Eureka Finds Its Way To Carlsbad

You might have eaten at Eureka in UTC.  It's a popular lunch, dinner and happy hour bar and restaurant with good food and drink, and lots of noise.  Eureka has now opened on Palomar Airport Road, just a block east of El Camino Real.  Ron and I tried it for lunch after it had been open for about 6 weeks.  Beautiful spot with a big play area outside for waiting patrons and kids when they get antsy at the table.  The tables are very close together, so likely to hear the conversation at the next table, which I don't like.

The lunch mix was a combination of men who wokr int he center, women out for lunch together, and a few families.  The menu is heavily hamburgers.  All sorts of hamburgers, with lots of different toppings.  They also have about three salads on the menu, all very large.  Then, theres an appetizer section, with brussels sprouts, corn dogs, grilled cauliflower, and mushroom toast with goat cheese and balsamic vinegar.  I had the latter.  It was good, but too much balsamic vinegar for my taste.  Ron ordered a cup of chili, which he liked very much.  Our problem with the menu was that everything was huge, and we were not that hungry.  There were not many small portion items that interested us.

I guess Eureka is good for big eaters or for happy hour, when you can share a lot of items.  Soft drinks are a little bit pricy, but I guess that's to be expected in a bar.

Eureka is a beautiful restaurant with good food, but the noise level and close proximity of the tables and NOISE make it uncomfortable.  If you want to go where the action is, go to Eureka, but if you want to go to dinner and talk, try someplace else.