Hires Big H has been grilling burgers on the same corner at 425 South 700 East since 1959, and very little about it seems to have changed on purpose.
I grew up eating here, which probably clouds my judgment, but I’ve also taken enough out-of-towners through that parking lot to know the reaction is pretty consistent: they expect a gimmick and get a genuinely good burger instead. The building is classic drive-in architecture — canopy, intercom, carhops on busy nights — and the menu is a laminated single page that doesn’t require much deliberation if you’ve been before.
Order the Big H. It’s a double-patty burger with their signature sauce, which is creamy and slightly sweet without being cloying. The bun-to-meat ratio is correct, the cheese melts the way it should, and the whole thing costs around eight or nine dollars depending on what you add. The onion rings are thick-cut and legitimately crispy, not the limp kind you get at chain places. I usually get a large root beer because Hires has roots in the root beer business — the original drive-in was part of the Hires brand before it became its own independent operation — and something about the carbonation here still tastes right out of a glass mug even when you’re drinking it from a paper cup in your car.
The fry sauce deserves a mention. Utah fry sauce — that mayo-ketchup blend that apparently baffles visitors — is a local staple, and Hires does a solid version. Ask for extra. You’ll use it.
The neighborhood is East Side residential, close enough to the University of Utah that there’s always some student traffic, but it draws from across the city. On a Friday night in summer, the lot fills up and there’s a loose, low-stakes energy to the place that’s hard to manufacture. People eat in their cars. Families with kids take a booth inside. A couple of older guys are always at the counter. It’s not trying to be anything except what it is.
If you go on a weekday afternoon around two or three, you’ll avoid the dinner rush and the staff will have time to actually chat. Inside, the decor is retro without being curated-retro — it’s just old, in a way that feels honest. The photos on the wall go back decades. The booths have that particular vinyl firmness you don’t find in new restaurants.
Prices are reasonable for what you get. A full meal — burger, rings, drink — runs maybe fourteen to sixteen dollars, which is not cheap but is fair given that everything is made to order. They’re open until ten most nights, which makes it a decent late option when you don’t want to think too hard about where to eat.
Salt Lake has a few places that feel genuinely rooted in the city rather than grafted onto it. Hires is one of them. It’s been here longer than most of the people eating there, and it shows in the best possible way.
