Stacked Restaurant

I have to tell you, I have been wanting to try Stacked Restaurant for a while now. I had heard that Stacked offers its customers a "build your own? meal concept. I had a chance to attend a media tasting recently, and really enjoyed the meal and the ability to "stack" menu items.

When I walked in, I loved seeing all the art on the walls and the place had a friendly, trendy, and welcoming vibe. The restaurant was busy with families, locals and shoppers from the nearby mall on my recent weeknight visit.

Once we were seated, an ipad patiently waited on the table for us to place an order. With it being the end of the work day, I ready to get started with a cocktail and then look at building my meal. (Keep in mind that if you prefer, a server will take your order from a traditional menu, but if you want to really take in the unique opportunity to build your items from bottom to top, you can.)

To start off the meal we had some refreshing mojitos that were light and tasty. Stacked offers a very nice selection of cocktails, mocktails and craft beers.

To start our meal, we chose some appetizers, and because we were getting acquainted with the building concept, we ordered some appetizers as they were off the menu.

We enjoyed the Flying Pigs which are tender of pork that are lightly fried and coated with a sweet and spicy Asian sauce. We also had the trio of Mini-Brioche Bun sandwiches (aka Three Little Pigs) with tender BBQ pulled pork, caramelized onions and roasted shallot mayo.

Both were really good and flavorful. Perfect for sharing with friends.

Once we had a few bites, we were ready to do some building. I ordered their Cran Brie Chicken pizza and added some parmesan cheese. Ok, I was not real inventive with the additional toppings, but the pizza was already laden with grilled chicken breast, homemade cranberry sauce, mozzarella, gouda and brie, and I did not want to mess things.

But if I wanted to build my own, which some of the other people in my group did, you can select from several of their many toppings including: pulled pork, pastrami, Applewood smoked bacon, jalapeño bacon, avocado, roasted poblano pepper, coleslaw, fried egg, homemade potato chips and chili.

The combination was wonderful. I would order this again in a heart beat. The sweetness of the cranberry paired nicely with the chicken and brie.

You can even stack other menu items like their sandwiches and mac and cheese with such offerings as sundried tomatoes, applewood smoked bacon and Cajun shrimp. The Stacked menu has so many items to choose from to build your meal and over 159 of these ingredients are Gluten-free.

Many of their menu items are served with your choice of many homemade sauces – all made from scratch. For example, the onion rings and fries pictured above were available with great sauces. Some of their sauces included Sriracha Mayo and Roasted Red Pepper Aioli. The combinations seem endless here.

Another nice thing is, as you build your menu item, you will see how the various toppings you choose affect the price as the price changes as you add or subtract ingredients.

This place is perfect for pretty much any one, friends, family, kids, groups. The interactive experience might just get your family to try building something new together. I would suggest going with family or friends so that you can sample each other’s items because everything was so darn good. They also have a great kids menu.

Even though I was getting full, I just had to try the Toasted Milk Shake. I love toasted marshmallows and the shake did not disappoint! It was like drinking a light version of marshmallow cream. Heavenly wonderful!

Then came dessert. Just for the record, a few of us shared this dessert. We decided to build our own Ice Cream sandwich.

If you are wondering how, it works like this: you get to choose your choice of cookie, your choice of ice cream and then your choice of dipping sauce!

I know right?

They have a great social community so check them out on Stacked Twitter, Instagram and Facebook    and search the hastag #FoodWellBuilt.

I visited the Stacked at Cerritos, but they have other locations in San Diego, Torrance and Thousand Oaks.

Stacked @ Los Cerritos Center
18425 Gridley Road
Cerritos, CA 90703
562-376-4300

M-Tues: 11am - 10pm, W-Th 11am - 11pm
Fri-Sa: 11am - 12am
Su: 11am - 10pm

Check out the Stacked website for more information. I would like to thank Stacked for the opportunity to attend the media tasting. All opinions are my own and I will be visiting Stacked again soon.

What would you build at Stacked, a pizza, sandwich or dessert?