PACIFIC BEACH – If you happen to be strolling along Garnet Avenue and stumble upon a fast food restaurant with a familiar red and yellow motif that sells quarter-pound burgers, fries, and shakes, it would be understandable if you assumed that it was a new McDonald’s location.
But it’s not.
It’s actually the latest Mr. Charlie’s, a burger chain that markets itself as “a vegan McDonald’s.” The franchise, which has restaurants in Hollywood, San Francisco, and Sydney, Australia, launched its Pacific Beach location with a grand opening on Feb. 7.
The restaurant isn’t in any way affiliated with McDonald’s, but its menu contains twists on standard McDonald’s items, such as the Mr. Royale With Cheese, which is a plant-based quarter-pound burger, the Not Chicken Nuggets, plant-based nuggets that taste like chicken, and the Mr. Frowny’s, a plant burger, fries, and drink combo that’s the equivalent of a McD’s Happy Meal.
Customers at the restaurant on a recent Saturday afternoon said that the food tastes remarkably similar to McDonald’s.
“I’m vegan, and there aren’t very many fast food options, so this is amazing,” Pacific Beach resident Brian Hersman said. It was his second visit to the restaurant since it opened.
“I tried the Not a Cheeseburger the first time, and having not had McDonald’s in a long time, it tasted almost identical. I think it’s amazing that there are options like this for quick, vegan, flavorful meals.”
Hersman became a vegetarian four years ago for health reasons, and then went fully vegan a year ago.
After trying the Not a Cheeseburger, another customer, Ocean Beach resident Keren Peres, agreed that the restaurant’s food tastes very similar to McDonald’s.
“I’ve never had a cheeseburger, actually, because I’ve been vegan for many years. I wanted to try the cheeseburger, and it was fantastic,” she said. “It reminded me of the McDonald’s hamburger that I used to eat when I was a kid.
“I haven’t had a McDonald’s burger for 40, 50 years, but it’s just as I remembered; it was very similar; it was almost scary,” she added. “When I was eating it, I almost felt like ‘are we sure that this is plant-based and not meat,’ because it felt so much like what I remembered.”
She gave the restaurant high marks.
“I’m a tough grader because I’ve eaten a lot of plant-based burgers, and this place was a 10 out of 10,” Peres said. “That’s how good it was.”
Although the restaurant has only been open for a short time, there are already plans to open a second San Diego location. A Hillcrest restaurant is expected to open in the coming months on Fifth Ave., where the Italian bistro Chocolat was located until closing about a year ago.
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