Eureka Comes to Surf City, Huntington Beach

 

On Friday night we were invited to visit the newest and first location of Eureka! in Orange County.  It is located in surf city, Huntington Beach, California, directly under “The Residences” at 7631 Edinger Ave in the Bella Terra shopping center. I am no stranger to this shopping center as I recently reviewed and even have a contest going on for their neighbor restaurant, SOLITA. I have been excited to go see what Eureka has to offer as I had received an email 6 months prior they were opening their first location in Huntington Beach in Spring 2014!  Eureka recently opened this past March and is a pretty awesome place!

The Eureka! Restaurant Group is a leading California-based family of restaurants that proudly serves only authentic, handmade food with locally sourced produce.  They serve American cuisine complemented with a unique beverage program featuring 100% American craft beer, small batch whiskey, in-house aging barrels, and specialty cocktails sourced from artisans throughout America!  There are 40 American craft beers on tap a selection of 21-small batch American whiskeys – sourced from artisans in California, Iowa, Kentucky, New York, Oregon, Texas and Utah!

 

“The restaurant introduces Orange County guests to Eureka!’s motto, ‘EATertainment,’ which combines exceptional hospitality with a unique environment, creating a value driven experience,” says the partner Paul Frederick.  “We hope to provide guests with a well-rounded dining experience through our innovative bar program, live entertainment, sports programming, and weekly events like Steal the Glass, featuring the craft beer of the week.“

I really loved the architecture of Eureka and the Fresno Fig Burger was definitely a highlight of my evening!!  For starters we decided to try the Osso Buco Riblets and the Truffle fries because they came recommended highly by our delightful server.  I was first concerned that the Osso Buco riblets would be spicy in that the menu said they were tossed in a homemade firecracker aioli.  I am not a spicy person and I was very pleasantly

surprised in that the sauce did not burn my mouth and instead it gave off a pleasant flavor on my tongue. I really enjoyed the riblets!  The truffle fries had a creamy havarti sauce which was very nice and mellow rather than having super sticky cheese hanging from your lip like many nacho and cheesy fries plates.  The truffle flavor was subtle and blended very nicely with the green onions and fresh hand cut fries.

For our main entrees we shared 3 items between the 3 of us and they included the Strawberry Salad, the Fresno Fig Burger and the Naked Chicken Saltimbocca.  Out of these three, hands down my favorite was the Fresno Fig Burger!!  This burger was juicy in flavor and the variety of ingredients made for a delicious mouthful!  The Fresno Fig Burger ingredients included: Homemade fig marmalade, melted goat cheese, and crispy bacon.

Garnished with tomato, red onion, and arugula tossed in spicy porter mustard.  We did leave off the spicy porter mustard because I was afraid of the spice.  This hamburger had the perfect blend of flavors and was cooked to perfection!  The Strawberry salad was a great light and refreshing summer option and we enjoyed it. Lastly, the chicken had great flavor, but was slightly salty on my taste buds. However, I did like the blend of flavors!  I mean how can you go wrong with prosciutto and smoked mozzarella cheese?? 🙂

As a beverage to complement my meal, I opted to start with a beer sampler since there were so many beers on tap that I was super indecisive about what to choose. My favorite beer is Belgian White, so I simply told the server that and he brought back 4 samplers that he believed would fancy my taste buds.:)  The beers he selected included a Crux beer from Bend, Oregon, Rosa’s Beer, Logsdon Farmhouse Beer from Hood, Oregon, and a beer called Axiom made by a local brewery called Valiant in Orange, California!

 

My favorite beer by far was the Crux Beer from Oregon. It was very well balanced and I like beers of a lighter color. Some of the other beers were a little dark for me.  While I was excited to try some of the beers on tap, my passion is wine, so I soon moved on to a glass of the Steele Merlot from Lake County with dinner.  The wine was so reasonably priced and I absolutely fell in love with this varietal!  I will need to make a trip to Total Wine or BevMo! soon because I must have it again!!

Lastly for our dessert, we had the Goldengate Butterscotch Rum Pudding served with a homemade whipping cream, caramel sauce, and garnished with sea salt.  This one was a great way to end our meal. The flavors blended together very nicely and I have a totally obsession with sea salt and caramel, so I was all over this one!  The only thing I would like to add to this dish is a stick of dark chocolate! 🙂

 

Eureka! is definitely a hip and tasty place to go. The architecture is very modern and the atmosphere is very open, airy and welcoming!  The 133-seat restaurant features a main dining room comprised of a selection of sitting options including booths, a 15-foot community table, two bar areas, a patio, local lifestyle art and a music-themed mural from local artist, Nichole Blackburn. In addition to a main bar, the Bottle Shop at Eureka! features a mini bar with an extensive list of small batch whiskey perfect for tasting events as well as a destination to purchase exceptional and rare American craft beers and California wines to be consumed at the restaurant or can be purchased and taken home to enjoy later.

Last, but not least Eureka has a chalkboard full of daily specials at the bar that are worth checking out and they have a great happy hour daily and they are open from 11 a.m. to midnight daily!  Let me know what you think of Eureka in the comments section below!   

 

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