The Iron Press

decent beer selection, specialty chicken & waffles, straight fire

I used to eat here once a week with my wife when were were dating, we were regulars and the employees knew us on sight. Due to two specific reasons (2 kids) we haven’t been here in a while.
Last night, we came here again for the first time in almost two years. Right away we both noticed a huge difference: the waffles aren’t the same.
We are both fairly confident they changed their batter from what we remember. Our waffles were distinctly different, and not as impressive as we remember. They used to be huge, fluffy, and o so tasty.
The waffles we had last night were still good, but were nothing like they used to be.
All the sides and taste were still the same, still excellent. But for a place known for their waffles specifically, it was a little disappointing.
We still love this place, but as in many things, sometimes great things aren’t meant to last.

If you are looking for great dessert and atmosphere this is it. The desserts were delicious! Belgium waffle the wookie and the chimichurro all outstanding hit the spot! Loved it

The 3^rd grade version of me collided with the adult version of me at Iron press. I stopped in with my husband for a quick happy hour beer and an app. The beer selection is decent and they are categorized (big and bold for example) to make it relatively easy to choose. I had a Ballast Point Porter and he had an Ale Smith Pale Ale. The bartender was pleasant and responsive. The happy hour prices are good. The beer choices are really great!
I can’t really review the food as all we had was tater tots. This tapped way into the best day for me in the elementary school cafeteria which was fun. They try to improve upon the tot with Parmesan and garlic and a variety of dipping sauces. This was good but not necessary, tots are tots to me. It was a fun and quick stop in for us, no complaints. It just feels gimmicky food-​wise and not a menu that captured my interest. A totally fine spot to grab happy hour and try some good beers.

The tuna melt is amazing! It comes with a side of maple syrup to dip, with or without it it’s delicious. The waffle is crisp and just sweet enough to balance the tuna. The tater tots were hot and fresh, and a perfect compliment w/​the jalapeño ketchup. Definitely will be going back.

This is a great spot for beer and good, filling food. The tots are best with the garlic aioli sauce. I like the chkn casadilla, it’s not made inside of a waffle, but the tortilla has press marks from the iron. Their prosciutto and gruyère sandwich is one of my favorites. Love their potato chips. I can eat their ipa irish nachos for days! Pile them up please!

I truly don’t understand why this place doesn’t have anything less than 4 stars. The food is amazing! Great concept and flawless execution. Yes I may be a bit biased since waffles are one of my favorite food, but I digress.
Are You Cereal? Waffle ⁵⁄₅ — seriously sooooo good! For people that complain it’s too sweet, what were you expecting? It’s a waffle topped with ice cream and sugary cereal. For me, I thought it was delicious and my sweet tooth was satisfied for the day.
Garlic Parmesan tots ⁴⁄₅ — simple yet tasty. For just $ 5.5 they give you a decent portion.
IPA Irish Nachos ⁵⁄₅ — it honestly did not sound appetizing to me, but I decided to give it a try and I am so glad I did! Despite the cheesy bacon jalapeño goodness atop the fries, the fries were perfectly crisp and the entire dish was on point. It’s listed as an appetizer but could easily be a meal.
Country style waffle ⁴⁄₅ — we subbed the Belgian waffle with a jalapeño cheddar waffle and it did not disappoint
Pressed churro waffle with Nutella dipper ⁴⁄₅ — amazing! Churro heaven for sure. It was a lot smaller than I anticipated but every bite was amazing.
The only real (minor) gripe I have with this place may be the service. Yes, the servers are polite but there 1 or 2 that have a very pretentious vibe to them. One server asked what we wanted to order but had his back turned to us which I thought was weird. I didn’t want to give our order to the back of his head so I waited about 15 seconds til he turned around. Another server just looked like he didn’t care to be there and wasn’t exactly friendly or inviting. Other than this it’s great food, fast service, and I highly recommend.

Came in on a Saturday evening and had the grilled chicken pesto sandwich, and the Belgian waffle with strawberries and bananas on half and fried banana on the other. Fast service and very helpful and friendly. definitely will be coming back. Best waffle meal I’ve had by far.

The waffles are amazing and fairly priced — -$ 10. I had the turkey, avocado, bacon, lettuce and pan fried egg ($ 1 add on) on herb waffles. Their lavender iced teas are refillable and delicious. Fast and friendly service.

Spicy… we shared the Fried Chicken Waffle Sandwich… it’s warm! And good! So several days at the gym will help me work it off:)

This is a beer lovers heaven. They got a great selection of beer on tap and in bottles, guaranteed to have your favorite styles (sours, IPAs, wheats, stouts (mmmm), reds, root BEER, everything). They rotate their selection constantly. Ask for samples if you need help deciding.
–0.5 stars for the food. I didn’t like the waffle with the fried chicken — waffle was soft and just an odd compliment to fried chicken. The jalapeño syrup it came with had a kick but overpowered any sweetness from the syrup. Ended up tasting bland. Fried chicken looked great and had a good crunch. The irish nachos with tots or waffle fries topped in a cheese sauce, bacon bits, jalapeño, and sliced cabbage — the orange, yellow like cheese sauce has a grainy texture and did not taste like cheese. The added cabbage is weird. The tots are good but not very crispy (maybe order them extra crispy?). Theres a few other things I plan to try that looked delicious — meatloaf and spuds, country breakfast — so I’m not giving up yet. I HIGHLY recommend the dessert: big Waffle with ice cream, strawberries, bananas, chocolate drizzle, and side of nutella. Its out of this world.
I came by on a weekday to watch a Kings game which was playing on all 5 tv screens. Our server Jannette was exceptional– greeted us with a bright smile and brought some samples per her recommendations, then even had a beer with us! Most places don’t let you buy the waitresses drinks anymore (chains) but here they’ll have a beer with you! Rounded up, 5 stars.

Garlic Tots, ‘Are You Cereal’ and craft beers are what keeps me coming back. I’m usually kicking back a beer or glass of wine at We Olive before arriving at Iron Press, but we somehow always end up here for our usual roundup.
You can have your original tots, tots tossed with garlic parmesan or have them as Irish Nachos with an option to have them topped with buttermilk fried chicken. SO MANY OPTIONS! Yes, they are kinda endless since you have more choices for dip too. My favorites are the Lucky Habanero Dragon Lips Salsa, Sweet Chili and Garlic Aioli.
I’ve tried some of their other dishes like quesadilla (you can add avocado) and meatloaf hash (heavy), but what keeps me coming back is the weekly rotation of beers. They even do Tap Takeovers on Tuesdays. I still haven’t been to one of those events, but soon!

I wondered about this place for a long time! Kept thinking waffles & beer?!
Alas I live real close, so I decided to try it.
My critique would have to be good. The ambience is great! The music is cool (very my age group) staff is friendly, lots of great beers on tap. My only criticism is the menu is a bit limited; however, I think that’s the idea of the place. Not much selection for vegetarians. (Grilled cheese)
With that all said, I enjoyed my meal, I had the, «bird in the basket» I believe it’s called. It came w/​jalapeño syrup! WOW I wouldn’t have thought to put those two tastes together. It was fabulous!
Will return to this eclectic restaurant!

Been to this place at least 40 times. Menu rocks, beers never disappoint and Skylar and the crew take care of you.
Monte Cristo, chicken pesto, meatloaf n spuds are my favorite. Come on a Wednesday night for a tap take over and DJ experience.
My kids love this place.

We decided to come here after the cake expo. I have never been to the oc mix, so we decided to head over there. We walked around and ended up eating here. There was no wait and we ended up sitting in the patio.
We started with some waffle fries with the kickin ketchup as our first dipping sauce. The waffle fries were super yummy. Of course, we had the waffle fries toss with garlic and parmesan. Delish! Must order this here.
There were tons of options on the menu but I ended up choosing the meatloaf + spuds. This was a big juicy piece of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy and potato chip on a pressed bed of tater tots. I really enjoyed the meatloaf and the gravy. I liked the potato chip in the dish cause it gave it some crunch but I wish the tater tots were more crispier. I usually love tater tots but I wasn’t fan how this one was cooked. Maybe, a couple more minute in the waffle iron would have made a big difference. Overall, it was a good dish.
It’s a great place in a great location. Everyone seem to like their dish. Next time, I want to come back and dig into one of their waffle sandwiches.

I wanted to love this place, but I was a little underwhelmed. I love me a good waffle, and even more so when it’s used in a sandwich. Got the prosciutto and Gruyère with the herb waffle.
I mean it was a decent sandwich, but nothing out of this world. And for $ 14 (including tip), I can pass. The waffle had a good flavor, but maybe it was too soft or missing a little crunch.
The service was good and I liked the layout. Cool place to grab a beer and food to watch a game, but I would rather try some new places.
The service was good and our waiter was knowledgable about all the beers. Gave some good suggestions and brought out some samples.
Next time I’ll try the fried chicken sandwich

Came here for lunch and I loved this place, and it probably only gets better at dinner time if you add some beers into the mix! It’s like they just kept the bar area and ditched the restaurant part (who needs that anyway?). Cool design starting with the beer menu on a big screen on the wall to the speakers in fuel tanks (yeah, look up!). They make the waffles right in front of you using some iron presses and you see them putting your sandwich together. I got the Fried Chicken and it was delicious, the tater tots were good too. Service is great and personal, prices are a little high but it’s a lot of food, so take it home.

Waffles can be used as substitutions for many things now a days and it seems like it’s becoming more and more often I see them used as bread for sandwhiches.
Ok so I kinda have a problem with this whole waffle thing for one I believe it’s overrated and just a cheap substitute for fresh baked bread as waffle batter cost next to nothing to make and definitely doesn’t have the right feel to be made sandwich wise.
For what they give you it’s not really a good value as I feel they are trying to take advantage of customers by keeping their food costs low and charging you for anything more than the basics that come on each waffle sandwhich.
Wile my food was decently good it definitely wasn’t worth the over $ 10 I payed for it and I really felt kinda cheated out of my money for something that is very inexpensive to make I highly doubt I will ever come here again as it’s not worth what they are charging for it.
What did like is the fact that the chicken sandwhich I ordered had jalapeños in the waffle itself and that it came with a side of jalapeño syrup as it was pretty good and definitely added some yummy syrupy goodness to the sandwich waffle which was much needed.

The food is def good here, but the seating sucks! It’s def not a family restaurant. I came here with 8 people and had to wait almost an hour because they mostly have bar seating or two people tables. There outside was empty but it was a cold night and their heaters weren’t working, lame! They only had one big table inside. The staff was trying to be really sweet but I think were also getting annoyed because we were being picky. But hello get more tables or fix the heaters! I would be back for the food but for sure with less people!
I shared the fried chicken and wacon burger. Both awesome! We also got the tots and ipa Irish nachos. The nachos were to die for!

The waffle sandwich revolution found its hangover in 2015.
Bruxie. Waffleholic Café. (the now defunct) Gaufree. The savory-​waffle-​sandwich thing is dead.
Played.
Boring.
The Iron Press shows up to the party about 20 minutes after the cops killed it selling its own brand of waffle sandwiches that frankly do not bring anything new to 2013’s great gimmick in fast food. I tried the Fried Chicken which basically raped Roscoe’s concept and added Jalapeño Pepper, which does little to hide the blatant theft. If you want Chicken and Waffles, go to the OG (now that they are in Anaheim you have no excuse). If you want a «Bold Fold», Bruxie is $ 2.00 cheaper per sandwich for a better product. The Iron Press is a culinary fraud, straight up.
That said, I did enjoy the atmosphere and their selection of draft beers is terrific if not absolutely legendary. Based on the beer alone, I may be back… but not to eat.
With so many fantastic places to eat in SOCO (Taco Maria, ARC, Shuck, Pueblo etc…) The Iron Press is blasé at very best. A three star affair rounded down for artistic pillaging.