Best Hamburges in

South Orange County, CA

South Orange County, CA is highly blessed with a few great hamburger places, and thank God that we are, because MOST hamburger places are pretty much the same. Here are my choices for BEST OF ALL HAMBURGER PLACES
in South Orange County CA.Fatburger

San Clemente

View map / Driving Directions

1017 S. El Camino Real San Clemente, CA 92672 P: 949-492-9182 F: 949-218-1185

The owner’s name is Rich and he’s there most of the time, playing Jolly Innkeeper as well as any restauarteur I’ve ever seen. He’ll even bus the tables as he chats up the guests.

Now, the King Deal KingBurger at Fatburger is a half pound of majesty—juicy and made of EXCELLENT quality beef, not that gristly stuff that some places serve in their big burgers.

I get my King Deal CHEESEburger with head lettuce leaves wrapped around it, and all the usual stuff on it. The key to eating a lettuc-wrapped burger is to wrap a napkin around the outside of the burger and as you eat it, keep sliding or rolling the paper down. Fatburger serves their burgers in a tidy little envelope that makes eating a carbo-burger a breeze.

I usually take my special Heinz Lo-Carb ketchep in with me and that way save 75% off the carbs in regular, sugary Heinz.

With the lettuce wrap, a Fatburger King Deal has about 3 carbohydrate grams. With a bun, it has nearly 50. Because I need to stay under 40 grams a day to lose weight every day on the Atkins diet, you can see the value in Lettuce wrapping for me.

Bravo Burger

31722 Rancho Viejo Rd, San Juan Capistrano

Get off the 5 at Ortega Highway and go East and turn right on Rancho Viejo Road. OMG, their burger must use the best beef in the world…it is sooooo hearty and rich…get their double cheeseburger, or giant turkey or chicken sandwiches. BBQed anything is terrific. Bravo Burger’s chicken salad is big enough for THREE people.

This is a small, family owned (O&O) burger chain with I think seven locations (another I know of is in Huntington Beach and lots of bicyclists favor it), Bravo Burger doesn’t have a web site, at least one that I could find. We just discovered Bravo Burger a few weeks ago (Feb-07) and have added it to our favorite burger and salad list.

In-And-Out Burger

——————————————–—————————————————————

Hey, In-And-Out Burgers, on Camino Capistrano, in Laguna Niguel, just off Avery Parkway, from the 5 freeway, serves the incomparable DOUBLE DOUBLE cheeseburger which may be cooked by God instead of by the super friendly, albeit noisy, cooks banging out the burgers and fries.

Besides the Laguna Niguel one, there are other south Orange County In-and-Outs in Laguna Hills and Foothill ranch. They like to locate their units about 10 miles apart on freeways…we were gonna get one in San Clemente where Carrows is now, but the city council felt that the driveway would be too close to the fallout from the Pico Blvd. off ramp and so turned it down. I even spoke in favor of it before the city council.

Rose Donuts (and Burgers),

Now this little unassuming place sits alongside a beauty shop and a liquor store in North Orange County:

SAN CLEMENTE624 Camino De Los Mares
San Clemente, CA 92673
(949) 493-9200

There are about six other locations in Southern California, with the closes being:

CORONA DEL MAR3536 East Coast Highway, Ste C
Corona Del Mar, CA 92625
(949) 675-3151

The owner lady, Katie, is a meticulous person who keeps the place tidy and compact. The menu covers breakfast and lunch and their donuts are terrific, from when I used to eat such things. Their cheeseburger combo is only about $5.50 and huge; the fries are to die for.

I usually sit outside at eat since the area is covered. Believe it or not, this place was name one of the THREE TOP BEST HAMBURGERS IN ORANGE COUNTY places by the Orange County Register Newspaper a few years ago. (Tip: Get the fries done extra-crispy & the bear claws are amazingly good.

Bill and I discovered a great suntan product (see below) when it was first sold by CVS Pharmacies throughout Orange County, California. It is sold as a moisturizer, but it has a side-effect of producing a healthy “glow” after you apply it, and especially if you keep using it.

This glow is just another word for a fake tan, but this one is a very even, non-streaking, smooth and natural-looking tan. Bill loves it in the winter because he wears shorts all the time (being both an ex-hippy and a surfer) and hates white legs on men. I find it a great moisturizer as well as delivering that glow.

It was originally marketed by Jergins (Lotions) and is called

Jergens^® natural glow
Daily Moisturizer

Awards

Editorials

Jergens® natural glow Daily Moisturizer delivers an optimum amount of color to even out and enrich the appearance of your skin. Formulated with a unique blend of non-drying Erythrulose, DHA and essential moisturizers to gradually develop a soft, natural glow, without streaking or orange coloration often experienced with using a self-tanner. Simply moisturize your skin to keep a beautiful and natural glow. It comes in three different shades to complement your unique skin tone.

BUT WAIT,,,,you don’t have to pay Jergins $8 or $9 for their stuff. You can buy the generic version at any of the jillions of CVS Pharmacies that seem to have bought out most other pharmacies in Orange County. We go to either the CVS on PCH in San Clemente, or the one on Camino de las Mares in North San Clemente.

The CVS version is called “Essential Glow” Daily Moisturizer and Bill uses the one for Medium Skin Tones and so do I. Also, this product is $2 to $3 cheaper than the Jergins original brand, but seems to work just as well.

Odd they do not market it as a fake sun tan lotion, but it could be because they figure the market is BIGGER for a product that serves a DUAL purpose: Moisturing AND sun tan, since likely far more people buy moisturizer (regularly used by millions) than they do sun tan lotion. And the sun tan feature makes THEIR product unique compared to other moisturizers. (So saith Bill, the marketing consultant guru and my hubby). Debbie