A great review, Dale, though I wish you'd also picked up on the name-ambiguity issue, instead of just labeling the restaurant "J-Love Burger." It isn't so simple, and the background to this was already on the Embarcadero Media website a month ago (some of it in comments): Web Link

Mervyn's Restaurant was a landmark longtime downtown-MV gathering place with a Lounge behind it (that name, of course, predates the Mervyn's department-store chain). The building's owners last year closed their former front restaurant Chef Liu, and avowedly sought to honor the Mervyn's legacy with a new restaurant to rejoin the Lounge under newly unified ownership and management. "J Love" (a name that came later) was explained to me by owner Ruddy Wang as a branding or sub-identity for the kitchen and its distinct menu. But "J Love" isn't the restaurant name on Ruddy's business card ("Mervyn's Lounge and Restaurant"), nor on the overhead banner sign greeting diners at the entrance (Mervyn's Lounge and Japanese-style Burgers) -- note the review's factual error also: the SIDE door is in an alley, the FRONT door is on Castro where it has always been. Evidently "J-Love" is a name worth knowing about (not to mention the food -- I commented already after Elena's article; I find the ramen "bun" goes best with burgers, the rice version with the Yakiniku stir-fry). But it's worth knowing too that the whole business is also officially called "Mervyn's," and that Mervyn's is the venerable restaurant name that will resonate so with the longtime MV residents or hangers-around.