- Hodad's
- Cuisine: Hamburgers
- Neighborhood: Ocean Beach
- 5010 Newport Ave.
- San Diego, CA 92107 (Map)
- (619) 224-4623
Recommended by 2 locals
One of your favorites, too?
Eats.It Staff Recs
1 Member Recs
-
03/05/07
As a Midwest transplant, this is my favorite place to take visitors to San Diego. Nothing epitomizes the OB/surfer lifestyle than a veggie or non-veggie burger at Hodad's.
The fries are the best - if you like the thick steak variety.
If you have kids, make sure to let them sit in the VW bus on the wall. I see smiles on the little one's faces every time I visit.
You can sit in a booth or share a spot at the oversized surboard table with strangers, but you're best bet is to sit at the window (worth the wait) and watch the locals walk by. Count the tattoos, piercings and dogs while you sip on your ice cold draft beer served in a Bell jar.
Seat yourself, but don't forget to pick up a yellow menu on the way in so they know you're ready to order. And don't be surprised if a cute surfer boy takes the seat right next to and asked what he can get for you. The staff is extremely friendly!
Worth the wait if it's a beautiful sunny weekend.
I do not have any connections with this business. I've been here dozens of times.
Hours of Operation 
Here’s to !
The real deal, an authentic hippie/surfer-esque feeding and watering hole—complete with "no shirt, no shoes, no problem" attitude and fabulous burgers.
If someone were to twist my arm and force me to name my all-time favorite neighborhood in this city of neighborhoods, I would have to pick Ocean Beach. I just really groove on this preserve of old-school Southern California funky alternative culture—and apparently I'm not alone, to judge by the perennial appearance of the slogan "OB: an attitude, not an address" on the bumpers of OBcean vehicles.
And if I were forced -- forced, mind you -- to single out one favorite food emporium from among this neighborhood's selection of wonderfully mellow restaurants, I would have to pick Hodad's.
A "hodad," as this joint's menu informs you, is surfer-speak for a non-surfer who hangs out on the beach trying to pass as a surfer. In other words, a poser. The joint named Hodad's, though, is no poser. This is the real deal, an authentic hippie/surfer-esque feeding and watering hole, as signaled even before you enter by its whimsical exterior art —- not to mention its signature vehicle in the lot next door, a smartly shortened and custom-painted VW bus complete with surfboard on the roof rack.
Further creative VW mutilation awaits you once you step inside: protruding from the left-hand wall is the front-end of a classic split-windshield bus. The open interior of the bus cab is set up as a booth just big enough for two to dine —- or for several children to enjoy some freaky let's-pretend time. Other seating is provided by booths, plus a long surfboard-shaped communal table running through the center of the room. Most of the remaining wall-space is taken up by hundreds of old vanity license plates, which are lots of fun to read as you await your burger.
Burgers are pretty much the main event here at Hodad's, and they do them up seriously well. The variations are simple and straight forward: single or double burgers, with or without cheese and bacon, with or without the vegetative toppings, with or without fries. Oh yeah, I guess there are a couple non-burger options on the menu too, including a vegetarian option . . . but you know you're really here for the burgers, right? And the vibe. Can't forget the vibe.
As to those burgers: their single burger is hugely tall, defying any normal human's ability to wrap their mouths around the thing. How patrons cope with the double burger, I haven't a clue, unless they can unhinge their jaws like a snake consuming a gopher. Ordered with everything, the burger comes piled with shredded lettuce, a big slice of tomato, pickle chips, and —- my favorite burger topping -— big fat rings of onion. All of this goodness is piled on a soft roll, and the whole deal helpfully wrapped with a paper napkin to keep this Tower of Burger Babel from tumbling down. The big fat burger patty itself accounts for a respectable part of this concoction's height; one ordered medium-rare arrives properly charred on the outside and juicy-red on the inside. In a basket with a mountain of expertly-done seasoned fries, the whole thing will set you back only $6.75.
And for that princely sum you also get to lounge about with all the dudes and dudettes (mostly but by no means all 20-somethings), enjoying the "no shirt, no shoes, no problem" atmosphere as everyone chows down on burgers and sucks down beers or shakes, while the PA plays music you haven't heard in public in decades. They were playing Emerson Lake and Palmer's "Karn Evil 9" on a recent visit, a tune of great significance to my teen years. Ah yes: "welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, I'm so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside...!" Thank you, I most definitely will—again and again.