By LAYANN BASILEH
Staff Writer
Honey & Butter is a new macaron shop that opened in the Irvine Spectrum Center. They serve assorted flavors of regular macaroons, ice cream sandwich macarons, and character macarons designed with adorable faces. Everything, including the ice cream, is made from the scratch every day.
The macarons, despite being on the expensive side, are well worth the price. I ordered a Fruity Pebbles macaroon for $2.00 and an ice cream macaron sandwich, which consisted of cookie butter ice cream sandwiched between two much larger passion fruit macarons, for $5.00. The regular macaron was absolutely delicious-the shell was crunchy, yet chewy and flavorful, the fruity pebbles sprinkled on top adding extra texture. The buttercream inside the macaron shell was creamy and sweet as well. In addition, it was much larger than the average macaroon and had a large cream to shell ratio.
The ice cream sandwich was also mouthwatering, the cinnamon cookie ice cream was rich and tasty, but didn’t overpower the fruity flavoring of the macaron shell.
Honey & Butter doesn’t just offer high quality macarons, it creates a fun and friendly atmosphere. The bakery’s interior is adorable; character plushies and fluffy pillows that are scattered throughout the store and fake wood swings that are used as chairs giving a playful vibe. Hand drawn labels and the blackboard menu preserve the restaurant’s moderness. The staff are helpful and always willing to answer questions (and hand out huge free samples).
Supply is limited at Honey & Butter though. Due to their determination to have fresh baked macarons, they quickly sell out of flavors before closing time. Honey & Butter recommends customers come in at 10AM when doors open in order to receive a specific flavor and also at 12PM for character macarons, which sell for $3.00.
Many of macaron flavors are gluten free, but be sure to ask the staff to clarify which flavors do contain gluten. However, cross contamination may occur with other products that include gluten.
Honey & Butter has become wildly popular since its debut, and with UHS students as well. Cynthia Pewterbaugh (Sr.) said, “It makes me feel like I’m at home because the people are really welcoming and nice.”
Adam Gish (Fr.) also commented, “I love how there’s different types of macaroons, like the character ones.”
Overall, Honey & Butter is a fun and trendy bakery. Their macarons are high quality, yet reasonably priced. If you’re at the Spectrum and you’re craving some sugar, I recommend you head over to Honey & Butter.
633 Spectrum Center Dr, Irvine, CA 92618
(949) 536-5556
Sunday – Thursday: 10AM to 9PM
Friday – Saturday: 10AM to 10PM
