Late to the party...Smashburger

Because the place we originally wanted to go to for lunch was CLOSED until 2 pm on Mondays (The Rocking Tanuki; the tanuki by the way is a Japanese racoon dog with a huge nutsac), I wanted to go someplace relatively close by. My good old Garmin listed Sab-e-Lee (the original one) and Smashburger as the closest places...

Smashburger it was...

I'm a little "late to the party" as there was a whole slew of bloggers posting on all the openings of the new locations a few months ago. I figured I'd wait for things to die down. This particular location has been here for awhile though so it's not really that new. It's in the Hazard Center complex right underneath Joe's Crab Shack. In fact, the space for this Smashburger used to be Clothestime! I used to shop there in the late 80's all the way up to the mid 90's. Now I'm dating myself...

Although it had rained the day before, it was nice and sunny today so TC and I sat outside to bask in the sunlight like cold blooded reptiles.

Their menu:



Oh yeah...the Haagen-Daz chocolate shake with Oreos inside...total calorie overload today. TC and I shared this and brought the rest of the shake home...

Our burgers....

TC's kid's cheeseburger with fries. These are just regular fries not the Smash fries which are flavored with rosemary, olive oil, and garlic (hmmm, maybe next time).

The San Diego burger with pepper jack cheese, lettuce, red onions, tomato, cilantro, chipotle mayo, drizzles of sour cream, and of course, avocado (it's under there somewhere)...

I didn't even use the lime. It was hard enough eating my burger without making a giant mess and not having it drip through the mesh table...but man, it was good!

A bite of my messy burger...

The mesh trays may look cute but I think they are kind of small and don't leave much room for anything. Maybe a larger plate might have been easier to maneuver the food. Plus, when my burger dripped, it went through the table's holes, so a larger tray would have been helpful as well. My jeans had a nice drip stain on it. But man, was that burger good! I finished half and saved the rest for later while TC polished hers off.

Who else ate at the Mission Valley location of Smashburger?

Darren of San Diego Food went here back in 2010; same with uberblogger Kirbie

Other locations with corresponding bloggers' posts include:
Downtown - Kirbie
Kearny Mesa - Kirbie and again, Kirbie with tips on their Secret Menu as well as Leanne's post on the "secret" options. I wish I remembered these because some of those secret options looked pretty good!
RPQ - Mary, Kirbie, and CAB (and her revisit here)
La Jolla - Mary
Del Mar - Kirbie

I believe there's another location in Vista (it might've opened up already, I don't know) but I didn't find any reviews... Update - According to Superman, the Vista location is now open!

I may have missed some other posts/links but you get the picture by now...

Anyhoo, it was worth going to at least once...TC really enjoyed her burger. It's funny and cute how she always says, "This is the best burger I've ever had" at every burger place we've gone to...