There is no point at all in eating a burger while in Los Angeles at any place other than Umami Burger. It’s that simple.

I was at the one on North Cahuenga recently (this is the one they call Umami Urban)…

…and ordered the pork belly burger called Hog Heaven. It was topped with avocado, thick cut bacon and an onion. It was really delicious, very flavorful and not as fatty as you would think but in all honesty, I would stick to their beef burgers.

And a new location just opened up in Studio City recently… they are calling this one Umami Valli (well aren’t they cute spelling it wrong) with it’s classic retro-diner-meets-fancy-chandelier decor. Who cares about the damn furniture they could have milk crates for me to sit on as long as they don’t change their recipes at all.

Ahhh a full bar. Me likey.

I love their truffled beet salad…(not sure if this is available all the time at all the locations, so don’t get mad at me if you can’t order it). It’s got a truffle glaze over arugula and white beets with roasted, smoked almonds for a little spicy crunch. A must-have even though it doesn’t bleed.

And the reason for living: the Truffle Burger. Ordered rare. Ooozing blood. With a housemade truffle cheese and a truffle glaze.

Do not fuck around with your burgers folks. I am serious. Just go straight there next time you are in Los Angeles.

“Popcorn Brussel Sprouts”: flash fried with parmesan bread crumbs and bacon bits. Served at Analog in downtown San Diego. Words cannot describe this!

Get some at once! I licked the plate.

My Valentine’s date and I didn’t have reservations anywhere downtown San Diego so we just kind of mosied and grabbed an appetizer and a drink wherever we felt the urge. We had a crab cake at Circle of 5th’s and some oysters and dessert at Blue Point and then stumbled into Searsucker to be told by the hostess that they had stopped serving food 2 minutes ago. Well, that sucks. I wandered in anyways and ran into a friend who knew Chef Brian Malarkey personally and introduced us. We asked if there were any things remaining from their prix fixe menu from tonight. He had a cornish game hen on his menu and we told him to just bring out one of those and we would be fine. We only wanted a little snack and a glass of wine anyways. hahahaha

Here’s how this went down.

Brian asked if we wanted a crab cake (he is well known for this from his time at Oceanaire and has carried it to Searsucker) and I had to tell him that we had just had one.  Brian then snatched the menu out of my hand and began shredding it before my very eyes. 

Brian: (in his most indignant voice) ”WHERE did you have a crab cake this evening?”

Me: ”Circle of 5th’s”

Brian: ”Well, I can assure you that their crab cake is nothing like mine.”

Me: “Can I be totally honest? I had yours a few months ago and it was amazing and the last two times I have had it here it wasn’t that fantastic.”

SOUND OF RECORD SCRATCHING.

Brian shredded another menu and threw it at me all in my purse and said “Well now you’re getting two crab cakes!”

Over the next hour we were treated to an amazing 5 course meal that began with his Lost Abbey Short Ribs topped with Fried Onions. Being that I come here all the time, I have had these and they are delectable. Super moist and flavorful.

Ahhhh, the Carb Free Crab Cake. And yes, it was fantastic. It is back on my “must-have” list when I come to Searsucker. They’ve redeemed themselves.

Strawberry Champagne and Walnut Salad… I sometimes forget that I love strawberries in salads. Deeelish.

I’m not really sure what he was calling this dish as it was a special that I haven’t seen on the menu before and possibly just for Valentine’s Day…. a Cornish game hen with some yummy stuffing. (yeah, remember this was weeks ago and I didn’t want to be rude and take notes during my romantic date. Although busting out the camera seems perfectly ok. I dunno. lol)

And as if we weren’t full enough he sent out the Red Velvet Mondae! (2/14 was a Monday this year for those of you too stupid to get that.) We were so stuffed and so ready to call it quits but I simply cannot resist anything Red Velvet. Laced with fresh raspberries (my date hates them so I conveniently inhaled 90% of this dessert) and vanilla ice-cream, topped with whipped cream and little malted milk balls…. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

THANK YOU SO MUCH BRIAN MALARKEY! Searsucker is my #1 favorite restaurant in San Diego right now. I am like a human Yelp for so many of my friends and I always suggest this place. And then I invite myself to dine with them. Hahaha

My date and I stopped into Blue Point Coastal Cuisine for some oysters and a glass of wine of Valentine’s day and were pleasantly surprised when Chef Daniel Barron saw my tweet and came out to introduce himself to me. He brought us out a spectacular dessert to enjoy!

It was a complicated dish with many elements… all of them being supposed aphrodisiacs. From the left we have orange cotton candy, smoked chocolate (smoked in ash and cherry) topped with Osetra caviar, dehydrated strawberries, dehydrated wheat with honey and sea salt (think the Honey Smacks cereal you had as a kid), passion fruit gel (the yellow in the back) and in the front were compressed Bosc pear cubes with port wine.

Chef Barron himself came to our table and whipped up some champagne and vanilla bean ice cream using a liquid nitrogen technique that is very popular with molecular gastronomists to make ice cream quickly.

This dish was a beautiful sight. We tried to put every item in our mouth at the same time, but there were several elements and had a lot going on…so we began combining things as we thought they might taste good with one another. I don’t think the smoked chocolate and the caviar combination would be something that everyone would like, but I was impressed with the edginess and the cutting edge concept of the entire thing.

Thank you Chef Barron for the wonderful surprise! Blue Point has always been one of the best places to get seafood in San Diego and now that they have an amazing happy hour special with $1 oysters you bet I will be in there once a week!

From the masterminds at Animal in LA is a new seafood joint called Son of a Gun in the West Hollywood/Beverly Hills area. Owners Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo are at it again…but this time their restaurant actually has some decorations in it: nautical themed! It barely opened a few days ago and was jam-packed at 10pm when we arrived last night. I hate showing up late because it’s annoying to the waitstaff when you are the last one there and also because they sell out of certain items.

Let’s not dilly dally. On to the food.

We started with the Smoked Mahi Fish Dip: served with crackers, celery, radish and onions. They offer lemon and Tabasco with the dish, but I always like to try things ”as-is” before dousing them with condiments. This dish, in fact, needs the condiments. It wasn’t too smoky and the lemon and Tabasco really zinged up the cool creaminess. And that’s coming from someone who hates anything spicy.

Next was the Lobster Roll mixed with celery and lemon aioli on a teeny tiny little bun. I mean for $7.00 I expected a little larger portion, but our waitress, Lee (awesome by the way… so helpful even with my 10,000 annoying questions) warned us that it was small. I love the potato chips on top! Remember as a kid when you would always jam potato chips in your sandwiches to give it a little extra crunch? No? lol well, I did that….and being a lobster roll afficionado (I literally ate 15 lobster rolls this summer on my 3 week vacation around New England) I was excited to try theirs. It did not disappoint me, but make sure you order one just for yourself. Not for sharing.

Moving on to the Shrimp Toast Sandwich: Sriracha sauce, Thai basil leaf, cilantro and mint. I think this might have been my favorite thing of the evening… again, it was a small portion for $11.00, but mighty tasty.

Pink Grouper served like Vietnamese Pho Fumet with cinnamon, coriander, anise, clove, lime and of course fish sauce along with some bok choy. I was so busy taking photos and tweeting the dishes as they came that it was not super hot by the time I tasted it. Excellent dish though, and the grouper was cooked perfectly.

King Crab Leg with Tabasco butter…. Look at me being brave and eating all this spicy stuff! This was really good, but I don’t know if I would be ordering it again. $22 for a single leg.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with a carmelized (blowtorched) banana, peanuts, sea salt, whipped cream, caramel sauce and coconut ice-cream. We practically licked the plate. What a perfect combination of sweet and salty. I wouldn’t say it’s the prettiest of dishes, but who cares when you shove it in that quickly, right?

Menu items they were out of that I would like to try as soon as humanly possible:

Santa Barbara Spot Prawn, Alligator Schnitzel, Benton’s Country Ham and Buttermilk Orange Basil Sorbet. Too bad I had to return to San Diego this morning or I would be there again right now.

Animal (chefs Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo, authors of “Two Dudes, One Pan”) is probably my absolute favorite restaurant in Los Angeles right now. If you haven’t been there and are in the LA area, please whatever you do, plan ahead and get a reservation and check it out. I was there twice in a 2 week period recently and I find myself craving certain things on the menu…

…In particular the Foie Gras Loco Moco: bed of rice, hamburger patty, Spam patty, quail egg and the most ridiculously tasty sauce which I think is a combination of homemade teriyaki, maple syrup and Sriracha. If they sold this sauce I would buy a case. I literally daydream about this dish. A lot.

Consistently delicious and always amazing… it’s totally worth the thirty five bucks.

Uni…meh. Skip it and order it at a sushi bar. I thought I would give it a try. I love uni, but stick to the things that walk on all fours if you come here.

That being said, this two legged critter was pretty tasty: Thai BBQ quail with a Mandarin slaw dressing. The only problem was that they were super duper tiny little morsels.

Balsamic Pork Ribs: with delicata squash, arugula and pecan. The meat just fell off of the bone. It was incredibly yummy and a must order.

Flat Iron Steak: with sunchoke hash and a truffle parmesan fondue. It was fairly rare, but not as rare as I like it, but then again I am weird and extreme when it comes to that. I would order it again, but specify WICKED rare. (Yeah, I am originally from New England)

Animal never ever disappoints me. It makes me want to move to LA.

I went to BOA two weeks in a row last month so I decided to combine the entries. It’s your basic high end steakhouse so I really don’t have a lot to elaborate on when it comes to the dishes, I will just share the photos from the two different evenings (and clearly, two different cameras.)

I do love the cool plastic lamps in the main dining area.

Seafood tower

Goat Cheese Baklava: pistachios, black truffles, frisee. This was deliciously sweet and a nice surprise as an appetizer. I mean, baklava is sweet but I somehow expected a little more savory than sweet. Again, I was pleasantly delighted. I highly recommend it!

You can’t go wrong with Lobster Mashed Potatoes.

And the Crab and Black Truffle Gnocchi which was unbelievable!

I don’t actually remember what steak I chose but I’m sure it was a bone-in rib eye or something. Anything with the bone is always better… and of course as RARE as they will serve it.

The Steak Tartare was good. Nothing amazing, I think I just need to give up on this for a few months. I keep saying that but then always fall for it.

Prepared tableside…

yup…black and blue again.

Truffled Cheese Fries. Good, but out of place at a dinner like this in my opinion. Plus by the time I got to them, they were cold.

My friend ordered the Spaghetti and Kobe Beef Meatballs. Whaaaat? What are you 12? Who in the hell orders pasta at a steakhouse? God that infuriates me when people don’t order steak at a steakhouse. I mean, it wasn’t bad, but wrong place wrong time.

No dessert either time, but you must must must get the BOA 405 cocktail : vodka, strawberries, balsamic vinegar, simple syrup, little bit of lemon juice and a dash of black pepper. In fact, I think I will go make one now! Cheers!

You know I can’t get enough of Brian Malarkey’s Searsucker in San Diego, so here goes again!

Duck fat fries!

Flatiron “Haystack” Chimichurri Bernaise… ? I think that’s what this is.

Short Ribs (so tender and so good!)

Bacon grits. (definitely order these!!)

Jalapeno-chorizo “corn off the cob” (I ate pretty much the whole thing and didn’t really share)

Scallops “Baja” Foie Gras + Figs.

The “King” Sundae : Peanut butter ice cream, bacon and honey caramel, bananas, whipped cream and candied peanuts.

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts and Melted Dark Chocolate Cream.