Buttering up to the Butter House

 

The Butter House

1760 Fremont Blvd. Suite B-1

Seaside, CA 93955

My brother-in-law's wedding day, so a hearty breakfast was needed to get us through the day. A quick Yelp search yielded plenty of breakfast options that looked promising, but there was one that caught my eye right away. It was The Butter House in nearby Seaside, about ten minutes from our hotel in Monterey. 

Butter House opened its doors in 2019 and was brought to us by Susan and Benny Mosqueda, longtime locals of the area who wanted to bring breakfast with a Polynesian/Filipino twist to the citizenry of this region. They must have tapped into something because there's a wait for a table most days, and if you are determined to eat here on the weekend, plan on getting to Butter House early or check in on Yelp and wait it out. 

Since we were going to be eating with Katie's sister and her family, we checked in on Yelp on our way over, and by the time they arrived, we were pretty close to being seated. We were taken to the back portion of the busy restaurant, which was perfect because we were going to be eating with our toddler nephew Jacob, who, like all two years olds, can best be described as wormy, as he doesn't sit still for a moment. 

As I mentioned earlier, there's definitely a Hawaiian vibe with many of the house specialties. Still, there's plenty to choose from for people who like more straightforward, traditional breakfast options. There's plenty in the way of egg combos, scrambles, benedicts, hashes, pancakes, waffles, and french toast. Even though this is mainly a breakfast restaurant, they are open until 2pm, so there are also some burgers, sandwiches, and appetizers to select from. We were focused on breakfast, so let's see if we made a wise decision coming here. 

Let's start off with my sister-in-law's breakfast. No one will ever call Emily an adventurous eater. She's pretty vanilla when it comes to food. So, it was no surprise that she only got this Bacon and Egg Combo ($12). Two eggs, four strips of bacon, and what looked like country potatoes from my vantage point across the table made up this plate. To her credit, Emily did have a few bites of this, but she shared most of this plate with Jacob, who took a few bites while watching his tablet. 

Katie was not much more adventurous when it came to her choice for breakfast, with this Breakfast Burrito ($10). Rolled up in the flour tortilla were two scrambled eggs, bell peppers, onions, cheese, and hashbrowns, with her choice of protein this particular morning being bacon. This also came with three hash browns triangles as her side, just in case she did not have enough potato. This was a more enormous burrito than she thought it would be, and she had a hard time finishing it. She felt the egg-to-potato ratio was a little too much in favor of the potatoes, as she would have liked more egg in here, but a solid breakfast burrito nonetheless. It was made better with their delicious salsa verde. The hashbrowns on the side were nicely fried and crispy.  

I knew I could count on Jason to get something a little more out of the box for breakfast, and he obliged by getting the Adobo Pork Belly Fried Rice ($15). This one starts with some garlic fried rice, then topped with pork belly tossed in adobo sauce, and finished with bell peppers, onions, and two eggs. This was really tasty. The pork belly was tender and flavorful, the rice went perfectly with it, and the eggs bound everything together. Stick to your ribs comfort food that made Jason very happy that he ordered this meal to start his day. 

Last was my meal, the Fried Chicken and Waffles ($15.50). To be honest, I've never really seen the appeal of this very popular dish. That was until this particular morning at the Butter House. The fried chicken was boneless, had a nice crunchy breading surrounding it, and was one of the most tender pieces of chicken I have had the pleasure to consume when bitten into it. It was made even better with the SOS Gravy, which was well worth the extra $3 upcharge. The waffle was done nicely, with deep wells in each piece which allowed the maple syrup to supply plenty of sweetness in each forkful. This dish got a hold of me well past our weekend getaway, and I find myself looking for reasons to revisit this area just so I can partake in this great breakfast again. 

As if you couldn't tell, I was pretty smitten with our visit to The Butter House. It's hard to elevate breakfast, but they achieved it with the Polynesian tinge on some plates. If I lived in the area, I'd definitely be up to try their breakfast fried rice, breakfast sandwich, and lumpia, which they were not serving when we visited in early October. The service was pretty good, especially considering how busy they were. The food also got out way faster than I imagined, which was excellent since we were eating with a toddler and had to prepare for the upcoming Big Sur wedding later in the afternoon. The Butter House is definitely worth a visit when you find yourself in the Monterey area. 

Out of five otters (because the city of Seaside is home to Cal State University Monterey Bay, and their mascot is fittingly an otter), five being best to zero being worst, The Butter House gets 4 otters.  

For more information about The Butter House, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.thebutterhouse.com/home-copy