File #1: Umami Burger

Last week I had the pleasure to be introduced to a new burger place in Los Angeles by the name of Umami Burger (After the Monster Hunter Tri BBQ). What does Umami mean by the way? According to their website Umami is the Japanese meaning of a pleasant savoury taste imparted by glutamate, a type of amino acid, and ribonucleotides, including inosinate and guanylate, which occur naturally in many foods including meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products. The characters making up this word literally means 'delicious flavor'. A subtle taste which blends well with other tastes to expand the round out flavors. Umami is now the commonly used term by taste scientists for the fifth taste (the first four being salt, sweet, bitter and sour). If you're still scratching your head wondering what that means, trust me you're not the only one. All I know is Umami Burger is delicious!

After meeting up with some friends and parking my car into the small parking lot next to the restaurant we waited not too long for a table to open up. Normally we were told we would've been waiting a bit longer but we arrived before the dinner rush. After taking our seats and looking though the menu I instantly knew what I wanted. The truffle burger with Italian truffle cheese and a truffle glaze. When the burger with a bun that looked a lot like Hawaiian bread arrived and I took my first bite, I was not disappointed by the taste. I had to quickly take a napkin to dab at my chin as the juices from the meat began to drip. This was the type of burger I loved, they did not press down onto the patties which in doing so would've lost much of the precious juices and cause the burger to become too dry. The outside of the patty was perfectly seared locking in all that meaty goodness which results in a perfectly cooked medium pink center. And the full bodied earthly combination of both the Italian truffle cheese and truffle glaze was just perfect. Intense but not too heavy. My only complaint was the burgers were just way too small especially for the price tag of nine to eleven dollars for each one. I could scarf down a pair of these burgers and still be hungry. We also had an order of the triple cooked hand cut fries french fries and the malt liquor tempura onion rings. The hand cut fries was just really thick cut french fries one could get pretty much anywhere but the malt liquor tempura onion rings was actually pretty good, a nice combination of the sweet and spiciness of the onion and the bite from the malt liquor. Dipping sauces were served in the types of spoons you would usually see in Asian noodle restaurants. For desert we shared two orders of ice cream sandwiches brought in from Milk on Beverly Blvd. which reminded me much of moonpies but instead of marshmallows were thick scoops of ice cream sandwiched between two macaroons and half of which was dipped in chocolate. We had an order of the vanilla ice cream and the mint chocolate chip ice cream both of which were sinfully decadent.

I would highly recommend coming into Umami especially if you're tired of your everyday burgers you get at your local greasy spoon and want to tempt your taste buds with something new. Warning, enjoying these burgers may cause you to feel like you're cheating on your girlfriend the classic American cheeseburger but it's so worth it. Also word of advice if you're looking to stuffing yourself silly bring a full wallet as it might get a bit pricey.

4 out of 5 Explosions of Flavor

Umami Burger
850 S. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 931-3000
www.umamiburger.com/


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