Umami Burger

10 Best Veggie Burgers in Los Angeles

May is burger month, so it seems almost obligatory that Squid Ink get around to one of those "Best of" lists. But after eating 30 burgers in 30 days, declaring our favorite upscale burger and chowing down on five of our favorite burger stands, there didn't seem to be much ground left to cover. Thank ... More >>

Roadhouse L.A.: A New BBQ Concept From Umami Restaurant Group

Umami Restaurant Group, in partnership with Levity Entertainment Group, this is not a pop-up and chef Robbie Richter, will be opening a new restaurant this year at the Improv in West Hollywood. Roadhouse L.A. ostensibly is a barbecue concept, although the players involved hope to take barbecue to a ... More >>

Coming Soon: The Residency at UMAMIcatessen

Next Thursday, March 14, UMAMIcatessen will introduce "The Residency" amidst its layout of specialty food and drink stalls. One part dinner program and one part experimental space, The Residency begins with Micah Wexler, previously chef at the late, lamented Mezze. A native Angeleno, Wexler will ded ... More >>

Umami Burger Gets $20 Million Investment, Plans World Domination

Nation's Restaurant News is reporting that Umami Burger has received a $20 million investment from New York-based Fortress Investment Group. The investment is being characterized as a "direct loan." The article goes on to say:

Pasadena's Cheeseburger Week: Where to Go The Mars Rover Cheeseburger

If you like cheeseburgers, and I mean really like cheeseburgers, you should probably just get a hotel room in Pasadena next week. Assuming you don't live here already, which you might if you're a true cheeseburger fanatic, simply because the dish was reportedly invented here (1920s, Lionel Sternber ... More >>

5 Overlooked L.A. Dining Trends of 2012 (That Will Change the Way You Eat in 2013)

Every year dining trends come and go -- on the suface 2012 might not have looked like the most eventful year, aside from the foie gras ban and some high-profile restaurant closures. But like the Santa Ana's, the winds of change are forever blowing in L.A., and the seeds of what will likely arrive in ... More >>

Top 5 New Year's Eve Food Events

Umami Burger New Year's Special Umami Burger locations in Los Feliz, Pasadena and Hollywood as well as Umamicatessen downtown will all offer $5 glasses of Champagne, $3 Singha and discounted burgers and food specials all night until closing. WHAT: Umami Burger New Year's Special WHEN: Monday, Dec. ... More >>

Umami Burger and More Coming to LAX Villaraigosa Comes Out As a "Foodie"

You might have already heard the news: LAX's Tom Bradley Terminal is getting a huge $80-million retail makeover in 2014, with over 60 new restaurants and shops being added. International travelers will be able to sample the flavors of L.A. with out ever leaving the international terminal (reminisce ... More >>

Bittersweet Treats Now Open in Pasadena: Whoopie Pies, Rose Cakes Figgy Bars for the Holidays

Pasadena, once the closest thing L.A. had to a food desert, is finally going through something of a renaissance. With the recent additions of Umami Burger and Float, there's also a lovely new dessert shop. Danielle Keene and business partner Linda Chen quietly opened Bittersweet Treats last Tuesday. ... More >>

U Mini: Umami Burger's Fast-Casual Concept Now Open in Westwood

Today, Umami Burger steps into the world of fast casual burger-dom -- the other words fast food -- with the opening of U Mini on Westwood Ave in Westwood Village. The new location, which opened to the public at noon today, is serving smaller burgers (sliders?) at a cheaper price point than regular U ... More >>

What's the Most Underrated Burger in Los Angeles?

L.A. is a burger town. We fetishize the burger perhaps more than any other city in the country, and we have plenty of burgers that have attained cult status. And while some of those burgers might be a tad overrated, we're not interested in that for right now. Instead, we'd like to know about the uns ... More >>

Umami Burger Pasadena Now Open

Umami Burger's Pasadena location opened yesterday, making it the 14th location of the chain -- if you count Umamicatessen. The original opening date had been slated for Oct. 17, but it seems that the restaurant took a little longer than expected to come together.

Mayer Hawthorne's Umami Burger: When Musicians Menus Collide

If you're someone who subscribes to the theory that food is the new rock, then you might have see last Wednesday night as a watershed moment. Umami Burger, the L.A.-based gourmet burger chain that's set to open it's thirteenth location next week, released the first of what it's calling its "artist-e ... More >>

The New Pastrami Sandwich 3 Great Places to Get One

This week we're launching a new series called Food of the Moment which devotes itself to an ingredient or dish currently experiencing an boom at local eateries. We'll then eat it, dissect it, discuss it -- and tell you where you can get some. In a Slate piece back in September, Rachel Levin chronic ... More >>

50: The Southern Fry at Plan Check Kitchen Bar

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4), we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes. 51: The Southern Fry at Plan Check Kitchen Bar. While the centerpiece of Plan Check Kitchen Bar on Sawtelle is undoubtedly it's dripping, concentrated burg ... More >>

An August Roundup of Restaurant Openings and Closings

Summer is nearly over, but the heat shows no signs of slowing. Here to help is Brentwood's newest sugary addition, Sweet Crush Ice Bar. The frozen dessert shop brings "traditional Asian shaved ice to the masses" with flavors such as Earl Grey, mango, coconut and grapefruit ginger. With the end of a ... More >>

Slater's 50/50 Umami Burger Coming to Pasadena

Pasadena is continuing its transformation from food desert to burger paradise, with the upcoming opening of Orange County burger spot Slater's 50/50. Add Haven Gastropub and King's Row -- plus the Umami Burger that's going into the old Naga Naga Ramen space on Colorado -- and Old Town Pasadena is lo ... More >>

10 Best Onion Rings in Los Angeles

Angelenos, there are some spectacular onion rings being fried up in our midst. They're most commonly found in two very similar, yet disparate places -- burger joints and steak houses. In other words, you can pay $3 and get them on a plastic tray with a beer or a bottomless soda; or you can pay $12 i ... More >>

Heather Woodbury's Upcoming As the Globe Warms and LACE's American Realism

10 Best Pies in Los Angeles

Pie can become a fixation. For some, it's more than just something to eat, it's an experience. For us, it was a challenge. We polled and questioned, consulted the experts, prodded and called and narrowed our list to a daunting 25 local pies to sample. For our own sanity, this was limited to standard ... More >>

Adam Fleischman Takes Over L.A. Creamery Introduces Bizarro Flavors

Umami Burger owner Adam Fleischman has added another asset to his ever-expanding food empire, which includes 800 Degrees Pizza and Red Medicine, acquiring an ownership stake in the 2-year-old, Chatsworth-based L.A. Creamery. Fleischman plans to expand distribution (the ice cream is already availab ... More >>

Umami Burger's Fancy "Pink Slime" Burger

This morning the mad meat scientists over at Umami Burger announced their most Frankenstein creation yet: a gourmet "Pink Slime" burger that will debut at the Taste of the Nation Los Angeles on June 10. In fact, this particular specimen above was whipped in founder Adam Fleischman's home kitchen. Yu ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 5/29 - 6/1

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "If you want more of this salsa, it'll be an extra quarter. This would be but a small price to pay for a fleeting moment of bliss." Top 6 Tacos in the San Fernando Valley. "It's unknown whether the spray jelly can also be u ... More >>

Phil Rosenthal, Creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, on His Journey Through the World of Food

Phil Rosenthal on the L.A. Restaurant Scene, Eating Sushi with James Brooks Grilling Thomas Keller

In this week's feature food story, arts editor Zachary Pincus-Roth talks to Phil Rosenthal, creator of Everybody Loves Raymond about what he's done with all his money. Really. Because the producer, writer and director hasn't just been resting on his Emmys, but has put a lot of that money into local ... More >>

Plan Check: How is This Restaurant not Like the Others?

Scattered around Los Angeles are restaurants that could be used as examples for teaching kids how to differentiate among objects. "One of these things is not like the others" lessons. Petrillo's on Valley Boulevard in San Gabriel, a solo Italian neighborhood restaurant bobbing up and down in a sea o ... More >>

[Updated] UCLA's Science & Food Series: Or, Why There's A Modernist in Your Soup (or at Your Dinner Table)

Update: The lovely folks at UCLA have just told us that there are still spots available for the June 9 lectures. Maybe go reserve one now. General admission is $20; UCLA students get in free with a valid student ID. This semester is a pretty good time to be a "non-science student" at UCLA: 50 lucky ... More >>

Umamicatessen: Meating Place

A "soft open," in restaurant parlance, is a kind of dress-rehearsal period, wherein the establishment throws open its doors and hopes for a manageable trickle of customers to walk in, allowing the kitchen and waitstaff to work out kinks in the menu and service. In the Twitter age, however, a soft o ... More >>

Plan Check to Open on Sawtelle on Feb. 22

Plan Check, the newest entrant to Sawtelle's buzzing restaurant row, will open Feb. 22. The upper-midscale gastropubby restaurant features chef Ernesto Uchimura (Umami Burger) behind the stoves and mixologists Steve Livigni and Pablo Moix (La Descarga, Harvard & Stone, Black Market) behind the bar - ... More >>

Updated: Via Instagram: Steven Arroyo to Close Cobras & Matadors

Updated: Steven Arroyo just confirmed to us via cellphone that, yes, he's closing his restaurant, and that Cobra & Matador's last service will in fact be Valentine's Day, Tuesday, Feb. 14. As for his plans for the space (long lease) and a new project, he said he'd like to keep that to himself for t ... More >>

The Sixth Taste: Or, Why We Love Fat

Yogma/FlickrA Umami Burger​Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, savory (or umami) and... fat? For better or worse, most of us have an affinity for fatty foods, and if scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are correct, that affinity may have less to do with the texture, sm ... More >>

10 Cheap Restaurants for New Year's Eve

Last week, we listed 11 new restaurants open for New Year's Eve. All will present special menus -- at "special" prices ranging from $46 to $475. Prefer to not break the bank for New Year's? We've selected ten restaurants where you can dine for less than $30 per person (not including drinks) past ... More >>

[Update] 800 Degrees Opening in Westwood: From Umami to Pizza

Courtesy of 800 DegreesPizza, hot from the oven at 800 Degrees.​[Update: We have confirmation that 800 Degrees will officially open on January 3rd. A look at the menu after the jump.] Burgers just aren't enough for Adam Flesichman. The Umami Burger impresario, who's also getting ready to deb ... More >>

Umami Burger to Open in Hermosa, Laguna Beach

​Umami Burger, which already has so many locations around greater L.A. we've stopped counting, announced it will open two more locations: Hermosa Beach and Laguna Beach. Located within a block of the pier, the Hermosa Beach location will open by the end of 2011. The Laguna Beach location, whic ... More >>

The Want Ads: A Bacon Cheeseburger Bed Of One's Own

Craigslista cheeseburger bed​If you're the sort of person who eats out way too often at Umami Burger, frequently invokes Thomas Keller's well-documented love of In-N-Out as justification for your fast food burger fetish, and spends your weekends in close proximity to your charcoal briquets and ... More >>

The Thursday Edition: A Roundup of Newspaper Food Stories

Flickr/dubh​ What's the country reading today food-wise? Here's a roundup of some of the food-related stories from other newspapers, many of which print their food sections mid-week. And remember, even if you don't actually buy papers these days (or not; this paper is free), it's where most of ... More >>

Top 10: Most Kid-Unfriendly Restaurants in Los Angeles

Photo by Anne FishbeinIs there a pediatric burn specialist in the house? Soot Bull Jeep.​ Sometimes eating out with kids is all about the path of least resistance, which if you peruse OpenTable Diners' Choice list of the country's 100 most kid-friendly restaurants, seems to be the prevailing p ... More >>

Q & A With Red Medicine's Jordan Kahn: Food as Art, Abstract Oddities Why Vietnamese Food

A. FrougChef Jordan Kahn plating a dessert at Red Medicine​ To the outside observer, Jordan Kahn's career doesn't make a lot of sense. He worked at some of the most prestigious restaurants in the country (The French Laundry, Alinea, XIV), the kind of places that become pilgrimage sites for the ... More >>

Jonathan Gold Reviews Umami Burger

Your Counter Intelligence Preview: In Which Mr. Gold Visits Umami Burger

Anne FishbeinUmami Burger​ Harold Bloom has built a career out of exploring the notion of the incommensurate, and it is precisely this term that some of us would use to describe this week's Counter Intelligence story, in which Jonathan Gold compares Nathan Myrhvold's notion of the perfect hamb ... More >>

A Recipe From the Burger King: Adam Fleischman's Pasta Rags with Marsala Sauce

A. ArmstrongAdam Fleischman's pasta with Marsala sauce​ As readers learned in the second part of Squid Ink's recent interview with Umami Burger's Adam Fleischman, the burger king (can we call him that?) likes to maintain a sense of adaptability in his projects. That adventure and experimen ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 3/28-4/1

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "Whatever the current style in Los Angeles restaurants ends up being named, all of it -- from the small-plate thing to the fixation on local, organic produce; the off-center proteins to the internat ... More >>

Q & A with Adam Fleischman of Umami Burger, Part 2: the Drawbacks of Standardization, a Certain Controversy Umami Universality

photo courtesy of Adam FleischmanAdam Fleischman​ In the first part of our interview with Umami Burger founder Adam Fleischman, he discussed Umami's origin -- which coincided with L.A.'s burger mania -- how Umami Burger's going national won't change its identity, and why In-N-Out can claim rea ... More >>

Q & A with Adam Fleischman of Umami Burger, Part 1: The 5th Taste, In-N-Out The Quest for Global Domination

photo courtesy of Adam FleischmanAdam Fleischman​ Given that we're deep into Los Angeles' full-blown Golden Burger Age, with the evidence amply documented on this site, it's almost hard to remember a time before it. The burger landscape was just on its way to becoming fully fleshed out (pun in ... More >>

Umami Burger #5 Now Open in Studio City: Burgers, Walk-up Bar A Stuffed Swan

A. ScattergoodUmami Burger, Studio City​ Umami Burger opened its 5th location in two years last Wednesday, making a very good case for future global hegemony. Well, okay, maybe city-wide hegemony. Whatever. The sleek new spot went in right next door to Mexicali Cocina Cantina in the space tha ... More >>

Lemmy's Guide to L.A.'s Gentlemen's Clubs

Finding Macaroons

From eye-popping colors to chocolate with sea salt

Sunday Meal at Golden State: Burgers, Beers and Fries

Y Tu Umami, Tambien: Now in Los Feliz, too

The Fifth Element: The Umami Burger Challenge