Nation's Giant Hamburgers & Great Pies
- 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: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Breakfast, Dinner, Late Night, Lunch
- Alcohol: None
49 reviews
Palo Alto, CA
"I love this place, I really do. Douce France has great panini's, croissants, chai tea, cafe au lait, baguettes, and all the desserts one…" read more »
32 Reviews for Nation's Giant Hamburgers & Great Pies
This place is evil. I don't think there's anything under 500 calories on the menu (how come there's no nutritional menu on the website?). I probably would never ingest any of this deep fried food or step foot in here. On the rare occasion that my s.o. goes here (his friend LURVES it here), I make him bring back a small slice of coconut pie, which is really delicious. Chocolate creme pie is good too but they ran out last time - Boo. Other pies=not so good. Other than those two, this place is nasty and gross. You will gain 15 lbs just walking thru the door and inhaling the off-greasing.
So bad for you, but sooo delicious at the same time. So delicious. I love getting the grilled cheese with everything on it and grilled onions. Droooooooool.
Sometimes it takes a while to get your food because they work pretty slow. I love the pie and cheesecake too. yum..
Nations is a step up from Carls Jr. & a step below Bobs Giant Burgers. The service isn't too friendly, and the dining could get messy. But i love their burgers, grilled chesse sandwich , their large breakfasts and delicious pies (bannana cream!) Nation's is your classic burger joint, dont expect it to be fancy and all newly remodeled with lcd tv's like mcdonalds. Just good ol' burgers & fries im down with that! Plus is that they are open till like 11pm which is awesome
i know what you're thinking. khanh wrote a review for nation's giant hamburgers & great pies on valentine's day. he must have eaten somewhere nice with his wife and something reminded him about the burgers, fries, or pie there. but no, you are wrong.
yes, i took my wife to nation's for valentine's day. in my defense, SHE wanted to go here. i actually forgot that she told me yesterday. i went home from work early and bought groceries at safeway to make the chicken maderia from cheesecake factory. oh yes, i can cook, and yes, it tastes just like the one from cheesecake. i'm not bragging though. OK, maybe a little bit, but i copied a recipe online.
anyway, this nation's serves great, artery-clogging food just like all the other nation's, but the service is kinda blah. i don't come to nation's for the service anyway, but dang, theres a minimum i expect. oh well.
this reminds me of where i took kathy last year. again, SHE wanted pick up stix. if you don't know what that is, it's a step up from panda express. a very small step, you could say a panda step. lame... yes.
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Burgers and pie. I've never had the breakfast.
Everyone, well, maybe not everyone says this place is great. At least I heard from many people that it was great. I tried it. Decent. Nothing to get your panties in a bunch about, though.
They do taste pretty good, but you're likely to just keel over and die after consumption.
They do put lots of "fixins" on it as others have said. I've never understood why some places put a few leaves of lettuce on a burger that happen to by nine times the size of said burger. Nations does this.
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The good about Nations: It's tasty. It's a juicy burger with plenty of fixins on it. You get your money's worth.
The bad about Nations: it's got TOO much fixins on it! You'll want to open this bad boy up shortly after getting it and taking half the stuff out.
I like the tang of the Miracle Whip they use, but they put too damn much on. GOBS of this stuff can be found at times. Ugh!
I love tomato as much as the next guy, but 3 full slices?
I enjoy onion, but wow, two full slices of onion? Are you trying to kill me?
The fries are delicious and the shakes are nice and thick.
Service can be shady and slow at times.
Have to say, not a huge fan of their burgers (shocking, considering this is a BURGER place). HOWEVER, Their grilled cheese is better than mom used to make. I LOVE THEM. Get a grilled cheese and a slice of pie and its definitely a good day for me.
In the unhealthy fast food realm, this is probably one of the tastier ones. The burgers are big, greasy & overloaded with mayonnaise.
Everyone who has been here regularly will tell you that the best thing are their PIES... every single kind. I've had the banana cream and chocolate cream and they are both to die for! You'll like the banana cream pie even if you despise bananas. Some people might argue that the chocolate cream pie is just chocolate pudding in a crust but anyone who says that has probably neither had chocolate pudding nor good chocolate cream.
You can get it in a small slice, regular slice (which is actually a quarter of a pie) or a whole pie. Small slices are $2.25 and they'll definitely put you over the top, especially if you've had one of their gigantic burgers.
This isn't a place I'd always go to... probably when I'm having a craving for grease or if I'm going to a potluck and need a pie ($10).
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I had not literally set foot in a Nation's for years back in my college days. Since we had just taken in a huge amount of Filipino food it was of course the proper thing to do and fill in the cracks with pie for dessert. I was actually one of two people who went with the Filipino dessert so this review is for the reaction of some of the others and the ambiance of the place.
Sooj and Steph plowed their banana creme pie heartily but Guri was having issues with his Pecan. I Believe he said we wanted "pumpkin" but for some reason "pecan" came out of his mouth instead. It was deemed way too sugary and then Sooj dropped the bomb that it was basically just pecans sitting on a pile of corn syrup, then crust. Yikes! It's a corn syrup pie topped with nuts!
I gotta admit this place is pretty cheap as you can get burgers for under $4 which seems no different from back in the day. However this is what draws the "interesting crowds". Chock full of senior citizens, little kids, and riff raff abound. The most amusing thing I got to see was a guy who pulled up in his Lexus with these huge 22" chrome rims. These things were so huge-mungous his car was lifted. He could barely turn because the wheels would scrape the wheel well. He even had 22" written on the side of his car. Looking in the window brought me witness to the gnarliest group of folks I'd seen in a while.
So this place really isn't about the cuisine, it's about the people watching :)
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I don't understand- how on earth can you fuck up a grilled cheese? One very generous star. No one puts onions on my grilled cheese and gets away with it- NO ONE!
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I've heard amazing things about Nations' breakfast menu but unfortunately, we never made it out of bed in time to have it. They were still making it but getting lunch seemed the wiser choice. Sooooo, my guy ordered us some grilled cheese sandwiches, fries and soda. We got our food very quickly and sat and ate in a sleepy bliss. I ordered mine with just cheese and he had his loaded with lettuce and tomatoes and various other products that make me cringe. We debated on what we thought a grilled cheese should and just should not have on it but both sat happy with our choices... I will say however, these grilled cheeses weren't anything fabulous. Something I could have easily made at home. They weren't gigantic with big bread or anything like i had imagined... heh
I'm convinced the lunch is good, now its time to get up early enough for the breakfast!
Appalling, atrocious, awful, dire, disastrous, disturbing, dreadful, ghastly, gruesome, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrifying, inconvenient, poor, repulsive, revolting, rotten, unpleasant, vile.... TERRIBLE in every sense of the word.
I love Nations, but this location is *see above*.
Service: Our order took fifteen minutes to arrive; the guy next to us had to wait for half an hour so I considered ourselves lucky.
Condiment bar: The onions were old and floppy, the tomatoes were nearly rotten, and their ketchup dispenser sprays everywhere, BUT the container you place under it.
Food: Fries were soggy, linguiza seemed to be a roll of pork fat which was boiled in lard, over-easy eggs were runny.... Holy hell, now that I think of it, I can't believe I paid for that crap.
Funky location. You'll most likely pass it up the first time you try to find it. I come here with my dad for saturday breakfast. This is a no nonsense place. Just order, pick up food, sit down, eat, bus tray, don't leave a tip. I come here when Denny's is too busy. Banana cream pie is delicious.
Just had my first salmon burger from Nations and it was great! Definately come back here to get my Omega-3 fatty acids!
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CAUTION: This place is not for the faint of heart. Heaven better have a Nations Giant Hamburgers in it. I totally am in love with this place. Giant Hamburgers is right! lots of meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, bacon and MAYO! They have one on the way to my friends house in Sac and we stop there every time. There breakfast is good but the Hamburger's are to die for. Tucked away in a little shopping center across the street from the hub center but keep looking, you won't be sorry that you circled around and around.
The name should be Nation's Medium Hamburgers & Okay Pies. It's adequate if you want a cheap burger and a slice of pie. Good fried food as well. The milkshakes are good, too. But the burgers aren't really that great. They're just okay. In 7 years I've only come here twice, if that tells you anything.
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If you're not shy about getting yourself a case of food poisoning, or perhaps a massive heart attack, then by all means, please stop by Nation's in Fremont, across from the Fremont hub.
Could a cheeseburger possibly have more grease on it than a tub of Crisco, and could the service be any more slow and scary? I understand cheeseburgers and fries aren't for the low-calorie or low-fat minded, but this place is GREASY. I would rather go to Carl's Jr. or any other fast food place than contaminate my insides with the low-quality garbage they serve here at Nation's.
The place is dirty, dirty, dirty, too.
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I've been coming to this Nation's for a long time and only rarely go since I don't want to die anytime soon of a heart attack. The burgers are fairly big and are cooked to order. This usually means a wait time, if busy, a long wait time. I've noticed that the workers generally aren't very nice. You've heard of "service with a smile", right? Here it is just service. Any special requests (light on mayo, cup of water, etc) and you'll likely get an eyeroll or a loud exhale.
The food itself is good. The lettuce on the burgers usually sucks and they glop on too much mayo (hence the special request) but the fries are decent and the strawberry shakes rock. But yeah, these are greasy burgers with only reheated White Castle sliders holding the title of "Grease King".
Never tried the breakfast though it seems pretty popular.
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This place is disgusting, the pies looked old in the display, and it looked as if the floor hadnt been mopped in years.
Garbage, food, crumbs, ketchup smears(old and crusted) and etc were everywhere. I went into the bathroom to wash my hands (compulsory likely to the environment I found myself in) and it smelled/looked/felt like a gas station.
Came out to a Costco patty with freezer burn, watered down Coke, and limp fries. The limp fries did it for me- I took two bites of my burger to confirm that I had just paid for a manufactured burger and got up and left.
I may make my kids eat here as a punishment.
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i am not a vegetarian by any means but nation's makes a killer gardenburger!! i also love their beef burgers!! they are huge and they really live up to their name!! sure, they are greasy but most burgers are! good prices too.. the pie here is also good and a must-try if you are into pie! milkshakes are thick and creamy goes well with one of their burgers.. i have never been here for breakfast but want to try it sometime! i love breakfast!
This Nation's gets 4 stars because I can't give 3.5. The service is typically a bit slow when things get busy and that means that you have to bus your own table. If you go at an odd time then you are usually OK...fuhget about it on weekends or Friday nights...
Now, about the food...this is the place for a big, juicy (i.e., greasy) hamburger. It is the $6 burger, for $3.95 (that's with cheese, mutha fu**a). If you have a small or average sized mouth, then I'd say no onions and no lettuce, this is what seems to make the burger 5" thick and almost impossible to eat! I like that they wrap it in paper, it's very nice when the grease starts a drippin'. Fries and a thick shake add nicely to the meal, but you better be ready to be in a food coma after this. Oh, and they don't salt the fries, you get to do that yourself, good for those who don't want extra salt.
The real reason you go here though is for the pies. Banana cream, Pumpkin, fresh Strawberry, mmm...mmm...good! Their pies are mile high and oh sooo good. I would highly suggest them for parties and holidays.
I admit I'm a sucker for cheap breakfasts and you can still find me here instead of IHOP or the pancake house right next door. But 1) the area is incredibly shady--not inviting at all, and if by any chance you've gone in the back to the bathroom you'd probably be terrified of what goes on back there as well. 2) I don't know if it's even sanitary--it looks pretty rundown and dirty and one time my friend found a bug in his drink.
Yet, we continue to go, and the food continues to taste decent, so I guess I can't complain THAT much. I had a pecan pie which was okay for about one bite and then went nasty, but their pancakes are fine (though I don't know how you could make pancakes taste bad), burgers are as good as any, and the banana creme pie is hard to beat. Their ice cream is just like Wendy's-style soft serve frostys and I think cheaper, too, if I remember correctly.
But there's one thing you must know. BANANA CREME PIE. Do it.
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Burgers could be bigger (well... the patty could be) but they are certainly tasty! Lines out the door on Sunday morning attest to the breakfast as well.
I've been mulling it over recently and finding that I think I actually like Nations more than Bob's Burger in Fremont. I think Nations has better fries plus the addition of pies and killer breakfast plates makes me shift my vote! Sorry Bob...
East Bay greasy spoon chain. Better than Dennys and breakfast is decent. Love the cherry cheesecake when its in season
good pie: chocolate creme, custard, banana creme. good burgers and chili. Others have told me about the breakfast but i'm too hungry in the morning to wait in line and then eat.
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If I could give no stars, I would. I went here for lunch once. That's all I could handle. Everyone said to get a hamburger here. I ate one bite, and would've spit it out if I weren't with three other people. The meat was not right. It had hard bits in it, like grizzle, or something. I thought I was going to be sick. I ate the fries, but they weren't that good, either. Maybe they have good pies, I don't know. Their hamburgers SUCK.
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One of the finest establishments in Fremont. Good freeking burgers and fries. Huge fresh slices of vegetables and a nice thick hamburger patty, their special dressing, and some good cheese... it hardly fits in my mouth!!
Did I mention I stopped eating ground beef long ago, but i make an exception for these wonderful meat treats. mmmm.
Good chili cheese fries and breakfast, but they kinda skimp on the portions compared to other locations. :(
Plus, the location isn't very inviting.
The burgers come with huge thick slices of onions and tomatoes with a pile of lettuce. I don't like this so I get the cheeseburger no lettuce or tomatoes with grilled onions and bacon so it is all good.I used to get the 3 egg breakfast but I haven't been here for a while.
Local greasy spoon type place that is a chain of greasy spoons. Better than Denny's burgers are yum and so is the pie. Mainly I go for the pie.
i dont know what the raggin on this place is about. there's probably a negative skew since its a chain. but seriously the burgers are awesome, breakfast is delicious (but it's pretty hard for breakfast to suck), and the pies are to murder someone and dump their body in a ditch for.
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this place is kind of hidden. we only found it because we were heading for original pancake house but it was too crowded there and we needed to eat and run. saw building in the back to the left and it was nations! i remember going to the sf one back in the days but didn't quite remember how the food was. breakfast was okay, nothing great and i especially didn't appreciate the mounds of butter on my toast. you would think a place that does breakfast daily would have it together but they were so inefficient and scatter brained. they forgot at least one thing on everyone's order so there was a line of people asking, "where's my oj?", "where's my toast?". despite the fact the meal itself wasn't too great my 5 super stars goes to their INSANELY GOOD STRAWBERRY TART. yeah that's right, i got a freakin pie for breakfast too, OK?!! great, another thing to add to my already fat arse badunkadunk!
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yo its good i'll give you that yoc. the only problem is its expensive as fuk. like 6 or 7 bones for a burger and fries. fools are mad greedy up in this spot too. i dont remember what happened exactly but they seemed mad stingy when i was watching them while eating my burger.
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