Monday, June 1, 2009

Umami Burger

I have to go against the grain here and say this was not the best burger ever. It was damn good, but not the best.

We arrived on a Sunday afternoon and the place was pretty packed. It took about 5 minutes for them to seat us and I felt a bit cramped, but hey, the more the merrier right?

So, we sit down and wait another 5 minutes to get menus. I notice that the waiter seems to be a bit cranky or maybe he is just feeling stressed out. I felt the service was a bit lacking, almost lackadaisical. He seemed to be annoyed.

Perusing over the menu, my eyes immediately went to the Truffle Burger. Yummmy. I love truffle anything! I picked that and my boy had the Triple Pork Burger. Dang. We also got 3 order of fries and 2 onion rings for the 3 of us. My kid opted to not get a burger.

Food arrives approximately 10-15 minutes later. Hot damn! My burger was very simple, just a beef patty topped with truffle cheese and finished off with truffle oil on the bun. I took a bite and was like damn, this is really good.



Then, I saw that the meat was medium rare. Umm.. yeah.. not a fan. I don't want my food MOOO-ing at me. But, my boy assured me that is how a burger should be cooked.



Kiddo asked for a bite since she saw that it had no veggies. What is up with kids not eating their vegetables?! She liked it as well. Boy took a bite too and loved it. He ended up ordering one because his pork burger wasn't that good.

Pork Burger- ground pork, chorizo, and smoked bacon


Hahaha.. dat's right. When in doubt, go with truffles!

Fries were fat, decent, nothing special. I liked the aioli sauce you get to pick to dip them. Personally, I'm more into the skinny fries myself. It gives me an impression that eating fries makes me thin. Yeah. Right.



Onion rings were good! Crispy with just a touch of greasiness. Can't complain.



Portions here are on the small size. At $11 for the truffle burger, I wish it were bigger, but I was stuffed after eating half of that and some fries.

Fries were $3 and onion rings were $2.50. Pork burger was $9, but don't get it if you are craving a real burger. Total for 3 people- $50 before tax and tip.

Overall, I'm glad I came here. But, they should step up the service, or maybe that's just how they are over there.

Umami Burger
850 S La Brea Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 931-3000

5 comments:

SinoSoul said...

crap. that's a REALLY bloody medium rare...

yet ours was overcooked . go figure.

Pandalicious said...

yeah, the 2nd burger was more like medium. wth.

Justin said...

the photos look pretty good... i might be willing to accept the service

Tricerapops said...

i'm all over med-rare burgers - so that bloody version would have been good for me. what is the best burger in town, in your opinion?

Pandalicious said...

justin- haha, sometimes we gotta sacrifice.

T- hmm, i would have to say Father's Office.. but i still want to try The Counter and 25 Degrees.