The newest edition of Umami Burger opened up a couple weeks ago in Los Feliz and I got there as soon as I could to see if they could continue producing those same amazing burgers. The last time I went to Umami on La Brea, it was still BYOB and had yet to develop a burger built for unvegans. Even the so-called “Manly Burger” had onions, but they were still nice enough to make burgers for my unvegan specifications. Umami Ni, as I like to call the new Umami Burger (ni meaning two in Japanese), was a grown up version of the original.

Not only does Umami Ni serve beer and wine, they even have a bar called Salaryman (another Japanese homage) where they serve Asian beers for comfortable prices. Arriving at 9:00, I expected to be seated quickly, but the place still had a waiting time, so I headed over to experience Salaryman. The place seems to really only exist for people waiting on their tables. I wouldn’t really consider the bar itself a destination, but it is a nice place to wait. Before I had time to finish my beer, my table was ready.

I checked out the menu and was amazed to find that they had finally crafted a burger for unvegans, the Truffle Burger. This veggie-free dream simply has Italian truffle cheese and a truffle glaze. With my mouth watering, I ordered my burger.

After a relatively long wait, a runner brought my burger, but to the surprise of my co-eaters none of their burgers showed. The burger looked amazing, but I waited a minute for the other burgers to arrive before digging in. A minute passed and our waiter came to tell us there had been a mistake. The burgers would be coming soon, but I should eat mine. Confused, but now free of being rude by eating my meal first, I started eating. It was everything I hoped for and more. I can say without a doubt that this is the best burger I have ever had. I don’t know what it is about truffles, but they seem to make everything taste better. I am now adding them to my list of things that make everything taste better, which includes cheese, garlic and bacon.

And what’s more? With the arrival of the rest of the burgers at the table, they brought me out a second burger, which I cut up for the rest of the table to try. It was nice to see a restaurant like that recognize even a little mistake and make up for it in spades. Now if only they could start making sides that match the burgers in tastiness. I tried both their sweet potato and regular potato fries, and neither were worthy companions to the Truffle Burger. They weren’t bad by any means, it is just that the standard is so high.

Umami Ni and its Truffle Burger has spoiled me for burgers and I now long for my next opportunity to devour some of their perfectly prepared burgers.

Before leaving the Northwoods, I made a stop at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota to eat at Crave. Although the Mall of America can hardly be considered part of the Northwoods, it’s close enough to be included in my weekly special.

Crave was a nice and spacious restaurant that came highly recommended by my family that was taking me there. A whole lot of food on the menu looked great and we started by ordering appetizers. We got the Mini-Burgers, which the menu said came with bacon, cheddar and rosemary. We also ordered the Lemon Garlic Wings, which came with “Amablu cheese dressing” and cucumbers. Since the family likes cucumbers, I didn’t order the dish without them and just hoped they didn’t touch any of the wings I wanted to eat.

While waiting for the apps, we made our main course orders. I ordered the Baked Truffle Macaroni and Cheese, and asked for grilled chicken in it for good measure. Shortly after, our appetizers arrived in a sort of disappointing fashion. The Mini-Burgers, which made no mention of vegetables in the menu, had tomatoes on them and pickles on the side. And also, the were even mini-er than I could have imagined. Maybe micro-burgers would have been a better name. Nonetheless, once I realized the pickles didn’t touch the burgers and the tomatoes had been evicted, they tasted really good. The chicken wings were still bleeding, so we sent them back to be cooked for a little longer. No one wants salmonella on a cross-country flight. Our re-cooked wings came back just before our main course arrived. They were definitely cooked enough now, and seemed to have lost half of their mass in the process. Luckily the cucumbers didn’t make any contact with the wings and they ended up being pretty good.

When my main course came, it had some pretty funky looking chicken in it. After a quick taste test, I found that it was not chicken at all, but bacon. Good thing I don’t keep Kosher. I alerted the waitress, and about ten minutes later she returned with chicken for me to put in the mac and cheese. I wasn’t terribly disappointed to be getting two meats for the price of one, but it would have been nice if they had gotten the order right in the first place.

In the end, the food was really good, despite the number of mistakes and attempts it took to get everything right. I’m not a tough man to please and my food standards are low. All I really want is for the menu to warn me if there will be vegetables, for my food to be fully cooked and to actually get what I order. Crave didn’t deliver on any of these and although the food tasted good, it just wasn’t worth the seemingly endless hassle.