Tustin Grille

I don’t Unilocal a whole lot, but when I find a place like this I feel obligated.
I’ve been in the restaurant industry for over 2 decades and places like this are, unfortunately, too few and far between. The ambience, service, and food were all totally on point and the prices are very reasonable.
Sam was gracious, knowledgeable, and personable, the Chicken and Waffle (with rosemary minced inside — great touch), were perfectly cooked and seasoned, the Eggs Benedict were also perfect (no easy feat), and the Bloody Mary was fresh and tasty.
They even nailed the little details like softening the butter for the waffle and warming the honey for my tea, which was Harney and Sons, not just your standard brands.
We just moved to Tustin so we’re thrilled have this place so close. This is what you hope for every time you dine out and they nailed it. Very impressive.

Food is great and your drinks are delicious but there are problems.
Make your bar bigger. Make the outside patio more of a bar. Today my wife and I walked out rather than eat & drink in the dining room. The couple who walked in after did the same thing.
Who wants to eat in a formal dining room? Tustin likes good food in a blue collar setting.
Second problem is your beer taps. Only three beers on tap? Work on that.

I went there with my young child and had a wonderful meal. The food quality and portions were excellent. Pancakes, eggs Benedict, potatoes, everything was delicious. The prices were very reasonable especially when taking the quality in to consideration. The location was fairly convenient with sufficient parking nearby. The waitstaff was pretty good but could have been a bit more attentive, but it didn’t throw off the meal too much. Food gets a 5, waiter gets a 4. Definitely a place to go back to.

Steak and eggs, the sirloin was a bit on the chewy and hard to cut side. The seafood omelette was pretty good, loaded with stuffing inside. The eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce was pretty good. Though I’m always a sucker for sour stuff. Cutting through all the various parts and eating it provided for a variety of flavors.

So I am on team Black Marlin but my wife and I decided to go to the Tustin Grille tonight. I know when they opened the prices seemed gratuitous, now not so bad. I am a sucker for two meats, braised Short rib and skirt steak. They had both on the menu and both perfect. I would give 5 stars if I knew what a 5 star meal is. Strong four since I like to live in a 4 stat world. Going back allot!

This place is kind of an old town Tustin classic filled with upper middle class locals sipping wine. I tasted the Cali Crème beer and it is served ice cold and delicious.

I came here for the Sunday bottomless mimosa brunch. It’s $ 11.50 with an entrée. Pretty sweet deal! I love love bottomless mimosas and wanted to try this place out.
I got the seafood omelette with the breakfast potatoes. The waiter recommended I throw hollandaise sauce on it instead of cheese. Great recommendation! The sauce complimented the omelette really really well! My friend got the veggie omelette with a meat (haha I know funny) with cheddar cheese on top. She liked her meal as well. Our omelets also came with our choice of toast. Both omelettes were good, but nothing to rave about.
The waiter was really nice and helpful, but I guess he was the bartender as well so he was busy. He took days to fill up our mimosa glasses. It was extremely annoying! We finally had to move to the bar to get attention. The glasses were being filled much faster!
When you check in, you get a free dessert. We got the cream brûlée. It was nice and creamy! The bloody Mary’s looked really good. Def trying that when I’m here next.
The parking lot is a bit small but on this particular Sunday, we found parking easily. It’s a very cute restaurant! The outside seating is really pretty but it was a little chilly to sit outside when I went. The inside was nice and comfy too though.
The mimosa service was disappointing, but despite that, I will be back! I would like to try there lunch and dinner menus at some point.

Atmosphere– very nice
Service — very good
Food — little more on the pricey side for lunch but the side salad I ordered with my burger could’ve been my whole lunch. So for a fancy lunch sit down lunch place they were pretty generous on the portion.
It was a last minute decision to choose this place bc we were meeting some friends for lunch.
Would recommend if 15 – 20 lunch is what you want to spend that day.

Love love love the food here! The four cheese macaroni is a fav, the burgers are sooo good and the citrus honey dressing on the chicken with fruit salad is delish! Definitely will be returning in the future!

I really wanted to love this restaurant. The décor nice, ambiance quiet. We went for a special occasion dinner. My husband ordered the short rib and I got the seafood risotto. Unfortunately the short rib was dry and not tender. The risotto was good. Also ordered the Brussels sprouts and they were hard and undercooked. The service was good, very prompt and friendly. I will probably give them another try because everyone was so nice, but for those prices, I want the short rib falling off the bone.

Came here for brunch on a Sunday. They have inside, outside and bar seating. The staff was very nice and the owner asked about our experience. We both got egg white omelets with
fiancé loved that they used natural chicken (unpreserved). We also got their bottomless mimosas (sat and sun only).the omelet was really delicious. Prices were reasonable with $ 11.50 for bottomless mimosa

Used to be an Irish pub on el camino. So we thought we’d try it now. Hubby had salmon Cajun style and I had jumbo shrimp risotto with scallops and crème Brulee for dessert. And I will rave about the risotto. Very cheesy to the very brink. Very cheesy without being overwhelming. Shrimp tasted fresh. But the best part was the scallops. First time I had scallops that wowed me was at Sir Winstons. These had the same effect. Put a piece in my mouth and my eyes popped out of their sockets. I highly recommend. …
and our server was great. Hello Rocio!

*Meat!*
Quinn’s is gone and a renovated and revitalized restaurant is now open. Large glass windows inside and out surround the kitchen where you can watch Culinary Olympian Gold Medalist McMahon create tasty dishes.
The restaurant is completely remodeled and offers an upscale setting with a casual vibe. A pre-​Valentine dinner offered a special and plenty of meat.
~Rack of Lamb-​5 Stars!
Orange, fennel, baby beet salad; Rosemary Crust, Fingerling Potatoes, Ratatouille„ Lamb Jus, Apple Mint Jelly. The lamb was amazing and the best I have had in years. The mint jelly chutney was perfect with this meal.
~Sirloin Steak-​4 Stars
A nice piece of meat with mashed potatoes and tasty asparagus.
Sliders-​4 Stars!
A solid choice for the little one and a great choice to go with beer.
Bananas Fosters!
Homestyle ice cream makes me a fan!
Great service and easy parking.
I am a fan!

Wow. What a disappointment.
Driving up from Irvine heading home
Unilocal: best steakhouse. Tustin Grill
” best ribeye, yada yada.
$ 50 dollar Bone in Ribeye; No FLavor!!!
Asked if the Brussels sprouts were charred; ordered.
Nope! Unilocal photo was bacon not charring. Ugh.
Pork belly was awful!!! No texture no flavor
Burrata Caprese was wonderful but not enough to give two stars
Waitress tried but really felt like we got taken
Look the wife and I are picky but please!
Natalia came by and let me vent
She is great.

It’s the faux-​fancy restaurant in the area for, you know, when you need to kind of impress someone or have a business meeting and you don’t want to spend too much or drive to far but you need the place to look business-​OK. Or for when you want fired chicken but find out that they only serve in on weekends for brunch. So you settle to a burger with fries instead, like the ones you could get anywhere else. Of course they have salads and other options, but who eats that when you came ready for fried chicken? Service is good, so is the ice tea and the bread and butter (or olive and balsamic vinegar), quiet enough to enjoy a glass of red wine for dinner while watching a game on those TVs at the bar.

I was so disappointed in brunch today! I had very high hopes and unfortunately they were squashed. First off, some positives.
We had excellent service. We sat at the bar and ordered mimosas, and proceeded to get the most monster version you’ve ever seen. Our server was very attentive and friendly. Couldn’t have been better.
On to the not so positive. Is this a wine bar? It was decorated like a Real Housewife got loose in there and slapped on every faux Tuscan accoutrement she could find. I couldn’t figure it out.
Ordered the cheeseburger and the chicken and waffles. The chicken is fried chicken… which to me means that the crispy skin doesn’t come off easily. This did. Seems that the chicken was cooked quickly, corners were cut, and no seasoning was used. Waffle needed a lot more crisp and I couldn’t taste the rosemary at all. The bacon syrup was a nice touch.
Oh the burger. Not a hint of medium cooking to be found. The advertised aioli was also not to be found. It was dry and nothing special. Fries were also mushy and cold. Again, not a speck of seasoning to be found.
I want this to be better. I want to come back and hopefully have a better experience. Old Town Tustin is such a cool spot and this place has major potential.

Tustin Grille, we need to talk about breading. Specifically about the breading on the chicken breast served with the waffle on your brunch menu.
Anyone with a pulse can cook chicken and make it reasonably edible. Still, chicken alone is about as exciting as a glass of warm milk. However, with fried chicken (with waffle, $ 15), it’s the golden, crispy seasoned breading that sends neurotransmitters sprinting for the dopamine receptors in one’s central nervous system. A bite into a perfectly cooked piece of fried chicken should be accompanied with the same level of joy and ecstasy as a first kiss, or a morphine injection.
Today, however, the breading failed miserably and we watched in horror as entire slabs of it slid off with even the lightest touch of a utensil. The traditional seasoning was on point, but you have to be able to execute the whole recipe. No one wants to try to shovel up breading shrapnel with bites of spongy white-​meat chicken. Preparation is key and you must have high-​quality ingredients: the chicken needs to be the right temperature, you have to coat it (uniformly!) with plenty of flour, dredge it, bread it, let it rest (even let it cool), make sure the pan and oil are hot enough, and only then does it go into the pan. Otherwise, disaster — like when the poor quality iron rivets failed on the Titanic and the hull was crushed by an iceberg, allowing water to spill through the water-​tight containers that were not water-​tight at all. Oh, the humanity…
Now the waffle has potential. The fresh rosemary flavor was aromatic, savory, and paired delightfully with the maple syrup (that was surprisingly not-​too-​sweet). Extra points are deserved for having crispy and perfectly cooked pieces of bacon marinating in the syrup. But again, the entire recipe must be executed fully. While the waffle boasts umami taste, the recipe and execution fail on the texture scale because the waffle was limp and soggy, and it lacked the outer layer of crunch needed to stand up to melted butter, syrup and a one-​pound chicken breast sitting on top of it. Engineering is just as much a part of cooking as the selection of the ingredients and the application of heat.
Now, about the Cheeseburger (served with fries $ 15). The beef patty was generous, moist, and flavorful. However, it was slightly overcooked (ordered medium, came out medium well). The juices from the patty soaked through the bottom bun, which suggests that the patty had not had time to rest before the burger was assembled. The steak sauce aioli was barely detectable, which left the patty and the gruyère cheese to stand out on their own (which is simply not how the burger is advertised). The slice of gruyère was generous, and had a nice bite to it. The french fries were golden, but had the telltale taste of having been frozen for a long time before they were prepared.
So again, there’s some potential here. However, a $ 15 cheeseburger by necessity must hit all of the marks, especially when a perfectly cooked double-​double at In-​N-​Out with fresh hand cut fries for about $ 5. Or, go sample the burgundy mushroom burger at Prime Cut Café in Orange for what an example of double-​digit cheeseburger should offer. You can’t throw a rock in this part of Orange County without hitting another restaurant that serves a killer brunch burger (The Little Sparrow, ARC, Chapter One, and so on…). Overall, Tustin Grille needs to step up its burger game regardless of the price point.
Regarding the bottomless mimosa: it’s almost $ 12 for bottomless, but only $ 4 for one mimosa. So, if you’re fairly certain you’re not going to tie one on at brunch and have 3 or more mimosas, there’s no incentive to go bottomless. Greed, for lack of a better word, is not good.
I have to mention the décor because the restaurant seems to be suffering from an identity crisis. Outside the black and white stripes evoke a diner from the 1960s. Inside the décor is a mixture of wine bottles, grape leaves, candles, and faux-​Tuscan-​South-​Orange-​County-​cookie-​cutter-​housewife fixtures with antique finishes. Is it a bar and grill? A wine bar? A diner? I really don’t know.
I want to recognize that the servers were polite, prompt and appeared to be genuinely interested in providing good service. When the food doesn’t back up the expectation, it’s not fair to either the servers or the diners. One of the servers even went out of her way to help an old couple out to their car in the rain — she carried their umbrella to the lot where there is plenty of parking.

Made same day reservations on the first Saturday of the year for 8:30pm.
We came in a little early and there was only 1 other party at the bar.
Pork belly: slab of pork belly braised and slapped on the plate covered in sauce. It was tender and pulled apart very easily, if you’re familiar to Vietnamese dishes, it’s a very common taste. But if you aren’t it’s sweet and salty, and the flavors were nice.
Bella mushrooms: (side) nothing too amazing about this dish, it was just to accompany the filet mignon. A little salty.
Filet mignon: 6oz was a good size for me, unfortunately… it was a little salty for my taste. I had to mask the saltiness with the mash potatoes and asparagus. It helped. The cook was on point, i requested medium rare and the cook came out perfect.
Service: everyone there was so nice and vey attentive.

We rarely give 5 stars but these guys earned them.
* Shrimp Cocktail — very fresh, just the right amount of horseradish in the sauce. 5 stars
* NY Strip Steak — Cooked perfectly. Lots of flavor. Real Bearnaise (extra$$). 5 stars
* Hangar Steak — Can’t miss. Authentic bordelaise. 5 stars
* Bananas Foster — OK, not flambé but still the real deal. 5 stars
* Coffee — Perfect ending. Fresh, hot and fairly strong, 5 stars
The service is excellent despite a busy dining room. Everyone helps out.
The only detraction was the big screen TV’s running football and Viagra commercials. I realize you need these in a bar but they were really annoying until the dining rooms filled up and the noise level of the diners drowned out the TV’s.
We’ll be going back soon. Would love to see them add a beef stroganoff to the menu. This chef knows his stuff and I am confident he would kill it.

My past 2 weekends have included Sunday Brunch at Tustin Grille. The bartender Sunday morning is Caesar & he is awesome! My boyfriend and I both have enjoyed chatting with him when we visit. He sure knows how to make a good drink too!
Our first visit, I tried the Seafood Omelette & my old man had his usual, Eggs Benedict. My omelette was wonderful! Cooked to perfection & delicious. The Eggs Benedict were amazing! I believe I actually said the words «I want to bathe in this hollandaise sauce». We both had breakfast potatoes with our food. They were OK. A bit too crunchy for my taste, but my dude liked them. We shared a side of fruit. I was really impressed by the variety of fruit! Cantaloupe, strawberries, raspberries, orange supremes, ect! And I can’t forget to mention their delicious blood mary’s. I definitely recommend trying one (or 3)!!
This Sunday I ordered the Tustin Omellette (ham, bacon, sausage with cheese) and Duder had the biscuits and gravy. Again, food was great! I ordered a side of fruit. The potatoes were much better this week too. Caesar made my boyfriend a special «off menu» drink, that we were told later was a cocktail invented for one of their regulars. It was a super tasty tequilla drink. Very impressive!
My one and only negative comment is in regards to our service during our first visit. It’s really not a big deal because we obviously have gone back; I just feel as an avid Unilocaler I should at least mention all aspects of our dining experience.
Our server during our first visit was a petite, middle aged woman with an accent. Unfortunately, I did not note her name. She was nice to us. However, we seemed to be on the bottom of her priority list. We watched another couple that arrived after us get served before us. We actually laughed because this isn’t the first time this has happened to us recently. I told my boyfriend «we must smell or something», haha. My toast was «forgotten» about until almost the end of our meal. She honestly just seems skatter-​brained. It happens to the best of us!
4 stars today, only because we haven’t experienced dinner yet. I’m very confident that after dining with them for dinner, I’ll be back to update & add a star!