I always love Umami. Too many good things to recommend. I love all the salads, usually get the beet salad but the Ceasar is great too. Truffle fries are a must and the onion rings are great. I usually stick to the truffle burger if I want a burger. Tuna burger is great too.
They took everything i loved about this place off the menu! Sad!
Friendly service, Bridget was an excellent waitress will be back soon!
I love going to Umami burger, when I work near by I always try to coordinate a lunch stop here. The burgers are great, only complaint is sometimes they do come out well under rare, so be careful. With that said everything on their menu is awesome. I like the truffle fries, they are thin and crispy with the most delicious truffle cheese sauce on top. They are the fries I dream about. The burgers are all good with inventive topping combinations. If you are nearby you must give this place a try.
Parking is a pain to find since it is located in downtown Oakland. Has a sports Bar feel, complete with a couple of large TVs showing whatever sports game happens to be on. Staff was really nice although it did take awhile to get any help when it wasn't even that busy. Food wasn't prepared as ordered but it still had a great flavor to it and all the server's recommendations were spot on. Will definitely hit up again.
My Stop
The impossible burger. It is one of the best burgers I've ever had. Super flavors, great texture, crispy outside, bloody inside, just good.
The atmosphere here is wonderful.
The staff friendly.
Just go here and enjoy eating with your hand and be happy.
My husband and I each got the full falafel pita pocket and it was quite tasty and filling! (If you're not super hungry, I'd suggest getting a half pocket!). We also got a side of fries, which was also delicious. The service is friendly, but be prepared to wait a bit for your food if there's a line.
Great food, really interesting flavor combinations, bacon infused stuff everywhere, but kind of slow service, hence the 4 stars. But our waitress was still really great!
Quick update to my original review: Umami reached out to address my feedback and we will give it another shot soon. Hopefully I have better news to report after my next visit, but I was pleasantly surprised by their excellent customer service.
I've had great experiences at Umami in LA and SF, but this one seriously missed the mark. My fiance's burger looked and tasted like a frozen patty you buy in bulk at Costco and I accidentally ordered the Impossible Burger, which I did not realize was vegan. I wish they would have mentioned this on the menu or to me when I ordered it. Needless to say we were both disappointed. There's zero chance the Impossible Burger could pass for meat and it was not good either way. And the real burger was not good either. Hoping they turn the food around because they are in a nice space in a good location.
Awesome place! Bill and Hiroko cook up the best double cheeseburgers at a great price. A walk up hamburger stand. It just doesn't get more old school or better than this place!
Impossible burger!!! Amazing. Ate here two days in a row while visiting Oakland
The burgers are super tasty for sure. But I've been doing the keto thing lately, so I love the salad options; the wasabi tuna particularly, though honestly it could use more fish.
Wonderful experience The Impossible burger taste like real beef you have to try it to believe it in our server Jusn is the man we had a great experience here highly recommended
Horrible service, I had to wait twenty minutes for my food after ordering 20 minutes prior. And then they couldn't identify the order. They must do better.
Food tastes great but the meal can be pretty rushed.
Disappointed. Food was cold. Burger was crushed. Not worth the money.
Very nice place,but sometimes get more crowded than NFL finals
Fine, the truffle burger was tasty, the fried chicken not special, the buns we're stale. The cheese filled tater tots were a yummy side you don't see elsewhere.
Unfortunately the experience was horrible. Ordered delivery: Milkshake completely melted; onion rings fried to a burnt crisp, looked like a half order too; Cheeseburger overcooked, didn't fill the bun, lettuce wilted. Seriously, where is the meat??
Entire order was poor.
I am never a fan of burgers but Umami burger is more than tasty! My boyfriend and I got the sliders- one truffle burger, one impossible burger, and one truffle impossible burger. Yummy!!
The services was really good - we went during closing time, so our server gave us two fries on the house. Would definitely come back again.
Very bad staff and service, I was waiting to pick up my food but the two servers did not pay any attention whatsoever and just kept talking to each other. They didn t even greet me or anything and just acted like they were working for money not customer service. Very very disappointed.
Forgot to take a picture because I was really hungry. :) I had the impossible burger and fries!!! Delicious! Burger cooked to perfection! I love this place!
Impossible and truffle cheese... What a match!! Perfectly done! It is one of the best you'll ever try! I saw it, and smell it, and couldn't wait to take the picture, maybe was going to get cold...
Fun burger options and good beer selection. Nice restaurant as well and perfect that it's downtown on Broadway. Little pricy if your really hungry.
Tasty burgers, but a bit overpriced. They also seem to be understaffed on weekend evenings which makes for dirty booths and tables. Truffle fries are great though.
Meals were cooked to order. Yet our meals were luke warm. Place your order at reception stand and return to the front desk to pick up your meal at the estimated pickup time as communicated by the front desk person.
My first visit, and the Manly burger and Maple and Bacon sweet potato fries were of such a quality that I will be back: "hungry for more!"
The waitstaff is great. Friendly and fast service everytime. The burgers are good, but the chicken sandwiches are better.
way too long of a wait and no communication whatsoever that it would be late or how late
Best burgers!!! They taste like a quality home cooked burger from the grill. The maple bacon fries are to die for, definitely recommend.
Been looking for a consistently good burger place in Oakland and decided to give Umami Burger a try. All the hurgers sound delicious and creative on the menu, but seem to fall short on the delivery. I had their signature Umami burger - a single patty with parmesan crisp, grilled onions, mushrooms and umami sauce. The burger overall was dry, with very little in the way of onions and perhap 2 or 3 mushrooms. Not exactly the melt in your mouth description from the menu.
On the upside the server was super friendly, upbeat and attentive. I might be convinced to try Umami Burger again and order a different option, but truthfully, probably not. Seems to miss the juicy burger experience.
Hamburger was ok. I've had worse and had better, but for the price I would have expected much better.
The burger and fries were pretty good, but overpriced for what they were.
I've been coming to this particular location for some time now and consistently have a great experience every visit. The service is both friendly and on point, they've got a solid beer and wine selection and the food is fantastic. They recently changed their menu which appears to be even more accommodating with the choices yet they haven't seemed to sacrifice quality or portion sizes. In my most recent visit, a gentleman who appeared to be either the manager on shift or location manager/owner took the time to stop by our table to see if this was our first time in as well check in with our dining experience to see if there was anything additional we needed. It was a nice touch and quite memorable.
Place not heated - we froze our behinds off, burger slightly overcooked. Good but expected more. Amazing starters + sides though.
The best BBQ veggie burger. I'm not a vegetarian. Great service, courteous staff. Variety of burgers. Great thin French fries
Upbeat atmosphere. Family oriented sports bar all together. Highly recommended.
I ate here on June 12th of 2018. It was my ever first time to try this place out. My best friend suggested it since she heard alot about this place, for me it was my first time to even know about it. Their place can get SERIOUSLY congested & busy! U have to wait outside where there is a line. I did notice though that they did have outdoor seating. It also can get a bit stuffy inside where their A/C isn't strong enough to ventilate the whole restaurant, which I wasn't too fond of after coming from the Warriors parade. They have a bar inside with lots of TVs which was nice. Their restaurant is a bit small, little compact. Their restrooms are towards the window when walking in. I found it odd when I saw some guys waiting to use the restroom outside the door when I walked in to use the women's restroom. Ours had 2 stalls. I then later found out from my son that the mens bathroom only had 1 stall. So heads up for you all.. be prepared on those busy days.
What I gave was 4 stars because what I did enjoy was their food.. it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G....!!!!!!! I had the Umami Burger, my daughter had the crispy chicken burger & both were delish!! I like them both evenly but I think next time I will go back for their crispy burger & thin cut fries!!! I had their sweet potato fries & that was pretty amazing too. But something about the thin cut fries made me want that more? Maybe its the way the fries stood out. I also sampled my bestie onion rings & those were so good! Everything is a small portion, that was one thing I did not like as much when coming in with a big appetite. The burgers were almost like sliders, so they do come small portion size.
Fun and interesting menu with many burger options ns, including non beef ones. Somewhat pricey and takes a while to get them
They have the impossible Burger and sear a U into the bun. Awesome sauce!
Second dopest vegetarian burger I've ever had. Cool atmosphere and nice servers. One star missing is because: half of a star for being slightly overpriced (though still worth trying!) and half for a slightly long wait (though good food takes time, I guess!).
I'm not a ground beef eater but I can always find something to eat at any kind of burger place because they'll do substitutions if they've got them (veggie patties, chicken breast, ground turkey, etc...), so I wasn't worried when a friend wanted to get together at Umami Burger.
When I asked the waiter if I could have their turkey patty inside the truffle burger instead of the beef (I so badly wanted to try the truffle cheese and spread) he absolutely refused! I couldn't believe it. He insisted that there be no substitutions. Yet on their menu, and by his suggestion, I could get a portobello mushroom instead. I pointed out that is a substitution! Ridiculous! So they allow portobello mushrooms (which I personally find disgusting) as substitutions, and will also allow you to get it with no patty at all (this is what I ultimately did...and still paid full price), but they refuse to substitute with their turkey patty? That makes NO SENSE. It's bad customer service.
So I ate my two slices of bread, truffle cheese, truffle mayo, and two tomatoes (a substitution for the meat, but yet they don't allow substitutions!) and frankly it was all mediocre. Other members of our group ordered burgers medium-rare or medium, but everyone received medium-well or well burgers with no or almost no pink inside.
I'll never eat at any Umami burger again. There are many many many other great burger places that understand what good customer service means.
Fantastic food. We went for the impossible burger, and we were not disappointed.
However, service was very slow and sporadic. Wine glasses remained empty for quite some time, and every refill was initiated by us asking the bartender to find our waiter for us.
The waitress made this place special. I was happy to try the Impossibile Burger. And, just as the manufacturer proclaimed, it was impossible to tell the difference from real meat. Not being familiar with Oakland, parking was a challenge.
First time at this location! Despite the restrictions, the experience as a whole was pleasant! The staff was very friendly and the food was great! I got the Truffle Burger and my husband tried the Umami Classic!
Love the impossible burger! Friendly staff and good beer selection as well.
We are from out of town and was looking for a place to eat, not only did the restaurant provide excellent service they opened their doors a little early to allow us to come in from outside, the same waiter who served us who was awesome saw us outside taking pictures, came outside and took pictures of our entire family. Excellent customer service - Thank you guys.
Forgettable. The burgers were like In and Out but 4 times as much. The friest are like McDonald's but 4 times as much. The beer was good, but it's not a beer bar, it's a burger joint.
The food is good overall. The wait time not so much. I've been there twice and both times the wait time was noticeable. Last time we waited several minutes just to be seated without anyone being in too much hurry to prepare a table. Then ordered beer and burgers. You'd expect the beer to be ready right away at least but it took like 10m just to get the beers.
I give 3 for service and 4.5 for food.
They were short staffed due to rush from a local event. But the staff rallied and made the best of it. Definitely go in and sit at the bar. Nicole is amazing
This place tries to focus a lot on the umami flavor, hence the name, which is the meaty flavor (similar to MSG). While I love the umami taste, I feel like they ended up using a lot of truffle oil for the taste, which for a lot of people is a strong taste and is a love it or hate it situation. Also for the price of some of the burgers, you expect it to come with fries, however they are ordered separately. When I'm at a place charging that much for a upscale burger, kinda expect basic fries to be included. That being said, the burgers there were delicious. They had one special type of burger, called the impossible burger, which is made all out of plant based items, but made to taste like an actual burger (for science nerds out there, it takes heme made from a plant and infuse it into the burger to make it taste like actual meat). I also had the cheesy tater tots, which were good as well.
I've wanted to eat here for several years. The food is delicious, but not quite what I expected. The thin fries are ok and so is the Umami burger. I think it might have been better to get the plant based impossible burger and one of the Next Level fries.
Woooweee that truffle burger is straight nasty. We got the trust us combo and my goodness, I don t know who would ever put trust in them with that truffle burger recipe. I don t think I ve ever thrown away that much food before in my life. None of the burgers were good but that truffle burger was absolutely disgusting. My boyfriend had to have an internal conversation with himself in order to hold his food down and not projectile. The onion rings were trash, super greasy and just a mess. The tater/mashed potato things were under seasoned and too squishy. I mean the whole experience was just bad. It s a shame because their other chain Sams Chicken SMACKS so good. But this? Stay far away. I mean anything you spend your $40 on would be a better purchase than this.
Say at a table for over 20 min with employees and the manager right there and never got so much as a menu.
Food is great had an impossible Burger it was the weekend of the women's March so they were overly crowded and I'm prepared or else they would have gotten the five from me
How to make an impossible burger taste horrid? (Which is very hard to do, as impossible burgers rock!)
Grill it for 30 minutes until it becomes cardboard--like, then dump 1/2 lbs salt on it. Top it with a slightly expired avocado.
Awful meal last night, and we are (were?) regular customers. The waitress seemed immensely unhappy about working there, our drinks took over 20 minutes to arrive, the burger was cooked to death, fries were cold. In a largely empty restaurant (now I know why!), our order took nearly 50 minutes to arrive. To top it all off, at the end of the meal, they gave our credit card to a different group of diners! Totally unacceptable, especially since the waitress was under the impression that there is nothing wrong with swapping cards. We literally had to get up and hunt the card down from another table to get it back! I still feel bad that we actually tipped.
Total waste of money - no one in our large group enjoyed their food as all was burned and dry. Overpriced for the quality you get (unless you love eating cardboard, in which case you could eat that for free!). Our meal deserved one star. This review is 2 stars because my drink was palatable (though it took forever to arrive).
I love that they are upping their tasty vegan options! The vegan truffle burger had both a bun and cheese! Good variety of drinks: beer, cocktails, wine. There people are nice too!
Mediocre at best. $14 for a 1/4lb bacon burger with no fries. Additional $2.50 for a half order of fries that came out cold. Burger was decent.. but too small for the price. Almost $20 for a meal that would barely fill up a 10 year old. Won t be back unless something changes about portions and or price.
This was not the first time that the service was horrible. The service is typically very slow and chaotic. But the food is sooo good we have put up with it. Tried to do a pick up order but no one would give us our order. It was as if no one was working. This is worse than the normal poor service and chaos.
Tasty thin fries and the Impossible burger was great.
Delicious burgers and friendly service. I have extensive and unusual dietary restrictions and I felt completely comfortable in their hands. Even my plain burger with lettuce was satisfying and juicy a perfect medium done. Wish I was able to try out the impossible burger!
Good location, good food, INCREDIBLY long wait for food. Like 30-40 minutes to get your food, it s ridiculous.
Order the maple bacon fries and a cali burger. Your welcome 100%
Ordered two burgers to go, they where smashed together in the package so we could barley distinguish them, on top of that there where no taste what so ever, had to throw them away AND the fries tasted like flour. Will not consider going back.
Good deal on a burger and a beer. Tasty thin cut fries
Trash n slop the people that work here r getting food from other place
Yikes... This location just felt mismanaged. Tons of guests waiting at the door and being ignored while empty tables are all over the restaurant and the staff struggled to serve those that were seated. It felt as if maybe one or two members of the team skipped work. For a $16 burger you expect a decent dining experience but unfortunately I can't see myself coming back to this location. I've had much better luck at others.
linkedin.com
