Ah yes Hodad's, the mere utterance of that noun will bring instant declarations of "Best Burger in Sam Diego"…if not the world, as the sign says:
The burger at Hodad's and Rocky's Crown Pub are at the epicenter of the OB (Ocean Beach) versus PB (Pacific Beach) burger wars. To me, they are two totally different burgers. Rocky's is a simple, hand formed, soft, and beefy plain burger. Hodad's is a crusty, messy, stuff dripping down your arms, kinda burger. There's more than enough room in San Diego, of not in my stomach for both of them. Personally, my relationship with Hodad's has been of the love-hate type. I long ago figured out what I loved about Hodad's burger; it was the bacon. Plain and simple, griddled until just teetering on the edge of burnt, with a nice greasy saltiness. Remove that bacon, and it was just a rather plain burger smothered in a ton of mayo, mustard, and ketchup. I'd visited Hodad's a few times when doing consulting work during the late 90's, and when we first moved to San Diego. My last 2 visits were not very good, the sandwich had become a soggy mess, with more iceberg than what sank the Titanic. Add to that the really rude "Hodad" attitude, I'd decided that enough was enough, and hadn't been back in years. Following our last burger week, several readers asked….nay demanded, that Hodad's got equal time. So here we are, over 2 years later….it's burger week.
The crowd at 5 minutes after opening, sure says something about Hodad's timeless popularity.
And though the crowds seemed the same, I noticed that many of the customers, at least on this day seemed a bit older. The menu looks the same, though the prices have gone up a bit over the years.
On this day, a really nice Young Lady was my Server, and I've got to say, it was probably the best service I'd ever had at Hodad's. She was friendly, efficient, refilled my Diet Soda once, and asked one other time. It's the most I could ever ask for at a joint like Hodad's.
Of all the items on he table, the salt, ketchup, hot sauce, and so on, the one you'll need to intimately familiarize yourself with, are the napkins. You'll be using many of these. So make sure to introduce yourself early on.
Looking over the menu, I suddenly realized that I had never sampled the onion rings at Hodad's, so I had a half order ($4.25):
They looked nice and golden brown, and were lip searing hot. I found the breading to be too hard and shell-like for my tastes, but these weren't bad by any means.
As for my burger, I decided to forgo the bacon, and go with a straight-up Double Cheeseburger ($7.50). Meet the leaning tower of burger:
An aquaintance of mine says that Hodad's "artificially" (his term, not mine) inflates the burger height with its own set of platform shoes; the lettuce. And though I believe I've encountered this before, it was not on display today. There were 3 tomatoes in my burger, but it was not "over-iceberged." I quickly noticed something, do you see it? Here's a closer look:
Yes, it was a little piece of bacon hanging on for dear life, as if to tease me!
For me, the burger at Hodad's is all about the crust of the patty, combined with that familiar flavor combination of American Cheese, pickles, ketchup-mayo-mustard, and tomato. It always takes me back to the burgers I ate growing up. Meat sizzling on the griddle until a nice crusty exterior is developed.
I kept eating and eating, until I hit a crossroads. It was the 
opportunity cost moment. Which will it be the onion rings or the burger? Well it was the onion rings that had to go. It did seem as if I kept eating, and hardly made a dent in the burger. In the end, I was quite pleased with the mess I had made.
Now this was the Hodad's we all know…….
As I waddled up to the register, the same nice young lady saw me rolling along and cracked up and asked me, "did you get enough to eat?" To which I replied, "I don't know what happened, I used to finish this with no problem…." Her response; "well, that happens sometimes……." Hmmm, maybe there is life after bacon at Hodad's…….
Hodad's
5010 Newport Ave.
San Diego, CA 92107
Hours:
Mon-Thu. 1100am – 900pm
Fri-Sat. 1100am – 1000pm