Karl Strauss

Came here with a group of friends for happy hour.  We ordered beer and one of each appetizer on the happy hour menu.  Given that the food was only $5 each, it was a good amount of food.  It was very satisfying.  It was our first experience and we loved it!

$9 to fill a gallon jug with MY favourite beer...YES PEASE!! Too good to be true!

Plus.. The beer...everything is amazing!

*lost a star for hostess being kinda ditsy.. :/

The last time I went to a Karl Strauss was many years ago at the Universal City location. If my memory serves me correctly, I wasn't very impressed. I've come to dislike most brewery-type restaurants, with the exception of BJ's. They just seem to all share similar menus and none of it is ever executed right and their brews always suck.

Well, after a day of shopping at South Coast Plaza, my SO and I made our way across to the Metro side and we were feeling quite peckish and I was jones-ing for a drank. I saw Karl Strauss and even though my first thought was "ugh"; how bad could an app and some drinks be?

We were seated outside since it was a beautiful day and the inside was rather loud. I decided on a Ketel One and club soda and my SO wanted a beer but wasn't really feeling the list of their home brews. Our server was kind enough to bring him a sampling of a few of them to taste (for free). He disliked them all ended up ordering a Tom Collins while I had to send back my vodka. It tasted really strange - like, spoiled?? Can that even be possible? Anyway, our server was more than accommodating and I was feeling bad cuz I felt like we were THAT table, you know, the problem customers?!

Anyway, we decided to get entrees after looking at the menu - everything sounded so appetizing. We ordered the salmon and the shrimp po'boy sandwich. The sandwich was MASSIVE. This was a knife and fork sandwich, for sure. It had a bunch of fried shrimp, fried pickles, and fried jalapenos. It was really good! I didn't try the salmon but I didn't hear any complaints about it.

Overall, aside from the minor drink guffaw, this was a very positive dining experience. Great food and great service... Karl Strauss, you're not so bad after all.