Holsteins Shakes And Buns

Amazing burgers! I had the steakhouse burger with onion rings. She had the gold standard burger with lettuce wrap with sweet potato fries. Good micro brew selection on draft. Shakes look deadly — coming back for one of those bad boys. Holsteins earned a spot in our regular rotation!

When Holsteins opened, I was there 3x a week, and was one of their best customers. I REALLY like their food, and most of their staff. I was there so often, that I even got to know the staff. Nick, Sergio, and Yselia (sp?) were all amazing. However, after an experience I had with a to go order, I now rarely go back in.
Might sound strange, but the issue was something as simple as their house-​made ketchup known as «udder sauce». Every time I would come in, I would get udder sauce with the french fries, and the staff would have no problem giving me 1 – 2 extra udder sauces.
I called in a to-​go order, and requested an extra udder sauce on the phone, to which point the woman taking my order at the bar said «no problem». When I went to pick it up, I find I was charged $ 5.50 for the extra sauce (open food on the attached pic). Mind you, this is house-​made KETCHUP.
I told the bar manager (James?) I had never been charged for this before, and I didn’t know I would be, and asked if he could make a one-​time courtesy to take this off the bill. Good customer service would have been to make the exception, considering how much money I spent with them. However, he said no, and would charge me an extra $ 5.50 for ketchup. So lame.
Even the bartender who rang me up for the order apologized for this, because she even felt it was ridiculous.
This experience really just through me off from going to this place as often as I did. The managers there (with the exception of Sergio, who is wonderful) really need to work on their customer service skills. Otherwise, this place will close.

After wading through the crowds during a long weekend at South Coast Plaza, I was hangry and wanted something to fill me up. I wandered over to Holsteins Shakes and Buns, which is connected to the mall. It was a Saturday afternoon, right past lunch time, so there was no wait. Awesome! (Waits make me more angry when I am hangry… LOL). Make sure to check in, they will give a free house draft. Is it delicious? No, but who can say no to a free beer. They will also substitute for a soda if you do not feel like drinking. The inside is SUPER cute with tons of cute and snarky cartoon animal pictures.
I decided on the Steakhouse Burger, which comes with fries. While I was waiting, there was a waiter going around giving us free dessert. It was a dry ice strawberry ball, very interesting while waiting for the food. The food came out relatively quickly. I have to say my burger was pretty tasty. The meat was juicy, the sauce blended well with the burger and the veggies were fresh. The only one minor complain that I have is that the bread fell apart a little too quickly, so make sure to eat the burger quickly or it can get a little messy. The fries were also pretty good, cooked just right.
Overall, a good place to eat a burger. It is a little on the pricey side, so I don’t think I would come here as often as I would go to In-​N-​Out, but still a good burger to eat when you are at South Coast Plaza.

Dissapointed. I came in very excited — the décor is awesome, the menu made me want to order one of everything, there is a giant beer and wine room, and they serve popcorn in mini buckets when you arrive. We ordered the bulgogi quesadilla and the nom-​nom burger plus a malt chocolate shake on the side.
The nom nom burger was way overcooked (very poor treatment of such nice beef). We ordered it medium, it came out well done. As a result, it just wasn’t very flavorful. I still ate it, but how can a BURGER restaurant so overcook their burgers? I also noticed that the meat wasn’t seasoned enough (simple salt and pepper people…).
The bulgogi quesadilla sounded amazing, but the dish just didn’t come together. I don’t usually take one bite and stop (especially when cheese is involved), but I could’t have a second bite. It sort of made me queasy. My boyfriend said that there was too much cheese in it for an asian-​fusion quesadilla, but he still ate it anyway.
The malt chocolate shake was great, but it better be at $ 9.
Overall, I would come back for happy hour (maybe…9pm is pretty late), but next time they overcook the burger I’m sending it back.

Mediocre food at high prices. I usually love Vegas-​based burger places, but the reason I love them is that the burgers are high quality, unique and delicious. This place sounded like it would fit the bill, but fell flat.
I got one of their «bamboozled» shakes. Honestly, for $ 13 I’d like to at least know the booze is in there! It was good, but tasted just like a shake for kids. No bite or buzz of any kind.
I got the Gold Standard burger and the sweet potato fries. The fries were adequate but meh. The burger was cooked to order, but the meat was unseasoned, bland and didn’t appear to be quality. The bun became soggy due to the sauces, and nothing stood out to my palate as particularly appealing. The worst part was, I kept tasting this lighter fluid note to my burger, which likely has something to do with their grill. NOT appetizing.
Positive notes– we actually had good service, and all of the staff seemed friendly and helpful. I also liked the layout and decoration of the restaurant, and it was nice and clean. They have an impressive beer selection, too.
If they don’t step up their food program, unfortunately I can’t see this place lasting long. I left feeling like I had wasted my money, and won’t return.

What we ordered:
Philly egg rolls
Beets and goat cheese
Gold Standard burger
Big fat Greek burger
I thought the Philly egg rolls were good but my husband didn’t really care for them. Besides that I thought everything else was ok. Nothing spectacular that I would come back for. I would have given this place 3 stars, but since the servers of other tables bumped into my chair 5 times and not an apology was given… –2 stars.
Whenever a server bumped into me my husband would look to make sure I’m ok and then look at the server waiting for an apology. He said all the servers turned, looked at me after each bump and then walked away. Not a single apology??? Was that too much to ask? It was a long day for both me and my husband so we didn’t have the energy to complain nor to deal with any extra bullshit.
No thank you. We will not be back.

What can I say? Let’s start with my burger «sun rise» it had a tempura avacado, meat, fried onions, and a side of fries. The burger was to salty for my taste. The fries were battered a little and it was a little hard. The crisp was there but not the freshness. My gf had the salmon burger and I feel like hers was a lot better. The cooked salmon was good, the raw salmon on top was a good touch, although her sweet potatoe fries were not all that great. Very generic. We also ordered an app. It was the deep fried pickles. Meh, the batter was to thick. If you’re into that kind of deep fried pickles then I suggest it. If you’re a buffalo wild wing pickle person then these are not for you.
Food for thought: I was a little disappointing because I was expecting something out of this world due to the restaurant being a gourmet burger joint and paying $ 47. It’s really not the money, I just want good food.
Maybe: There were a lot choices for shakes, maybe that’s where we should have eaten desert…
Waitress was great! Thanks for the good service you tiny Asian girl.
Meh, maybe next time?

This place is a-​ok. I think in a city where there are so many burger joints, gourmet or not, this place needs to do better. Honestly it’s not bad but at the same time it’s nothing special.
Boyfriend ordered The Rising Sun because he wanted to try the avocado tempura and that was sort of a let down. The avocado turned out to be not ripe enough so it wasn’t creamy like how it should be. And he thought the burger was too salty.
I ordered Captain Hook which is a salmon burger and all I can say is I’ve had better. Not sure it’s worth the price tag.
We also ordered fried pickles and my opinion is… Buffalo Wild Wings has better fried pickles.
We didn’t try any milkshake, but maybe that’s where the magic lies. But as far as burgers go, I’d rather go somewhere else. I would’ve given it two stars but the service deserves some credit.

I’d never been to Holsteins before, so I was pretty excited to come, especially seeing lots of people raving about the burgers here on Unilocal!I came with a large group, and considering how many people there were, they served us quite quickly! We were in a rush to see a show at the Segerstrom Center next door, so our waitress made sure to take out orders quickly and serve us quickly.
When you’re seated, there are buckets of popcorn that everyone can snack on and enjoy. The ambience is nice, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere for our dinner. We had the truffle lobster mac and cheese, fried pickles, and the buffalo chicken dip. I enjoyed the buffalo dip, and it had a surprisingly large amount of chicken in it, which was great! The truffle lobster mac and cheese however was so disappointing, especially considering how expensive it was. It came in a small shallow dish, and it really just wasn’t that flavorful for something that had Maine lobster, mascarpone, and truffles.
For our main entrees I had the Nom Nom Burger, which was absolutely delicious! My friends had the Perfect Turkey Burger, and the Gold Standard. All the burgers were great, but I personally really, really enjoyed the Nom Nom Burger. Perhaps it’s because i’m a sucker for chips in burgers, or because i’m already partial to Thousand Island dressing, it was just fantastic! Within our group we got both regular fries as well as sweet potato fries and the original fries definitely were the crowd favorite. The sweet potato fries just didn’t seem fresh. They were soggy and limp, whereas the regular fries were perfectly seasoned, hot, and crispy!
We were in a rush so we didn’t have time for dessert, but a few of us had the milkshakes, and I heard only good things! I’d like to come back again though!

We sat at the bar because we were told the service and food would be faster. So not even the case!
It took a few for on the the bar tenders to come over and take out drink order. We told him we were ready to order and he said wait I need my pen and paper. We tell him our order and part of the order comes out and the guy bringing our food asks us did you order any more food? We were missing some items and we told him. We were splitting so we had to ask for a plate and was he put out by us asking him. He brings out the plates and put them off to the side if I were not to see the plates their I would of knocked them over. We had ordered the fried pickles, philly cheese egg rolls, the bulgogi kimchi quesadilla and we each ordered a milkshake.
Food was ok different then your typical burger joint. The milkshakes were awesome and I would probaly come back just for a shake.
We were so ready to leave but again took forever for us to get the check and to charge our cards. It was not busy at the bar at all. The bar tenders were chatting up with everyone else while we waited. Service needs to improve!

I was long looking forward to my visit to Holsteins. I make it no secret that I love a good burger. I find it hysterical that the pretentious hostess asked us if we had reservations at 2 PM on a Saturday, when you could shoot a cannon through that empty restaurant. Reservations? Really?
We started out with the Wings, and they were pretty good. I like mine a bit crispy, but the sauce was good, and the portion was fair. I went with the Gold Standard burger:
dry aged beef sirloin burger w/​smoked bacon, aged goat cheddar cheese, tomato confit, baby arugula, & garlic-​chive aioli. This burger was ordered medium and came out perfectly cook and extremely well seasoned. This burger rang in at $ 15.50. My husband had the Fun-​Ghi beef patty topped with forest mushrooms, frisee, caramelized onions, gruyère cheese, & truffle mayo. He also ordered his burger medium and sadly it came out more like medium well. This was $ 14.00
Holstein’s has an impressive selection of craft beers which my husband enjoyed and a decent although slightly pricey wine list. Of course Holsteins is famous for their boozy shakes, but sadly I don’t do the Milk thing so I will just have to take their word for it .
I would say that while our visit to Holsteins was OK, the same meal could have been had at Slaters or 25 Degrees for the same cost.

I’m okay with paying $ 15.50 for bougie burgers, but it has to be the best burger I’ve ever eaten. Unfortunately I didn’t get that here.
Ordered the Rising Star, a Japanese inspired burger which supposedly uses Kobe beef. I enjoyed the avocado tempura that came with it but the teriyaki sauce was pretty salty, which overpowered the dish. Even if Holstein used quality beef, with that sauce, one can’t tell the difference.
Overall, my experience was by no means bad, and I know I’m nitpicking here, but at the prices I’m paying, it’s the small details that make or break it, and in this case, it was the latter.

The menu doesn’t include everything that the Vegas menu does, but in my opinion the burgers were just as tasty. We were promptly served a little bucket of popcorn which was much needed after shopping at South Coast Plaza all day. Holstein’s is connected to Bloomingdale’s. When you check in on the app, you receive a complimentary draft beer. The app doesn’t specify, but it is only good for Estrella which is basically the Coors Light of Spain haha. But beggars can’t be choosers and they honored the check-​in for everyone in our party which was much appreciated.
All 3 of us went with the same burger, cooked medium. The Fun-​Ghi: beef patty topped with forest mushrooms, frisee, caramelized onions, gruyère cheese, & truffle mayo. I asked for the mayo on the side which turned out to be a good call, because there was too much of it on the other 2 burgers. The burger was juicy to the max and full of flavor completed by the flawlessly melted gruyère. I’m a huge fan of the onion rings here and its definitely worth the upcharge to sub the fries out for them. Something about the way that they bread them is perfect and never soggy.
Alcoholic milkshakes (Bam-​Boozled, as they call them) are the perfect sweet ending, and something you won’t find everywhere. Definitely give them a try. One last note, just be aware that prices are on the «gourmet burger» level. I think Holstein’s was a smart addition to South Coast Plaza and I’m happy that I don’t have to wait until I am in Vegas to enjoy it.

This Holsteins is located in the SCP Bloomingdales location, toward the Bristol/​405 corner of the mall.
This is a really good addition to the dining selection at this mall, especially if you frequent it often and are looking for a new casual alternative.
They have a varied menu. with beef, chicken, fish. They even have some salads. Their appetizer portions are also decent. All their food seems to be well prepared and of superior quality. My only complaint is that their burger patties are very dense and thus can be dry. I have no idea if they press their own patties here, so I err on the side of caution and order well done.
I didn’t know that the first two times I visited this location was during the soft opening. I visited again after that, and there was no change in quality in any aspect. The food was still good, and the service was excellent. The décor of the restaurant itself is very interesting and unique. I can see this as a great place to hang out and drink, as they also have a nice sized alcohol list.

I felt that the Vegas restaurant was so much more superior than this location… but then again, I didn’t order a burger here.
I ordered the Farmhouse Cobb salad but it wasn’t all that. There was barely any chicken. That was disappointing.
The fries were excellent.
The truffle lobster mac & cheese was very good. It was a great sized portion, especially when sharing with others.
I also ordered the buffalo chicken dip. It was pretty salty, which made me want to drink more water.
The décor was cute with different paintings of cows. There’s a lot of seating but to my surprise, there weren’t as many people dining here as I thought there would be.
If I go back to Holsteins, it will probably be the Las Vegas location instead of the California one.

What is there not to love! 350 different craft beers to choose from ! 350! jumping Jehoshaphat Batman!!! The easiest way to navigate through this monstrous selection is to download «Tap Hunter» on your phone. There you can pick Holstien’s and they will have their live menu updated. I love the décor and art work! they have came a long way from the Charlie Palmer days. The food is delicious and finally I don’t mind spending $ 16 on a hamburger. I also had the buffalo dip which was righteous in every way. Ok back to the beer selection! I had this IPA called Photosphere Phil by Clown shoes which was recommended by Brad the bartender. His name wasn’t Brad but I like calling my bartenders that, Any who it shot up to number one on my fave beer list!
There is a beer room right when you walk in the double sided glass doors. uhhhh can someone say «photo op???»
omw back tonight.

This place is pretty awesome for a burger joint
Being that it is in Orange County and in South Coast Plaza is a plus for me. I came in today with three other people for lunch. We came in at about noon and were seated immediately. Once seated we were given their complementary buttery popcorn. Yum! I liked the ideas instead of giving us bread or something heavy. For food, I ordered their Fun-​Ghi Burger with Onion Rings. My Fun-​Ghi Burger contained frisee lettuce, caramelized onions, mushrooms, cheese, beef, and their amazing truffle mayo. I wish I had gotten it medium rare instead of just medium because it was a little dry for my preference. But overall the burger was good and super filling. I could only finish half. My onion rings were also excellent. They were perfectly seasoned and fried. I just wish I had more.
Burgers here run about $ 15 each. All burgers comes with fries but you can replace regular fries with sweet potato fries or onion rings for $ 1.50 extra. You can also add an egg on top of that for another $ 1. Other items on the menu include salads and sliders. They have a good variety of burger meats including lamb, salmon, turkey, vegetarian patty, and kobe beef. For appetizers, I had items like poutine, poke tostadas, and bulgogi quesadilla. They also have a wonderful shakes menu with vodka! I really wanna go back and try those. They looked amazing. Oh, and did I also mention they have a long list of drinks. If you check-​in you get a free beer. What?!
As for service, it was pretty slow. The food took awhile to come out and we had to request the same thing a few times. The guy who served also charged us wrong. He accidentally over charged us for someone else food and apologized. Good thing my friend caught it. The inside of this place is very large. There are plenty of seating. They also have a private room that you can book out for a party. The fun arts on the wall are super cute and beautiful. It’s located in Bloomingdales. Overall, I believe this is a good place for your burger and shake fix.

Holsteins Impressed overall with the comfortable and cute décor, greeting, customer service, food options, food taste, alcohol shakes and some little extras that Holsteins provided at this new location outside Bloomingdales in South Coast Plaza.
After a disastrous start at another restaurant, Rohlin and I arrived to Holsteins hungry. We were promptly greeted, sat & we ordered the Nom Nom Burger for Rohlin, with upgrade to onion rings & Thai Steak Salad for me. The Nom Nom is kobe beef, I only had 1 bite but it was delicious with a nice char flavor to it (4 star). The Thai Steak Salad was fresh, tender & easy to cut new york steak, cooked at the requested medium, with very little fat. Aside from the freshness of the salad & steak, another standout was the delicious green papaya strips & the sweet-​chili vinaigrette (4 star).

Drinks: Rohlin decided to try a specialty shake, the Drunken Monkey, wow! (5 stars) Possibly the best shake I’ve ever tasted. (Reese’s PB cup, banana, malt & frangelico)

Holsteins also had a check in offer freebie for a draft beer, Spanish (Estrella Damm) and I almost finished the whole thing and I’m not a beer/​ale/​lager/​stout lady.
Extras: complimentary spiced popcorn & a baby freebie of nitrogen meringues, pretty darn delicious, and a bit extra of a «show» with the liquid nitrogen. The restrooms are very nice, and the soap was good quality, non-​drying.
Another Adventure: Dinner with my Unilocaler friend Van! Again friendly greeting and terrific service. Apparently the complimentary popcorn changes flavors and this time it was cheddar, very yummy! I had the Gold Standard this time around and it was very tasty (3.5 stars)
I do feel that $ 15.5 is a bit high as this is not a kobe beef burger (it’s aged beef sirloin) and while I really liked the aged goat cheddar cheese, there was too little and the smoked bacon was literally so crisp that there was no fatty goodness, and the tomato confit was just a warm mess and I felt added nothing good. The fries that come with are a small portion. They were fine, but nothing standout. Sadly, no freebie dessert meringues (or anything else) in sight this visit, so I hope Van wasn’t too saddened.
Now that I’ve been twice, I have to say my first visit was more impressive and the second didn’t wow me. If you’re craving a great tasting, but pricey burger head to Holsteins and you should probably have an alcohol shake/​malt, so so good.

This was our Plan C after the line at Halal Guys was wrapped around its strip mall location and Chicken Maison was a complete disaster. I wasn’t really looking for a more expensive sit down experience, but it was getting late and there weren’t many viable options in the area.
The restaurant (
) is located at the end of South Coast Plaza nearest to the 405 Freeway. When you walk in (
) you are greeted by a glass wine and beer cellar. The reception desk has a huge cow (
) standing behind it and we were immediately greeted and seated in one of the main dining areas (
) at a half booth table. There are several cartoons on the wall and several of them are in response to Chick-Fil-A’s «Eat Mor Chikin» campaign.
Our server (Nicholas) came over, went over the menu for a bit and took our drink orders. Laina didn’t want the to waste the free check in off for a House Draft and got a Estrella Damm Spanish Lager and I opted for the Drunken Monkey (
) Malt. We were also served some complimentary popcorn (
) with a kick. The popcorn was decent and it gave us something to munch on while we decided what to order.
The Holsteins Menu consists of Nosh (Appetizers), Graze (Salads), Big Buns (Burgers), Big Plates (Entrees), Desserts, Bam-​Boozled Shakes and Malts (Alcoholic Shakes), Shakes and Malts, Cocktails and an extensive list of Beers and Wines.
When Nicholas returned with our drinks, we were ready to order. The better half ordered the Thai Beef Salad (
) in a Sweet Chili Vinaigrette and I went with the Nom Nom Burger (
) and Nicholas related an interesting story regarding the burger. A family won a contest to create a specialty burger and they let their 7 year old daughter invent the burger. The burger ended up being so popular, it was added to the regular menu.
Rohlinism: If you want to fee like a kid, try eating food created by one.
The drinks were both standouts. I have known my lovely wife for almost 25 years and I can’t recall ever seen her put a beer to her lips more or less enjoy one … until now. She really enjoyed the Estrella Damm and I thought it a had a very smooth taste. The Drunken Monkey Shake most definitely bam-​boozled my taste buds and this was probably the best shake I have ever drank (or maybe it was the alcohol talking)! The consistency was near perfect for me (could have been a little thicker) and the flavors were completely balanced. The Frangelico didn’t overpower any of the other ingredients and you tasted the banana and Reece’s in each and every slurp. I managed to give Laina a suck of my straw and she was equally as wowed!
The entrees came out a short time later and Laina surprisingly really enjoyed her salad (go figure, great salad at a burger joint). The steak was cooked to the medium she requested and there was a good and equal amount of all ingredients. She even liked the vinaigrette and that is no where near her favorite dressing. My burger was enjoyable as well. The burger hung out over the bun, was cooked to the specified medium rare and had a nice char. The cheese was thoroughly melted and you could taste the quality of the beef. I am not a 1000 Island person, so I have no idea how the dressing tasted. My only complaint would be I could have used a few more rings for the $ 2 upgrade, but a number of places short you on the rings. They did have a good and bit of unique taste from the buttermilk batter.
As a complimentary treat, once your were finished, servers came around with Nitrogen Meringues (
) in three flavors. I suppose this is their way of getting in on the nitro craze sweeping the ice cream world. Laina had a strawberry one and I had a peppermint and both were very good (much better than my nitro ice cream experience).
I am not sure why there is a significant amount of Unilocal hate here. I haven’t been to location in Las Vegas, but the food here was really good and the shake was a complete slam dunk! One the pricey side for sure, but this is a step above most of the higher end burger joints I have been to in recent history (Umami). I would definitely come back in the future!

Holsteins is located outside of Bloomingdales across from Anqi.
Our aussie waiter was really good. Always checking in on us and keeping my drinks refilled. The service was def on par with the Vegas location. Thats where the similarities end.
The food was absolute horrible. My wife and I both ordered Medium. We both got well done. This is a place that specialized in burgers and cannot cook it to the way we ordered it. Oh and my wife’s burger came with a side of hair. Absolutely disgusting. We told the manager and they took the burger off our check.
The Philly cheesesteak eggrolls tasted like it came out of the freezer. I was very disappointed with this place and probably will not go back.