Larry's Chili Dog
3122 West Burbank Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505
When I started dating Katie over nine years ago now, she was absolutely amazed that I had never been to the San Fernando Valley, or as it's more commonly known as The Valley. I'm not sure why she was so shocked by this. I did not have any family or friends up this way, I really had no business to attend to up here, and there was just no reason for me to be in this part of Southern California.
That was until Katie came into my life. She has a very large extended family that dots almost every city up in The Valley. One of our first trips up here was for a family function where I met at least 50 aunts, uncles, cousins, and longtime family friends. It took me a little bit of time to get to remember all of their names, but I eventually got them all down. One person I never had a problem remembering was Katie's cousin Bridget.
We immediately had a connection due to hockey, but we also enjoyed having a few cocktails, reminiscing about cheesy love songs from the 80's, and of course our love for Katie. So when we were invited to come up to the Valley to celebrate her 50th birthday, I made sure to take the weekend off since I knew it would end up being very hard to get up the next morning due to our excessive celebrating. I also knew this would be an excellent opportunity to try a few places that I have wanted to try for a while.
One of those places was Larry's Chili Dog. This place is pretty iconic in the Burbank area and has also been mentioned in numerous, "best of" and "top ten" lists as having some of the best hot dogs in LA. Larry's has been here since 1952 and has been serving hungry patrons for many generations now, with no signs of stopping anytime soon. Not only do people get pretty pumped for their dogs, but the breakfast burritos have also reached cult status here. Unfortunately, we were not able to make it here before they stop serving breakfast at 11am, but I was still amped up to give Larry's a try.
Larry's is located on the corner of Burbank and Ontario, and if that doesn't help you out, look for the large neon sign with a dog laying across the top of a hot dog. You can't miss it. There's limited parking in the back of the restaurant, but plenty of street parking in the surrounding neighborhood. We arrived here at just after 1pm on a Saturday, and there definitely was a very steady stream of people getting their hot dog fix. Ordering is done at the window, and then you take a seat at one of the ten or so tables and wait for your food to be brought out to you. Let's see if Larry's is worthy of being mentioned on the list of great chili dogs in LA.
I know I promised you hot dogs, but Katie was a little worried about how her body would react to hot dogs and wanted to try something lighter since she knew we would be up rather late for Bridget's big party. She decided on this Turkey Wrap with Avocado ($7.55). Not sure why they did not include the avocado inside the wrap, but she really enjoyed this a lot. Sliced turkey, lettuce, tomato, mayo, and mustard were wrapped around a garlic pesto tortilla for this one. Fresh ingredients and a solid wrap, but nothing really made this pop. A good alternative for people that want to eat a little lighter at Larry's and don't want to order a salad.
Now, this is much more representative of what Larry's is known for. Chili-palooza was in full effect with my order. I got the #5 Chili Cheese Dog Combo with Chili Cheese Fries ($8.99). The chili dog came with a little bit of mustard, onions, and of course chili and cheese. I did a little bit of research online and found out that they use Hoffy brand for their hot dogs. It had a good initial snap to it and a good beefy flavor. The chili tasted exactly like the chili at Tommy's, but maybe a tinge lighter. The bun was sturdy and kept everything together well. The chili fries came out scaldingly hot. As much as I wanted to dig right in and try them, they did not stop steaming for a good five minutes. The fries were obviously from the freezer, but they were fried nice and crisp and kept their crispness even under the ladled chili and grated cheese. The chili was evenly dispersed so every french fry got a little of the chili and the cheese. Again, these reminded me almost exactly of the chili fries at Tommy's, but not as heavy as the chili at Tommy's. Really good and a good base for all the cocktails I would be enjoying a little later in the evening.
Just for good measure, I had to give the Louisiana Hot Link ($5..75) a try. If the chili cheese fries came out hot, this hot link was on fire. I let it cool off for a long while before attempting my first bite of this. It had a good casing with spicy meat beneath it. The hot link came dressed simply with mustard and onion. Pretty good sized and I think I might get this next time with chili and cheese for the ultimate Larry's experience.
Larry's is right up there with some of the best chili dogs I have had. If you are a fan of Tommy's, you will definitely enjoy the chili dogs at Larry's. I still have to give the chili dog crown to Fab Hot Dogs, which is home to the Texas Burrito Dog which is two chili cheese hot dogs wrapped in a tortilla and is still one of the best things I have eaten n the last nine years of writing this restaurant blog. Back to Larry's though. I thought the prices were more than fair here and the service was pretty good. There was a pretty big lag time from the time we ordered to our food arriving at our table, but luckily we were not in a hurry. You could also call your order in ahead of time to combat this from happening to you. Larry's was an excellent spot to lay the groundwork for what I knew was going to be a long night celebrating Bridget's big 50.
Out of five potatoes, (because the year this restaurant opened for business, 1952, was also the first year that the popular toy Mr. Potato Head was first sold), five being best to zero being worst, Larry's Chili Dog gets 3 potatoes.
For more information about Larry's Chili Dog, head to their website here: https://larryschilidog.com/
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