Umami

I feel like Umami Burger has taken the city by storm. I had never heard about it until I saw it featured on the Food Network's "Best Thing I Ever Ate." Now it seems as though there is a new one opening every month. I recently found out about one right by my office in Santa Monica. The location only had a few tables inside but a few large tables outside for multiple parties. 

 
Since I felt I should try to keep the tastings comparable, I ordered the Port & Stilton Burger. The burger comes with Stilton blue cheese and port-caramelized onions. The burger had good flavor. They used the right amount of blue cheese so that it didn't overpower the rest of the flavors. The sweet port-caramelized onions were sweet, and complimented the rest of the burger well. The issue I had is with the bun. They seemed to butter the bun and it came out looking good, but was really greasy. All in all it is a pretty good burger, but not the best thing I ever ate.


 
UPDATE: As Umami is the closest gourmet burger place to my work, I figure to eat there more than the others. I recently went back and tried a different burger. This time I went for the SoCal Burger. I think this is supposed to be an upgraded version of an In-N-Out burger. It comes with their homemade bun, butter lettuce, caramelized onions, roasted tomatoes, and of course spread. I ordered it without cheese because that's how I usually get my double-doubles. Unfortunately, my opinion has not changed. The burger was well constructed, all of the ingredients were fresh and the burger was perfectly cooked. The buns are still too greasy and make the burger feel like it was soaked in oil. I will probably go back again, hopefully not for a work lunch, to enjoy a burger and one of the fine beers they have. But its position on my list remains the same.