This post may contain affiliate links wherein I earn a small commission if you purchase or subscribe to a product from one of my links (at no extra cost to you!). Read my full Privacy Policy here.
Succulent Cafe in Solvang has sadly closed since this post, but I’ll leave it up here as a memory of our experience!
One could say that a charcuterie board is the ultimate mini smorgasbord – a board filled with cheeses, pickled veggies, and meat! When we visited the Danish-inspired town of Solvang, California, we found that charcuterie boards were on many of the restaurants’ menus. So, when in Rome? Or in this case, when in Solvang, eat from a charcuterie board!
Happy Hour
Succulent Cafe is one of Solvang’s top-rated restaurants, and an excellent little place serving up delightful seasonal meals. When we rolled into town, we were quite ready to kick off Happy Hour. We already had dinner reservations at Succulent Cafe for later that evening, but we couldn’t help but indulge in one of their charcuterie board offerings and a little cocktail or two from their Happy Hour Menu.
Charcuterie
Their Happy Hour Menu offers 10% off their charcuterie boards, so we went ahead and indulged in the 3 + 3, which included 3 cheeses and 3 meats (cheese for me, meat for him!). They were also accompanied by all sorts of goodies like pickled peppers, carrots and cucumbers, candied almonds, cranberries, olives, mustard, crostini, asparagus, and apricots. The cheeses and the veg were all SO delicious, and Micah really enjoyed all the meat, especially the smoked duck.
Cocktails & Beers
If you’re craving a cocktail, I would suggest the basil gimlet or one of the beers they have on draft. We had the Figueroa Mountain IPA while we were there – it wasn’t my favorite as I prefer a hoppier IPA, but if you like those more mellow IPAs, you might like this one! And you can’t really beat $4 for a draft beer at many places.
Dinner at Succulent Cafe
So after our little Happy Hour experience, we came back for our dinner reservation. Succulent is kind of a play on words, isn’t it? Succulents (the plants) and pigs (also succulent, to some).
One of the main reasons why I wanted to visit Succulent Cafe in the first place was to taste their seasonal vegan offering – the Farmer’s Market Focus. In a town where there is a lack of vegetarian and vegan-friendly options, I was super pleased to see this on their menu, given that their restaurant symbol is a little piggy!
On our visit, the vegan special was quinoa topped with pickled veggies, asparagus, grilled romaine, almond slivers, and a grilled avocado. I have to say I felt really great after eating this! A very clean meal. I would have liked some sort of sauce to pull it all together, but having the grilled avocado on that dish was magical. It is a little hard to justify spending $23 for a plate of quinoa and veggies; however, most of the nicer restaurants in Solvang are a little spendy. I will say I definitely left full and satisfied.
Micah had one of their signature dishes called The Three Little Pigs, which are three bacon wrapped pork tenderloin pieces, set atop greens and little potato cakes with a chili pork jus. In Micah’s words, “Who doesn’t like pig wrapped with pig?”
Back Again for Breakfast!
I know it sounds a bit silly, but the breakfast menu sounded so good, we couldn’t resist coming back…for a third time…to try out their breakfast.
Normally, I am a savory breakfast person, but there wasn’t a huge selection of vegetarian things (or things that didn’t involved poached eggs), so I went with the Bourbon Vanilla French Toast (with Butter Pecan Syrup) and I was not disappointed! Wow. That huge pile of whipped cream was everything. I (being my silly self) also ordered a side of potatoes, which I definitely did not need. It was impossible to finish all that food!
Micah had the Shortrib Hash n’ Eggs, which was braised shortribs, peppers, onions, and potatoes, topped with two poached eggs. Not a bad way to start out the day, eh?
If you’re visiting the town of Solvang for a little weekend getaway, Succulent Cafe is not to be missed, whether it be for Happy Hour, dinner, or brunch! If you do plan on visiting for dinner, I highly suggest you make reservations since this place can fill up quickly. Bon appetit!
Succulent Cafe
1555 Mission Drive, Solvang, CA 93463
Phone: (805) 691-9444
http://www.succulentcafe.com/
Pin it for later!
Leave a Reply