Fraiche

I went to lunch with a couple of coworkers to Fraiche. Fraiche is a fancier restaurant right by my office, but have some decent deals for lunch and happy hour. We went to the location in Santa Monica. There is also a location in Culver City. The lunch menu features several other sandwiches and some entrees that sound delicious but are a little pricy for lunch. Overall, this is a great location for a good meal and probably more of a business lunch location.

The burger is called a the Truffle Burger. It is served on a brioche like bun. It is not overly buttery and is a little lighter than most. One issue I had is they toasted the bun a little too much so I tasted charred. The meat seemed like it was freshly ground, had very good flavor. It was also cooked to a perfect medium. The burger came topped with boshetto cheese and what they call onion fondue. The onions were sweet and the cheese was a little understated. Now you wonder why its called the Truffle Burger, because it also comes topped with a truffle aioli. The aioli was very creamy and a little earthy but not overly flavorful. Overall it is a good burger, but I am assuming the other entrees are a better bet at Fraiche.

The Curious Palate

Merry New Year! (Sorry big Trading Places fan). Its been a little while since my last post. I have been on a burger fast for a little bit due to the holidays. I feel some good burger vibes for 2012.

For the first burger of 2012, I went to The Curious Palate (@curious_palate) at Santa Monica Place with my department from work. It is located in the Marketplace on the third floor. Them menu is full of fresh salads, sandwiches and comfort food. There isn’t a ton of seating in the restaurant, but there were many people getting their food to go and eating out on the patio. If it is a nice day out I would recommend this tact.

On to the burger. The patty was think and juicy. It had decent flavor but was a little overcooked and couldn’t match the burgers at the top of the list. The bun was the standard brioche bun. It had good texture but kind of fell apart as it got soaked with the juice from the patty. It came topped with gruyere cheese, baby greens, tomato, red onion, and house made pickles. Everything was fresh and crisp. The last aspect of the burger were the two sauces. The first is a homemade aioli. I am usually a fan of a homemade aioli, but it was hard to taste over the other sauce. Luckily, the other sauce, a tomato jam, was really good. It was a little tangy and almost had an Italian flavor to it. If your are in the Santa Monica area and want to have a good burger outside on a nice day, I can think of worse places to go.