Umami Burger is the burger joint that I’ve dreamed about, a chain restaurant that’s not necessarily reinvented the burger, but wrapped it in a new sensory experience. I departed still licking the truffle oil dribbling down my cheek and my fingers that were caked with the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top of the crispy sweet potato fries. Chrissy and I shared their namesake burger, a thick juicy puck of beef, cooked rare and embellished with shiitake mushroom, caramelized onions, roasted tomato, a parmesan crisp, and umami ketchup; and the Truffle Burger, the beef garbed in truffle cheese and a truffle oil-brushed bun. Everything is house-made, house-pickled, house-ground, and house-processed. I know I’ll never love this way again.
The staff at Umami Burger are so welcoming, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable that you want to ask them to sit down and have a burger with you. Quite unlike my experience the other night at Flour+Water, where the staff, except for the über helpful sommelier who gently informed me that the wine I was asking about was actually a beer, were just plain unpleasant. One of my dinner companions was 10 minutes late, and they wouldn’t seat us, despite having reservations, until she arrived. We stood and waited, hovering on the periphery of the half-empty room. No, internet, I don’t want to hear your justification for this psychotic policy, there is none. What, you’d rather not have us sit down and order drinks and appetizers while we’re waiting 10 minutes for our dinner companion, a Chinese woman driver, to park in this notoriously difficult to park in neighborhood? It set an awkward tone to the evening, like we were intruding. The food, though, was pretty spectacular, really some of the best pasta I’ve ever had: radiatore with roasted hen, speck and parsnip; squid ink spaghetti with clams, watermelon radish and chili oil. We had their funghi pizza, with chanterelles, hedgehog mushrooms, nettles, fior di latte and sage cream… each ingredient delectable, the combination exquisite. Clone the staff from Umami Burger and Flour+Water would be a perfect restaurant.