Lovely's — Restaurant in San Francisco

Recommendation: AVOID

Was very excited to try this place, alas it really did disappoint. The burger was ok. It's a smash and generally I love a smash but after more than 2 hours of lines... Cold fries at a burger place feels pretty inexcusable. More than that, it feels like the place is set up to trap you in this opaque funnel (more on the many lines later) and encourage you to buy drinks to pass the excessive wait times. Over all I think there are places in SF that offer better burgers, much better fries and infinitely more pleasurable experiences.

Honestly this place is less of a restaurant than a collection of lines.

Anatomy of lines Line 1 - The door (15 minutes) The door is your first opportunity to wait. This line looked like it was moving quickly but once you get to the front, it really slows down.

Line 2 - Drinks (15 minutes) Just a few steps in the door is line number 2, ordering beer from Woods, the other business that shares the space with Lovely's. It's unclear if this line is optional. The door person seemed to suggest it was not even though we did not want beer. He told us we'd be able to wait for a table after we got a drink.

Line 3 - A table (25 minutes) After ordering drinks you stand in an entirely separate line to get a table. The door man told us this would be 15 min. It seems like you could actually just have walked straight in and gotten in that line but maybe the door guy works for the bar not the burger place?

Line 4 - Ordering (25 minutes) It's clear from the moment you sit down that you've now entered another line. Waiting for a server to come over and take your order. It was clear that even though we knew what we wanted, we had now entered another line and would not be able to order until it was our turn. When we finally got the opportunity to place an order, we were told we were not allowed to order doubles.

Line 5 - The food (35 minutes) We then had to wait another 35 minutes to get our 3 single burgers and 2 orders of fries. The fries were...

Easily my favorite smashburger in the Bay Area - maybe even the US.

The OG burger combines a perfect meat-to-bun ratio (reminds me of Burger Joint NYC - my second favorite smashburger) and the soft squishy potato bun (similar to shake shack). The American cheese and the perfectly griddled onions with pickles on top makes this my very favorite!

Patio seating in the back and the bar opens at 4pm (an hour before they serve food) You have to get a table to order food so best to come a little before opening and make yourself cozy with a drink...

not sure what the hype is over a mediocre smashburger. they watch you decide what to tip (this is before you have even seen your food, they charge you as you're ordering).

the staff wasn't pleasant (except there was a girl named I think Olive who sort of helped us and apologized for some confusion, she seemed kind but who knows, maybe they're just playing good cop bad cop). you really have to suffer and humiliate yourself over a decent burger. all in all...