Surfas Culinary District

pros… wanted to check this place out for a while and finally had the chance last month. let me tell you it was really quite nice, has a certain industrial feel to the place. nice and big, and the selection of things there is decent. i’m one for asian foods and cooking equipment, and I was not quite impressed with their selection of goodies. but more on that later.
but what did impress me was the offering of food stuffs here. quite neat and from all over the world, but with an eye on the european stuff. they definitely had a lot of things to see. they also have a small cafeteria like place if you actually wanted to eat here. we didn’t get to sample any of the foods, but let me tell you it sure did smell awfully good.
i wish i had the money to get some of the cooking equipment.
cons…well, the prices here are just ridiculously expensive, and i think i speak for even the rich people in and around orange county. i mean i was looking for some sichuan pepper corns and they had a ½ lbs. bag of it and it was like $ 45 or something. i actually burst out laughing because i couldn’t believe they were selling it for anything over $ 10.
the asian section was pretty slim pickings, the woks they have there are decent. i believe that any store should have a wide selection of things, something for everyone, and in this case they only carried the bargain basement and just decent stuff. if they are going to charge their prices i would have thought they would have the cream of the crop in the way of asian cooking equipment. but it’s not an asian store, so i will let this one go.
but main thing is price, way over priced for most of the things here. i can see some of it as reasonable as they are probably the only purveyors of some of these items and have the monopoly on it, but for the majority of products they are still overpriced.

This place has been on my bookmarks for a while and I’m so happy I found the time to explore this place. It’s not as big as I expected it to be, but I still loved it. I needed a few kitchen tools and I ended up finding everything I needed and more. It was a bit hard to find some things though, there’s just so much stuff. The coolest stuff was their food. They had a ton of different salami’s and cheeses, duck fat and even blood sausage. A foodies dream. I got dry measuring cups, a scale, a Japanese strainer, a couple of cake boxes and some salami since we’re running low. The most expensive thing was the scale which was about $ 80, but it’s a really good scale. In total everything was about $ 130. I had a $ 50 gift card so I used up all of that. I used the scale and the cake boxes the next day for making macarons. The scale is an awesome tool, I can finally get all my baking measurements exact. I used one of the cake boxes to store my macarons. I don’t think I’ve seen cake boxes sold anywhere else. I can’t wait to use the other stuff I got too.
After shopping I went to their café for lunch. The cashier was nice and attentive. Had to get the kobe burger of course. I checked in and got a free iced tea with my meal. The ice tea was really good, it had a nice fruity hint. The kobe burger took a while, a little longer than I expected. It shouldn’t take too long to make a medium rare burger to be honest and the place wasn’t that crowded. Once my burger was ready the cashier handed it to me over the counter and I sat at a tall table by the window. I realized that I forgot to order it without the bun so I just removed it myself. The burger looked better with the bun on it anyways. The stick holding the burger together said rare on it and my burger did seem pretty rare so I think they cooked it rare and not medium rare. I didn’t really mind, the burger was good, very meaty and seasoned well. I liked the blue cheese on it. I normally don’t like that much blue cheese on my burgers, but this particular blue cheese was pretty mild and had good flavor. The big problem was that there was way too much horseradish on the burger. It overpowered the whole dish. It was super strong, I had to scrape off most of the cheese and toppings because it was just covered in horseradish. So I just ate the meat and some of the salad. Next time I think I’ll ask them to hold the horseradish.
I really like this store. It has all your cooking needs under one roof and more. Can’t wait to come back and see what new cooking toys I can find.

My husband and I have been going to Serfas for a few years now, and have fallen in love with the meats and cheeses counter. They have cheese plates, meat plates, or combos, where you basically pay for the number of items you choose. Just tell them what you like, or are in the mood for, and they will whip something up. Definitely try that Iberico ham they have, as it is amazing. It’s also fun to watch them slice the meat on that huge slicing contraption that looks like it belongs in a saw mill.
If you opt to eat at the counter, expect good, friendly service. Go check out their wines and grab a bottle to drink with your charcuterie. They even have ready cold wines in the cooler case.
Finally, if you come to shop, they have all kinds of fun stuff for a chef, either professional or home enthusiast. I will keep coming back. I would give five stars, but some of their items seem a bit on the pricey side.

I really love this place, both the restaurant and store. Sure it’s ridiculously expensive… and yea, some of the employees seem pretty clueless for such a high end store… but man, the bacon alone is worth making this place 5 stars. If there’s one thing you need to blow a big chunk of money on it’s the Nueske bacon. It’s mind blowing. It’s orgasmic. You can buy it by the pack in the market or in several menu items at the café including a BLT.
Another amazing item is their Italian Sausage. It too like everything here cost a lot of money but it’s the best I’ve had. It can be found in the freezer. If the café has their Italian sausage soup get it. It’s fantastic. Last week I tried their S&S pizza which is Sausage & Spinach. Also had marinated artichoke hearts. Instead of pizza sauce they brush the dough with the oil from the artichoke hearts. Fantastic. Other items I’ve had is the chicken sandwich, BLT, and 5 spice pork salad. Everything is great. Even though it’s expensive they use the high quality ingredients. In the café by the register they have different cold sides that you can buy in different sizes if you want to share. Potato salad is the only thing I’ve tried.
The store has everything a home cook or restaurant kitchen would need. They also have food such as cheese, cured meats, olives, mustards, pasta, sauce, etc, etc. If you buy some of their pasta, sauce, and Italian sausage you’ll get ooohs and aaahs about how good it is. Best bloody mary mix I’ve ever had is in the fridge section in the back. It’s by McClures and uses pickle juice as the liquid!
Great store and worth checking out. Just know it’s pricey but it’s fun to splurge once in awhile.

Plenty of very cool and interesting stuff for every kitchen. I walked in and was floored. Instant five stars.
After walking around for a bit, I started noticing that the quality of the inventory was the polar opposite of the quality of service given by the staff. The children who work here somehow feel they are better than you. I find this hilarious since these kids are making minimum wage and probably couldn’t afford to buy anything in this store, and yet they ignore you when you want to spend money.
Customer service here is terrible, and for that reason, I won’t be returning. Yes, this is a commercial supplier, but then why open yourselves to the public as a retailer? If you tell people you don’t give customer service because you are an industry wholesaler, then what about Costco and their phenomenal customer service?
Sorry, Surfas. You were cool and shiny upon first glance, but after further exposure, you’re just another unjustified holier than thou store with employees who can’t even wipe their own asses.
Note: The stock people work hard and answer your questions, so you’re better off grabbing one of them than trying to ask the clueless girls at the register anything.