Here’s the thing about trying to social distance, limit contact, stay in your bubble and whatever. It can force you into trying out establishments in your own neighborhood. This has the added of advantage of not having to go more than a block or two if leaving the house, not having to pay delivery fees and bonus—you can support a spot that in these times of continuing downfall of SF restaurants, could really use some patronage.

I think in these new normal of times we are in, some spots with the take-out only mantra have weathered the storm better than others, particularly those who seemed to already have had a steady flow of regular to-go customers. Just so happens, one of those kind of spots is not only in my hood, but almost quite literally, directly across the street and that place is Ganim’s. (Well, really more catty-corner if you want to get specific about it)

The place is not new and has been around so long it doesn’t even have its own website. And considering the constant flow of people I see through there, they don’t seem to need it. They seem to have quite the following with the construction crews, firemen, cops, day laborers and most any Village People reference you can make. Not to mention the folks who live in and around the place. I know my roomies love ‘em. Thus a spot that gets that kind of dedicated love even in these times must be good right? So why even bother to talk about them? The first I’ll get into in a bit. As for the second, my knee-jerk response is why not. My other is, they are still local and after several (ok, more than several) visits they are good peeps. And even with their seemingly steady flow of takeaway, business there isn’t exactly back to normal and in the beginning they were closed for quite some time like everyone else which for any business can be a financial challenge. Plus, if ever there was a place that fits my food on a budget oeuvre, Ganim’s pretty much hits the mark. Plus, it is these out of the way tiny neighborhood spots that really make the named neighborhoods of the city what they are. Seriously, every hood needs their own burger joint and burgers, they got them in droves.

Like the Zito burger, yes, named after the former SF Giants and A’s pitcher and still popular enough that they keep it on the menu even though his baseball career ended in like what? 2015? Yet I think it is the basics of this burger that make it a choice for people. 100% ground beef cooked to your specifications with bacon, cheese and all the fixin’s (or your choice of) like lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle and mayo and a fried egg. That’s right, they put egg on it. Most likely long before it became de rigueur to include it on every sandwich and burger in this town. Sure, the bacon was more like Canadian bacon or fried ham but these things still kind of always go together. It is a good burger that you can also get as a salad to make it keto/Atkins friendly because—SF.

There was also this interesting monstrosity that I just could not pass up. The surf and turf burger, which is exactly what you think. A piece of fried, beer battered cod on top of a beef burger with cheese and all the condiments and veggies including tartar sauce!  I like fried fish, I like burgers, seriously, why would I not try this?! It isn’t quite as weird as it seems, though this time my burger was a bit under the medium rare I asked for, which made the first couple bites not terribly appealing.

But I remedied this quickly by heating up the patty some more to get it to pink and not red raw. I kind of liked it and kind of didn’t and it definitely is a bit of what your tastes veer toward. Plus the tartar sauce on it wasn’t all that unusual if you think in terms of it really being mayo and relish which some burgers have anyway. I’m not gonna say I’d always get this but if you wanna be adventurous, it is definitely worth a try. But I wasn’t done yet.

If I am going to go off the rails with fish and meat then why not do a 360 and get some plant based “burger” with their version of the beyond burger. While my last foray into the vegan burger world wasn’t exactly return worthy, I’m still game to give them a try and see what an old-school burger joint would do with them. To be honest, not much in my sense.

Burgers are fried here and they’ve done the same with this but not sure it did the texture part of it any favors. And it may have been overdone a bit, if that is such a thing. I know I won’t be getting any “meat pink” with it, but eating it didn’t give me quite the same heft or feeling of eating an all beef burger. It won’t bad, I just think it might have benefitted from a different kind cooking method like grilling or something. I’m still not done here though.

This place ain’t all burgers either. They do gyros, kebabs, salads and fish and chips, which I will say right off the bat, they do quite well. I’ll even go so far as to say they do it as well as anyone in town and if you have followed me over all these years, you know I have eaten A LOT of these fried thingys. You get a huge piece of fish in either one, two or even three pieces. Cooked to order and served up hot and crispy. I think these are great.

Added bonus, they don’t skimp on the fries which are crinkle cuts. Something you don’t see very often around town. All this for about $12 for the two piece. In fact, all the burgers run around $9 or $10 and adding fries with any burger is about $2 and much like the fish, they do not give you one of those fast food portions. You get a heaping bunch with every burger. So that is roughly $12 for a burger and a side (you can also get salad if feel the need) that are not small portions and will definitely fill you up. Sometimes I can even get two meals out of a two piece fish. That is an SF bargain in my book.

I know it is odd, the best thing at a burger joint is the fish and chips to me, but besides these burgers, I’ve had others here and for the most part, they do a good burger. They must when you consider all the blue collar workers who frequent this place, they gotta be doing something right and affordable to get that kind of consistent love.

Is it worth driving across town for? I don’t know, maybe the fish and chips for a special occasion stop every now and then or if you are in the hood, yes most definitely give them a try. (It is a shorter wait than Plow!) But burger joints can be like neighborhood pizza joints, everyone has their fave, and mostly because it is tasty enough and not hard on the wallet. Sounds like a winner winner fish and chips dinner to me.