Hat Creek Burger Company

Always friendly staff. Food is always good. Fries are heavenly! And the sweet tea is amazing. Not much else to say except that you NEED to try it! Plus, there is a place for the kids to play!

Wonderful food and helpful service! Hat Creek always has delicious burgers with a variety of options for those with specialized diets, but deep down it’s a burger joint.
The cashier gave friendly help as I ordered that help me decide on what I wanted without having to ask a multitude of questions. Their sweet potato fries are good, not soggy like many are.
I tried their three sauces as I was eating in, Hat Sauce, Happy Sauce, and Idaho Fry Sauce. I must say that the ‘Happy Sauce’ was aptly named as it had some little something that just made it more enjoyable than the other two. Looking at it, I thought it was their version of honey mustard, but it isn’t overwhelmingly tangy, but a nice balance of sweet and savory.
My second favorite sauce was the Hat Sauce, which seemed similar the the Idaho Fry sauce, with more tang and bite. Coming from a person who has a very low threshold for hot spice, none of these were what I’d call spicy, but they have Tabasco sauce for those that want that. The Idaho Fry sauce was the sweetest and least tangy, so if that is what you are looking for, go for that one.
I also liked the setup of the dining area, wood tabletops and booths with red metal chairs for the tables, but of a nice design. The inside is also very open and airy, due to high ceilings and the front wall being total glass. Luckily, doesn’t face east or west, so unlikely to get full sun if sitting there.
One reason this is not five stars is based on my previous visit to the Georgetown store. I had ordered their special cherry lemonade and it tasted so fermented I almost thought it was a hard lemonade. My husband said this sometimes happens when they don’t clean the soda nozzle regularly. I honestly couldn’t drink it because it reeked.

A great place to enjoy a grilled burger while listening to the river flow by. The kids’ area is awesome with a slide that starts inside and ends up on the outdoor playground.

Hat Creek has been one of our favorites for the last 2 years. The original hat burger, fries, fried pickles, and shakes are amazing. Their 3 sauces should please just about anyone. Our kids love the indoor-​outdoor slide and playground. A must goto in Georgetown!

The burgers were good… the milkshakes were excellent!

Love the burgers and fries, and love the sauces for the fires. Yummy!

We went to Hat Creek for lunch today. We ordered the small hat and the big hat in addition to the mini hats for our two kids. I was thoroughly disappointed with the quality of the burgers. They were possibly the thinest, most cardboard like burgers I have had in a very long time. It felt like they tried to compensate for the lack of beef with toppings. We also had the sweet potato fried which were just as disappointing and tasted like frozen fries right out of the bag. The only reason I gave this 1 star is they do have a kids play area, but it is not nice enough to warrant spending money on disappointing food. When I order a burger I want a burger with a nice chunk of beef.

We’ve been frequenting this restaurant a lot lately, especially for breakfast. Things are a lot cleaner these days. And maybe I simply missed it before because it’s not with the other condiments, but there is salsa. Love the food here and the friendly staff! Four stars!

Went for burger, nothing great, roll was to big for the meat, thinner than a McD’s cheeseburger, condiments nothing out of the norm, long wait to place order almost 10 minutes, no apologies, long wait for delivery, almost 20 minutes, no apologies, tables weren’t bussed, trash on the floor, needed to be swept. Staff to busy talking to earn their pay. Manger was doing the service delivery, trying clean things up, place needs a leader to direct not do.
DEFINITELY WILL NOT RETURN.

Nice evening meal with our kids. The slide kept my little girl occupied. Great food and shakes!

«Would you like Ecoli with that?»: That’s what this places slogan should be.
Let me start out by saying I review plenty of stuff on Unilocal and G+, the good, bad, and the ugly. I especially like to review the good places, because so often people just go to the Internet to bash restaurants, but never give them credit when it was a good meal. Sadly, this is not the case.
I went to this place Sunday afternoon ⁹⁄₂₇ with my friend as we were driving back to Dallas. Neither of us had eaten breakfast, so lunch was much needed. I had to catch a flight out of Love field by 4pm, so we needed food in a hurry. Everyplace else was either an hour wait, or closed because it was Sunday (thanks, Jesus! D:)My friend was smart and ordered the turkey burger, whereas my dumb ass ordered a cheeseburger with the sauerkraut sauce. I went the extra mile and ordered sweet potato fries because I was starving.
Word to the wise: DO NOT EAT MAYO BASED SAUCES unless you really, really trust a place. I wasn’t thinking and absent-​mindedly tried their «Happy Sauce», which is a dipping sauce for fries. It looked to be an aoli/​peppercorn mixture. I felt fine until I was cozy in my bed at 2am back in Denver when it hit me like a ton of bricks. Straight up Exorcist scenario.
Needless to say I am on Day 2 of not eating any food, barely keeping down water, and missing work. THE HAPPY SAUCE = NOT HAPPY! :(I don’t know how many other people have gotten food poisoning from this place, but I would venture a guess that their sauces are not stored at the right temps, and an inspection would show as much. Don’t bring your kids here, don’t go here because you’re in a hurry… Just don’t.

Pro
Super nice and helpful staff
Great outdoor area
Clean restroom
Barrel full of camping chairs for extra seating
Shade!
Slides for kids to play on
Dirt for kids to play in
Not crowded at all on a Monday
Con
Food lackluster, flavor-​less, but acceptable
Not enough table seating outside
Bring mosquito spray if going in the evening. We left with lots of bites.
We had a really great afternoon here. We will return soon.

Seems like this place has gone down hill a bit since we first visited in fall of last year. Still decent quality burger and good play area for the kids but way understaffed on a weekday night. The whole operation ground to a halt whenever we ordered an alcoholic beverage because they staffed the register with a 17 year old and she had a call a manager back to take payment (it’s the law, OK, but staff accordingly in the evening). There were three families in the whole place and it took a solid ten minutes to get one beer and one wine out, then another ten minutes for the food. Too long. It’s expensive for what it is.
I have to talk about the beer. I’m not a beer snob, although I do know a hefeweizen from a pilsner and a Kolsch from a Saison… but that’s only because I lived in Oregon and traveled Belgium and Germany a bit for work. I can still drink a Shiner and not complain… or even a Bud light in a pinch.
BUT…But…but. This beer program is hilariously bad. When you are a burger joint you STICK TO THE BASICS! Do an Amber, do a pilsner, do a Stout, maybe an IPA, OK.
Do not decide that you alone are going to bring a Belgian beer renaissance to Austin and offer your customers no alternative. Barley wine? Saison? Dubbel? ALT? Come on! Your beers were weirdly sour, wrongly sweet, and just bad bad bad. Stick to the basics. Rein your brewmaster /​beer wholesaler in, ASAP.

I had the jalapeño sauerkraut burger and it was pretty decent. The style of burger and fry is very similar to P. Terry’s but there are a lot more options. The sauce bar is a nice touch though there is not a huge difference between the 3 sauces– all creamy with various levels of tangy.
This place really rates more of a 3.5 but its unique enough to get a 4. It just didn’t taste as juicy and fresh as the competition, and the price was a little high for the size of the burger. I didn’t personally observe any of the cleanliness issues detailed in the other reviews but I never saw any staff come into the dining room to straighten things up during our visit and the ice machine seemed to be struggling to keep up with demand. They seem like they are crowded a lot so you think they’d have a system in place to deal with the rush by now.
There is a lot of competition for burgers but its definitely worth trying at least once. The shakes sound really awesome so I will very likely be returning.

Stopped by here on an early Sunday morning after church. We went to an 8 am mass so we just missed breakfast but were there right as lunch service started. at 10 am? hmmm even McDonalds serves breakfast till 1030 on weekends.
Ah well.
I am on a get healthy kick so ordered the grilled chicken salad. really good. I enjoyed it but the cheeseburger my husband ordered looked better! It was kinda small especially for a grown man.
For a little extra you can sub fries for fried pickles… what? They rocked
I cant wait to drop the next 5 lbs so I can come by for some fried pickles and a brew.

Went with the special burger and wasn’t disappointed. It was tasty, fresh and the sweet potato fries were delicious. The staff was friendly and prompt and the atmosphere is great here. I love the choice of sauces and the fact that there’s live music out on the patio. I will happily return.

Since my first visit, this place has gone downhill; it is dirty. Staff was using same rag to wipe down tables and trashcans. Brought out ice to fill up machines in dirty, nasty buckets. Food is all over the floor and tables… which is probably cleaner then when they wipe them down with the trash can rags:(
Both my mother and I got sick from this last visit.
Please clean up your act!!!
Then I might be back… maybe.

A great place for the family and pretty decent food. We’ve been here many times and it’s usually pretty satisfying.
They aren’t giant burgers, which are fine with me, but they are good… most of the time. I go through the drive through (which can be slow) when I want to get something on my way to somewhere and occasionally the buns are a little over browned. It’s still better than any fast food burger around.
My youngest loves the play area when we go inside and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxing from our experiences.
Their Idaho fry sauce is super yummy!

This wannabe barnyard is your typical suburban burger joint pandering to families.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with suburban burger joints. My problem here is, for the price, this place falls totally flat. For a big hat, fries, and a drink I was looking at almost twenty dollars a person. To add insult to injury, they charge you for cheese. Not EXTRA cheese, but any cheese. Really? Are they subsidizing their slide or something?
Anyway, the burger tasted bland even with my toll cheese. The bottom part of my bun was soggy before I took the first bite and the patty tasted dry.
As for the shake, I ordered the dirt worm which was supposed to have crushed Oreos and gummy worms. To my amusement, there were hardly any Oreos used and the clerk stuck two worms on top and handed it to me. Not impressed.
I’m all for a great local burger joint, but this isn’t it. Instead, this is hipster Fuddrucker’s with a an extra slice of mediocre. You’re way better off at Hopdoddy’s.

FIVE Stars for atmosphere and personality
Had the turkey burger, yum! Love a burger place that offers turkey burgers.
Staff was great, the overall place was very nice. Great curb appeal.