About The Friendly

To many people in the know, who care about these things, The Friendly serves the best burger in San Diego. Their Dirty Flat Top Cheeseburger, served without allowing for modifications, is a simple, richly flavored, hand held packet of deliciousness that would be hard to copy anywhere else. They say the best art is simple and bold – and the OG Dirty Flat Top is simple and bold.

The Friendly is a casual pizza, burger, and beer joint that looks like the owners don’t care much about quality, until you try their food, and then you realize that the whole vibe, the whole nostalgic effort of the place, is on purpose and is executed brilliantly. It is literally the opposite of restaurants who spend all of their time on the decorations and ambience only to let the food quality come in underwhelming. The food at The Friendly is top notch.

The Friendly has several locations, some serving fuller menus (like The Friendly Tavern on University that has a larger burger menu) and some serving just pizza and the Dirty Flat Top (the original location on 30th Street). All locations serve beer. All locations are casual. All locations are delicious.

Best Parts

• Cheap eats
• Late night out
• The best smash burger in SD

Behind The Counter

The founder and owner of The Friendly was Brandon Zanavich. He passed away unexpectedly in May 2025.

Zanavich opened The Friendly in 2018 in North Park with the idea of serving simple, high quality, casual food. And he did a damn good job at it.