Oct 15th, 2002
Hodad’s
On a friend’s advice, I drove out to Ocean Beach to check out Hodad’s (5010 Newport Ave. 619-224-4623). The initial plan was to pick up a burger and a movie before returning home. It was about 8:40 PM when I called over and told them I wanted to make an order for pick-up.
“Sure,” he said. “But we’re going to close at 9:00, so get here before then.”
I promptly hopped in my car and jetted out to Ocean Beach. I arrived at Hodad’s at around 8:50 PM. “Got an order for Jiyan,” I asked at the front counter where a guy with long hair and tattoos was standing.
“Yeah, sure do,” he said as he handed me a greasy brown bag.
I paid the man and started to head out, before thinking to myself, “Jiyan, this hamburger is going to be soggy by the time you get home.” Looking around and seeing quite a few patrons still seated in the restaurant, I decided to sit down and eat there.
The burger was nothing special. It was somewhere between Carl Jr.’s $6.00 burger and a Hamburger Mary’s burger. The bread was already soggy by the time I started eating, and had the same texture as mucus. After eating the burger and working on the fries, I headed to the back, where I asked a bald-headed guy with tattoos for a cup of water.
He got me a cup of water before saying, “Not to be a d@#k or anything, but when you say you want an order for pick-up, that means for God damn pick-up!”
I stared at him flabbergasted for a few moments before responding, “Well, what about all the other people in here? If you looked like you were closing, I wouldn’t have eaten my burger here.”
“Yeah, well we close at 9:00,” he said. “That means you can’t stay here after 9:00.”
“You should have said something from the beginning,” I responded as I took my water and headed back to my table.
So bottom line on Hodad’s: average burger, awful service. If you want a burger, go to Hamburger Mary’s. If you don’t want to go to Hamburger Mary’s, save yourself some time and some money and go to In-N-Out Burger.
