Streamliner Lounge

I’m used to going to rubys and got my bowl of chili with a nice black butte porter. The full bar adds a lot to the restaurant for adults. The chili was on par with that at other Rubys. My waitress was quick and I was able to get in and out to catch the next train to riverside. It hit all the high points I wanted for catching a quick hot meal between trains.

I have stopped here to enjoy a drink a few times (usually Mon-​Thurs) over the last 3 years. I occasionally stop for a drink and a bite then complete my commute on the next train out. The food is good and the service is friendly if a little slow.
Apparently thinks change on Friday evening though. The waitress walked by me 3 times without even acknowledging my presence. Once was while seating a couple, that walked in after I did, at a corner table behind me no less, and another was when she went back to the same table to ask if she could get them started with a drink. My BF walked in after this and she walked by us once more before we headed to the bar.
I had walked in with two gentlemen who’d been on the same train. They had gone directly to the bar. Those gentlemen were in the process of ordering their SECOND beer when we sat down at the bar.
Although not all of my experiences here have been bad, and I have told fellow commuters that this is a decent place to stop, this one incident has completely turned me off to the place. If my BF and I plan on meeting in Orange we will take our business elsewhere. If I’m just looking for a place to unwind after work I will get off the train in Fullerton where there are plenty of other choices and same trains go through.

Great food, good drinks and awesome live music by, they called themselves the CROSS TOWN 2’S I believe on a awesome SATURDAY evening!

Music, drinks and dinner at the Streamliner is always our fav ‘last stop’ (toot-​toot!) after a Saturday of tooling about our favorite Orange Circle vintage shops. We LOVE the Orange Circle and genuine throwback vibe, and all the great new foodie restaurants, craft beer joints and ice cream shops. The Streamliner is the perfect hang out spot, with great food. It’s bonafide, in the old train Depot, and the live music is always great. As far as I know, it’s the only spot with live music in the circle area. The atmosphere is very fun and retro, complete with model trains and upholstered bench back seating. They get great musicians and bands. You can dance too, and it’s a perfect place to wear the vintage fedora and shoes I got down the street! The cocktails are amazing. They’re generous with the good stuff, and everyone’s so friendly.

Wow. These reviews weren’t kidding.
I came here for a going away party. I read the reviews, but it wasn’t my party so I had to go.
It was a sat night. Karaōke was going, drinks were flowing, but I was hungry.
I heard the happy hour pours for $ 5 whiskey were pretty ridiculous… in a good way! Huge pour.
But I ordered a burger.
It came to me cold. The cheese wasn’t even melted. I hate that. Its like it had been sitting out and I got someone else’s old order that had been forgotten .
So much yuck.
And… The karaōke dude was odd. He went up to my friend and ASKED him if he wanted to sing a song. We thought, guess he’s running low on requests and now he’s recruiting people to go sing and fill in air time.
The next song plays. Then the host sings a song. Another woman sings. Then… That woman and the host sing a duet! THEN another person sings a song. Wth??? Why ask a person to sing a song if you’re not even gonna call him up? Why did the host sing 2 songs?!!
So… We left. Our group of 70 people made their way to The District down the street.

This place is good but it’s not great. It could be better. While the atmosphere of this place is really cool, it’s happy hour is good the food is so so. I’ve been to lot’s of Ruby’s and this one always is just meh when the food arrives. Can’t quite put my finger onto why. I also feel like it can be a bit pricey (I’m usually conned to go here by my kids and end up paying $ 75+ for a family of 5) The Streamliner lounge part with happy hour is good with the live music and the sports vibe. Sometimes it’s packed and sometimes it’s dead.

Live music on Fridays and Saturdays! The bartender Bethany was really helpful and friendly

Wish they had karaōke with Roy every Sat. Night! It is awesome! MORE PLEASE! once a month is not enough! Food is great and servers are rickin with us. LOVE IT!

Hello Unilocalers!
I don’t really have much to say about this restaurant/​lounge, but I’ll try my best.
Positive:
[1] Right off the Orange Circle.
[2] Love the old towne feel and the great Californian pass time of commuting by train.
[3] Not crowded and so seating is immediate.
Negatives:
[1] Happy hour is OK, but not good. The happy hour beer selections are very limited.
[2] The crowd is dead and the happy hour food is nothing to return to.
[3] Tried the lobster mac & cheese and found it salty, watery, and unsatisfying.
Try your luck!

I cant believe I am going to say quote this… but:
How I wish you could see the potential,
the potential of you and me.
It’s like a book elegantly bound but,
in a language that you can’t read.
Of all the f’d up lyrics that I remember Death Cab for Cutie comes in the best for this joint. The ambiance is outstanding fun and whimsical. The food is perhaps the single worst Ruby’s that I have ever been to. The location rocks, the full bar is spectacular so yeah… It looks awesome but its totally worthless. What a great joint!
I came here for lunch with a couple of coworkers when we were feeling a bit adventurous and lo and behold this place was bleh. The food and the service were extremely substandard. Seriously I am stunned. The seat had a hole in the vinyl too…
But I got the burger and fries and it was at absolute best super mediocre. My coworkers didnt like their food either. Since it was lunch we couldnt order drinks from the bar, which seemed like a great redeeming factor, if your drunk you can likely cram this crap down your pie hole without issue. Otherwise it was like eating woodchips as my burger was dry and my fries had been kinda hard. =(
The ambiance was awesome with multiple train items lieing around and an elevated operating train. It was exactly appearance wise what one would love to see in a Streamliner Lounge. If only the kitchen and the service could keep up, this would be a unique home run of a location and joint…

First of, this place really deserves 3.5 stars but I rounded up to 4 because I’m in a giving mood. Ok, on to the details of my visit because inquiring minds want to know (otherwise why would you be reading this??). My boyfriend and I came here for happy hour 2 Friday’s ago. While it’s just your run of the mill Ruby’s to the right of the entrance, if you hang a left, you’ll find the Streamliner Lounge. Odd, but go with it.
Happy Hour deals here are decent although the oddly designed drink menu misled us to thinking house wine was $ 3 a glass (it was only referring to some beer though). It’s actually $ 5 a glass which is still good, but $ 3 glasses would have potentially made me a regular. This girl likes her wine. There are also specials on a few food items so we decided to try out the butternut squash wantons which the bf liked but I thought they were just ok. They were lacking a spice or something and the sauce just didn’t do it for me… if I’d had my trusty bottle of Siracha on me though… all would have been right with the world, I think. We also tried the lobster mac and cheese since it was so highly reviewed on Unilocal but we were both kind of underwhelmed because it was just meh mac ‘n cheese with lobster bits tossed in. If they made better mac and cheese and added lobster to that, THEN it would be worth the ridiculous praise it receives but not as is.
All in all the ambience of the place is cool and laid back with a comfy section with couches, etc. Not a bad place to catch a game or just have a few drinks & some munchies. We’ll be back.

The last direct Metrolink train to LA stops in Tustin at 5:17p. To get to LA past that time requires a couple of connections.
I ended up taking a train to the Orange station to stop into the Streamliner Lounge for a quick drink and a bite to eat. I had about 25 minutes before I had to set off. It wasn’t much time but I got my tasks accomplished.
The service here was superb. I received attentive and prompt service. When I sat down, I let my server know that I had a 6:16p train to catch and asked if it was enough time to get a burger to go. She gave me a couple of menus and I went about selecting my burger. I selected a burger from the Streamliner menu and she advised that it would take later to prepare than any of the Rudy’s burgers. Following her advice, I ordered a bacon cheese burger with fries to go.
The burger and fries was close to a $ 10 item but it was worth it. The fries where the hottest fries served to me in a long while. Definitely eat them while they are hot.
All in all, I find the Streamliner Lounge a good watering hole. The servers are attentive and very nice.

awesome food, great burgers and service you won’t find a better keep than Brian. Always on it and knows what folks want. Get a sign out there so People can see where it is…

This is my very favorite evening spot to hit with my fiancé after a long day at work! We usually end up here at least two to three times a month. Before 6pm and after 9pm they have happy hour, after 9pm it’s usually not too crowded and very chill. Make sure you order from their special bar menu that is AMAZING! I recommend the butternut squash wontons or the lobster mac and cheese to eat, for drinks the blueberry mojito is BOMB! The service is always great and we’ve never had an issue. This is a awesome hidden gem in old towne!

Kinda cool, but I don’t see the hype. Yes it was once a train station, but I just could not get over the Ruby’s on the other side. Seemed like an upscale crowd, definitely not a dive bar. I don’t need a divey dive bar, but this one was a little too well scrubbed for me. Kind of a Soccer Mom, yuppie, type of spot. Wait staff was a bit slow the night I was there. Not a bad spot, but kick ass bar??? Maybe a little wilder than Coco’s or Hometown Buffet.
I may need to give it another try. The blues band that was playing was not my cup of tea either.

I don’t know what happened in between my last visit and this one, but it went downhill real fast.
Came with a party of six and it was fairly empty on a Friday night. We were celebrating a birthday and wanted to keep it low-​key with some food/​drinks, and it’s always been relatively good.
This time around, the service was pretty horrible. The waitress took our order right away, but then we didn’t see her for almost 15-​minutes. She returned with about half of our drink orders and then told the other people that ordered Sazeracs that they were out of the rye whisky. Okay, great– but did it really take 20-​minutes to figure that out? We got kinda scared when we saw her consulting a bartender’s bible on how to properly prepare the drinks. The other two mixed drinkers in our party ordered Old Fashioneds and unfortunately had to send them back. They were a little too heavy handed with the bitters.
They decided to go with a Negroni. At first, it was scary because it was horrible, too– but it just ended up needing to be mixed.
I ordered a shake since I had eaten previously before coming. My shake took 20-​minutes and was almost completely melted.
Another table next to us ordered shakes and it took about that long, too. I don’t know what the hold up was, like I said, it wasn’t crowded at all. The manager actually brought over our food and just dropped it on the table and walked away. When we couldn’t get our server’s attention, someone from our party actually had to walk across the restaurant into the café to get his attention and ask for ketchup. It was pretty dumb.
I was happy to get the bill and see that all of the drinks/​apps were cheaper than we expected. Apparently they have a late night happy hour and nobody bothered to tell us. Boo.

Hmm. I seem to have my p’s and q’s out of order.
I had previously written about Ruby’s, here:
But what I REALLY meant was the Streamliner Lounge. My bad.
In summary: date spot with my FK, great happy hour, cool décor, never overly crowded, friendly servers and bartenders, etc. etc.
Addendum: if you like mac & cheese, the lobster mac on this menu is INCREDIBLE. A tad bit of spice, LOTS of chunky yummy lobster meat and nice creamy cheese. Martinis and drink specials always a plus, but one of our faaavorite spirits is counted as a well drink (and therefore is only $ 5).
I love this place. It was the here that the last date took place before the FK and I made it official. Sniffle.

I must agree with Kelly K’s statement in her review —
«I dig this place.»
Streamliner has 3 «C’s» that I appreciate — Comfortable, Casual and Cool.
It’s close to 5 stars when considering Happy Hour prices to quality = great value!
This place is located in the Historic Santa Fe Train Depot in Orange. According to the plaques, it started as a train station in 1887 to ship oranges from the many packing houses lining the both side of the tracks in the area. It has been rebuilt a few times, and was in service until 1970 when it was purchased by the City of Orange. There have been other restaurants in the building over the years — this is the latest tenant — and I think it’s a winning combination.
You walk in, and it’s Ruby’s if you go to the right, and The Streamliner Lounge if you go to the left. We stopped in for Happy Hour, and I’m not much of a fast food burger guy anymore, so we were going to the left for sure — and suggest you do the same!
There are varied seating situations — deep seated living room lounging, seats at the bar, bar height and regular height table seating — most of it is movable so you can arrange for groups. I saw various ages of people in there — the atmosphere was very welcoming and laid back.
Full bar, several specialty drinks, wine, and several bottle and draft beers. It seemed like they had enough of a variety that everyone will find something to enjoy. For example, on tap they have a range from Coors Light to rotating one «guest» micro brew. I had a couple of Blue Moons on tap.
Streamliner Lounge has their own little menu, plus you can order from the Ruby’s menu. Drinks and appetizers have happy hour prices (3:45−6pm) which are set up in groups for 3, 4, or 5 dollars. Click on their website link and check out the menu.
We started off splitting their Trio of Dips; Hummus, Smoked Salmon, and Guacamole;
served with their own house-​made toasted baguette crisps. I’m no hummus expert — all I can tell you is that I liked it! The Smoked Salmon dip was not the best we’ve ever had as far as quantity of salmon, but was also good. The Guacamole was surprisingly fresh and not full of onions (yay). The crisps were very good, our server brought another plate of them to make sure we had enough for all of the dips!
My wife had a Cobb burger and fries from the Ruby’s menu — the burger was not a cheap little thin patty — It looked good — they did not ask how she wanted it, and we didn’t request anything — It was good size, I tried a couple bites, but we both agreed that it was a typical chain burger, just OK. The fries are shoestring (which I like).
I stayed with the appetizer theme — and got a three of them to try ( Unilocal making want to try as much as possible) — it was a little more that I should of ordered actually. I was looking for unique creations/​combinations, so here’s what I ended up getting:
Butternut Wontons — first bite had some molten hot butternut sauce inside — be careful!
Overall the taste was nice, it was unique, and only 3 bucks! My favorite part of it was the Jalapeño apricot jam. If you are a fan of the sweet-​hot pairing, similar to a Thai sweet chili sauce — you’ll love this jam/​dip.
Lobster Mac and Cheese — actually small shells, not macaroni — 4 types of cheese — slight crunch on top, quality ingredients. Overall it was «OK to good,» I wasn’t much of a fan — but that’s due to not caring for the seafood with cheese combination. If you like that combo, then you would probably enjoy this item — I would prefer a straight mac and cheese, with a little more cheddar flavor.
Brie, Pepper Bacon and Green Apple Quesadilla. This combo looked so interesting that I had to take a chance on it — turned out to be really good. The Brie and Pepper Bacon were a sure thing — I was surprised how the tart green apple provided a unique balance of flavors that worked great together! It came on a whole wheat tortilla, I prefer regular a regular tortilla, but in this case it seemed to fit. Came with a small salad on the plate — looked fine but I didn’t touch it.
Service was outstanding! I didn’t catch our server’ s name, but she was super friendly, had a great positive energy about her, attentive to our needs, and genuinely wanted us to enjoy our time. IDK if all the servers are this good, but she was wonderful!
This is really a go-​to after work Happy Hour place! Streamliner may actually be ‘as good as it gets’ for happy hour food — IDK — I can tell you that it beats the heck out of the places that people from my work go for our extra «professional development staff meetings». Unfortunately it is not close to where I work — so I can’t recommend it to them, but I certainly recommend it to you!

I dig this place.
Sure, it’s a Ruby’s on the other side, whatev, but they have a mighty fine happy hour and a nice atmosphere. The nice thing about corporate is consistency and, with the phenomenal cocktail recipes they have, that’s a good thing.
This train stop joint has a vintage feel and a few working train sets. Some nights feature live music, but typically it’s just whatever 90’s or 00’s crap that corporate says is acceptable. That’s ok. It’s better than most bars that feature grand silence when no one steps up to the plate to pay the jukebox man.
HAPPY HOUR! 3:45 — 6:00 PM. They have deals for $ 3, $ 4, and $ 5. I think the beers are $ 4 and I know the cocktails are $ 5. I’ve had the Orange Blossom, Bloody Well Elysian Mary, and a few others. All delicious.
Of course, you can still order off the regular Ruby’s menu, but you can sit at the bar or in comfy faux-​leather chairs instead of a hard booth.
If you tend to like low-​key places to drink instead of packed bars where you have to shout over the pack of peacocking brodangos or get hives when surrounded by hipsters, this is a good choice in the area.

What a find! Who’d guess that a bar associated with Ruby’s could be so grown-​up, fun, and delicious! I don’t know if we just lucked-​out, but no children were in the bar during our visit (please don’t get me wrong; I LOVE children! I just don’t think it’s appropriate that underage people be seated in the bar area).
The busy and active atmosphere (some of the clientele and the bar’s interior made us feel as though we were far from home), the tasty cocktails and appetizers (especially reasonable during Happy Hour), and the incredibly friendly staff made this a quick favorite!
Flavorfully potent drinks, fun-​and-​tasty appetizers, and to finish off with a satisfying hot fudge sundae — served by a amazingly personable staff… definitely makes us want to return — soon!