Johnny Rockets

 

38

150

Hilda W.

San Jose, CA

pretty good. not when you come here on the weekends. but weeks days its not crowded and people are nice service is good. and the food is hot when it comes out. tuna fish, grill cheese or chicken  strips. chili fries...or half and half.. yum..................

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36

82

Bob S.

Santa Monica, CA

I don't know if you are like me, but I go to certain places when I am in the mood for certain things.  I admit it, I live the simple life. When I find what I like and I stick with it.

Given this, I do not visit Johnny for his burgers, but instead his Tuna Fish Sandwich.  Kind of funny that I go to a burger place to have a sandwich, but that is what I do and I like it.

I like sitting at the counter to enjoy watching the cooks do their thing.  It is a synchronized ordeal that is fun to watch. I order the chili cheese fries, grilled onions on the side, a drink and a tuna fish sandwich on sourdough toast.

A perfect start to a movie night on the promenade.

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1

12

Skyla K.

Santa Monica, CA

This place is a bit chaotic and pretty middle of the road. The  price is right and I love the ketchup tricks, the kids menu and the jukebox. Other than that it's usually dirty and everything is average...yet I keep getting taken back.

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358

126

J-M R.

San Francisco, CA

Yeah, not worth it...3rd street promenade has some decent eateries, and this is not one of them.

Stop in if you are 18-23, don't care about food quality, and just want a place to chill.

P.S: no liquor license. Def for kids.

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7

36

Courtney S.

Santa Monica, CA

Okay.  I hate the whole singing/dancing/let's pretend like we are in the 50's business.  BUUUUTTttt...I love the veggie burger, or "streamliner" as they call it.  it is a boca burger placed messily on a bun with all the burger good stuff you would expect.  But something about it falling all over the place and getting all over your hands makes you love it.  

5 stars for the veggie burger, 2 stars for the ambiance.

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267

196

Kit S.

Los Angeles, CA

Ew. ew ew ew. never again. All these competing "Original Burger" chains are so silly to me. How can you ALL be the original burger? It's like when my dad used to tell me he was the top of his class throughout college, and then a friend of mine told me her dad said the same thing .... and our dads were classmates. you can't both be at the top! It just doesn't work that way.

Anyway, I honestly don't know why we chose Johnny Rockets over the hundreds of other (and tastier, I'm sure) options on the promenade. But let's just say it was tourist curiosity. And we weren't the only tourists there; about half the other diners looked like visitors. The other half were middle school students. [what is up with that?? maybe high and middle school students should sign up to show tourists around as an after school program.]

The burgers weren't great, the shake wasn't worth getting sick for (if you're lactarded like me), the music made me homicidal, and the waitress took forever squeezing ketchup smiley faces (you are not Rembrandt! get over it and gimme my ketchupy goodness!) Not worth it, and too pricey.

Couple things for tourists:
- the restrooms at this location are weird. I've never been in another JR so I don't know if they're all the same, but you gotta put in a quarter, except  you can get tokens from the waitress. there are no obvious signs for this. we saw a tiny, grammatically incorrect sign only after we'd put in a quarter. Thanks, Johnny Rockets, home of the Original Tourist Trap.
- ew.

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29

171

christina b.

Los Angeles, CA

while their food isnt that great, im a sucker for the things they can do with ketchup. the last time i went, the server wrote "sweetheart" and though it definitely won him points, the slow service and mediocre boca burger still makes this a 2-star place.

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Elite '08

619

832

Mike L.

Norwalk, CA

This place does blow. The "Ew. ew ew ew. never again" would be the same sentiment.

It surprises me to see this place get packed on a weekend evening. Yes it does pull in the tourist because they don't know any better. The nostalgic factor always bring them in. Let's be honest, you do not want to eat the oldie stuff. It's simple back then, but that's just it... even the taste is simple.

I was lulled in because my buddy who wanted to get something quick to eat before heading off to the theaters. He's a FOB... I would've told him, but I was too nice. We ordered burgers that was just too plain and it actually induced me into a bi-hourly trip to the restroom. It was just nasty.

The fries was not to die for, it's not worth it to die for this. The service for a Saturday evening was just a little haywire. I think our waitress actually forgot which table she was assigned to. *sigh*

The price of our meal definitely fits the present time. This was the only thing I was hoping to be in the nostalgic sake of the old past. Alas it was more expensive than the $8 burger from Carl's.

As in the claims of being the "Original Hamburger", I think I had the very first one served back in 1986 as my restroom trips can attest. And how can they invent the first hamburger if their chain didn't exist until 1986. Woo...1986..the year when the burger was invented.

Yeah right.

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Elite '08

223

226

Ken N.

Venice, CA

OK, this isn't really a review for Johnny Rockets because honestly, a Yelper's not going to go here expecting the best burgers ever.  This is actually sort of a tale that will hopefully warm your heart, after plunging you into the depths of a short-lived depression:

When we first moved to LA, we were basically starting from scratch and we were pretty darn broke.  Our basic philosophy was to never buy anything that might force us to pay interest, so the lean times were LEAN.  Sometime during the Christmas season, I took my then 3 year-old daughter to her swimming lesson, then we walked down to the Promenade to watch the street performers and shoppers.  She was cold and hungry, and a Johnny Rockets had just opened up.  Drawn by the bright colors and retro look, Rosie wanted to go in, so we went in to warm up.  I realized after we sat down that I had no money.  I had a pocket full of change, though, and added up all together, I figured that we could buy a plate of fries and with two glasses of water, hoping that would serve as a satisfactory diner experience.  Rosie coveted the milk shakes and hamburgers that floated by us, and I told her next time, we'd get those.  We talked about the different kinds of food we'd buy the next time we came, and after a while, we were done with our fries.  Our waiter got a microscopic tip and a note of apology written on the back of our bill, and we left.

I was bummed.

I'd been broke many times before, but never had I experienced how low it felt not to be able to buy your kid something, and even though it was a little thing, I felt pretty pathetic.

Flash forward about twelve years:  We never went back to Johnny Rockets - not because I associated it with depression and poverty, only because it just didn't seem THAT good (though the fries went pretty fast, I have to admit).  Walking by there, Rosie started waxing rhapsodic:  "Remember that time we came here when I was a little girl and we had ALL THAT GOOD FOOD? It was sooooo goooood!"  I didn't say anything as I tried to remember if there was ANOTHER time we went there, but I came up empty.  Sharon told me, "She always tells me that, every time we see this place."  Somehow, in Rosie's memory, the fantasy had become the reality.

I make it a practice to try to always tell the truth to Rosie.  This one, however, I think I'll keep to myself.

And that's your Christmas story for today.

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10

149

jim z.

Los Angeles, CA

Johnny Rockets is extremely upsetting to my digestion system... much like MCDONALDS, which makes me wonder about the quality of the food. A good quality burger and fries doesn't halt business like Johnny Rockets does. But at least Johnny Rockets tastes good, unlike McDonalds. Service friendly and efficient, always crowded because it's cheap, tasty, and easy. Yet if it was my own decision i'd never come here... there's much better of the same stuff for not much more

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1

9

john g.

San Francisco, CA

Johnny Rockets is not the ideal place for cultivating romance, as I discovered years ago during the worst blind date of my life.

She wanted to go here. We strolled in from the nearby Barnes N' Noble, neither of us as attractive as our online photos, and squeezed ourselves into short seats protruding from the wall, on either side of a narrow candy-red table. I thought I might fall off. The stark bright light was unflattering as she ordered the chili cheese fries then ate them in clumps, brown goop landing on her pale chest.

Unlike a happier Johnny Rockets in Sacramento, the waiters did not burst into song on the hour and perform the B-52s "Love Shack." (I swear this happened at another franchise.) Instead I was left with my date, a USC creative writing instructor who wanted to discuss her phobia of Mexicans as well as thesis binding techniques and her strong support for the death penalty.

In addition to endorsing death, she had riffed on it in a  "funny" short story of hers about a serial killer named Gordy and how funny it is that he kills and also goes to Heaven to meet Death and Death is a real person. Having been a crime reporter for a newspaper, I offered an alternative take on death, which was that as opposed to being wacky it was in fact sort of distressing and horrible to be around. I told her about the time someone buried their murdered mother in the backyard, who was dug up some months later by the Modesto Police Department.

Alarmed, she cut our date short and made for the nearby convenient parking facilities provided by the City of Santa Monica -- one reason I'm giving this two stars rather than one. It's well lit outside, so that if you've imagined your journalist date is a stalker, you can make a beeline for your car without the risk of real criminals mugging you in dark alleys.

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34

121

Jason G.

CA

the food is no better then mcDonalds.

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