Hodad’s

In my last post I wrote about one of the San Diego burger staples. Now I am going to write about the other. Hodad’s seems to be quickly becoming the official burger of San Diego. The original location is in Ocean Beach. They have also added a location in downtown and now even have a location in Petco Park, home of the hometown Padres. Since we wanted to check out a Padres game during my visit, we decided to go to the Hodad’s in Petco park. Since it was inside the ballpark , there was probably a little bit of a different atmosphere inside, but it had the old diner feel and was pretty busy considering it was a sit down place rather than getting your burger and heading to your seats.

The burgers are also pretty standard burgers style-wise. They come on a sesame seed bun. The patties are 1/4 pound beef patties with a hamburger stand taste. The thing that sets this burger apart is the bacon. Now if you read my blog, I am critical of places that use bacon or other toppings that overpower the meat. At Hodad’s, they have special process for cooking the bacon and for a sort of bacon patty to go on the burger. Whatever they do, it is the right way to put bacon on the burger. The patty still shines through and you get the good salty, smoky bacon flavor. The burger comes with mayo, mustard, onion, ketchup, pickle, tomato, and lettuce. All of the toppings were very fresh and added some nice texture and flavor to the burger. Overall, this is a very good burger. It may not be the greatest burger you have ever had or make you change the way you think about burgers, but it is very good and if you are in San Diego, I highly recommend it.

Rocky’s Crown Pub

In writing this blog, I get many people giving me suggestions on places to try. Pretty much every time I ask where to go in San Diego, Rocky’s was the choice. It is located in the Mission Beach area close to Sea World. It is a tiny place with bar seating and just a few tables. You have to be pretty aggressive to get a table as they are first come first served. I highly recommend getting friendly and trying to share a table with some people not in your party. They have some good beers on tap, TVs around to watch a game, but most people are there for the burger.

The burger is pretty standard, but I can see why people like it. There is only one burger here. You can get it either with cheese or without. The patties seem like they are hand formed as they were not the standard circular shape you usually see. The meat was good, but not a ton of flavor. They let the meat speak for itself. The burger comes with iceberg lettuce, fresh tomato, red onions and lots of pickles. This burger is really good and juicy. It kind of reminded me of a burger you would make at home and enjoy in your backyard with your friends.

Alchemy

This is the first in a series of posts from a trip down to San Diego. I had a lot of fun and had some good burgers down there.

The first place I went to was Alchemy. It is a sort of gastropub style restaurant with a tapas like feel. It is located in the South Park area of San Diego. I highly recommend this area as there are lots of cool little restaurants and bars and its less touristy than the Gaslamp district. They had a good selection of beer and wine and some of which were quite small but everything looked very good and some things that I may have to go back on a second visit to try. They also have a cool event called “Dining with Six Strangers”, where you get to try a three course meal with 5 people you don’t know. What better way to meet new friends than over a delicious meal?

On to the burger. The overall presentation of the burger made it very appealing. You could tell the toppings were very fresh. The meat was cooked perfectly. It was incredibly juicy. They use Paso Prime grass fed beef, which I think limited some of the flavor since grass fed beef is usually a bit leaner. The bun was a brioche style bun but was cut with too much bun on the top so the bottom got very soggy. The burger was topped by tomatoes,bibb lettuce, housemade pickles, onions and mahon cheese. Like I said before, the veggies were very fresh and the pickles were very good. The best part was the mahon cheese. It was the first time I have had this type of cheese, let alone on a burger, and it was a perfect complement to the rest of the flavor of the burger. This was a very good burger and great way to start my burger tour of San Diego.

Bleeker Street

Several people have recommended Bleeker Street since it opened a few years ago. It is a New York style restaurant inspired by Greenwich Village. The interior feels like a cross between an outdoor café and a gastropub. The place is located in the Village Walk in Tarzana. It is a great area with all sorts of shops and restaurants. The one thing I will say is that the restaurant seems to be a little over priced. Most items on the menu feel very similar to a gastropub but are priced like a fine dining restaurant.

 On to the burger. The meat was Angus grass fed beef. While it tasted fresh, it did not have that great meaty flavor and was a little over charred as well as being cooked to more of a medium well than a pink medium. The bun was one of the better buns I have had in a while. It was a brioche style bun and had good chew and held together nicely. The burger came topped with organic greens, vine ripen tomato, smoked gouda cheese, crispy onions and roasted garlic aioli. First off, the smoked gouda did not add much to the flavor of the burger. It did not melt on the burger and I got none of that smoky flavor. The greens and the tomato were very fresh. I wish there were more of the onions because they were very flavorful. Overall, I was a little disappointed because it came recommended and it was overpriced for what you got.

Tompkins Square

Tompkins Square was actually one of the first places recommended to me when I first started the blog. So I have been wanting to try it for a while. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I thought it was going to be more of a bar scene. It turns out that it is actually more restaurant and chill place to hang out and catch a game. They have a pretty good beer selection and there was a pretty good vibe in the restaurant.

I ordered The Eddie. At first glance, I noticed the bun. It seemed as though the bun was a sort of brioche style bun but seemed at first to lack the special quality of a good bun. Once finishing the burger I realized this bun worked well since it did not get overly soggy and held together. The meat when tasted alone was a little salty and had okay not outstanding flavor. It was cooked to a perfect medium. The Eddie also came with blue cheese, cracked pepper and caramelized onions. I did not get the cracked pepper flavor. But the onions were a nice touch and the the blue cheese was creamy and not over powering, which is impressive in its own right. Overall, if you are in the area and looking for a chill place to hang and get a good burger, check out Tompkins Square.

 

Plan Check Bar

Since I work on the Westside of LA, I tend to check out most of the places in the area for burgers. A couple of my coworkers found Plan Check Bar and I had to try it. The restaurant is kind of tucked away from a major street, but is worth checking out. It has a chill gastropub-like environment. They have a great list of beers and wine. One of the people I went to with also got the fried chicken and they said it was very delicious. I may need to go back and try that next time.

I order the PCB burger. All of the burgers come with Akaushi red wagyu beef. The meat was good and flavorful but not the most flavorful I have had. It also seemed very salty. The waitress let us know that they salt the patties before they cook them, which is normal, but I think they were a little heavy handed this time. The coworkers I went with said that usually the burgers are not this salty. They use what they call a “crunch bun”. I am not sure what the crunch refers to but the bun was soft and held together nicely. It came topped with americanized dashi cheese, house made pickles, schmaltz onions. I personally wasn’t a fan of the cheese. It basically seemed like a fancy version of the cheese used in fast food restaurants. I think because of the cheese and the saltiness, I really didn’t get much flavor from the pickles and the none at all from the onions. It seemed like it was an off day, so I should go back because I could tell there was potential for a good burger, but on this day is was only average.

5 Guys Burgers and Fries

I finally got around to trying 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. I had heard about it for a while. I even remember taking some east coasters to In-N-Out and having then proclaim that 5 Guys is way better. I ended going to the West Hollywood location with my brother-in-law. When you walk in, it is obvious why there are the comparisons happen so often. Growing up going to In-N-Out, I felt like 5 Guys was a bizarro version, like when the Seinfeld crew had to go to Reggie’s instead of the usual diner. It did seem a little more low key, it more of a Fatburger vibe to me than In-N-Out.

As for the burger, you can get any combination of toppings you want. I chose lettuce, ketchup, mustard, pickles and grilled onions. The burgers are made to order and the meat had really good flavor for a fast food burger. The bun is a standard sesame seed bun. I think there could have been more flavor from the grilled onions and the rest of the toppings seemed a little scarce. I think that was the difference between In-N-Out and 5 Guys. In-N-Out’s grilled onions and and spread set that burger apart. Honestly, the burger tasted closer to a Fatburger, which I like more than 5 Guys as well. But these are clearly the class of fast food burgers in my opinion and this point each person probably has their favorite. Which one is yours? I would love to know!