Happy Belated 4th of July! Hope you all had a nice holiday. Michael and I ventured over to Bruxie near San Diego State University last week. This particular location (first in San Diego) opened last month, and already has gained a lot of steam. They have seven other locations, mostly in the Orange County area. If they can stay consistent with their concept they seem primed and ready to open more. What concept you ask? Waffle sandwiches. Yes they do have other items on the menu like coffee and frozen custard, but the main pull here is the waffle.
There are so many different things to choose from. If you want a breakfast sandwich, sure you can get one of those! Care for a lunch option? They have you covered. Someone in the group a sweets type of person? Don’t fret, Bruxie has you covered. They even have something for the little ones.
One thing we noticed upon entering Bruxie is they take SDSU meal plans. How awesome is that for both the students and for Bruxie!
Here’s a picture of their menu. The manager of the restaurant, Bill, gave us a crash course on the menu before he started sending things our way. We didn’t have enough room to try everything, but Bill was ready to throw the kitchen sink at us.
The drinks. Bill recommended their pure cane sugar sodas and we couldn’t refuse a taste. He brought cola, root beer, and vanilla cream. The root beer stood out from the rest, with the best balance of sweetness and carbonation. The others didn’t quite have that balance we were looking for.
The coffee is no joke. It reads “Bold Blend” on the menu and after trying it, that would seem to be an accurate description. It was bold, bitter, and my eyes widened after the first few sips. If you like strong coffee, give it a go and let us know what you think. Maybe I’m a wuss.
A side of waffle fries were a perfect blend of crispiness and soft potatoey goodness I ever so love in my french fries.
The waffle sandwiches are a huge reason people are coming to Bruxie. Feast your eyes on the Buttermilk Chicken and Waffle Sandwich. The waffle acts as their bread to hold everything together, and is unlike your typical breakfast waffle bathed in syrup. This Belgian waffle version is much lighter and airy than most any other waffle I’ve had, yet still retains a bit of crispiness on the outside. Personally, I wouldn’t mind a bit more crispiness. But the waffle held up to the ingredients and didn’t collapse halfway through lunch, which is key. It is not sweet and because of this somewhat neutral flavor, allows them to play around with different things to put inside, both savory and sweet.
The buttermilk chicken was topped with a chili honey and cider slaw. They do offer a side of Vermont maple syrup for $1. Bill suggested eating the chicken on its own without the maple syrup first. Good idea. The chicken was thin, yet moist and not oily or heavy by any means. Without the syrup it was still a tad sweet with the chili honey, but it did have a tiny kick at the end. Adding the syrup puts it over the savory edge into sweet territory. As much as I like to keep my sweets and savories separate, I got used to this flavor combination and enjoyed it in the end.
The other sandwich we got was the Green Eggs and Ham. This would power me through a rough morning any day. It has grilled ham, jumbo eggs, arugula pesto, mayo, and Tillamook cheddar cheese inside the waffle. Every single component had its job and responsibility to blend seamlessly into the perfect bite. They knocked it out of the park with this one. If a sandwich comes with mayo, I usually order it with light mayo. It slipped my mind to request that, but luckily, it wasn’t needed here. They were not heavy handed and again, balanced everything nicely.
Here’s a little sample of their frozen custard. We didn’t extract too much information from Bill about their custard other than it comes from Wisconsin. The main difference between ice cream and frozen custard is that egg yolks are added to make frozen custard. This version is not overly sweet, and is very creamy and dense compared to ice cream. You have got to love a tasty frozen treat that doesn’t melt right away on those hot days!
Due to our stomach limitation, Bill graciously brought us out half orders of two different dessert waffles. This one is the S’Mores waffle. It contains Belgian chocolate, graham cracker, and toasted marshmallow fluff. This probably was our least favorite waffle of the day. It didn’t pack a huge punch like a s’mores usually does. There wasn’t one flavor that screamed at us, “look at me, taste me”! On the plus side, it wasn’t too sweet or burnt at it wasn’t terrible by any means. There was stiff competition on this day.
The last waffle on our Bruxie food tour was the Seasonal Creme Brulee. Their seasonal fruit happened to be strawberries. What a bite! Sweet, juicy strawberries alongside vanilla creme, and burnt raw sugar. I would have found room for this if we had more the the table. You definitely get the caramelized/burnt flavor you’d get with a traditional creme brulee.
When I heard about this concept I was a little skeptical. Trends are a funny thing. Oftentimes trendy concepts are only successful for a short period because they don’t provide a quality product that can stand up to everything else around it over time. People tend to hop on a new trend if they get tired of one, or resort back to an old favorite that they are comfortable with. Bruxie killed that notion as soon as I walked in the door. They have a high attention to detail, are customer service oriented, and I believe are here for the long haul. They also have seasonal menu items to keep things fresh like the 4th of July menu pictured above. The price is right with each savory sandwich about $7.50 on average. I’m excited to come back with Anh to try other things on the menu! Hopefully you guys get a chance to stop by soon and try them out yourselves.
Bruxie
5157 College Ave.
San Diego, CA 92115
www.bruxie .com
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