3/17/2009

Burger Crawl Part 2: The Dive Bar


(Continued from 3/11/9)
The next stop on the Birthday Burger Crawl was Hinano Cafe, a dive bar on Washington Blvd. in Venice. Here's where I made my error. In preparation for the crawl, I did a little investigation. One of my sources was yelp. I went there and looked up "burgers in Venice Beach, CA" and Hinano Cafe was #1 on the list. There were tons of great burger reviews for this place. Check them out:

"So I am quite the fan of the cheeseburger and I must say this is probably THE best burger I have ever had, no joke."
"The burgers here are outstanding. "
"Burgers are like 5 bucks and there is NOTHING better."

And it wasn't just yelp that had good reviews of the place. On Urban Spoon, 27 people voted for the bar and 100% of them liked it. I'm guessing most of the people were voting for the ambiance and beer.

With so many rave reviews, Hinano Cafe was our second stop on the Birthday Burger Crawl. I was hoping to make a great discovery, and it would have been even better at a dive bar. But alas, we had no such luck.

As you can see from the photo, the burger was pretty plain. The sesame seed bun, the best part of the burger, was soft and fresh. Inside was a sad looking, thin, overcooked beef patty, some shredded lettuce, mayo and maybe a little ketchup. Doritos came on the side.

We had a couple of bites and determined it was a decent burger for a dive bar. Then we were off to our next destination and last stop on the Birthday Burger Crawl. Stay tuned for our next stop: the unexpected burger.

Alli411Tips

1. Park in the public lot on the beach.

2. When planning a burger crawl eat light the rest of the day and share the burgers so you don't get full too fast.

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Hinano Cafe
15 Washington Blvd
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
(310) 822-3902

Hinano Cafe on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What? Although I think YELP is for pussies, I do indeed love this burger. And while, yes, the burger can certainly be overdone at times, I do appreciate that char. And, the atmosphere...genius! To be honest, I'm not impressed with this burger tour so far (although I know there's still hope!). You need to get off of Yelp and consult with some LA burger pro's before you make any more bad decisions. I’d also like to suggest you give Hinano’s another shot. While it definitely is not the best in LA (but does compete for best dive bar burger) I think you may have just had a bad night.

http://www.burgertour.com/

http://aht.seriouseats.com/tags/LA

Good luck,
DL