34212 Pacific Coast Highway
Dana Point, CA 92629
If you follow me on my Instagram page, you know that I am a big proponent of OC Burger Week. Last year my goal was to have seven burgers in seven days, which I can proudly say was no problem. This year I decided to do the same but needed to try seven different burgers than the ones I had last year. I ate light lunches, plotted out my route, and most importantly, picked burgers that sounded the best to me. For the most part, I took the burgers to go, when that option was available.
For those of you unfamiliar with OC Burger Week, it's put on by the great folks at OC Foodies, who also promote Brunch Week, OC Restaurant Week, The Pacific Wine and Food Classic, and other restaurant-related events throughout the year. For Burger Week this year, 49 Orange County restaurants were participating, and they offered burgers and sides at different price points ranging between $10, $15, $20, and $25. Katie and I decided to turn one of my burger visits into an impromptu date night at Whitestone Restaurant and Bar in Dana Point.
Whitestone has been open for two years now, and they took over the space that used to be home to Two Left Forks. I've read conflicting reports online about whether they were just rebranded or if this is a completely new restaurant. I'm still not sure, but I do know that Two Left Forks is still open in Irvine, and their menus do not match up too well, so I'm leaning towards this being an entirely new restaurant.
I was here for the $20 90-Day Cheeseburger, which is offered on their daily menu at the same price. Katie was not interested in the burger, opting instead to select from other parts of their menu, which includes starters that range between $5 to $39 for a cheese and charcuterie plate and entrees that will set you back $18 to $55 for their lone steak offering.
The dining room was pretty desolate, with most people opting to sit on their patio that overlooks PCH. We had a front-row seat to the happenings in the kitchen, which featured some big flames every once in a while. Our server seemed to be the only one working this Wednesday evening at 6pm. It also appeared to me that he might be the manager as well. It might be a sign of the times with restaurants still having a tough time finding help these days. Let's check out the food and see if this was one of the better burgers during my burger week experience.
We both went without a starter, instead, opting for salads to start things off for us at Whitestone. As soon as our server rattled off the Burrata Special ($21) Katie was all about it. This off-menu burrata was one with a winkle to it. No sliced red tomato or basil leaves were strewn across the plate, as they used sliced beets, carrots, greens, sliced yellow tomato, vinaigrette, and rye crisps to build this unique version. Katie loved the melt-in-your-mouth burrata and the way the items in this interacted with each other. She'd definitely look for this again on future visits.
I usually trend towards a Caesar ($13) when I spy one on a menu like I did here. This whole heart of romaine was topped with sprinkles of smoked prosciutto, pecorino, and in lieu of croutons, bread crumbs. The salad dressing was placed underneath the greens. I was not thrilled with the presentation here. It was too much work to cut up the romaine, and the fact that the dressing was placed on the bottom of the plate, it was impossible to get it distributed evenly. On the positive side, the lettuce was fresh and the dressing was delicious, but I wished there was more of it.
Our server must have been really dreamy when letting us know the specials this evening because Katie also went with another special that our server let us know about, the Filet Tip Pappardelle ($36). Large pappardelle noodles were strewn around pretty good-sized chunks of filet, and a few peas, and carrots were thrown in for good measure, along with a very nice and flavorful sauce. Katie was very pleased with her meal. She threw out words like comforting, homey, and delicious when describing this plate with great fervor.
Now the real reason we were here this evening, is the 90-Day Cheeseburger ($20). The burger is made using a three-month-aged Angus patty, then built up with sliced tomato, more than enough butter lettuce, a tomato jam, and chipotle mayo. The burger patty was very clean tasting and not overly greasy. If you like a natural, non-fussy burger, this is the one for you. For myself, I would have liked a little more chipotle mayo and onion jam on here to give this a flavor boost. The fries were fried well and you could tell they were freshly cut.
There were a couple of desserts that sounded good to us, but we ended up picking the Brown Butter Cake ($12). The butter cake was drizzled with a small amount of red miso caramel, almond brittle, and vanilla bean gelato. The cake portion of this was not as rich as most butter cakes but was pretty good. They needed a heavier hand when it came to the caramel and the ice cream. We found ourselves fencing with our spoons over every ounce of the quickly melting gelato.
Whitestone was fine but did not rock my world. Katie liked her food way more than I did, so it might have just been my selections this evening. I'd probably get something off of their seasonal menu next time, maybe their mole salmon or the maple leaf duck and strawberries, both of which sound very intriguing. Service was pretty solid, even with our guy pretty much the only one running food and checking on all the tables. As far as burger week went, this was my third favorite burger I ate that week, behind the one from Helmsman Alehouse and Champagnes, both located in Newport Beach. Keep an eye out on my social media for when next year's burger week rolls around.
Out of five handcuffs, (because there's a residential area in Queens, New York named Whitestone, and it's where Harry Houdini is buried, and he was famous for getting out of handcuffs, among other things), five being best to zero being worst, Whitestone Restaurant and Bar gets 3 handcuffs.
For more information about Whitestone Restaurant and Bar, head to their website here: https://www.whitestonerestaurant.com/
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