Hamburger Hut — Restaurant in Encinitas

I’m very disappointed because when we first got there, we really liked the atmosphere. This was my first time here and my boyfriend’s second. We ordered a burger and the jabba fries and were told that it would be a 25 min wait for our food. For a burger and fries, that’s a pretty long wait so we figured we would have a drink in the meantime. The bartender surprised us, not asking if we needed anything at all. Instead, she informed us that she was “making merch for the restaurant.” She showed us a photo of a trucker hat and says to me, “white people love trucker hats!” She was not white and to us it was a weird and uncomfortable comment to make. I tried to laugh and shrug it off. She proceeded to go on her phone and not ask if we needed anything. We sat there at the bar ready to order drinks for at least 10 minutes. When she finally noticed us waiting there, she seemed surprised. She told us that if customers have a number, she assumes they have already been helped (even though we were sitting at the bar with no drinks…). She made our drinks and we continued to wait for our food. While we waited, I overheard a man at the bar order lots of food, he ordered multiple burgers and at least 15 orders of fries. After waiting 40 minutes for our burger and fries, they brought this man HIS huge order that we watched him order 15 minutes after we sat down. I made a comment about it and our food came out a few minutes later. A 45 minute wait for burger and fries seemed like a joke until I started eating. My boyfriend said his burger was decent, but my jabba fries were cold and hard. We just wanted to get out of there at this point, and I paid for the drinks. On the screen where you’re supposed to tip and sign, we watched the bartender select a 25% tip for herself and said “if you could just sign here…” as if I don’t realize that it’s also a tipping screen. I think I’m being nice with the food rating, but the service killed the atmosphere and if I would give service here a zero if I could. No sense of urgency or hospitality in this restaurant and I won’t be returning :( hopefully the owners will see this and take notes but based on their responses to other negative reviews they don’t seem too worried about...

The atmosphere ruined the whole experience. We waited 45 minutes for our food, but it was slammed when we were there to be fair. The restaurant is themed as a 50’s diner/a beach hut in Hawaii, so you think that they would be playing like classic rock and roll or some ukulele music… they chose EDM, and not the good kind either. It was playing so loud that you had to yell to communicate with those sitting at your table. The entire restaurant was full of people trying to yell over the music, which was making people’s babies and toddlers cry. They had big red lights (hopefully just for the holidays) so the restaurant was lit like a nightclub. The low light helped hide some of the messiness of the restaurant so it helps I guess.

The food was good. Fries were incredibly boring. Tasted like Walmart freezer fries. The burger itself was great, the Hawaiian bun was a nice touch. The burger overall was a little dry, it could have used more sauce and more seasoning in the actual meat. I got cheese on my burger and it was bland enough for me to not even notice it was there. Overall, a good burger, just dry. Fries need to be completely replaced, not worth 4$ at all.

Overall, do better. I would come back, but probably during daylight hours instead...

Food was a notch better than In and Outs. But in and Outs burgesr are half the price and 99 percent as good.

Now for my experience. Let me start of by telling you i am practically deaf. The counter person was getting very irritated that i could not hear her when i asked if there was ketchup with my order. I asked her to repear them-self twice. They dimissed me with a shooing hand jesture. Now i understand people dint know i am hard of hearing and i epathize. It has been the bane of my existence. It is not easy to present yourself as a deaf person because it doesnt have an obvious indicator like a blind person has. Any way. People think me asking them to say it, whatever i didnt hear, again as one of many things for example: they think: I am challenging them, im stupid, or playing with them. When i have to lean in closer to hear people they think i am being creepy. Girls think i want to kiss them becauae i read lips. Im not and it hurts that i cant openly show my handicap. It really hurts. People need to practice patience. I paid $30 for two burger! Show me some love and simply just say it...