umami burger

san francisco, ca

website

i've wanted an umami burger ever since giada de laurentiis described it as her hometown favorite on the "best thing i ever ate" (video) two years ago. i love umami flavors. i love burgers. it sounded perfect. except it was located in los angeles. but last year, umami burger opened a san francisco outpost, appropriately located in the cow hollow neighborhood. vibe is extremely casual, the waitstaff seems genuinely enthused about the food they serve, and the menu is one of those menus where i just want to order everything on it.

i chose the famous umami burger - shiitake mushroom, caramelized onions, roasted tomato, parmesan crisp, and housemade umami ketchup. (that's the parmesan crisp sticking out in the picture). if you're a fan of sweet & salty - this is the burger for you. incredibly rich flavor - definitely hits all of the umami notes but the sweetness was almost too much. but i would happily eat this burger again. and again. the truffled beet salad was fantastic (i would put that truffled ricotta on everything). derek ordered the manly burger - beer-cheddar cheese, smoked-salt onion strings, and bacon lardons. excellent. there's a nice beer and wine selection and humphry slocombe ice cream sandwiches for dessert. amazing. if only it wasn't so far away from my apartment - i hope they open a south bay location next!

blind tiger

bleecker/jones

website

our night on the town that ended at big daddy's started at blind tiger. we had a large group of people, all there to say farewell to vanita and hubby before they move to the left coast. luckily, we managed to snag enough bar stools and tables to seat and feed everyone.

blind tiger has an impressive beer menu, but my focus was on food. we ordered olive tapenade (too salty), hummus (alright), deviled eggs (not as good as spotted pig), beet salad (hard to share), a blt sandwich (eh), and various grilled cheese sandwiches. the grilled cheese was definitely the winner - gooey, filled with onions and tomatoes. one word of caution though, there was a surprise jalapeno in one bite of the grilled cheese sandwich. no one else tasted any jalapeno, it was apparently only in my piece of the sandwich, but i swear it was there. beware.

spotted pig

new york, ny

website

our walking tour of manhattan continued after the high line through the meatpacking district and into the west village (where we managed to hit all 5 marc by marc jacobs shops). when it was snack time, i decided to lead christine and val to the spotted pig, which started the whole "gastropub" trend in nyc. as far as i can tell, "gastropub" means that a restaurant has uncomfortable seating, an impressive beer selection, and excellent food (often inspired by british pub food).

val ordered a beer, the ladies had grapefruit juice (very good) and we ordered a round of bar snacks for the table. although famous for their deviled eggs, they must have been having an off day because ours were too vinegary. the fries, however, were amazing! extremely thin and crispy, they were covered with sprigs of rosemary and thyme. christine was brave enough to order the "roll mops" - which are pickled herring topped with creme fraiche - it was surprisingly tasty. spotted pig has figured out how to make british pub food gourmet and appealing.

blaue gans

new york, ny

website

last weekend, derek and i were craving some schnitzel and decided to stroll down to tribeca to join jenny for dinner. we ended up walking faster than expected and arrived at jenny's apartment about an hour early. no problem, we all headed to ward III for some "bespoke" pre-dinner drinks. simply tell the bartender what fruits/flavors/alcohols/herbs you would like in your drink and he puts together a magical concoction. my favorite is when i asked for something with peach and champagne - and the bartender created a peach pie cocktail with a sprig of rosemary! warning - the drinks are strong. one will give you quite a buzz, two will make it difficult to walk to your dinner destination.

we did, however, manage to make it to blaue gans for dinner. before derek's co-worker introduced us to blaue gans, i always thought that schnitzel was some kind of germanic pastry. but turns out, it's pounded fried meat (sometimes pan-fried, sometimes deep-fried). and it's delicious. blaue gans has several varieties of schnitzel. on a previous visit, i had pork schnitzel that was stuffed with ham and cheese. this time, to continue the double-pork trend, i ordered pork schnitzel topped with a bacon mushroom cream sauce. the sauce has an amazing rich flavor and the meat is tender and juicy. who knew german food could taste so good.

resto

new york, ny

website

i love the rustic interior of this restaurant. it feels like we're sitting in a pacific northwest lodge and that if we looked out the window, we'd see an evergreen forest instead of apartment buildings. makes me a little homesick. i've been here a few times for dinner, which was amazing - pork toast with caviar, anyone? the theme is belgian, but the real focus is fresh quality ingredients from local farms (um, as local as you can get to manhattan). derek and i have been searching for a great brunch spot in our neighborhood and i think this might be it.

everything on the menu looked so good that it took me about 10-15 minutes to decide what to order. eventually, derek had to pull the menu away from me. i had the eggs benedict - two eggs over two belgian waffles stuffed with ham, served with a side salad and home fries. the waffles had a hint of sweetness so i decided to treat those as dessert and eat the eggs with the crispy onion-y home fries. the fries were a little salty, but matched well with the eggs. the waffles went very well with the excellent bowl-sized "cup" of coffee. (i think they ship their coffee in from portland!) derek had the chicken and waffles (pictured), which were pretty darn good. one of the menu items that caught my eye was the "belgian hangover pasta" with vermont ham, gruyere, sunny egg, and black pepper. i may have to drink myself into a hangover just so i can order that the next day.

wildwood barbeque

new york, ny

website

this is a huge restaurant on park avenue south. the interior is so big and over-the-top that it seems to come straight out of frontierland from disneyworld. but the ribs are so good that i don't mind. derek and i have tried a lot of bbq places and wildwood's kansas city baby back ribs are our favorite ribs. i'm honestly not sure how authentic the ribs are, having never been to kansas city, but i know what i like. the ribs are covered in "spicy chipotle bbq" sauce which is just spicy enough to be tasty.

we usually order a whole rack and a few sides. i like their tater tots (again, i'm skeptical about authenticity here) and derek likes their fries. but it's really all about the ribs. the picture is a few ribs short of a full rack as i had to first hoard some on my plate. derek is a rib-eating machine and many times he has finished the entire order while i'm still gnawing on my second rib.

irving mill

new york, ny

CLOSED

derek and i really like this place. inside, the rustic cabin feel and friendly service (and beer selection!) remind us of the pacific northwest. i'm disappointed that they took the pork toast off the menu - deep fried "toast" made out of pork covered with egg-salad and caviar - so i hope that comes back soon. derek was very impressed with the burger and fries. he said that it tastes almost as good as shake shack's, but has a bigger portion of meat and better gooey cheese.

another reason it doesn't feel like nyc - the space is cavernous and the tables are spread out so there's room to breathe (thus the first-ever stroller-friendly tag). note: there's no t-mobile blackberry service in the back of the restaurant, so it's also a good spot to hide from the powers-that-be.

initially posted 8/1/2009 -- reposted with better photo.

father's office

culver city, ca

website

this burger was highly recommended by puri. indeed, he said it was his favorite burger. some caveats first - i went directly from the airport to father's office in culver city (thus, not the santa monica original). second - other than a small bag of jetblue cashews, i had not eaten for 11 hours. finally - i don't like bleu cheese at all, which is what father's office's burger comes topped with.

with all those caveats -- the burger was freakin' amazing. the meat - amazing flavor. the onions were juicy sweet goodness. the sub-style bun was perfect - buttered and toasted and just substantial enough to hold everything in. and i love arugula. even though i don't like bleu cheese, it matched the rest of the ingredients. i think if i wasn't so hungry, i would have been more bothered by the bleu cheese. but i inhaled this burger.