There’s been a lot of hype for Umami burger ever since it opened. My friend tried it before and found it so-so. So here I am to try it myself. The space is small and pretty well-designed. They don’t have a liquor license so it’s BYOB. It’s a pity we didn’t have beer with us as the burgers are perfect for beer, and we realized there’s a liquor shop right across the street when we left.

The menu is small, and they only have burgers on the menu (it is called “Umami burger” afterall). You get to choose one condiments per order, we chose roasted garlic aioli and house spread. Since we didn’t get fries, so we end up didn’t really use them.

We both went for the non-traditional kind:

I got the No. 5 burger: pork with Chinese 5 spice.

Truffle burger: Italian truffle cheese and truffle glaze

Both are  quite interesting and tasty, though I can barely taste the 5 spice as the ketchup overpowered other flavors. I have the same complain for both burgers, and you can see it in the pictures too: the buns gets soggy and mushy!  Halfway eating I just get rid of the soggy buns and eat the patty by itself.

The burgers would be a lot better with stronger buns. Otherwise I like the burgers and the varieties they have. Next time I should try their signature Umami burger.

Umami Burger
850 S La Brea Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 931-3000

Tags: Burger

Back to the wonderful Nickel Diner for Brunch. This time I got their famous Maple glazed bacon donut. It’s not on the menu anywhere so I had to ask the waitress for it. It was incredibly delicious! I love the texture of the donut, so soft and airy. The bacon add a nice savory touch and crispy texture. Jon called it “an artery hardening orgasm of fat, salt and sugar”. I felt guilty eating it soon after though.

Hamburger patty and two eggs with tomato, cottage cheese and toast.
Good. Too much food for me though, especially after eating the donut.

The heads got new hairdo.

The Nickel Diner
524 S Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 623-8301

Tags: Breakfast

A friend who lived at Mt. Washington told me about this joint Good Girl Dinette and recommended me their beef stew. I checked out their website and it says “Vietnamese Comfort Food meets American diner.” Wow what a fun concept! I immediately got a group of foodie friends and set out.

The design-y space sticks out in the rather sketchy neighborhood.

Love the clean, casual and chic interior (especially the chairs)!

Appetizer: Mushroom Imperial Rolls, Fresh Spring Rolls (stuffed with tofu and herbs). Good!

Spicy Fries – russets seasoned with chilies, garlic, cilantro $4.75  So simple yet so good, I love it!!!

Rice Cakes with Crispy Scallion tofu. I was expecting Banh Chung but turns out it’s like onigiri/riceball.

The menu ranged from the more Vietnamese staples to Vietnamese-meets-west fusion dishes. There’s the quintessential selections of Vietnamese baguette sandwiches (Banh Mi), Pho and Congee.

The Chicken Soup Pho (good broth!) and  Slow Roasted Pork Baguettes (with pickles, homemade cilantro-maggi mayo) were also very good quality.

Then there’s the stew dishes:

Beef Stew – Braised with carrots in Vietnamese Five-Spice. They don’t mean it lightly when they said ‘Five spice’ flavors, it’s very aromatic, complex tasting and flavorful! Though the Chinese star anise flavor was a little too overwhelming for me (too liquorice).

Curry Pot Pies with homemade biscuit. This was my most favorite of the night. The biscuit was well made and crispy. The hot stew underneath was spiced with curry. This dish needed 20 min. prep time so order early!

Bread Pudding. Very good~ They should consider opening a side bakery shop.

Almond Jelly. Refreshing, creamy and wonderful! The candied Kumquat was a great touch.

This place has the perfect combine of a great idea + top quality + good execution! I wish it was located at a more accessible (for me) and safer area. The meal made me so happy and full, which means it did its job as ‘comfort food.’ (Thanks Adam for recommending it!)

Good Girl Dinette
110 North Avenue 56 Los Angeles, CA 90042

Tags: American, Diner, Fusion, Pho, Vietnamese

In the hip Fairfax district near the fantastic Animal Restaurant, there’s The Golden State Cafe , a cheap “gourmet fast-food” joint that features food and drinks from California, I.E. they have gelato from Scoop and hot dogs from Let’s be Frank. It seems to be a rather risky concept, since it’s not that far to go to those places, and the menu is small.

The beer on the menu were from California breweries (though they have stuffs from Portland too). I forgot what we tried, both were good. If you get the old Rasputin beer on draft you can add a scoop of Scoops’s gelato for a beer float! I definitely want to try that next time.

The Burger ($10) seems to be the star item. The ingredients are from California: beef from Harris ranch , cheddar from Fiscalini farms. Also with glazed applewood smoked bacon, arugula, housemade aioli and ketchup. You get to pick one side from 5 choices. Jon picked the Jalapeno cabbage slaw. The burger is delicious! I know gourmet burger is everywhere these days in this town, but it’s still nice to find one that’s well made.

I got the Let’s be Frank hot dog (beef), you get to choose two toppings and a side. I got the Golden State relish (yummy) and sauerkraut for toppings, and the french fries is served with housemade hazelnut romesco. The hotdog is pretty good but it’s no Wurstkuche.

A nice causal place where everything is $10 and under. It’s a pretty good place for quick eats and then talk over drinks.

The Golden State Cafe
426 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 782-8331

Tags: beer, Burger, Hot Dog

Everyone at work has been raving about the new-ish Loteria Grill on Hollywood Blvd ever since it opened late last year. I always missd the chance to go, either too busy at work or some other reasons. Last week was a co-worker’s birthday, so a big group of us went there for lunch to celebrate. Unlike the stall at Farmer’s Market, this Loteria Grill is a real sit-down restaurant at the touristy part of Hollywood Blvd, right next to the very cheesy Geisha House (sorry if anyone actually likes that place…). I was rather surprise at how nice the interior is. Love the high ceiling, open kitchen and natural sunlight. Of course it’s decorated with their signature “cards” theme. As soon as we sit down, they waiter brought over chips with sauce. The sauce was really good, very addictive.

We got two appetizers: Queso Fundido (melted cheese) and Crispy taquitos (inside is chicken, shredded beef and potato). The Queso Fundido was really good. It came with tortilla which we ate with the melted cheese.The taquitos were pretty good too.

I got the Sampler plates which has all 12 of tacos served on mini hand-made tortillas. It’s a good dish for a first timer to sample all their tacos in a bite, though their sizes were more like 2 bites for me. It’s a very filling dish for sure, if Freda was with me I would definitely share it with her. The tacos are:

-Fresh cactus salda (I Love this a lot!)
-Zucchini and roasted corn succotash (refreshing)
-Mushrooms with Epazote. (it taste ok)
-Potatoes with roasted poblano peppers (Really good!)
-Chicken in mole poblano (I had this one before at the Farmer’s Market branch and I wasn’t that impressed at that time, but this time it was very good).
-Chicken stewed with chipotle peppers and home-made chorizo. (good)
-Chicken in a spicy pumpkin-seed and peanut sauce. (tasty)
-Shredded beef with guacamole. (Really good, one of my most favorite ones).
-Meatballs in tomato and chipotle sauce (Taste a little too Italian-ish )
-Pork Slowly Roasted in Banana Leaf with citrus-pickled red onion and chile habanero (pretty good)
-Pork rinds in spicy tomatillo sauce. (Really good, one of my favorites.)
-Carnitas in a spicy and smokey chile morita sauce, served with slices of avocado. (good)

Everyone got tacos so I only took picture of the person’s next to me. From left to right: - zucchini and roasted corn succotash, Mushrooms with Epazote, Shredded beef with guacamole, Chicken in mole poblano.

Flan. Rich and creamy.

I haven’t had good Mexican food for a long time so this meal blew me away. Someone in our group argues that the food is a tad bit overpriced for Mexican food, but I guess that’s expected given the location of this place. I say if you find yourself somehow unfortunately stuck at Hollywood Blvd and you need a bite, Loteria Grill is the place to go.  They have an amazing collection of Tequilas too.

Loteria Grill Hollywood
6627 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028
323.465.2500

Tags: Mexican

The Bowery burger has became my favorite burger du jour~ What made it special is that it is a juicy, well seasoned, small but very thick patty put in between English muffins. I like how well the smaller dimension fit into my grip and bites. The thickness of the patty let you savor every meaty bite better. You can built the rest with a list of various cheese, onion, bacon, etc. to choose from. I got the gruyere cheese with caramelized onion. My mouth watered just from typing that.

The sweet potatoes fries are good as well.

The Bowery
6268 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028

Tags: Bar, Burger

Heard lots of good things about Nickle Diner, a retro-hip diner at downtown LA. There has been a lot of hyped for it ever since it opened, we tried to go there one time but it was closed. I love the cute window displays very much. The interior looks authentically like a small neighbourhood diner from the 50s. There’s a nice retro feel to the place, the walls and ceiling weren’t perfectly “renovated”, or may be they were made to look aged. Since it was a popular place, we had to wait a bit for a table on a late Sunday morning.

5th and Main: Spicy BBQ Pork Hash with 2 Eggs $9.25

Wow very delicious! A food coma induced dish, the BBQ sauce and the meat were really good. The runny york of the egg went really well with the sauce. It’s more spicy than I expected.

I wanted to eat something a little healthier so I got the Stuffed Avacado with quinoa salad, black beans, red peppers, squash, corn and cilantro. $8.50. I also got a side of the chicken apple sausage $2.75. Both were very good. All the ingredients tasted fresh. I’m a big fan of quinoa, and the mixture of beans, peppers, squash, corn and cilantro worked very well. Muliple flavors in every bites.

They’re also famous for the maple glazed bacon donut. Unfortunately we were so fulled by the end of the meal to have room for it. Definitely will come back to try it. Their brunch and lunch menu were reasonably priced, most items were under $10. I’d love to try their dinner as well.

The Nickel Diner
524 S Main St, Los Angeles, CA 90013
(213) 623-8301

Tags: Breakfast, Diner