Burgers are just a prime comparison food since they take creativity to differentiate or make really good. Something like sushi is harder to do a direct comparison since it can vary so much; while one place could have great yellowtale sashimi, another could have amazing caterpillar rolls... Burgers are a single, simple dish that more and more places seem to be trying to take from fast-food to gourmet.
Anyway, now on to Umami Burger. I have been wanted to try out Umami Burger for a while now, I had heard about it a couple different places and as I said in my earlier post, it was #1 on the local yelp page for a while.
I'm not going to spend time on non-food related review stuff, see my yelp review for that stuff. My focus here will be the important part, the burgers! :)
I split 4 different burgers with my dining companions:
The Umami burger - apparently 6 different umami flavors (shiitake mushrooms, sundried tomatoes, fried cheese, umami ketchup, caramelized onions(are these umami?), the burger itself), the most unique burgers flavors I have had.
The Truffle burger - truffle cheese and truffle glaze, yum, amazing, this one is probably my favorite;
The Hatch - Spicy chilies top off a great burger, nice heat but doesn't overwhelm the other flavors.
and The Port & Stilton - Good Stilton flavors, not overpowering, probably my least favorite of the three and that is saying a lot because it was a very good burger. The other three were just more unusual and/or excellent, while this was just a good blue-cheese burger. Also since this one is directly comparable with the Fathers Office burger (the FO burger wins hands down over this one) I don't think I would order it again (despite it being good).
Next time I hope to try their other burgers: the triple pork, hopefully they have the mideast lamb burger back (it is on the online menu, but the paper menu didn't have it when we were there).
So in conclusion, here is my current LA-area burger ranking:
1. Father's Office
2. Umami Burger
3. The Counter
4. The Habit
5. In and Out
6. All other burgers fall into this category...
Just a note on this, I have only been to The Counter once and enjoyed it, but probably picked toppings based on things I like independently but maybe not altogether as a group. I plan to go back there soon and try again (maybe find some recommended combination online, if anyone has a favorite set of Counter toppings, post them in a comment!)
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