Earth Burger at Umami Burger

Truffled Beet Salad w/ Arugula, truffled ricotta, and almonds

 Earth Burger: Mushroom and edamame patty with white soy aoili, truffled ricotta, cipollini onions, lettuce and slow roasted tomato

Place: Umami Burger

          500 Broadway Street

          Santa Monica, CA 90401

Genre: Burgers

$$

Hit or a Miss? Miss

My Opinion:

Umami might be the place for meat-eaters, but I wouldn't recommend it to a pesce/vegetarian. The "earth burger" was not my cup of tea. The consistency of the burger was much like that of mashed potatoes...I couldn't "chew" on anything. The squishy patty combined combined with the crumbly soft ricotta just made the tasting experience even worse. The flavors themselves didn't blend well together. The soy aoili and the truffled ricotta was just too much. If you do decide to go, I'd recommend asking for one of the two on the side. They are just such powerful flavors that you don't really taste anything other than that in your mouth (I completely forgot about the taste of the patty). I'm sure you won't get the same mushy texture from a normal burger, but since this is a pescetarian food blog, I'm going to say that Umami is not the ideal place to get a veggie burger. The Earth Burger is also hard to eat. You'd have to have a rather large mouth to take one bite, which includes almost all of the parts of the burger. Despite my negative comments on the Earth Burger, I would have to say that the Truffled Beet Salad is pretty good, not amazing, but good. I wasn't entirely amazed by it, which is why I'm having difficulty describing it. Long story short, if I were to ever return to Umami burger, I would skip on the burger and just order the salad. The Counter is definitely the best place to get a veggie burger.