The Pocket Burger Shack

Ok this is literally the best burger I’ve had! Amazing flavor, great prices, and a super friendly family to chat with while you wait… oh and free cookies?! Are you kidding me? Seriously such a fun, genuine little beach place… I’ll be back as soon as I’m hungry again love love love!

Walked over here from sunset beach with my husband. He had the Da Kine Burger, I had the Sunset Burger and we shared a strawberry milkshake. Everything was so delicious! My burger tasted so fresh, and had a great crunch to it (fresh veggies, toasted bun and well seasoned patty). The milkshake was thick and creamy, great taste and consistency. Soooo glad we tried this place. It’ll probably be our to-​go food place after a day at the beach :)

Came here yesterday after kayaking accross the street and it’s easy to see why this place is decorated in awards. Ordered the Pocket Burger which had a plethora of toppings but was not too overwhelming. The magic however is in that Phuket sauce that just oozes everywhere in that burger. Paid about $ 11 for a burger, fries, and a soda but it was definetly worth it.
Burger was great, fries were great, service was great. The owner, I’m assuming, super friendly! Will definetly be stopping by again sometime on my next visit to the beach.

This place is amazing! Best burger I’ve ever had!
i wrote a review here

What can you say? Great food, great beach ambiance, wonderful owner. You want to come here.
Leave it to Thai culture to take a classic beach burger stand and make it even better.

For a top 100 to eat at this place is a let down.
Disorganized and slow. I waited 20+ mins for a burger with little traffic — unacceptable.
The man ahead of me ordered a milk shake and he got it. I asked for a milk shake, all sold out. Sure… 5 minutes later another dude walks with a milk shake.
The burger finally came out and it was underwhelming, the avocado was hard. The gentleman behind me got his burger first, the explanation was they were prepping my garlic fries fresh, FYI they were delivered lukewarm.
Defiantly not a 5 star joint or even worth revisiting. Who are these Unilocalers awarding 5 stars for? The water view?

WooooooooW, the pocket burger was AMAZING. Huge burger but the ingredients matched together with the Saudi was awesome. Me and my husband both had the pocket burger. Delicious and 2 vanilla shacks. Also good:)

Unilocal had 4 ½ stars for this joint and we were camping at bolsa chica so we figured we would try! My son wanted to order the tri tip quesadilla and lady said no we just made last one. So I said your out of tri tip? She says no! Ok u can’t make the tri tip burrito? We can make that she says. I am like wtf! You can make a burrito but not the quesadilla? All the same ingredients… ok whatever! Burgers were ok paid $ 2 extra for onion rings u get like 4 onion rings what a joke. Ordered 2 pocket burgers with onion rings sunset burger with garlic fries (which were cold) the tri tip burrito and 2 vanilla shakes for $ 55 bucks… wtf! Should have gone to TK burgers down the road…
Now I know where they get the POCKET BURGER… it nails u n the pocket book

Slightly disappointing first visit. We got the tri-​tip bowl and tri-​tip sandwich… Expected big flavor and high quality grilled meat; instead it fell quite flat. The tri-​tip resembled something you might get in a philly cheese steak sandwich.
Definitely going to give this place another shot though, and will update the review when I do

This was my first time going to The Pocket Burger Shack. I went because my son and husband were raving about it. I went expecting not to like it but it was fabulous.
I ordered the tri-​tip salad. It was amazing and I can’t wait to go back.

It’s been two years since I’ve been here, and this place has gotten better! If I can remember correctly, this place used sesame bun before, but now they use sweet bun to hold everything together better. The portions are huge as always, and the Pocket burger is to die for, as always. Same great taste, same great flavor, same great pocket sauce, and same great owner; actually since two years ago he has his kids working there now. Still till this day, one of the best burgers I have ever tasted; even better than those burgers you get in those fancy restaurants that cost twice or three times as much as here.
Love the family, love the service, love the small patio, and love the food. You can’t get any better burger on this side of the USA.

Okay i have to reiterate another Unilocalers review:
WARNING: THE PORTIONS ARE HUGE!!!
I underestimated this statement and left beyond full and had some leftovers to snack on later.
I most recently had a vietnamese crêpe which i also underestimated thinking that little thing isn’t going to fill me up which it didn’t but i wasn’t able to finish my second one lol Keep in mind these things are sweeeeet and delicious. So sweet in fact it makes you crave saltiness the rest of the day.
I’ve also had the salmon burger that was awesome and not to fishy at all. The phuket chicken bowl was also amazing and has my mouth watering right now thinking about it.
The restaurant is really small but inviting and definitely a family environment with the owners kids there to help you with any needs you may have. I loved it. The chef is very very talented and had me questioning some of his recommendations, sugar on a grilled cheese??? But it was so gooooood.
If you haven’t tried them yet go ahead and make a trip down, you too will fall in love.

Best service ever!!! Love the family that works there. The chef recommended sugar on my grilled cheese, and it was AWESOME.
Will return, such an awesome little place.

We found this place a year ago and it’s a gem!
Family owned and operated, amazing burgers and an outstanding banana shake!
Haven’t tried the tri tip but here it’s also great.
Plan a head because there is no restroom, but the food and family will make you not care!
Best burger on PCH!

Love this place! I don’t know how I dint find out about this sooner. I came here after a tanning session at the beach and was starving ! So I Unilocaled some places close to me and this caught my eye. So my friend and I went and were so satisfied with the portion (kind of on the bigger side) and with the taste of the food. The employee whose name I cannot recall was really nice and even gave us tips on what we would like depending on our tastes. I order (of course) the infamous pocket burger an instantly loved it with the first bite. Kudos to the owner ! I plan on going back.

WARNING: THE PORTIONS ARE HUGE!!!
I just wanted to get that in there, since I didn’t see it prominently displayed on some of the more recent reviews. Consider yourselves warned.
Seriously, the tri tip quesadilla is made with a tortilla that is at least 18″ around and probably over a pound of mozzarella. The owner told us he uses three large handfuls and maybe only 7 or 8 people have eaten the whole thing in one sitting. But wow is it good. Crispy tortilla, delicious sauces, LOTS of cheese. Yum! Just don’t eat more than ¼ of one…
The pocket burger might be even better. My GF put it up there with the best burgers she has ever had. The sauce, flavors, textures are all spot on.
The people there were so nice and welcoming… it’s one of those establishments where you feel right at home and a part of the community. Given how good the food was, I can’t wait to come back!
We ate so much we had to roll ourselves back to the car, which unfortunately was ½ mile away because of some local art festival. We were about to go to the beach, but an immediate cheese coma called for a change of plans and instead we ended up napping in a sunny, grassy park sprawled in a belly-​up puddle. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday!

Pocket Burger — wow, super good
Salad with peanut dressing — awesome
Not fancy, flip flops, friendly people, just a few tables in and out, great spot!

SERIOUSLY SO DELICIOUS!!!
I am so happy my boyfriend and I stumbled upon this place! It’s a small joint with big flavors.
My boyfriend got the signature Pocket Burger! It comes with avocado, egg, bacon and it’s cheesy!
I got the Bolsa Chico Bowl and I couldn’t stop eating it.
There was this man there his name is Ron, I believe he is the owner. He was so delightful and made this place feel like home. I mentioned how I love spicy food and he took the time recommending different items. Even customized the sauce in the Bolsa Chica bowl to make it spicer for me. And throughout our meal he would make me different sauces in variety of spice level.
I will definitely be back! Can’t wait to try more items!

Well my first check in here thanks to my buddy Matt H giving me a book marks of many he has so here we go I order up da Kine burger a lil taste of the island pepper jack with Apple wood bacon ! Take note that all burgers look great here on there list. Wide range was looking at the Tri tip burger look yumm. So going to eat this burger and will get back to you on how it was so give me 10 mins was great

I’ve become a pickpocket. As in, I would pick The Pocket again if I was having a hankering for a delicious, juicy, no-​frills burger!
It’s easy to miss this tiny eatery unless you’re looking specifically for it. I was looking for it, and I almost missed it too, actually. There’s no parking lot, practically, but there is –very– limited street parking in the street behind it. Luckily, there was no wait, so we got our burgers fairly quickly. I ordered the DaKine ($ 8.50), which has grilled pineapple and bacon. I also asked for grilled onions… YES, best idea ever!
Oh my goodness, that burger was so bomb. Juicy, juicy patty, teriyaki sauce dripping everywhere, and that crisp salty bacon intermingling with the subtle sweetness of the grilled pineapple. My taste buds were transported to Hawaiian burger heaven. My boyfriend agreed that it was really good, and he just got a normal cheeseburger. The fries (thank you for including them with the burger… it sucks when you have to pay more for fries on top of the burger) were just the way I like them. Crisp on the outside, warm and soft on the inside.
What puts it over the top are the personal touches you can’t really have with a big chain restaurant. The cook/​owner (?) walking outside to ask you how everything tastes, the water bowl placed under the dispenser for pups, and of course, free cookies! They really do care for and appreciate their customers, and it shows!
Food: 5, Service: 5, Environment: 4, Price: 4