hodad's

in a nutshell: for beach bums, families, and foodies alike, dig into the incredibly fresh burgers and crisp, chunky onionringsat this beachside hotspot. their storefront sign humorously boasts, “under 99 billion  gazillion sold!” their motto, emblazoned on a sign above the cash register, reads, “no shirt, no shoes, no problem!” the definitive southern california beachside burger joint is found at hodad’s, where the line stretches a block down every day with crowds clamoring to get inside. named for “someone who comes down to the beach and has a surfboard, but never surfs,” hodad’s opened in 1969 through the efforts of byron and virginia hardin. first located on the beach at the end of santa monica avenue in ocean beach, several moves took it to its current location in the heart of ocean beach’s newport avenue in 1991. they opened a second location downtown san diego this past year, with the restaurants now owned by second generation burgermeister mike “boss man” hardin and long time

ordered the double cheeseburger with onionringson the side. massive. juicy. fell apart towards the end. one of the best burgers i've had! definitely lives up to its reputation; great ambiance and decor, as well.

are you hungry and in san diego?? you have to go to hodad's!! burgers and onionringsare amazing! location is really beautiful and two steps from the beach!

we tried the original burger with bacon and some onion rings. the onionringswere average. the burger was decent though and very cheap. however, it's nowhere near the best burgers i've had. a decent place nonetheless. the rating seems exaggerated though.

the best burgers ever - 5 napkin rating! the onionringsare crispy and crunchy and not greasy. the servers are attentive and genuine. it's worth the wait!

yep! worth the wait! the mini burger left me plenty of room for onionringsand a shake. fast line. fast service. love the atmosphere. don't miss it.

worth the wait. ok the line is long but why do you think. the food is great and the service is beyond good. the burgers are worth the sore legs i got from standing in line. the onionringsare some of the best i've ever had.

i haven’t been to hodad’s in forever. the last time i went was when alyssa (my good friend and long ago writer for this blog) actually lived here, and it’s been many moons since she moved away. i remember we sat in the “van” seat and felt like we were in our own bubble away from the rest of the crowd. i’ve been wanting to revisit it lately and already had a failed attempt at going to the downtown location. after some suggestions from fellow bloggers, jake, t and i visited late on a tuesday evening and found easy parking, no line and quick seating. success! [ license plates and dollar bills adorn the walls ] hodad’s walls are lined with old license plates and signed dollar bills. we spent a few amusing moments trying to figure out what some of the license plates meant while we waited for our food to arrive. [ full order of frings / onionrings& french fries - $5.75 ] when this arrived to the table i immediately thought, “whoa. that is a lot of frings.” this is the full order – in the f

went about 2 on a thursday, short line but we were seated in about 10 minutes. food came out super fast. the onionringsare the best, the rest i give a big b. loud but a place to try.

there is a never ending line to get into this place! thankfully the food is sooooo freakin' worth it. the service was great, the music was awesome and the portions - huge. if you go with a group, order a burger each and one side of fries, onionringsor frings (both). it is plenty of food for at least 4 people.

great. as expected, good atmosphere, great location.ringsand milk shakes killer. burger very good. fries no, steak fries, not my style. i would go back for sure.

anti-climax at hodad's!!!!. i visited hodad's on my quest to find san diego's best burger. i searched online and hodad's was one of the highest rated, reviews raving about their burgers and onion rings. needless to say i was excited to try it out. i arrived outside the restaurant on a sunny sunday afternoon and was even more excited waiting the 20 minutes or so it took to get seated. i am informed that this is normal at hodad's. i went with my better half and we eventually got seated in a booth. the server was friendly and attentive and brought us water straight away. we read over the menu and decided to order a portion of "frings" (a mixture of onionringsand fries, which are actually wedges) to kick things off. i then decided to opt for the guido burger (burger, pastrami, fried onions, pickles, ketchup and hot mustard all in a bun). my girlfriend ordered the cheese burger (cheese, onion, ketchup and mustard). the "frings" arrived and i was impressed by both the quantity and the flavour on both the onionringsand the wedges, deep fried and crispy, yet spicy and warming..... excellent. although i was still full of excitement awaiting the burger. the burgers arrived and i was immediatly disappointed to see, what i can only describe, as a mcdonalds style patty in my bun. the bun was good and you could have choked a horse with the sheer quantity of pastrami on top of my patty, in fact i had to remove some. the fried onions were good, however, the, allegedly, hot mustard had very little heat or flavour. in saying that the patty was still the most disappointing ingredient within my bun. thin, greyish brown meat which was oozing grease, so much so my bun was beginning to fall apart. the meat had very little flavour, the cheeseburger had the same type of patty within and a whole slice of onion, the majority of which had to be removed. this was comparative to a fast food burger, yet nearly double the price. my advice.... go to "in-n-out" for this type of fast food; its as fresh, less greasy and cheaper. so.... in short, ladies and gentlemen the search for san diegos best burger continues.......

definitely one of my top 5 favorite restaurant. it was love at first bite for me. its one of those "treat yourself" place. once a month for me that it :d they have a good variety of beer and their shakes are over the top for all the sweet tooths out there. fresh cut fries, gigantic juicy onionringsor if u plan on gaining weight, get the frings and pair it with their mouth watering double bacon cheese burger.

ps. expect to have a line outside even on slow days

: )
chill

the food is absolutely amazing! the single bacon cheeseburger, fries, onionringsand strawberry shake were all tasty and super delicious

simple & yummy!. if you're looking for a great burger than this is a great place to go! the restaurant itself is pretty small inside but the service was good and the food didn't take too terribly long to come out given the fact that the place was insanely busy. expect a wait but it's worth it! milkshakes are great and the fries and onionringsbasket can definitely be shared! very cool atmosphere. try to sit inside the sawed in half vw bus. =)