3321 Hyland Avenue Suite D
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
With the rising prices going on everywhere you look these days, I have been searching for some deals. I had heard that Butcher's House Brasserie had a perfect one for lunch. They offer a burger, fries, and a beer, wine, or beverage of your choice for $24, Tuesday thru Friday from 11am till 3. That's only a couple of bucks more than I'd pay in my local drive-thru. With all the glowing things I've heard about this place, I had to check it out.
Butcher's House opened at the very end of last year in the old Pueblo location at South Coast Collection in Costa Mesa. It's helmed by Jeoffery Offer, a native of France who had previously worked his way up from pastry assistant to executive chef at Moulin, helping that restaurant go from one location to five during his tenure.
Not satisfied with working for someone else, Chef Jeoffery dreamed of owning his own restaurant. That dream was realized a few feet away from Moulin's SOCO location. Offer learned a lot about the art of butchery from his father, who was a butcher in his hometown of Toulouse, France. Butcher's House is an informal restaurant focusing on dry-aged beef and other French specialties.
People and the press have taken notice. Orange Coast Magazine named Butcher's House the best new restaurant of the year. Another considerable accolade was being included on Brad Johnson's 75 best restaurants in OC list, coming in at 42 on that heralded list. Not too bad for a restaurant that has only been open for nine months. Other articles from Eater LA, the Orange County Business Journal, and Los Angeles Times have followed, showcasing what Chef Offer is doing here.
The lunch menu is a slightly pared-down version of the dinner menu, and both menus have the same prices no matter what time you are eating here. I like that. Unless the portions for lunch are more petite than dinner, the meals should be priced the same. The menus at Butcher's House are divided into soups and salads, mains, house specialties, burgers and sandwiches, sides, sauces, and desserts. Prices for entrees range from $17 to $48 for the 14-ounce ribeye. In addition, the lunch menu features three specials, which is what I was here for. So let's get to it.
Here's what inspired me to drive 40 miles round trip for lunch, the Burger Special ($24). As I stated before, it includes a burger or sandwich of your choice, french fries, and a beverage of your liking, including a draft beer or wine. So let's take a closer look at what we have here.
First up is the Mountain Burger. This dry-aged beef patty was topped with roasted garlic, caramelized onions, dijon mayo, thick-cut bacon, a slice of potato?, and raclette cheese between a very well-crafted brioche bun. The standouts were the patty itself, seasoned well, juicy, and cooked nicely to a medium temperature. The bacon is made in-house, and it had a nice bite to it and was less smokey than I expected. I was not sure what to make of the sliced potato, but it did not really get in the way here, with the presence of the very gooey cheese. Plenty of onions and garlic were present, but I would have liked a little more of the dijon mayo to have been applied to this, as I think it would have tied things together a bit more. Whoever their bread supplier is should be proud of this bun because it did a superior job keeping everything together while maintaining a soft and pillowy texture.
The French Fries at Butcher's House were sturdy, fried well, and seasoned simply with salt and pepper. These are the kind of fries that In N Out strives for but misses every time I have them, which is seldom because I'm not a fan, but I digress. These fries came with some ketchup, but I like variety, so I needed a dipping sauce to keep things interesting. I tried two of them, the Shallot and Blue Cheese ($1.00 each). Since I did not have the menu in front of me, I relied on my server's guidance in picking from their five sauce options. I was disappointed with the shallot, as this red wine-based sauce was not meant for fries. The blue cheese was a little better, but it was thinner than I expected, and the flavor was a little more subdued than I liked. Checking the menu now; I should have tried the spicy mayo or the Bernaise.
I was a little confused about what this side of lettuce drizzled with dijon dressing was for. It was a lot of lettuce to add to my burger, and it was dressed way too lightly and left in big leaves to be a salad. Since I had a little extra sauce, I ended up cutting it up and making a salad. It was not the best, but I didn't want it to go to waste. Again, it was a lot of lettuce.
My little lunch excursion to Butcher's House Brasserie was a nice little treat for myself on my well-earned day off from work, but it only whetted my appetite to revisit this restaurant soon to try their affordable steaks, sausages, and sides. The burger and fries definitely lived up to the hype, as they were cooked perfectly, and with just one bite, you could taste the quality and craftsmanship of both. I can only imagine that their other entrees would be the same. The service on this visit was efficient and friendly. I will search out more of these specials in the future, so keep an eye out.
Out of five airplanes (because Chef Jeoffery is from Toulouse, and that French city is the center of the aerospace industry in all of Europe), five being best to zero being worst, Butcher's House Brasserie gets 3.5 airplanes.
For more information about Butcher's House Brasserie, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.butchershouse.com/
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