Sunday, July 19, 2009

Not Your Average Burger

Watch out Father's Office, there's a new burger in town. Sunday night we went to our new favorite burger joint - Umami Burger. This new venture (opened in Feb), from Adam Fleischman of Bottle Rock, seems to have hit the ground running. Unlike Father's Office, which has one go-to-burger as well as a number of other dishes, Umami's menu focuses on nothing but burgers. In fact, they have about seven different burgers to choose from plus one or two specials.

Before jumping in, we figured we'd highlight a couple key attributes that differentiates itself from your average burger joint. Umami grinds its own meat. Adam buys in the form of steaks and builds the burger truly from scratch (only other LA burger place that we know of that does this is Father's Office). The other key stand-out is the bun. It almost has the sweetness of a brioche, but with out the flaky outside...probably better to describe it as a brioche meets challah.

On to the burgers. Our favorites include the Port & Stilton burger with blue cheese and caramelized onions (see attached pic), the Hatch burger which has 4 different types of green chilies (if you like a bit of spice, this is a must!) and the Manly burger (see attached pic) which consists of chunks of bacon, cheddar cheese and crispy fried onions. It's fun to split a couple so you get a taste of the many options. The only 2 that we do not recommend are the Turkey Confit burger (too plain) and the Truffle burger which sounds delish but you can barely taste the truffle. As a side, their malt liquor tempura onion rings are amazing...much better than the fries.
They also have some great specials so make sure to ask. Their burrata carprese salad was just on par with any great Italian restaurant. They also have unique fish burgers...the crab meat burger was awesome. We were told they switch them up and make Lobster and Scallop burgers as well...yum!!!

Umami is BYOB so make sure to bring a heavy red or a six pack of beer to go with the burgers. Also, they have a cute little patio which is a great spot to enjoy your meal.

Good news for those of you in Santa Monica - they are opening one soon.


Rating: 93

Umami Burger
850 S. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles 90036
323-931-3000

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