Hamburger Haven in San Francisco, California: A Restaurant Review

I'm always on the lookout for a good, low-priced, greasy spoon sort of diner, so when I saw that the Bay Guardian dropped a recommendation for this place in their annual "Oversized List Of Stuff Our Editors Happen To Like" issue just recently, I decided to give it a shake and see how it stood up.

Hamburger Haven is found on 800 Clement Street, in the Inner Richmond neighborhood at the intersection of Clement and 9th Avenue. The location alone makes me suspect that the Guardian and the Weekly did what they usually do with their "Best Of" lists, which is to only pick things that are right next to major public transportation lines, so that the writers can easily get there, hop off and get back to the office. I won't be put off by one bad cue, however, so I forged on ahead and found the diner only moderately crowded for a sunny weekend afternoon in the summer.

They do serve breakfast all day, but I opted not to try it this time out, figuring with a name like "Hamburger Haven" you'd better evaluate the goods they are putting on display first, if you catch my meaning. I did notice that they offer two eggs, two sausage links and two hotcakes for $4.95, which isn't a bad deal for city prices at all. I made a note of that one for future inspection, which I'll report on in the comments section here forthwith. The rest of the breakfast menu is simple and inexpensive, ranging in price from four bucks for two lonesome eggs to eleven bucks for steak and eggs (with all items served with hash browns and toast.) Omelettes are about six bucks all around and the options are bacon, diced ham, Denver, mushroom, cheese, veggie, avocado and jack or Texas. You can also grab a short stack for four bucks, or a full stack, waffles or French toast for five bucks.

Burger prices are pretty reasonable and there's a wide range. Aside from the standard burger and cheeseburger, both a touch over five bucks, there's a Reubenburger, patty melt, Muffin Burger (served on an English muffin), Italian burger (served with pepperoncini), chicken breast, fish burger (fried halibut), Bar-B-Q, tuna, turkey, chili and something called the California Burger that was at the top of the price heap at eight bucks. They also serve a few different hamburger steaks, a New York strip steak, and a few different sandwiches and salads.

So how are the burgers? Pretty decent. About what you'd expect from a decent greasy spoon - all the ingredients are likely from CostCo or Safeway but they do as good a job as possible in the cooking and preparation, and it's satisfying if you want a comfort food fix. I stuck with the standard cheeseburger and left fairly pleased, but I'm eyeing that fried halibut burger for another return trip, as I saw one come out for someone else and it looked good. The fries were edible, but could use some work - you have the option of subbing potato salad or coleslaw, however.

After drink and tip you'll likely drop just short of ten bucks here, which is standard diner pricing in this day and age, and the food is good enough to stand up. It's not quite the experience that the Guardian talked up recently, but these places usually aren't. It is a solid diner stop however, and one I'll be back to at some point.