Charlie's Best Burgers — Restaurant in Fullerton

When the person who would become my wife and I met back in the mid 80s, we were stunned, nay, SHOCKED to learn that both of us were, at the time, each on a quest to find what we felt would be the perfect diner in Southern California. We “guilded-up”, shared notes (and French Fries), and continued our search, but as a couple.

One morning, some 32 years later, we found ourselves waiting for our truck to be smogged at a shop in Fullerton. We decided to use our wait time by checking out the diner across the street.

The name was intriguing, but the draw was the collection of signs in the diner windows promising lots of food for little moneys.

We found the name of the diner interesting because we, as customers who don’t know Charlie, have absolutely no point of reference to determine just what “Charlie's Best" actually is. Is it “not very good, but it's the best Charlie can do”? Is it “Charlie's Best effort at whipping up some grub for all of his hungover friends on Sunday morning"? Perhaps it is “Charlie is pretty mediocre but of all the dishes he isn’t very good at cooking, the ones we serve here are the definite best of the worst"? We were determined to find out.

We had resigned ourselves to the fact many meals ago that diners in SoCal won’t be caught serving “traditional” “American” diner fare like Hollywood has taught us they would. Instead, we enjoy myriad “ethnic” options on the same menu with our grits and eggs and country fried chicken. Owners of diners in SoCal may pair their Southern breakfast with options for gyros, or they may serve “Chinese” food with donuts. The "ethnic" twist at Charlie's Best is that the menu is heavy with meal options generally regarded as being from Mexico (most of them aren't REALLY Mexican in origin, but to discuss that fact would be a distracting digression). Burritos, tacos, taquitos, chilly-killees. There were also hamburgers and fries and eggs and pancakes. Like most diners, Charlie's has a very eclectic menu – something for everybody.

To give the place a fair “shake” across-the-board, I ordered the basic burger and fries while my wife went Mexican.

We ordered and sat down and watched the crowd. The diner was packed. This was a weekend morning around 10am. Finding parking in the lot would have been a challenge had we drove. The cashiers were quick and efficient without making the customer feel pressured through their order. The lines were not short, but they went quick. A long line to us means that most of the people in the line feel that the establishment/food/prices/service are worth the wait.

I noticed also that while the cashiers were taking orders they weren’t afraid to be casual with their customers – little jokes and levity in general help to soften the wait.

I made a quick visit to the salsa bar for Santa Salsa (mix red and green) and while I was there, a person came to clean the area. That person was awesome. Very friendly, she obviously enjoys her job. And she was quick with the jokes! Alas, I didn't get her name.

But, we got two other things - we got our burgers and we got disappointed.

My burger was okay, but it wasn’t really “the best" at anything. The burger itself was huge, as was the order of fries. My Wife's chilly-killees were also just “okay and the portion-sizing method employed during the cookery and plating of my meal was shared by her meal.

No self-respecting diner will ever serve perfect food. That is kind-of the idea. Charlie's less-than-best grub therefore will not affect my star rating for them. “Meh" food at a diner, to us, is exactly the reason we go to diners. Real food cooked by real people. Real human-interaction, and VERY VERY REAL coffee.

We loved it, but a general lack of coziness (or diner-ness) in both décor and the diner location (busy street, limited parking) keeps this Diner out of our running as “best" anything.

Charlie, however, insists that it actually...

I go to Charlie's twice a month for the past year and these past 3 experiences have been horrible. I usually go to the Fullerton location but the 1st of the 3 bad experience was at the Santa ana location in December. It was the first and last time I went there because of the way they process ebt card payments there. They asked for my card and my pin and took it to the back of the house to process the payment which is very risky let alone unsecure, especially since I was recently a victim of ebt fraud. The second bad experience was at the fullerton location about a month ago when I ordered a breakfast item during lunch time. It was the first time I ordered breakfast items during lunch time usually I order it in the morning. The huevos rancheros was cold and the hash brown was sloppy, separated and cold, therefore not fresh. Third time, at the fullerton location, which was this morning, and as they say third time's a strike; I ordered the usual huevos rancheros and I noticed they added an extra dollar to the charge. I asked why and the female replied the price went up and I replied you are legally obligated to notify the customers and it has to be adjusted on the menu for you to make this upcharge. To add insult to injury, the cook in the back said in mexican language " he doesn't have to purchase it." Then another female employee behind her came and said " it's only a dollar come on". In addition they served my meal with no tray and the ketchup, napkins on the bread after she touched the register and money which is an extreme hygiene penalty. Then as I was sitting eating my meal , I couldn't even enjoy it because the big female who took my order came and sat across from me on her break with her phone out like she wanted to take a picture of me. Then the cook also came and sat closer to me with mean ugly face and forced me to eat my food fast and leave. So this was such a rude, terrible experience today and 3 bad experiences total. And because of the seriousness of this issue I am demanding a refund of 3 huevos rancheros menu items ($10.69 x3 + 1= $33.07) either to my ebt card or cash and NOT in store credit plus additional compensation for my troubles as a loyal customer. If this is not met I will be pursuing legal action and notifying the community.

YOU CAN'T EVEN file a complaint on the website that's how unprofessional this place is and needs to be shutdown. Businesses like this can't be open no longer. I will be notifying the trump...

This is the 3rd time this has happened to me and I’m done. Food is good but customer service and attention to detail is lacking. Ordered a bacon breakfast burrito and took it home. I get home and take a few bites and no bacon. I open the burrito and not one spec of bacon. Not that it has a little bacon but absolute 0 bacon. I don’t know what it is with this place and bacon? I’ve ordered bacon burgers from here and same thing, no bacon. My GF doesn’t like onions and always ask for no onions on the burger, and take a wild guess what’s always on it? That’s right, onion. This was the only time I took my food back to have them make it right. I hate having to do that but when it keeps happening, there’s only so much you can take. I hate to be that person. I call them and they tell me to come in. I get there thinking the burrito will be ready, nope. I have to wait 15 mins because they’re really busy, on top of the 10 mins I waited originally in the drive thru. No I’m sorry about the inconvenience, no apologies at all. While I was there waiting for my burrito, someone was complaining about the fact they didn’t put chicken in their chicken salad, and a girl complaining that they didn’t put bacon on her bacon cheese burger.

I understand that it gets busy but pay attention to what you are doing. It sucks when you’re already hungry and you get there, you wait in line, you wait for your food to get prepared, take it home, and then discover that it’s not done correctly. Most of the time I would just eat it because it’s not worth going back and waiting again. This time I was just fed up.

I’m done with Charlie’s Best. The food is pricey but good. But it never comes out the way I order it. Too much aggravation with this place. Peace out...