A Hamburger Today- aht.seriouseats.com

In-N-Out: Hooked at Fisherman's Wharf

Posted by Adam Kuban, June 12, 2006 at 1:14 AM

IN-N-OUT BURGER
Location Visited: 333 Jefferson St., San Francisco CA 94133 [map]. Here are other locations
Website: In-N-Out.com
Getting There: Why not take a cable car? (Ding ding!) May I suggest the Powell-Hyde line?
The Short Order: Not the best burger I've ever had, but it is the ideal fast-food burger. Check out the not-so-secret secret menu
You Want Fries With That? Sure they're fresh-cut and what not, but so what? I didn't think they were all they were cracked up to be. I'd still take an order of perfectly done Mickey D's if given the choice. Maybe I should have ordered them animal style?

Double Double, blogged to AHT from the Flickr photostream of Slice

I just got back from my journey to San Francisco, a trip that afforded me my first opportunity to eat at an In-N-Out Burger. Some of you may be scandalized that the editor and publisher of A Hamburger Today had never had a Double Double before. Yeah, yeah, yeah: I'd never been to California prior to this trip, OK?

Having never been to San Francisco before, I did the requisite tourist stuff -- Alcatraz, Pier 39, a cable-car ride. Said cable-car ride stopped, conveniently, near Fisherman's Wharf, where there's an In-N-Out. (I love it when a plan comes together.)

The Fisherman's Wharf location was pretty much everything I'd heard an In-N-Out to be: clean, fast, and staffed with friendly workers.

The burger? Pretty much everything I'd heard it to be, too: fresh, never-frozen beef; crisp, fresh produce; well built. The double-patty, double-cheese variation hit the bun-to-beef ratio on the head. The bun was toasted perfectly -- a nice contrast of crunch and softness in and of itself. Easily the best burger from a fast food chain I've ever had.

Was it the best burger I've ever had? Mmmm, no. But it is exactly what a fast food burger should be, and it's a shame that the McDonald brothers' sandwiches, and not In-N-Out's, became California's burger ambassadors to the world.

Click through for an In-N-Out photo gallery ...

IN-N-OUT PHOTO GALLERY

Interesting fact: In-N-Out cup bottoms are marked with a Bible passage. I don't know if it's John 3:16 on all cups or if there are random passages marked and our cups both happened to have this one, but I think they could have gone with a less obvious passage. Then again, I guess it's probably better to avoid obscurantism when trying to gain converts via soft drinks.

Me at the Fisherman's Wharf In-N-Out Burger. In the shadow under the point -- the dude in the sunlight is just some random dude.

When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bay, oh I want to be there eating burgers, whoooah oooah whoooah.

15 Comments | Tags: Adam, Burger Map Pinpoint, California, countries, In-N-Out, photo gallery, SF, U.S.