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Dog House Gourmet Hot Dogs - CLOSED
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Validated
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- No
20 reviews for Dog House Gourmet Hot Dogs
I came here with my coworker today for lunch and i had the manhattan dog that is a polish dog with dijon mustard, grilled onion, and provolone cheese. i like it! the staff is very pleasant and efficient. i will come back and try the linguica next time.
update as of 2/22/2008
***Dog House Gourmet Hot Dogs is CLOSED!!!
***It is now La Nostra Pizza (New York Pizza and Italian ristorante) which I needed to review!!!
Two words: Venezuelan Dog.
I'd been craving one of these since I first saw the concoction on Jim O'Connell's "Secret Life Of..." on the Food Network. It appeared to be a middle-schoolers experiment gone horribly, incredibly RIGHT.
Take one all-beef hot dog in a sesame bun. Bury it in chopped cabbage and onions. Add mustard, ketchup and mayo (that's right-mayo!). Top with as many cracked potato chips it'll hold. Enjoy.
It was one of the most thoroughly delicious dogs I've had since "the tribe" left Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Unbelievable. For good measure, I also ordered a plain dog, which was juicy with a nice 'snap'.
Washed down with an icy bottle of Fat Tire, the total tab came in around $10. Not bad, considering the convenience to the hotels and museums.
After the Venezuelan, I was tempted to set up my own secret Hawt Dog lab and pick up where I left off in the 6th grade. Now where'd I put those Funyuns?
This place is super pretty inside. One wall is lined with these amazing red bricks, and on them hang flat panel tvs showing sports surrounded by speakers, and the other wall is this beige color with sports photographs abundant. I think this space would be better served as a tapas restaurant. Anyhoo to the dogs...
I got the Lone Star dog, which is basically like a chili dog, and I had hoped and prayed it would be good because I love making chili dogs myself. But it was just so so. The dog itself was good, but somehow the chili was closest to the bun and so wet that it made my bun so mushy that my hot dog slipped on through and thus I had wet nappy hot dog and chili on my hands. Not to mention that they put mayo on top...
Here I was all excited to get my exotic hotdogging on, only to find that I am indeed a classic connoisseur of hot dogs. I like the ones at the ball park best, followed by top dog, followed by costsco.
My pineapple shake wasn't all that tasty either. The whole thing tasted like whipped cream.
But the one great thing was the service. Nice people and they validated my parking! Woo.
The more I think about it, the more I dislike the place. So I'm going to stop it at 2 and write up my review.
I ordered a corn dog and a Maui dog. The corn dog first came out cold. Unpleasantly cold and slightly damp -- like it sat on ice or something. Whatever, sent it back. Got a new one. Now this one was CRAZY hot. When I pulled it out of its paper wrapping, it was completely over-cooked. It was probably fried for about a minute too long -- which in the world of hot dogs dipped in batter is an eternity.
My Maui dog experience went a little bit better. The Portugese sausage was pretty good. But the onions and pineapples were just blah. The onions weren't particularly well sauteed. Then the mayo and mustard were just squeezed on top. The concoction wasn't particularly impressive. I was hoping for a lot more and it just fell short.
Some coworkers also ordered a basket of fries. They look like they were dropped in the fryer and forgotten about. Blech.
Dog House is moving in 3 days as of this writing... to places unknown -- and likely will never be known to me. Between now and then you can get $1 off any dog.
For all you weiner lovers...get your sausages, linguicas, hot dogs, and all your meat stuffed in a tube right here!!!
The stylists at the shop love this place for the eclectic tastes and wide variety of well...snasauges.
My favorite thing here is the classic hot dog...maybe because its all beef and not overly greasy, I do have to agree with David about their buns, but other than that this place has been a treat to have on First Street.
They also serve salads as well and is open till 12 am on weekends.
Since none of the vegetarian co-workers were around today, I hit this place with a New Jersey transplant that was craving East Coast street vendor food. Since hotdogs are a rarity in joints around here we decided to hit up this place.
Good representation of the different styles, Chicago, NYC, etc. They even had the Los Angeles "Death Dog" which is a hot dog wrapped in bacon that you get after concerts and such in SoCal. Although I think they call it the LA Street Vendor Dog here. I went for one NY style that had sauerkraut and mustard and a polish sausage with pastrami, dijon mustard, sauteed onions and cheese. My co-worker went for two classic dogs with onions. There was one called the Boss Hog which had bacon, bbq sauce and friend onion strings, which I had pondered but, that would have been too much contrast to the NY style.
Verdict: Great dogs with good texture and flavor. A decent size not to large not too small. The polish sausage was also pretty tasty but that particular selection wth the pastrami and mustard was messy and best eaten using the paper wrapping to hold it together.
The space is new, brick walls, wooden tables/chairs and a two large flatscreen tv's for sports, etc. They have a handful of beers on tap which would make this a good venue to munch and watch a game. Service was order at the counter and pick up when they yell your number.
I think overall this is a solid place with a lot of potential. They havent hit their stride yet and for the food you get it's a bit pricey ($12 for my 2 and a drink). It's no Gray's Papaya but since there's very little establishments like this, it's a nice to have when you're craving it. I'll definitely return to try some of the other selections and I think a Death Dog and the Boss Hog are next up to bat.
Despite its name, this place is far from "gourmet". I tried the Californian Dog, and for $5.75, it better be exceptional. Well, it was not. The chicken apple sausage in the Californian Dog tasted like it was cooked hours ago, the avocado was hard, and the bun was soggy.
Bottom line: It would have been acceptable if the hot dogs cost about $3. Totally not worth the price!
The shakes at 'Dog House' are really good. The best in the Bay, I think...(They are about $4.10 with includes the tax).
I haven't tried all of the dogs, but from what I've tasted--the 'Boss Hog' (a hot dog link wrapped with bacon, and covered with onions and BBQ sauce)...it's satisfactory.
It's kind of pricey, as a meal of a hot dog, drink, and fries comes out to be over $10....(and if you're really hungry, you may in trouble if you want to order another dog).
Still, the service is quick and professional...(if only it wasn't so expensive!)
Many of the other posters have mentioned Top Dog, which I may have to try sometime...
Nice set up. Clean.
Not many vegetarian options. A few salads, grilled cheese and nachos you can order without meat. You can always opt for the french fries, onion rings, curly fries or onion strings too. Those weren't bad.
There were a lot (probably 20+) varieties of hot dogs to order. I don't eat meat... but they looked good.
The staff was friendly and helpful.
My only complaint for this place is the price and they do not have any vegetarian options. I think all but one of their salads have meat in it, although I suppose one can always ask for them to leave the meat out.
They're open late; the hot dogs are a good size; and everything is quite tasty. I would have never thought to have avocados and hot dogs together but it is quite a winsome combination.
The service is quick and the area is clean, but because of how pricey the dogs are I will continue to go to the more inexpensive Top Dog.
I suspect that they do not freshly grill their dogs since the linguica I ordered LOOKED grilled, but was very dry...perhaps due to it being nuked in the microwave instead of grilled. The shoestring onions were clumps of thinly sliced and finely battered onion strings that tasted like charred onion scraps. They weren't very appetizing after all that gnawing and no matter how much ketchup I dipped them in.
This is the kind of place that you go to if you don't mind having the dressings help make up for the quality of the dogs themselves. I guess if they put on enough cheese, mustard, mayo, ketchup, bacon bits, lettuce, tomatoes, ranch sauce, bbq sauce, and french fries, that you won't have to care about the taste of the dog or the cold bun.
I love hot dogs and I had really high expectations going in but I was a little let down.
For $8.55 I got the 'Lonestar' hot dog with a side of fries. The Lonestar came topped with cheddar cheese, chili and mayo, the bun was toasted, and I found the sausage lukewarm which detracted somewhat from the overall taste.
The restaurant is nicely done with a clean renovated look about the place and hardwood floors that I found added a bit of warmth.
I hope the next time I come I can bump up my rating because I'm sure this place can make better hot dogs!
can't recommend this place at all. The high price isn't worth it for a hotdog. I don't know any hotdog meal that should cost almost 10 dollars, even if it is a gourmet hotdog place. It's still a hotdog. You would think that you could get three hotdogs for that price.
Go to top dog, and I don't even like top dog that much, but you can get multiple hotdogs for the price, when you want that non-mocrowavable hotdog fix.
This place is not gourmet. If it were gourmet, they'd care more that their buns are served cold, and their toppings sit too long in water. Grilled onions are not meant to be soaked for hours. They charge twice as much as they hot dogs are worth. If you are looking for a good hot dog in downtown San Jose, go to Top Dog.
Are you a hot dog lover? My friend is really into hot dogs and has been at most hot dog stands and restaurants that serve dogs. I found this place in the wave magazine so we all had to go check it out. I was pretty pleased with the cleanliness of the restaurant and the dogs and the many condiments that comes with it. I had a chicago dog which was about 4.00. Yup, a bit pricey but it was worth it. My friend loved it so much he had 2.
They have a good variety of dogs here like the bacon wrapped. But its a little pricey considering top dog is around the corner. I'd recommend top dog over this place any time of the day. But It hink this place is open late so its good for late night eats.
The name of the restaurant sounds fun and the menu looked good. I ordered a chili dog for $3.95. The price is okay too for downtown SJ but since we had to wait about 5 minutes for our order, I expected my order to be hot. But the dog and the chili was just lukewarm. The place is clean and modern but the employees hanging around the front of the restaurant and sitting at the dining tables was turnoff.
Dogs here are pretty good but my friends and I were seriously pissed off when we took the trouble to go eat here, which involves the madness of trying to find parking on a Saturday night, at 11:30pm only to find that they were closed (although printed take home menus say open until 2:30am on Saturday nights).
They had a printed sheet of paper near the door saying that Winter Hours are only until 10pm on Saturday nights. In downtown SJ when you have printed menus that say 2:30am.
Thanks for nothing Dog House!
EDIT:
I walked around today, in January 08, by the location, it was gone. Long gone. Too bad but they could have done things better.
I love that this place is open until 3am. Tried the Italian Stallion which was excellent - Italian sausage topped with lots of mushrooms, tasty marinara sauce and grilled onions. Finally a decent place to grab some gourmet dogs at a decent price in downtown! The only problem is the menu on the wall needs to be in a slighty bigger font and a number assigned to each dog would make for easier ordering.
i am a huge fan of hot dogs! went here today and got the manhattan dog which is a polish dog with pastrami, dijon mustard, provolone and grilled onions! yum! the dog was nice and hot! the sesame bun was soft and fresh.. the cheese was melted!! they also have fat tire in the bottle here.. price is reasonable too. they even have a dog called the hyphy dog! i want to come back and try more dogs!
