Hopdoddy Burger Bar — Restaurant in Los Angeles

No.

Don't recommend this place, at least not at the bar if Kailyn is working. This place is just not good on many levels. We ordered burgers and fries, a beer, and a soda, and they managed to screw up each one, especially at a customer service level.

We ate at the bar and upon sitting, it took a good 5 minutes for the bartender to recognize us. If it was busy, no big deal. But it wasn't. The bar top wasn't cleaned, which is totally fine, but when he finally came and cleaned it with a wet towel, he pushed the crumbs into our laps, put down two menus, and left. 5 minutes later...

Beer: finally asks us if we want something a beer. Partner wants to taste a beer. No problem. Finishes ringing something up (as we sat near the register). Cool. He's gonna get us a taste of it. No, he checks on other customers, cleans some glasses, checks phone, and makes a shake which takes a bit of time. Ok, he forgot the taste of the beer. Decide to get the beer. Very bad pour, but it's fine. Happens all the time. But he didn't even ask me if I wanted to drink something. Leaves again. 5 minutes later.

Food: asks us how the beer was. Fine. Did we want to order food? Sure. Burger and fries. But, it took a good 3 minutes to order because he wasn't listening. Like, a real 3 minutes because he's not paying attention and pressing keys on the computer or something. Here's an example. "I'd like the el diablo medium please." "Ok. Got it. You'd like the (some other burger) medium well since we cook them like that here." "No. The el diablo medium." "You....want....the....el diablo....well done." "No. El Diablo medium, please." It was really strange. Finally ordered with fries. Cool. Fries come out suuuper fast. They're not hot. But warm. You can tell they were already made, which is totally understandable since the place goes through a lot of fries. But it was another 12+ minutes before the burgers came, which isn't bad, but i personally would've preferred them together. You're prolly wondering why I said 12? Because at the end of the meal they give you a questionnaire that asks how quickly the food came out; ours wasn't in time. Anyways, after all this, the burgers were well done. We didn't say anything because we were both upset at how long it took and just didn't want to deal.

Coke: this is an example of how bad the service was. I asked for a coke in between fries and the burger mentioned above. Kinda different since I didn't get it the same time the person I was with ordered a beer, I get it. But the bartender said sure, and then he walked away. He came back and did the same stuff as before: checked his phone, washed some glasses, made some shakes, talked with his coworker, and helped other customers. "Excuse me, we asked for a coke." "Oh, we didn't have any. I could've gotten you a fountain coke, and I wanted to get you a Mexican coke." Wait, what? On so many different levels. I didn't know there were different cokes. It doesn't say. And even then, why didn't you ask me which one I wanted? Like, you just walked away. How am I supposed to know what cokes you do or do not have? You could've told me what was going on. Completely unacceptable since you didn't ask me earlier if i wanted a drink and then you made me wait longer?

In the end, the food was mediocre but the service even worse. I would have liked to believe that we just got the one-off server, but the food runners and other people who attended to us were also not good nor friendly, just not as bad as the bartender. Just overall a terrible, terrible experience for us, which is sad, because I think the place was very ok since we had dined there before.

Obviously, I recommend avoiding this place, especially when you have options like The Counter and Whole Foods restaurant as better...

Solid, just like their El Segundo location. I was lucky enough to try the "limited" tasting menu once again. And the offering was exactly the same. So now being somewhat of a "veteran" of Hopdoddy, I thought I would tweak the menu a bit by adding a Fried Egg to one of my burgers. For those of you in the know, you can add one for $1 more on your burger. The yolk comes out perfect if you like in on the running side.

I also ordered different drinks this time just to test the waters...or in this case, the alcohol. Got the Skinny Dip with the Coronita inside the large glass of Margarita. It's the most expensive drink under the sips ($10), such a nice drink on a warm day with the lime/tequila/beer all together. Party inside my mouth please!

Also tried different shakes this time. The last time we had the shakes and it tasted to creamy. Might've had more whipped cream for some reason. But this time, we made sure we tasted it right away and it did not disappoint. The Stout and the Oreo Shake were top notch. I liked the Stout shake a bit more because it has a bit of a grown up taste to it. It's like a chocolate punch in your face!

The only little thing I could think of improving here on my Ahi burger was, it needed to be a higher temperature for a crispier char. My tuna "Doddystyle" didn't quite hold up after the 1st bite. Nevertheless, it was delicious and flavors of the wasabi comes through as always in the nori chips. Paired with their truffle , house made kennebec potatoe fries, it's redonkulously awesome!

Service was awesome. Ben came around and introduced himself and asked how everything was. Service here is always great. The noise factor inside the restaurant is a bit loud for me but seating outside is plenty.

The new plaza here at Playa Vista is currently undergoing construction. You will find lots of unfinished live/work area not done yet. So even though it says Free parking for the 1st hour and $1 for next, parking I can safely say they're not going to collect until most of the shops are...

Oh. My. Gosh. Nope. Never again.

We walk in at dinner time and notice that it's nearly empty. ❌ We notice the We Are Cashless sign. ❌ We notice the Bison advert. ✅ We order Bison burgers, a large fries, a soda, and a water. ✅ The bill was quite high, but seeing the pictures and it being Bison...we accepted. ✅ Half the soda options were out. ❌ Based upon the time stamp on the receipt, it took 47 minutes to get the burgers to the table. ❌ "Where's the fries?" "Oh, sorry, they're coming." ❌ The burgers...Jokes! Small and smashed. ❌ Neither one tasted right. I went to the counter and let them know such. They asked "What do you mean?" I said "That's not how Bison tastes." They replied "Because it's not Bison." 🤦🏼 I said "We paid for Bison." They confirmed that we did and agreed to remake them. ✅ I sat back down and noticed the window labeled Butchery. I noticed all the boxes. At no time did I notice the young man retrieving patties from any other than one single box. About 45 minutes later, our new burgers arrive. Once again, "Where's the fries?" "Oh yeah." He goes and gets a bowl and brings it to our table. "This is the large?" "No, I will bring you more." Those were cold. The second ones were warm but not hot. ❌ The burgers...again, not Bison. ❌ I take them back up and ask if they're out of Bison. He goes into the Butchery, opens a red striped box, comes back and says "No, we have Bison." I share my observation of the Butchery. He apologized and agreed to remake them. I let him know that I want our large order of fries to come to our table along with the burgers. He agreed. And they did. And the burgers and fries were all pretty amazing. But as amazing as they were, I will not be returning to...