Honey & Butter Macarons — Restaurant in Irvine

I adore this trailer and their lovely macarons! I've gone twice in 3x in 2 weeks now and planning a 4th trip next week for gifts.

Big fat macarons that are each distinct in flavor Mini samples of most of the flavors available each day Reasonable pricing CUTE character macarons Really sweet owner that takes her time to explain everything Cute packaging and each macaron is individually wrapped

FLAVORS I'VE TRIED:

++ Pistachio : My absolute favorite in general. They make it so that you can taste real bits of the nuts. SO GOOD.

++ Enchanted Berries : Tangy and fruity flavor. Bits of berries you can see and taste!

++ Speculoos : Trader Joe Speculoos in macaron filling form. Delicious.

++ Cookie Butter : Another TJ special. Also delicious!

++ Milk & Honey : I feel this is the tamest of the flavors. If you like light, you'll like this.

++ Taro : I haven't tried this yet, but it's waiting for me!! I'm sure I'll love it since I love taro in general.

++ Popcorn : As an FYI, I love popcorn jellybeans. So I was very curious about this one. It has a fun coating of popcorn bits on top and in the filling! It tasted like savory slightly sweet buttered popcorn!!! I was amazed.

++ Passion Fruit : Super tangy and I enjoyed it! The owner explained that the process of getting that flavor was long but worth it as they use real fruit for the filling. So interesting to hear!

-- Sea Salt Caramel : Little too sweet for me.

-- Honey Lavender : Too floral for me.

CHARACTER MACARONS:

++ Totoro - They make various versions of totoro here. The gray, white, and pink. I like gray the best. They're either filled with Oreo, Cookie Butter, or Milk & Honey depending on the color.

++ TsumTsums - Ok if you don't know what these are, you need to look them up especially if you're a fan of Disney. Adorable macarons! There were Mickey, Winnie, Tigger, Donald, Daisy, Maleficent, and I'm sure she'll make more.

++ Rilakuma Bear

++ Frogs, Pigs, Bears, Pandas

I also like that they're open until 9 PM. If you have someone ahead of you in line, expect a little wait since they're so personable with everyone and they put together your order with great care....

I was not a macaron person. I never enjoyed them, with the exception of a home baker I knew who made them but hers never looked right, despite tasting good. I've literally had them shipped from Paris, France and did not like them.

Ever since discovering Honey & Butter five years back, I will not buy macarons anywhere else. I live almost an hour away, so it is quite a drive for me but they're worth it. The size, the feet, the texture, the flavors and the sugar levels are perfect. I cannot praise them enough. I've been to several different locations before they were closed down, save this last one.

It's located at the Irvine Spectrum, really close to Nordstrom's, so that's where you should park. Parking has always been really easy for me to find. Then it's a short walk from there to the shop.

Sometimes there's a line, sometimes there isn't. Even with a line, it moves very quickly. Each time I go there, I am purchasing anywhere between 8-11 dozen macarons because I give them away and am also purchasing for friends who place their orders for me to pick up for them.

To make it easy for both the employees and myself, I grab a bunch of the paper flavor menus and will mark those up for each order that I have with people's names on them. Then I get in line, hand my sheets over to the cashier and they proceed to put my order together and tuck each menu into the box so I know which is which. It's a pretty good system I've worked out with them. It makes ordering clear and precise and I've never had a mix-up with my orders.

A couple friends are gluten-free, which makes H&B macarons perfect treats for them. The employees are SO CAREFUL when I tell them which orders need to be gluten-free. They make sure to do those orders first and will change their gloves out between the orders as well.

Since they know my drive is so long, they'll thoughtfully bag up my orders with ice packs. Everything about the shop from cute decor to the super creative flavors to the extremely kind, patient and thoughtful employees has me coming back time and again. I love everything about...

This is the cutest place ever! I saw photos online, and decided to make the trip out to buy some macarons. I wanted the character macarons, so I got there early because sometimes they can sell out! I was a little worried it would be more cute than tasty, but their macarons are really good. Usually they have a weekly theme posted on Instagram of what the character cookie themes will be, but the owner is busy trying to open up their new location, so she just bakes whatever randomly comes to her mind. She updates the Instagram, and you can see what character cookies are sold that day. It's important to check that before you leave because it's updated when the characters are sold out if that was the only thing you were going for. The store is located in an airstream decorated with cute plushes. On the day I went, there was a line. There's an employee outside managing the line and helping people order the non-character macarons, so they will be ready for you by the time you reach the counter. At the counter you can order your character macarons and also regular macarons if you made a last minute decision to get some of those. They use square, so they accept credit cards as well.

The character cookies are baked with whatever flavors the baker chooses, so you it's kind of a surprise what you get. You can probably ask the employees if you're curious though. So far, I have had milk and honey, french toast (decorated with a cute little cinnamon toast crunch!), churro, and dark chocolate sea salt. Everything was really good. I also accidentally left them in the fridge for a week, and decided to eat it anyways and it was still...