Smashburger Pre-Grand Opening – Rancho Penasquitos

After having to pass on a few opportunities to attend previous Smashburger’s pre-grand opening invites, we finally were able to make it to the one for the new location in Rancho Penasquitos. It’s located in the large strip mall on Black Mountain Road and Rancho Penasquitos Blvd.

Being the first time at a Smashburger, I wasn’t sure what to expect. When we got to the door and checked in, we were given a menu to help us decide. We both had really wanted to try the Haagen-Dazs shakes but were told they weren’t serving shakes but had samples if we wanted it. WUT? Aw, okay. We placed our order and made our way through the crowd to try to find a table somewhere. We walked around a little bit and finally got a table as some folks were leaving. We waited while one of the SB staff wiped down the table and seats. Seems the people who sat there  didn’t see the napkins on the table and had to wipe their greasy hands on the seats and had trouble finding their mouths from the looks of all the food particles on the table and seating area. I tell ya’, I don’t know what people are like at home but they certainly are a bunch of pigs when they’re out. Anyway…

It took a little while before we got our food but considering how crowded it was, it came out faster than I expected. The Mister ordered a Spicy Baja with Smashfries.

He got the larger size. Let’s get a closer look at that guac.

Nice large jalapeno rings and that’s a spicy chipotle mayo underneath the lettuce. The Mister thought it was some kind of Thousand Island dressing at first. Now let’s take a look at what I ordered, a San Diego.

Wow, it looks almost like the Spicy Baja burger. Turns out they are almost identical except mine has fresh avocado with sour cream on a torta roll. The Spicy Baja is served on a spicy chipotle bun. I got the small size burger and you can see how much bigger the Mister’s burger is compared to mine. I tasted his and compared it to mine and they tasted similar except that the Spicy Baja had a bit more, uh, spiciness than mine. I liked both. I got sweet potato smashfries with mine, which I enjoyed very much. The Mister said they were good but he preferred the Smashfries, which I thought were good, nicely seasoned.

While we were eating, I was checking out some things on the walls but I was most intrigued by the projection of  SB San Diego’s Twitter page.

About half way through our meal, one of the staff member stopped by to ask if we needed something. I mentioned that we would like to try the milk shakes and he said he’d bring out some samples for us. I asked for one chocolate and one vanilla shake. The shakes came just as we finished our meal. Hmm, the server said we had a vanilla and a chocolate but they both turned out to be chocolate. That’s okay, I was getting full by this time anyway and didn’t want to wait for another one. There was some yummy chocolate syrup and a dollop of whipped cream on top.

We really didn’t mind how small the sample size was because there was no way either of us could have finished a whole shake.

The shake wasn’t very thick, kind of runny even. Not the best shake I’ve had but hey, it was a sample and free. The Mister thought it was just so-so. Maybe a full-sized shake would be better. Overall, we enjoyed our burgers and fries. The Mister said it was better than some of those other chain burger joints we’ve been to. Agreed. And now that SB is closer to home, I’m sure we’ll be stopping by again soon.

Smashburger
13255 Black Mountain Rd.
San Diego, CA 92129
858-780-9300
10AM-10PM