Every so once in a while as a food blogger, I get to do something really special.  You might be thinking, “Hey Diane, haven’t you already written about Umami Burger three  other  times?  How is this special?”

First of all, I visited another new Umami Burger location to me: Hollywood!  And yes that’s fun and all, but not necessarily incredibly special…

Oh, but this Tasting Menu is.  🙂

That’s right.  I was invited to go through a NINE course tasting menu with three other lucky people in a quest to dominate nearly the entire Umami Burger menu.  You know that’s a challenge that this girl can’t back down from!

With so many pictures, let’s just get right down to it!

The place is called Umami Burger, so you know the onion ring batter is going to be amazing!

If you read the description above carefully, truffles make an appearance four times on the burger.  In the cheese, on the patty, and on the buns twice.  One of the people in the party actually hates truffles (I didn’t know it existed either!) and still liked the burger because it was very well balanced and not overwhelmingly truffled.  The same is going to be true for every burger down the line, so I have to mention how much I adore the famous Umami bun.  It’s just good.

The Truffle Burger was paired with an imperial stout, whose earthy coffee flavors could stand up to the blast of truffle.

Man burger + man drink.  As you know, I can’t have bacon, so I couldn’t have each of the items as intended.  I loved both without, but I was told by the pork-eaters that it was even better with the bacon.  C’est la vie!

I was not sure if anyone else besides me would go for the tuna burger, but I was wrong!  Even the bacon lovers were fans!  Also, they smartly picked a Belgian style beer to pair with the burger, since it follows the white wine/light beer and seafood rule.  My favorite part of it was the gingered carrots, which were a fantastic contrast to the creamy avocado.  Also, I think this one looks fantastic split in half with all those colorful layers!

Gosh, I love this burger.  It will always have a special place in my heart because it was one of the first ones I ever tried.  I just love all that oozy cheese…  The chiles have a lovely flavor and are not super spicy, so everyone can enjoy this burger.

However, they for those with a sensitive palate to heat, the Blackberry Swizzle is a super fresh drink! Mint, blackberries, lemon, and ginger all help to cool down the burger.

I just tried this burger for the first time at my last visit, so I was giddy to try it again.  I think I could drink that green cheese, it’s that good.

The burger was paired with a white wine, which was really well chosen.  Although we thought it was unusual that Umami Burger would serve wine, we found out that the owners of Umami Burger had originally intended for each burger to be paired with a wine.  Fun fact!

At first I was wary of this being called the Cali Burger because it didn’t seem to have any of the ingredients that we associate with California foods (avocado, jalapeños, seafood, etc.), but once I tried it, I knew exactly what this reminded me of.  Yep, that would be a certain California burger chain… but Umamified!  😉

The Mezclarita was exactly what you would expect from a California style cocktail with fresh cucumber and juices, with a serrano kick!  Not to take away anything from the other drinks, but this was the favorite cocktail from all four of us.  I guess they have the Cali tastebuds pegged!

As I mentioned in my last post, this is the newest addition to the menu, and I just knew it would be one of my guest’s favorite burgers.  Why?  It reminds me of a certain golden restaurant’s signature large burger…

The natural pairing a classic burger like this would be a classic soda, made the old fashioned way.

Of curse, we had to end the night with the burger that started it all, with the wine pairing that owners first envisioned.  Seriously, take a gander at all of those lovely layers of flavor.  The cheese, mushrooms, tomato, onions, and ketchup all have amazing flavors on their own.   All together, the burger really packs a punch!

The tasting menu was such a fun experience, and even more fun when we got to the end with all those cocktails… 🙂

May I suggest that you bring more than 4 hungry people, because we ended up making a couple of Franken-sandwiches with the leftovers.  🙂

Excuse the funny picture, but I just had to share with you!  The tasting menu was one of my favorite experiences so far as a food blogger because it was so fun to basically eat my way through all that a restaurant has to offer.  Yay!  All of the courses I had were fantastic, and I was so pleased with the wine/beer/cocktail pairings for each one.

So my question to you today is…

Umami Burger
1520 N Cahuenga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
www.umamiburger.com
(323) 469-3100