Hamburg Inn No. 2 — Restaurant in Iowa City

Sad to say but I walked in there after a rough finals week,on 12/15/2023 at 8:00 pm, looking to have a celebratory "I survived" kind of meal. I immediately could tell the Manager was not in a hospitable mood. I assumed it was because the Friday rush was slowing down and for whatever other reason. As a vegetarian, I always ask if there are any options that meet the above-stated requirements before being seated. Countless times I have sat down at other restaurants only to find out the menu was too prohibitive and have had to leave. He said "yes we have a black bean burger". He did not ask me how many people in party and where would I like to sit. At this point I felt very unwelcome, so I awkwardly asked to see a menu. He sent a member of the waitstaff over to take my order. I ordered the black bean burger with no onion. Moving here from the west coast for my studies has been a very lonely experience and it has been hard to make friends, as I am a non-traditional student. All I really wanted was to feel welcome, sit down, have glass of wine and a simple dinner, alone or not. I expressed my concern over the mood of the Manager to the waiter and how I didn't feel welcome. He apologized and said it had been a weird night and the Manager wanted to close early if possible. I has a glass of water while I waited for my now to-go order. When the food came out I thanked the kind waiter and began to walk home. Outside, I pulled out a fry and it was cold and over cooked. I felt bad I had to walk back in there, but any reasonable person wants get hot fries cooked proper. I apologized for having to return amd explained why. The manager was then very nice and said he would fix it. He was now the type of manager one would expect from a restaurant, but you never get a second chance to make a first impression. I took my food home, it was delicious, and ate alone. It really is a drag being lonely. It is embarrassing to have to walk into a restaurant and say party of one. Staff tends to label one person parties as not worth the trouble or lousy tippers. I though it would be nice to get out for once amd treat myself and now I feel worse. I am not sure I will visit here again. It is too bad because the place is very close to...

!!!!!!IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!

Folks, please hear me our before you attend this restaurant. I applied here my freshman year, eager to do well and earn some money to support both myself and my mothers chemo. The first few weeks were great. I worked as a server, and because the regulars liked me so much, they often tipped me, which rarely occurs for servers (which you may know if you have ever worked that position). However, I soon started to experience harassment. The head cook took an interest in me that I at first thought to be friendly. However, I soon realized this was not the case. He began texting me almost every night asking to take me out to dinner, and no matter what I said, he would not accept no for an answer (mind you, I am 19, he is in his forties). Because of my rejection toward his advances, I faced repercussions. One week, after finally putting him in his place and stating that I would not like to be romantically involved with this individual, I was taken off the work schedule. Not jumping to conclusions, I assumed this was because I simply did not have hours to work that week. However, I soon remembered something. The head chef was bestfiends with the owner. "What if that had something to do with it," I thought. A day later, I was left with a message from an employee stating "Hannah, we no longer need you. You were given so many opportunities, yet you did not take them." Folks, because I did not accept this grown man's advances, I was fired. You may be wondering "how do I know this." Well, there was talk around the restaurant about the same thing occurring to many other girls, which is why I am so sure of the reasoning. Not only is the fact that this restaurant condones sexual assulat bad enough, but their servers often participate in drug use on the job. If you don't believe me, just smell them while they're working. Please, after reading my abuse as an employee here, do not attend. Do not enable their disgusting cause of hiring and mulipulating young women for their...

I spent the day in Iowa City recently. I did some research to find some hamburger joint I'd never been to and settled on Hamburg Inn for a specific reason: They have something on the menu called the "grilled onion burger". I absolutely love grilled onions.

The place is kind of like stepping back into the seventies or so. I loved it.

My server was attentive and friendly.

I had the grilled onion burger, fries, and a chocolate shake. The best part was the chocolate shake. I was kinda hankering for a malt, but they don't seem to have malts on the menu. That's all right, though.

The fries were disappointing. If they aren't dumped out of a bag and warmed in a microwave, I'd be shocked. That's what they reminded me of. Frozen and microwaved. Tasteless and dry.

I had mixed feelings about the burger. The patty was cooked nicely. It was juicy and hot and full of flavor. The onions were good, when I could get a hint of a taste of them. There were plenty of them on the sandwich and all, sure. The problem is, they also load a bunch of other toppings on. Worst is the mayo. I don't mind mayo on a burger, but there was SO MUCH! Most every bite all I could taste was beef and mayo, which became tiring in a short time. There were a lot of pickles, too. Some might like that, but again, like the mayo, they overpowered the taste of the onion. If you're going to have a grilled onion burger, make the onion the star. Don't hide it under other condiments!

I am sure I'll be back. I think my wife would love it. They have a lot of breakfast items and she loves a good breakfast place. If I ever dare to try that onion burger again, I will be bringing a putty knife to scrape off all the other...