Nation's Giant Hamburgers & Great Pies
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 6:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m. - Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: No
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Late Night
- Alcohol: None
42 reviews
El Cerrito, CA
"I'm pretty big on customer service. It's important to me. Studies show that establishments can raise their prices around 12% per year…" read more »
23 Reviews for Nation's Giant Hamburgers & Great Pies
I've loved Nations since hubby turned me on to it when we were dating many moons ago. I would give it 5 stars but this particular nations is having its parking lot remodeled, so, It took us a while to find parking and we were famished. I ordered the BLT on sour dough- Crispy bacon not greasy, crunchy lettuce juicy tomatoes sour dough bread was lightly toasted so it was not soggy at all. My only compalint ist that it was too small. yumm
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these burgers kick ass! best burger imo (i still opt for in&out because of price) they have a bakery section and i hear ppl heart their cheesecake and pies alot.
price isnt TOO bad. 4.95 burger & fries. the patty is a little bigger than average, they use 100% angus beef, and omg those fries (almost like steak fries) are fresh, and then served with a fresh pickle on the side
its the only place i throw on some tabasco sauce in my burger(it was at the condiment area, so i wanted to try something new) and theres a variety of sauces (other than the mayo,ketchup & mustard) to choose from (honey mustard, ranch, bbq) i'll get the bbq to dip my fries
I used to crave giant, juicy hamburgers from Nation's when I lived in San Diego and couldn't go there all the time anymore. Now that they're within my reach again, I have to restrain myself from going there too often, lest I die of heart disease at such a young age. Nation's has the most delicious burgers and shakes ever!! If you're really hungry, get some chili cheese fries, too. And some pie. Oh, and breakfast! Yes, it takes a while to get your order, but it's so worth it.
The hamburgers are almost TOO big! Rodney Allen Rippy might complain: "Too big a eat." They are delicious though, and I just have to resign myself to getting my face and hands messy with the condiments and grease dripping out. I tried an Ole Cheeseburger last night and it was awesome, with generous strips of green chiles. Fries are good, and their BLTs and hot dogs are good, too.
Try a java shake - yummy.
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Okay, forget the fact that I'm a Registered Dietitian. Forget the fact that I know that the fat grams in a typical hamburger probably exceed my daily recommended fat intake.
But seriously, Nations has got to be my favorite burger joint.
Why? A strawberry shake, fries dipped in honey mustard, and a hamburger with grilled onions but no mayo (cause you know how unhealthy that mayo is, right???) is one of my life's guilty pleasures. And during the summer, when their strawberry pies are available, everything just tastes so much better.
Whether it's for a quick meal with the fam, after clubbing/drinking/concert-going, or just waking up for the day, Nation's always hits the spot.
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Thank GOD this place is open all hours of the night! 'Cause you know what this fat girl is thinking about at 2am? PIE.
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I gotta agree with Nancy's review. If you order a hamburger here, you do get a ton of mayo, lettuce, and raw onions sandwiched between two buns. That's why you have to customize your burger when you come to Nation's. Here's what I usually do: I order a hamburger with light mayo and less lettuce, and ask them to grill the onions and put a fried egg on it (fatburger style). Then I eat it with barbecue sauce. You have to wait a few minutes longer, and it costs about 80 cents more, but it's totally worth it. Just treat Nation's like Starbucks--you have to tell them how you want it or else they'll f*** it up. All of their pies are good, too. I usually get a slice of lemon meringue if it's fresh. A major plus about this place is that it's pretty much the only food joint in Pleasant Hill that's open until 3 am. It's a great place to go if you're hungry after seeing a late movie at Century.
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Went here for breakfast. They make good breakfast. Nation's Rock! Whoo!
All the hype on Red Robin (dry as a bone) and In and Out Burger? Ok, but only if there is not a minute of waiting involved.
BIG JUICY DRIPPY Burger like the old Wendy's commercials for those of you old enough to remember the 70's......
Fries are great, In too early? they have breakfast and not talking Mc Breakfast here.
And if not already headed to the cardiac ward, PIE and LOTS of IT
Totally not an every day for lunch place, unless you want to gaina quick 50 pounds, but when you GOTTA have that burger, this is worth the trip.
:(
I feel like mayo is oozing out of my eyelids.
Most of the time, I work from home or at a client site but I had to go to the office today in Pleasant Hill. I generally take my lunch even though my boss always has food delivered -- mainly because it's food that's often delicious in that thoroughly un-nutritious way.
You know the kind I'm talking about.
Today they settled on Nation's. I hadn't had breakfast and the salad I brought didn't have much protein so I was happy to see that I could get my burger this way (from their web site): Lettuce Wrap, Diet Plate, grilled onions and sliced pickles on request. Mmm sliced pickles!
What I got was a burger encased in a layer of what looked like at least a half-cup of mayo wrapped in in few iceberg lettuce leaves. That iceberg lettuce stood NO chance against that amount of mayo. Even after scraping it off, there was a lot of mayo.
Of course, I ate the scraped burger - the burger itself was okay.
Diet plate?? Stunningly unclear on the concept. I'm hoping this is a fluke, because I would like to try the 'Harvester' (vegetarian burger).
I don't just feel greasy. I feel greeeezy.
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the harvestburger was not very good at all. it had a weird chunky rice texture to it and was lacking in any sort of flavor what-so-ever. the fries were really awesome and the strawberry tart held up pretty well in my fridge until the next day. i'd definitely go back for fries and a shake or pie but never again for the harvestburger.
i had THE BEST cheese burger at nations! i've been craving cheeseburgers for the past week and i finally treated myself to a phat one.
So basically, i got a cheeseburger with all the regular trimmings, grilled onions - not raw, NO LETTUCE, and a fried egg over medium. omg...it was the best thing that i sank my mouth into. Gooey cheese, juicy hamburger, crips tomatoes, seasoned onions and a yummy egg. ohhh i want another one sooo bad! I'm just really happy that Nation's really listens to their customers and customizes their burger as requested. I bet you if i asked for a cheesburger without the buns and meat...they'd do it.
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in my family when it comes to burgers there is val's and then there is nations. i grew up on burgers and nations was always a big hit with me.
i can remember as a child going to the fremont location and the first thing i would do is drop my quarters into the jukebox and play devo's "whip it" over and over again. that was the new popular song at the time and that was so long ago. i bet the people working there at that time hated that damn song because of me. a giant burger, fries and a shake and i was passed out in the back seat of the car 30 minutes later.
nations can be a little over generous at time i have found out with the burger toppings. many a time i have had a burger and open it up to find half a head of lettuce a huge stack of onions and 4 large leafs of ice burg lettuce. don't get me wrong i love the hookup but after two bites of these burgers with all that and your using a fork to eat the rest. don't get me started on the breakfast and pie's or i would be here all day. just trust me and try all you can.
what i really love about nations is they truly take the comment and suggestion cards very seriously. i send them into the main office of course but if you get a bad burger or have a bad experience i find they will send you cards for free burgers. i also love going in with my dad as he went to high school with dale powers, a nations big wig so we can get our burgers under cooked most of the time.
great prices make nations one of the best burgers in the bay area.
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I went to this Nation's for the first time today. Food was typical for nations. The vegetarian burger (Harverster) was good, the fries were hot, and the pie was good. (Hey vegans, the Harvesters do contain cheese, so their not vegan. I haven't had a Nation's breakfast, so I can't comment on that.
Be sure to order the grilled onions as extras on your burger (no charge), and you might want to ask for "no dressing" if you don't want tons of mayo.
The decor is so-so: It's a mini mall restaurant, right next to a Starbucks. Basic Nation's seating--some booths, some tables. If you use Starbucks' wifi (T-Mobile), you can sit in Nation's and connect to the internet.
3 1/2 stars because I love the Nations grilled cheese and fries but as other reviewers have noted, the wait is long. And unfortunately, they don't seem to do very well taking orders over the phone (they do take them, but I never end up getting exactly what I ordered) so calling ahead doesn't really help.
Great Juicy Cheese Burgers, Love the pies, great bang for the buck. Kind of tastes like an In-n-Out burger but has 3 times the meat and is just slightly a little more and less the a quarter pounder from McD's. 1 Cheese Burger wasn't enough, I had 2. :)
If you are from the East Bay you rep Nations over In-N-Out burger everyday of the week and twice on Sundays cuz you gots tah drop one of them burgers in the vespers basket at church. Nations is the real deal. Nations is practically synonymous with family to me. Nations was one of my earliest burger joint memories as a child. After the worst day of my life (my gram's funeral), my brother and I ate at one "in honor" of her. She loved Nations. I love Nations, my family loves Nations, I will bust a cap in yo' LA In-N-Out burger lovin' ass if you bag on my Nations.
Soooooo.....
I'd been dancing the night away as per the usual and I'm kinda hungry. The boys are too (although Lloyd had spent the whole night feasting on Cri's face. Which, since they are engaged, I can tease him about) and we are trying to figure out WHAT we are going to eat at this hour (2:15am) in the East Bay besides somebody's leftovers. Then it hits Gino (cuz the boy USED to weigh 300lbs before he got the surgery): NATIONS!!! Nations stays open until 3am! Gino happens to also have Nations on his speed dial so we place our orders. I'm having a cheeseburger protein style (no buns, between 2 pieces of lettuce), fries and a chocolate shake. The boys got the same minus the protein style option. We roll across the street to Lloyd's place and start eating and talking about how our (theirs really) evening rocked, etc. I'm slurping on my chocolate shake and then Lloyd or Gino says something funny and I laugh at the exact same moment I am taking a pull off my straw which causes me to inhale chocolate shake into my sinuses. What do I do? I yell my now infamous East Bay phrase: "AHHH! It tastes like I just snorted a line of chocolate shake!"
Lloyd and Gino look at each other and start laughing hysterically. Once again I provide the comedic entertainment simply by being me.
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there is the good and bad
the good: when you are absolutley wasted at 2am there is only one place to go. NATIONS. If you are from the coco county and you want to get dumb stupid hyphy shake your jesus locks then you go to NATIONS. Cheeseburger with grilled onions + chili cheese fries + milkshake + strawberry cheesecake = a wonderful bathroom experience the next morning.
the bad: the worst fucking service ever. My buddies and i usually call in an order, play some 4player bomberman on the wii for about half an hour, get there and wait another 20 minutes for our order to get ready. Its almost not worth the wait but your so wasted by then that you dont care.
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My wife's family says that there's one tried and true hangover cure:
Grab a Nation's Cheeseburger and a large coke. You'll be fine within a couple of hours.
So I remember in the Summer of 2004 we partied a little too hard at her sister's house. Actually I think I was the only idiot who was partying. Let's just say it involved more than 5 Bombay Sapphire Martinis, a painful headache, and some technicolor yawning the next morning. I hadn't been sick like that in a very long time (and haven't been since, by the way.) Anyway, my then-girlfriend (I don't know if and how close I got, that day, from becoming single again...) dragged my sick and hungover ass to Nation's. One Cheeseburger and a Coke later.... and I was good to go.
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Grilled cheese sanwich and fries with a side of mayo, jalapenos, tobasco sauce, and coke or vanilla shake is THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD. Instantly makes me happy.
Also the Ole burger and some of the pies (like the strawberry) is delicious.
A little slow sometimes and defintely really slow on a Friday night when it's crowded but it's open until 3am and re-opens at 6am.
I love that this place serves a good burger and fries, and is open after most places are closed. Haven't tried the pies yet but I've been meaning too.
It takes forever to get your burger though. Like 10-15 minutes after you order.
For a fast food burger, nothing tops Nation's. Granted, they're a bit slower in making your food than BK and the Mc, but their quality more than makes up for it. I don't eat here nearly as much as I did when I wore bigger sized pants, but every now and then I give in to the greasy salty temptation. My favorite is the Giant Cheeseburger with green chilies (served "ole" as they call it), and all of the condiments (remember, that's not mayonnaise, it's dressing - probably Miracle Whip or something similar). Back in the days before they built the Fake Downtown Pleasant Hill, the P-Hill Nations was a dumpy hamburger stand from the 50's or 60's on Contra Costa Blvd in approximately the same location as where the Hollywood Video and Hallmark stores are now. That place was classic, and very dirty. I remember one time I went there for breakfast, and the cook realized that she forgot to cook up some sausage for my order, so she dumped a few in the deep fryer. And then there was the time when a teenage employee was working the cash register handling cash, walked over to the trash can and pushed down the trash with his bare hands, and then went back behind the counter and served up some food, all without washing his hands. Rest assured though that their new location is nothing at all like that (very different management it seems), but they do sometimes have a tough time keeping their tables clean when it's busy. They also could use some more seating. www.nationsrestaurants...
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Having spent 6 years in the sfsu area, i had grown accustomed to the nation's in daly city. This is the first time i've been to one besides that but it's not all that different. Pros: self-serve condiments; i order a cheeseburger and fries every time and at the self-serve bar i get 2 containers of bbq sauce- one for the fries and one for the burger. I also get a container of jalapenos for the burger and because that still isn't enough i also grab a bottle all to myself of hot sauce. That burger is spicy and goddam tasty. Another thing i like is ordering a small soda and eating in the restaurant so as to milk all the free refills i can handle. Cons: these things i know how to avoid due to being an avid patron but still you should know. By not intervening, nation's will take the liberty of dumping an obscene amount of mayonnaise on your burger. It's not even funny how hard they are trying to kill you with that amount of mayonnaise. Similarly, if you do not say something, you will have more onion slices on your burger than you will probably eat for another 6 months. I'm talking like 2 whole onions sliced and stacked on there, it's ridiculous. Another shitty thing at least at the pleasant hill location is the wait for the order. I go alone and with only one person in front of me it took them almost 15 minutes to deliver a burger and fries. I like my food fresh but jesus fucking christ. The burger is still tasty and greasy and life-stopping, all good things so don't be put off by that.
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