Mels Drive-In

Mels Drive-in was bestowed upon San Francisco first by Mel Weiss and then years later by his son Steven. One of the first successful mini chain Drive-In restaurant joints in San Francisco it inspired movies, mayhem, marriages and countless misdeeds for many generations of young people. The essence of a drive-in for us kids was cruising and being seen by our peers, trying to look and feel better by the cars we drove and the boys and girls we dated. Never a citadel of burger excellence, they nevertheless sold hundreds of thousands of these meat sandwiches then and continue doing so as a mini chain of sit down diners rather than the classic Drive-ins. They offer a variety of burgers and claim to cook them all to order, but it's a somewhat sloppy presentation often light on quality and long on mediocrity. My three primary gripes with Mels are inconsistency of the burger and service, skimpy portions and their problem cooking burgers as ordered. These joints are fun, very noisy with great juke boxes, waiters and waitresses in genuine old Drive-in constumes of that era and they will help celebrate birthdays with enthusiasm and abandon. Priced somewhere in the middle of the burger price scale, its just not a high quality burger. As of now there are locations adjacent to Moscone Center on Mission at 4th, Van Ness Avenue at Geary, Lombard Avenue near Steiner and a couple others. Check em out online at http://www.melsdrive-in.com/