Yummy Umami

Tasting the Fifth Taste - Umami Burger

Ronson treated us to Umami Burger (the Los Feliz location) last Thursday. It Agnes' idea, and how could we pass up trying a new place? It was a fun, relaxed evening. Going out on Thursday night is great; as Agnes says, "you feel like you get a jump start on the weekend". Also, you don't have to deal with the weekend crowding, noise, and too busy wait staff.

I enjoyed the food and the decor, which had a kind of retro Japanese feel - it reminds me of the original Godzilla movie for some reason... To start, Jimmy and Ronson had the Thai House beer and Agnes and I shared the Umami Cocktail (cucumber-infused Japanese soju, yuzu, and clear seaweed noodles) According to our waitress, the crunchy seaweed noodles was supposed to have the "highest amount of umami". The drink was pleasantly refreshing but some of us were a little baffled about what exactly is umami -  the noodles having very little flavor. I should have done background research before our outing...

We started with a simple looking but surprisingly tasty Market salad, followed by burgers and three sides. Many burgers on the menu sounded good but Jimmy and I finally picked the Truffle and Casablanca (lamb, pickled apricots, tender greens and pomegranate aioli) burgers to share. We also tried the Triple Pork Burger that Agnes ordered for everyone to try. The burgers are a bit diminutive in size - perhaps appropriate to the Japanese theme - with a suprisingly soft, and sweetish hamburger bun. I thought the bun a little too soft, but in hindsight, a firmer bun may have made it harder to appreciate the juicy and more delicate texture of these burgers.  All the burgers were good but I found the Casablanca burger the tastiest. Our three sides were the hand cut fries, sweet potato fries, and onion rings, all which were pretty good, but I wouldn't say any of sides or the housemade ketchup or aioli condiments stood out.

It was too dark to take any decent pictures but Agnes took this shot of the cool sign near the Salaryman side of the restaurant.

Eater has a nice blog and pictures about it at http://la.eater.com/tags/umami-burger