers available on this evening.
When our table was ready, we turned our attention to their food menu, which is broken down into starters, salads, sandwiches, more substantial plates, and a trio of desserts. Entrees go for $20 plus, while sandwiches hover around the $15 price point, which does not seem that bad for this neighborhood. Let's see what came out for Katie's birthday dinner.
Katie and I were pretty hungry, so we both picked a starter, to begin with, to try to suppress our hunger. She went with the Mexican Street Corn Empanadas ($13). These golden pockets were filled with chicken, roasted poblano peppers, kernels of corn, and served with a mixture of mayo queso Blanco, and lime. This was executed well, but these were too mellow for my tastes. I kept expecting a bigger burst of flavor that never came. Some extra sauce or a spicier salsa verde might have helped this out a bit.
My pick was the WTF Short Rib Fries ($17.50) and they were more to my liking. The fries were placed on top of smoked gouda gravy and the shredded short rib, then this was topped with a fried egg, grated cheddar cheese, cotija cheese, and some green onions. This had plenty of short ribs on the bottom of the plate and was very good when I got everything in one forkful. The longer this stayed around though, the soggier that the fries got. I eventually found myself just picking around the fries to eat the tasty meat.
The birthday girl was torn between a few items at Local Tap House but eventually went with the Beef Stroganoff ($20). This is one of the most unique versions of this comfort food classic that I've seen. No creamy sauce, instead, relying on a small drizzle of sour cream topping this. The plentiful short rib and pappardelle were joined on the plate by some tomatoes, mushrooms, a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, and a couple of handfuls of arugula. Katie loved this quirky version with its house-made pasta and the contrast between the bitter arugula and the rich meat and brown sauce. She could not finish this, as it had way more meat than she was expecting.
I didn't realize it until we ordered, but three of our four items we got featured short rib. Sorry for the lack of diversity on this evening, I'll blame the cooler weather on this evening that necessitated the need for comfort food. Anyways, this Short Rib French Dip ($17 plus $3 upcharge for the Caesar Salad option) came with horseradish cream, swiss cheese, crispy onions, and au jus for dipping. This sandwich fell flat in my opinion. Some of the meat was dry in parts, and since they did not give me enough au jus, I was kind of stuck with muddling through some of the drier parts of the sandwich. A little more of the horseradish cream could have also helped to wake things up a bit here. The three-dollar upcharge for the Caesar was totally worth it. The greens were dressed perfectly with the nicely flavored Caesar dressing, and the parmesan and the crispy onions added even more flavor.
When I left Local Tap House I was a little disappointed. The food was not terrible, it was definitely even a little better than average. It's just that I had it in my head that it was going to be spectacular, based on what I read about them online. In other words, it did not live up to the hype I had set in my mind before even walking in, which is on me, not them. I might have gotten the wrong entree, or we should have gotten a little more variety instead of just getting items with short ribs. With that being said the service was pretty stellar on this visit, from the bar staff while we were waiting for our table, to our sever who took great care of us throughout our stay. The vibe at Local Tap House was one of good times, which was exactly what we wanted as we restarted the tradition of heading south for Katie's birthday.
Out of five volleyballs, (because some scenes from the 80's movie Top Gun were filmed in Oceanside, and one of the most iconic scenes in that movie is when they were playing beach volleyball), five being best to zero being worst, Local Tap House and Kitchen gets 3 volleyballs.
For more information about Local Tap House and Kitchen, head to their website here: https://www.localtaphouse.com/
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