I spent the entire two weeks of my US trip on the east coast. I had unfinished business in New York and I had absolutely no intention of flying around if I could avoid it. Unfortunately this meant that I didn’t get the complete American culinary experience. There are some offerings that are unique to certain cities, states and coasts.

Fortunately for me, a food chain that was previously native to the west coast decided to open up one store in NYC.

That store is Umami Burger.

I first heard of Umami Burger via a Street Fighter web series called Cross Counter. Yes, I’m an established nerd that plays video games but also watches other people play video games. You’re not going to believe this but I don’t have Valentine’s Day plans.

Unfortunately for me, I planned to go when the main subway line was closed and had to walk fifty blocks to get there.

Spoiler alert: Worth it.

Don’t be fooled by the lack of crowd. I actually arrived a little bit before it opened and the staff saw me freezing my geeky behind off through the windows and let me in out of pity.

I’ve had to make a lot of hard decisions in my life. Where to go to university, what course to take, which intern to hire and which intern to make fun of because of their incredibly hilarious e-mail address from the MSN messenger days.

I’ve never faced a tougher decision than when I was confronted with the Umami burger menu. Everything just sounded incredible (Menu HERE). I was torn between the five spice duck burger, the original Umami burger and the truffle burger.

I opted for a drink and some fries before I had to make this heart wrenching decision.

I consistently ordered cold drinks on my trip even though the average temperature was below freezing. That’s just how I roll.

This was incredibly refreshing on the tongue and helped clear my mind for the choice I had to make.

Before I wax poetical about the amazing fries, I have to talk about the sauces that were given to me.

Welcome to Umami.

That’s an all-star cast of sauces for me to dip my already bursting with flavour fries. I loved the presentation of the sauces as I am a consistent sucker for novelty value. Couple novelty value with a premium selection of savoury sauces and I’m Jason Mraz level your’s.

The fries were incredibly tasty and the garlic and truffle flavours had great synergy. However, take note to eat these bad boys quickly as they can get soggy and lose their delightful crispy nature if you let them sit for too long.

It’s time to unveil which burger I decided to give a rose to.

Yo.

A lot of tasty burgers aren’t very photogenic but Umami’s truffle burger knows exactly how to pose. This isn’t just a shallow burger as the patty was bursting with umami excellence

This is an upscale burger. This isn’t my family’s old Toyota Camry; this is a Lamborghini speeding its way into my stomach.

The truffle flavour was overwhelming and you can tell that they don’t skimp on quality ingredients as the beef blended patty was amazingly juicy. The waiter told me it was cooked medium rare but it tasted like cooked to perfection to me. The grease dripped like manna from heaven as I held on to the burger. This burger belongs on the can’t put them down all-stars team.

The literary equivalent would be ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ for girls between the ages of 16 and 25. You can’t put it down, you just marvel at how good and how well constructed it is.

Here’s the TL; DR for everyone who likes soggy fries:

– I’m a nerd.

– Go to Umami and bring friends so you can sample a large cross section of their menu. I can’t wait to go back!

Umami Burger, West Village (New York)

432 6th Ave (corner of 9th street) New York, NY

Opening Hours:

Sunday	11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Monday	11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Tuesday	11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Wednesday	11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Thursday	11:00 am – 11:00 pm
Friday	11:00 am – 12:00 am
Saturday	11:00 am – 12:00 am

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