Karl Strauss Review (Carlsbad Restaurants)

Pricing:

There's actually a wide range on their menu.  Most of the burger/sandwich/pasta dishes are about $10-15.  But you can definitely go all out with steak which ranges from $25-32 depending on the cut.  The beer is about $6 a glass.  Every Thursday is cask night and the price of beer is reduced to $4.

Distance:

There are several locations around San Diego.  The most convenient one for Encinitas residents is the restaurant in Carlsbad.  It's not too far off the Palomar Airport Rd. exit.  Right past the flower fields.  Provided there is no traffic, it takes about 15-20 minutes to get there.

Thoughts:

I love this place.  The food is always just so consistently good.  The laid back "brewery" environment  makes for a fun going out to eat event.  The Carlsbad location always has people in it, but there's almost never a long wait.  Compared to Stone Brewery where you have to kick your heels for well over thirty minutes on any given night, I find this to be an excellent feature.

While pretty much everything on their menu is good, the steak outshines them all.  When I want a good steak, I go to Karl Strauss.  They actually cook the steak the way that you request it.  No medium-rare that looks suspiciously like a medium-well situations.  Plus they have a really tasty beer-based steak sauce they drizzle on top.

The beer is a little more expensive than if you were going to a bar and ordering a Bud.  But that's because the beer they serve actually has flavor and alcohol content.  Most of the beers served on tap are tried and true classics that you can also purchase in the stores: Amber Lager, Red Trolley, Endless Summer, etc.  On any given night they will also have what's called the "tenth tap" which is their seasonal special.  In addition to the tenth tap, they will do cask night every Thursday.  The cask beer is served until it runs out (one night, basically).  If there's any cask beer left by Saturday, you're either very lucky or the beer wasn't a hit.

So while Karl Strauss lacks the enormous beer selection that Stone Brewery sports, I find the experience as a whole to be a much more enjoyable one.  No wait, better food and good beers.