WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA – Did you save your Thanksgiving cooking to the last minute, and now you’re starting to freak out? Were you planning to skip celebrating this year, but now friends are coming over and you need a last minute solution? Or maybe you just really want some extra leftovers?
Walnut Creek’s favorite “East Coast” diner has a tasty solution–and spoiler alert, the price is fantastic.
Founded in 1988, Buttercup Diner (660 Ygnacio Valley Rd, Walnut Creek, CA 94596) is a husband-and-wife-owned local business that’s long been known for their tasty pies.
(Technically the diner’s name is spelled ButtercuP, but we’re going to use ‘Buttercup’ so our spellcheck doesn’t plotz.)
When we put together our pie roundup last year, our readers told us that Buttercup “never lets them down.”
Now, they’ve got an expanded Thanksgiving offering ready for you–and entire “Family Feast” with 2 pounds of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, vegetables, and much else. It’s enough to feed 6 adults. And it’s priced at just $110–less than many locals pay for a single raw turkey!
The Food
Buttercup sent my family a Feast in advance so we could try it out before the holiday (there’s still time to order for this year through Wednesday!).
The Family Feast comes pre-cooked and ready to go in big containers that make it easy to carry home. There are clear heating instructions on top, so you can throw various parts in the oven and have a full meal ready in a few hours.
Oh, and naturally, there’s a full pie!
For our meal, we started with turkey and gravy. Buttercup’s turkey is slices of white meat, hand-carved and laid out in a lovely pattern inside the baking dish.
Once you’re done heating this up, you could easily slide it right onto a platter and have a nicely-presented meal ready to go.
The turkey is tender, and it comes with a big container of gravy, which we slathered on top. The turkey slices sit on a bed of cornbread sage stuffing.
This was one of the standout dishes in the Feast. The sage added a delicious flavor without being overpowering, and the stuffing wasn’t at all soggy, yet still had a strong meaty flavor of turkey to complement the depth of the sage.
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On the side, we had garlic mashed potatoes. They were buttery and delicious, but also very garlicky–just be aware if your kids aren’t into the garlic flavor!
The Feast also comes with mixed vegetables, which you add to the pan and heat up alongside your turkey. There’s squash and other root vegetables, which feels like a nice Fall touch. Just be aware that you need to add these in during the cooking process, since the veggies come raw.
Buttercup’s cranberry sauce was another standout. With a perfect contrast of sweet and tart flavors, it added a brightness to the plate, and we easily finished an entire container.
Again in a nod to the more health conscious, the Feast comes with a salad which was ample and very fresh, with a crowd-pleasing Caesar dressing and croutons that my kids loved to “steal”.
Buttercup is known for their pies, and the Family Feast comes with either pumpkin or pecan by default. We ended up with an upside down walnut apple pie (we already had four homemade pumpkin pies in our fridge, so this was perfect), with a caramelly, crunchy topping and plenty of extremely sweet baked apple slices inside.
A Pescatarian member of our party got salmon and a salad as a separate order, and liked that the salad came pre-dressed. The fish was apparently very good too (these items aren’t in the Feast but you can always supplement with other items from Buttercup’s menu.)
The Verdict
Overall, the Family Feast was a great experience. Some catered food can feel generic and bland–especially with the volume of orders coming in this time of year, there’s a temptation to “phone it in” and cut corners on quality.
Buttercup clearly doesn’t do this at all. The diner’s food is cooked from scratch, and many of the dishes are based on co-owner Debbie Shahvar’s family recipes.
With that quality, Buttercup could probably charge more. But they keep their Family Feast at a very reasonable price of $110. For a meal that serves 4-6 adults (it was more than enough for our party of three adults and three kids), that’s a bargain in today’s Bay Area–especially with price of turkey skyrocketing this year.
If you’re still looking for a Thanksgiving option for this year, there’s time to order a Family Feast! You can get one through Wednesday on Buttercup’s website. They have locations in Walnut Creek, Oakland, Concord and Vallejo.
You can also order one for several days after the holiday. If you make your own Thanksgiving meal but your guests are unusually hungry and you find yourself with insufficient leftovers–or you have a post Thanksgiving potluck or Friendsgiving to host over the weekend and need a quick food option–you can always supplement your own cooking with a Feast.
Buttercup has served our community for a long time. It’s nice to celebrate the holiday with a local option–and one that feels traditional, wholesome, and won’t put your Holiday budget!
Order from Buttercup here: https://www.buttercupdiner.com/
Nice perk, tom. Great ad!