By Katie Taggart
Umami Burger Review
Umami is defined as a savory taste and is has recently been established as one of the five basic tastes. If you’re in Pasadena and need a burger, you need to stop into Umami Burger. Now this place has multiple locations around California so you have no excuse to miss out on these burgers.
Umami prides themselves on making everything in house. That means, the burgers, pickles, ketchup and sauces are all made fresh in house.
The waiter will bring out a sample of their homemade sauces like the spicy diablo sauce, garlic aioli, jalapeno ranch and homemade ketchup.
Umami has a great set of appetizers. My group and I started with an order of homemade pickled goods which included pickled onions, radishes, carrots and pickles. We also added in the new Maple Bacon fries. The radishes and pickles had a tangy crunch to them and you could tell that they were made in house. I know that these are side, but the onions are a good additions to whatever burger you get.
The Maple Bacon fries, we were told, are a new addition to the menu. The sweet potato fries are delicious because of the combination of a maple syrup glaze and salty bacon lardons (which are salt-cured, un-smoked chunks of bacon) .
I decided on the Umami burger which had Parmesan Frico (a crunchy parm disc) Shiitake mushrooms, roasted tomato, caramelized onions and their homemade Umami ketchup. The burger was juicy and the onions added a nice sweetness. This combination of sweet and savory makes for a satisfying meal.
I also had a taste of the Hatch burger which had hatch chilies, Cali Cheese and roasted garlic aioli. This has a mild spice to it and has a more savory taste to it. Try Umami’s spicy diablo sauce with this one if you want some extra heat.
Overall the Umami Burger experience was wonderful. Our waitress was very helpful, the food was fresh and if you’re in a mood for a good burger, stop on in.