I Heart Hodad’s, San Diego
A "hodad" is a 50's term for surfer groupie
It started, as it has for so many since, with Guy Fieri’s show on The Food Network. The show, plus the appeal of seeing something on TV one Saturday morning, liking it, and driving 3 hours to go and see it for myself. It also starts with a literal starvation for a decent burger while living in London (a matter not addressed by English restauranteurs until relatively recently).
A good burger shouldn’t be hard to make. I’m not for over-seasoned beef, over-cooked or processed into perfect looking, 12 cm diameter patties. Good bread, good meat, good salad and good ketchup should be all that is required. And, generally speaking, the number of napkins used to eat a burger with any kind of social etiquette is directly proportional to the excellence of the flavour. My order of 1 hamburger, 1 side of onions and 1 strawberry milkshake took approximately 11 napkins to consume gracefully, scoring Hodad’s an 11 on a normal scale of 1 to 10. Good job, guys!
The inside of the restaurant is laid back and the walls are plastered with license plates from around the country as well as a sign that accurately reads “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem” (hardly any of the men in there had shirts on). I liked it on my first visit because it was sunny outside and there were plenty of surfers who had just popped in for a bite to eat before heading back out to the waves. The second time, the day wasn’t so clear and I noticed that either it was a lot more popular due to reruns of Guy Fieri’s ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ and his raving review on the show, or I’d been kind of blind to the neighbourhood the first time. This burger joint is a brilliant novelty stop on your route through SoCal. So by all means, stop by, chow down on their deliciously grotesque looking burgers, and then try something else if you find yourself back in the area.
On my second visit to Hodad’s, there were so many customers the queue went out the building and down the street for the whole block. Although the line moves relatively quickly, Newport Avenue is not the nicest street in San Diego to wait around on: although there are a number of cute souvenir shops, there are also an inordinate number of the homeless (and inebriated, and foul tempered). Nothing of note particularly happened, but as I said, it’s just not the nicest street to hang out on. Instead, I’d suggest passing the whole line and walking straight in to order food to go. They’re pretty quick and you can hop back in your car and head for a quieter beach, or wherever you like.
Hodad’s is located in Ocean Beach and open from 10AM to 10PM alllll summer long.
5010 Newport Ave.
Ocean Beach, CA 92107
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