Jakes WayBack Burgers

Went by last Sunday at 6pm and it was closed. A sign was posted saying it was closed for repairs. I looked on the companies website and it is no longer listed there. I think this place is closed for good.

«Wayward Burgers are WAYYYY better than In N Out» said my classmate who’s from the East Coast. This proclamation filled me with curiosity and made me Google them with haste. Much to my surprise, there are a ton of locations in the NorthEast and they recently opened in Santa Ana! — which is only one of two locations in California. As soon as I saw that, I excitedly dropped everything and jetted over.
—-The Food — -
When you walk into Jakes Wayward Burgers, you’ll find similarities to 5Guys, minus the free peanuts. I admired their menu because it had variety ranging from salads, chicken sandwiches, and hot dogs, but I elected to order the lunch special: the Original Jake Double Cheeseburger combo ($ 7.29).
At first glance, the presentation was great!; I really like the newspaper placements. The ingredients are fresh, the beef packed loosely and possessed an all-​around sear. The patty is thin though which is eerily reminiscent of In N Out. What I really liked at first touch, was the bun! – it’s a soft pillow of warmth that’s nominally toasted on the inner surface. At first bite? I wasn’t too impressed. Perhaps they needed a sauce to meld everything together, because ketchup, mustard, and mayo wasn’t cutting it. The patty did have moisture though and was seasoned with pepper/​salt. The more I ate, the more I recognized an indescribable taste that I can only compare to Iron. It wasn’t terrible, but it’s a little unsettling. The fries were probably the best part of the meal as they’re crisp, nicely fried, well-​seasoned, and boasted creamy centers.
The next day, a good friend of mine wanted to try it so I came back to give it a second shot. This time, I decided to order what Jake calls «the best burger under the bun»: The Triple Triple ($ 15.99). It’s a massive beast with 9 patties and 9 slices of cheese. Holy heck, it was beautiful, but sadly, that weird iron-​like taste was still prevalent in the beef. My friend agreed. He ordered the Jakes cheesburger with bacon ($ 6.90) and finished it.
—-
Conclusion: Among the better fast food chains, Wayback is behind InNOut, 5Guys, and Habit, but I do feel is better than TK. I know many east coasters will read this and think I’m biased, but after two tries, let me sum it up for you like i summed it up for my dimwitted friend haha:
«East Coast= Least Coast.
West Coast= Best Coast.»
Extra Notes:
–Accepts credit card
–Lunch Special from 11−2pm, daily specials available too
–Nice, sleek décor – Two Tv’s, Free-​Wifi
–Friendly service, order at register then find a table
–Drive-​thru available
–Easy parking situation
–Clean restrooms

dont go… smells like sewer. ugh.

Meh, I was not impressed at all. The burgers were just ok, they were very small, and the cheese fries barely had a pinch of cheese on them. For almost 19 dollars for burgers and fries, I was expecting waaaayy more. There are many better burger places around. Save your money and go to McDonalds down the street. I wont be back here.

Walked in. Read reviews. Saw 1 person in the whole joint. Walked out. Thanks Unilocal for saving me disappointment.

First Unilocal!This place was pretty good, reminds me of 5 guys with the way you can order your burger. Although this place is no in n’ out, I’d definitely stop by if in the neighborhood

My mom and I came here a couple months ago, drove through the drive-​thru and back right out because of the prices. My mom drives for OCTA and said that one of the workers got on the bus and started talking about the place and the $ 15 burger they have. So, after my mom got in touch with me and told me to try it, my fiancé and I went ahead and did just that.
Hot Sunday after noon, walked into WayBack to find no one inside. I ordered the Chicken Bacon Ranch and my fiancé 3 patty, 4 cheese bacon cheese burger, an order of cheesy fries, 2 black and white malts, along with 2 fountain drinks while we wait.
Since they didn’t have Dr. Pepper I went right for the unsweetened tea while my fiancé tried to make his normal concoction of drinks. He noticed 2 of them were just pouring water. The lady gave him a list of 4 drinks that were no longer available because they ran out. Sorry, I didn’t see many customers for the drinks to run out that quickly already.
We sat and waited for the food. I had gone to the rest room while the chips arrived. I must say, the womens bathroom was VERY clean and roomy. It looks like they had planned to make it with 2 stalls but then realized it would not be wheelchair accessible so they made it into one giant one instead.
I came back to our table and continued to wait. The wait is a bit long but whatever, we were in no rush. They had 3 workers one manning the grill, one working the front, and one working the drive-​thru. I have to say, the one working the register really likes to sing Opera or something and its extremely annoying not to mention, she feels the need to contort her voice into baby speech as well. Besides working the register, I don’t see where it gets busy enough to have three people. The only people actually working the entire time we walked in, after the lady working the drive-​thru was done with her lunch, was the guy working the grill and the drive-​thru girl. Wish I would have gotten their names. It was Sunday, Sept. 1 around 1:20ish.
The food came along with the shakes. I will say, the price may have sent us WayBack, but it looked AMAZING. You can tell its all handmade because the beef looks like something I would make at home. The butter grilled sourdough bread was amazing. The only complaint I have about the Chicken Bacon Ranch was that the Chicken was very thin. The pretzel bun is too thick for the chicken to be that thin. Get some thicker chicken breasts and I am a fan for life with the chicken burger thing. The cheesy fries were melt in your mouth. I was so happy to see it was shredded cheese and not cheese sauce, I hate that crap. The black and white malt was good as well. I like that they keep it in the thing they make it in.

This place set my wallet Wayback…
Ok, so I have driven past this place a few times and was solo for dinner tonight so I thought I’d check out this East coast burger joint.
I ordered the regular (double) burger, a side of their potato chips and a regular vanilla malt. Total = $ 13.90 Wow! I think to myself «dang, that’s more than 5 Guys» but I did get the malt and the «regular» is the large size… So ok…
As others have written it did take a while to get my order but I could see the two gals in there working so no biggie. There was three teenagers sitting eating and a gal and her little girl came in. I could tell she was getting annoyed her to-​go order was taking so long.
So the malt shows up first. You know the stainless cups things that they make them in? Well that’s how they served it. I kinda thought to myself what if I didn’t want to finish it here… Then I notice its just barely over half full, which is kind of a rip off for its $ 5 price. Then its not nice & thick, its kinda runny. Worse yet the flavor had a chemical taste to it. I had not had a malt in a long time and kept thinking maybe I’m just used to shakes and its a malt thing.
Then shows up the burger and chips. The bun looked nice, chips looked like chips.
The bun was really soft and didn’t add anything to the burger, the onions were chopped, which I don’t care for but no biggie. The two patties looked alright, they didn’t quite cover the width of the bun nor were they offset like In-​n-​Out to make up for it. All in all it was kinda dry and completely uninspiring. I kept thinking a Wendy’s double would have kicked this places ass all the way back to the East coast.
The chips weren’t bad.
I gave the malt another shot and just couldn’t take it so I just left it. Which if you knew me you’d find unbelievable.
So I will never come back here. There burgers are no way worth the price. I left feeling upset with myself for having spent so much for just a burger and a crappy one to boot.

Another burger chain opening up in Orange County… hmm okay…
The burgers were pretty good here, the patties are made fresh and you can easily tell that cause the patty meat is really soft and they want to break, fall apart, and the juices melt like butter in your mouth. Veggies and the fixings that come with it are good too, fresh and crisp, there is a definite snap when you bite into them. House chips and fries were very good addition with a decent amount that doesn’t leave you begging for more. The house chips almost reminds me of TGI Friday’s chips and the joy with the chips is that each one has a random quality to it. Some soggy, crispy, or soft and it encourages you to keep on eating to get the perfect one (chasing that first high).
So… good good and good… then why that average marks?
The bun. It brings the whole burger down badly. The bun is too soft and weak like untoasted sandwich white bread that’s easily flattened paper thin and falls apart half way. The atmosphere of the place is just kinda bizarre to me as well… its almost too industrialized and has a Ruby’s Diner retro wanna-​be look to it.
Another curiosity to me is that this Jake’s restaurant chain was established back in 1991. What I don’t understand is why there are black and white photos all over the place with people wearing retro stuff from the 60’s. My history may be a little hazy, but I’m pretty sure during the 1990s we had color film and in the process of transitioning to digital photography. But what do I know? I’m no historian.
Kinda hard for me to come back since there’s nothing that really compels me to.

I must be in a good mood today because I am totally cutting these guys a lot of slack. I found out about this place not long ago when I was driving back from lunch one day. I had never heard of it so looked it up on the interwebs and decided I would give it a try sometime.
I believe this place is pretty new. I dont believe they have had their official grand opening yet or maybe it was in the past week. I pulled up and was gonna go through the drive thru but it is not open. No menu, drive thru blocked. I guess they havent completed building this place yet. So I parked and went in. there was maybe 2 customers in there eating so it was hardly busy. So I ordered the Junior Cheeseburger, which comes with 1 patty. I think the regular burger comes with 2 patties ala 5 Guys.
As I am waiting for my burger one of the workers offered me a sample of their potato chips. They weren’t bad but were awfully salty. It is nice that they offer chips as a side. You can also get fries or onion rings if thats what you like.
It took around 15 mins for me to get my burger. an extremely long time considering they were not busy at all and had 5 people working in there. Also, when I asked for the cup for the soda I ordered the person that gave me the cup handed it to me by grabbing the cup with their fingers grasping the inside of it. Not cool. But the burger was really good. It kind of reminded me of 5 Guys style of burger. For now I will give them 4 stars because i liked the burger and am hoping that their service will improve in the future. This is now my go to place for when I am craving a burger for lunch. Stay tuned for a review update to see if things get better or worse.

So this is what they serve in the East Coast? I only came to this place to try since my friend said this was the only Jake’s Wayback Burger on the west coast. The only thing that stands out at this burger place is the Triple Triple Burger which is a 9 meat patty with 9 slices of cheese burger that cost $ 15.99. (talk about a heart attack burger)
So upon walking in I look at the menu and was astonished by the prices. $ 5.99– $ 6.99 for a regular burger like chicken, double bacon, grilled chicken or turkey burger with no fries or drink? Come on, that is just ridiculous. The burgers on the menu looked the same as the typical fast food burger.
So looking past the prices me and my friends decided to try it out anyway. To no surprise the burgers tasted just like a regular burger you could grill at home. The bun were literally the buns you buy off at Costco & it’s just not worth the price even if it’s made fresh and not frozen. The only difference in their burgers compared to chains like Mcdonalds & others was that they would put a onion ring & chip inside the burger & they were made fresh to order.
The fries weren’t worth it either. $ 4 for cheese fries and it was just overpriced fries loaded with melted cheese.
By the time we finished & headed for the door the cashier gave us $ 1 coupons for our next visit but I surely won’t be coming back :)

Clean. Friendly service. Great homemade BBQ chips. Price of five guys and actually tasted a lot like Five Guys. When I ordered the cashier even campared their food to Five Guys. They have more signature burgers and mine was fairly good. I had the Burger of the month something with steak sauce and onion rings. Bread was quality. Inside was very clean and they had TV’s all around. Would stop by again if in the area. Kind of an interesting location and ran upon this place by accident.

Freshly sliced chips, good burger with all the fixings, family style ambiance that reminds you of something on the east coast, and finally prices that match what you get. View claim that the patties are never frozen. And from the taste it certainly seems true.
However the wait time for our food took quite a bit of time, and being hungry when we arrived so waiting a while for your food to be made time creep by, I will give them them the benefit of the doubt for still being new and still working out their kinks.

The burgers are very tasty and you get to add extra ingredients for free. When my boyfriend and I were there they kept giving us free samples of their homemade chips which were really really good. This is the first location in California! So people should come and check it out!

Randomly came to this place with a friend one night to try it out, was totally surprised! The hamburger was yum, onion rings were delish, and place was really clean. They have good service. Since I had never heard of this burger place I went on their website and they have many MANY locations in the east coast. I was super surprise to know out of all the cities in California they had chosen Santa Ana. Totally see myself coming back to eat here !

Just a basic burger place. I would rate them below Habit and above Wendy’s. Being a California native, I don’t have the emotional connection like other Unilocaler’s, so I don’t understand the hype.
Their rings are out of a bag, but they do fry their own potato chips here. Unfortunately, their oil was a little old and it came across…
I agree with another Unilocaler, why did they pick this location? I could think of 10 other OC locations that would be better.
Don’t make a trip, but if you are in the area, it’s not a bad choice.

I can’t believe I am just hearing about Jake’s by driving by haphazardly! Jake’s reminds me of back east (PA and DE) memories!
Burgers are solid. Chips are awesome. LOVE the shakes and the fact that you can get a smaller one. Malts are the bomb!
Located on Westminster Blvd on the south side. It’s in a location that a lot of previous restaurants failed. It’s a bit concerning since I would have never went to them if I didn’t go there back east. I’m thinking the location might be it’s downfall. It was pretty dead when I visited.
Wishing Jake’s started their foray into CA in a better, more solid location. But I’ll be back!

I stopped by on a Friday night 10 minutes before closing. I was expecting rushed service thinking the crew wanted to go home but actually the night crew was eager to serve me. I ordered the Jake Burger and onion rings. I also tried the home made BBQ chips.
The burger was juicy and very tasty. It comes with the usual burger toppings. The basic spread is ketchup and mustard. I opted for grilled onions which was a plus. The bun was soft and overall I was quite satisfied. The only thing the burger could benefit from is either a special spread sauce or mayo.
I wasn’t to impressed with the onion rings as they use a tempura like batter which isn’t to crisp. I prefer a crispy onion ring so to each his own. The BBQ chips are tasty and worth a try.
The restaurant is clean, the service is friendly, and the burgers are fresh. If you’re craving a burger and not feeling In N Out, this is a solid option.

Stopped by this joint a week ago. The best burger i have tasted since taking a bite of In n Out. The home cooked chips are the bomb too. This part of town is on the rise again. Then I was off to Café Ms Cutie to see Na Na

Great service and amazing burgers and shakes! I get the Jacks Cheeseburger with grilled onions and bacon is a must!