Smashburger

OK CAN I SAY WOW!
Had my first taste of Smashburger today. I had heard a little buzz about this burger joint with very mixed reviews. I am not a huge burger person so was very skeptical about trying this place.
First of all I want to say the employees at the location in The Shopes at Mission Viejo are very helpful, friendly, and full of smiles.
I had the Mushroom, truffle, swiss burger. I was able to add tomatoes and grilled onions at no charge. From my first bit I was hooked. The flavor combination was an explosion in my mouth. The sweetness of the grilled onions and tomatoes, savoryness from well seasond meat, the earthyness of the mushrooms, and tang of the swiss cheese was incredable.
I would have given 5 stars but had to use alot of napkins because they are very greasy.
So basically I say give it a try. I did and loved it, and so might you.

The classic smash had beautiful vegetables on it, a nice sauce and good amount of cheese. I wish I could have tasted the beef patty more, but the main seasoning was salt, and too much of it. I took out the patty and ate the veggies and bun only after two bites.

This is an overpriced joint for a hamburger place, $ 14.25 for a hamburger, fries and drink! Moreover, they skimp on the fries, especially when you order a large size, Today, my wife ordered a regular size fries and I ordered a large sweet potato fries. Well my wife’s fries container was full to the rim while mine was half empty. I literally switched my large order of sweet potato fries form the large container to the regular container and showed it to the Manager. Her response was that they sell fries by weight!!! This is definitely a first! Anyway, I can’t wait for Islands to open this coming summer and it is my hope they will have a quick order counter. At that time, Smashburger will better review their pricing and service, otherwise they will not survive!

Smash burger is delicious, but the service and the management is terrible. There’s no reason to wait over 35 minutes for a burger and fries. In-​N-​Out still is the best!

A little overpriced for a soggy burger with a salty patty. Came here to give it a second chance. Nothing different. Asked for extra pickles. Only got 3 in my burger… I wonder if I hadn’t asked for extra how many would I have gotten?
On the plus side… they are pretty quick to make a soggy burger. Less than a 5 minute wait.
With the food court being loud it is great they have the small gadgets to vibrate when your order is ready.

I really liked smash but I am sad that they have discontinued the student special. This is one of the reasons that I came to Smash Burger instead of other options in the mall.
The smash fries are very tasty and I like their original smash patty. Ingredients are fresh and crispy on the burger.
All items here are made fresh to order, so don’t expect it to be as fast as mcd’s.

Came here for the first time and my first time at this mall. This location is in the food court. I got the avocado club with a regular beef patty with the yummy delicious regular fries. The fries were the best part. When I open the burger it was kinda oily but still good. I love how they make the fries thin and crispy.

Horrible service at this place. Today I ordered and my kids got their drinks and noticed a bunch of black specs in their drinks. I told the guys behind the counter and one went to talk wth the manager. He came back a few minutes later and said the manager told me to «just run the machine a few more times». Not a typo. The manager asked me to run the soda machine and essentially fix their problem. This was all the while she was on the phone and didn’t come out. I asked for her and this girl was a train wreck. I said I shouldn’t be doing their job and she should be embarrassed as the manager. I also told her there’s a thing known as «good will» in the service industry and she should refund our meal. Well she refused and said she’d refund the drinks. Not acceptable in my kind and I let her know that.
Here’s the kicker… she ended up canceling our entire order and said we can’t have our food!!! Really??? In today’s environment I’m shocked that a manager would act this way. We will never eat there again and nice long letter will be emailed to Smash Burger Corporate.

Great burgers and awesome food. Love the great dinning from start to finish. Love the big burgers.

I get the Bbq bacon grilled chicken sandwich and it’s so delicious! The crispy chicken sandwich is good as well but I prefer the grilled. They did have the sin city burger for a limited time and that was so yummy! Great customer service as well! Love this place for lunch

My son and I were at the The Shops in Mission Viejo last night and decided to eat at this Smash Burger location since I had eaten here at a Charlotte, NC location before and the burgers were delicious. I’m sad to report, although the burgers and stack high thin onion rings were tasty, delicious and warm — we placed the order at 6:52pm and waiting until 7:16pm to actually get our order! Ridiculous! If your in a hurry, DO NOT order here!!! Note to manger; hire more cooks!

My husband was so excited to take me here tonight. We both ended up so disappointed. I ordered the Club burger and it was terrible. Soggy, tasteless, blah. The bacon was almost raw and needed to be recooked. My husband ordered the BBQ bacon burger and they forgot to put on the BBQ sauce… hmmm.
The 2 boys working tonight seemed to not care if we were there or not… happy or not. They were of little help, and personality zero.
In the middle of a food court, with so many options to choose from, a restaurant must stand out. Smashburger doesnt. We wont be back… there are so many other burger places to choose from that are consistently great.

Pretty good food for being in a mall food court. We’ve been here a few times and always expect to wait at least 15 minutes. Besides their not-​so-​fast fast food they always seem to get my order wrong. I order my son the smash kids meals and substitute their fries for a salad and I always end up with fries. Sometimes they have pagers to let you know when your food is ready, sometimes you just have check in every 10 minutes or so. Their fried pickles are good but sooo greasy, I’ve had fried pickles from places such as Hooters and they do not come close to the grease on Smashs. Their jalapeño burger is good, not great, not very spicy for my liking. I must say they are worth the wait though, probably the best place in the MV food court and their food is always fresh!

After some shopping at the mall, my husband needed to rest from trying on suits and wanted to munch on something while he takes a breather. After looking at all the other typical things we would eat, we decided to try something we don’t eat often.
I got the Truffle Mushroom Swiss with Spicy Fries and he got the Avocado Ranch Black Bean Burger. We shared the fries but they weren’t that spicy. My burger was good but I couldn’t finish it. He loved his burger and finished it all!
It was a pleasant surprise. Will eat here again when we have a burger craving. The lines are long but worth it. The staff are polite and helpful.

Under rated burgers! I love how you could customize your burgers! Excellent burgers + speedy service! Great place for burgers!

While not my favorite Smashburger location (I prefer freestanding restaurants to inside mall food courts, the service and food was still fantastic!
Loved my veggie burger, kids meal was generous and my son happy and my husband loved his bacon burger as well.
Management came to check on us, all kids working were super nice and fast with bringing the food out too.
Great salads, fries and veggies fries as well, one of our favorite burger chains!

Wow, I’m glad I wasn’t alone in the weird customer service department. The girl who took our order seemed to be spacey or weird or rude. Not sure. All I know is she made the ordering experience uncomfortable.
I really enjoyed my burger, however. It was strange, though, because it was a mix between a burger and a sandwich. I would order something else next time as good as the burger was. I do appreciate how fresh all of the ingredients were.

I come up and there is no line. Employee at cash register seems to be a little slow or very high, I think the latter. Say I want a combo with only ketchup and grilled onions. Repeats ketchup and onions. Rings it up only ketchup no onions. I say I wanted grilled onions. Corrects the order, I pay and wait. Buzzer goes off and I walk over to get food, go and sit down. Start eating fries, open burger and take first bite, he calls over sir sir, I think we forgot your onions, and they had. I walk over with burger he says we can give it to you on the side or put it on, I say give it to me on the side. Said it will be a few minutes, at this point I don’t even want them. I sit down again. He calls out again a few mins later they were ready. Puts them in a fry cup and outs them on counter and talks to other customer and doesn’t acknowledge me. Had wayyy better burgers before.
First and last time here. Shame.

This was my first time eating at Smashburger. I was curious to see what the hype was all about. Their handcrafted burgers are smashed (hence the name – they believe smashing is better), seared and seasoned to order, using fresh, never frozen 100% Certified Angus Beef.
I ordered the Local SoCal burger. I am a huge sucker for avocado, which is one of the main reasons I ordered this burger. I was quite disappointed when I was told that they were out of avocado, but they were going to substitute with guacamole instead. However, the guac just wasn’t fresh and that ruined the experience for me.
The con: I loved the bun. I also loved the parsley in the burger, instead of the typical lettuce.
The garlic, rosemary and olive oil Smashfries were flavorful but very greasy.
Overall, I would compare this place to the Habit burger, but slightly more expensive. You can also join the Smashclub online where you sign up for promotions and exclusive coupons. They also have a $ 7.99 burger combo meal for students.

I’ve been wanting to taste a Smashburger for months but they have only 2 locations in Orange County and they are both in the Mission Viejo area. Well, instead of waiting for them to open one in the Irvine area, I decided to drive down to MV to check it out.
This particular store is located inside the food court of the mall AKA «The Shops at Mission Viejo». I was surprised to find it inside a mall location because it completely loses the ambience and the atmosphere that you’ll find in places like The Habit or G Burger. But we came here for the burger so that didn’t bother us too much.
The ordering process is just like The Habit where you’ll order at the counter and you’ll be given a pager which lights up and vibrates when your order is ready. You’ll pickup your order at the counter.
We both ordered the truffle mushroom and Swiss burger ($ 6.29) and it was delicious. The meat was not a patty type of meat, but was fresh ground beef smashed and seared on the grill. You can really taste the difference as you’ll find the texture softer, lighter and more flavorful versus that of a patty. It was tasty and juicy.
It was made with truffle mayo — which gave it the truffle flavoring just like truffle oil — and topped with sautéed baby portabella mushrooms. I could smell the rich aroma as soon as I picked up my burgers. The slice of Swiss cheese was perfectly melted. The bun was an artisan egg bun. At first I thought its texture would be too soft to be a burger bun but it worked out ok, although it did become a bit soggy toward the end.
Overall a solid 4-​star experience. I’ll be back soon!