Wanted to place a to go order. Called from home 3 times with no one answering. Went there. Stood at the front door for 10 minutes, just for the waitress to tell me the kitchens closed. There still bringing food out, mind you. Not happy about this place.
Got the tuna burger, it was excellent! Good service too.
The spicy jalapeno (formally the hatch) was super tasty while it lasted. They've done away with it completely now. Their new menu items are less than stellar. Good thing there are several other burger places around..
The most unique, flavorful, and delicious Burger place in Oakland! Maybe the whole Bay Area! Great customer service Brigette was wonderful!
Really disappointed. Based on online menu, I invited family for Sunday dinner. Only to have our waitress tell us that even the brussel sprouts would probably have gluten because they don't wash the pans. I was really sad when my daughter in law excused herself to go home and eat lentils because the waitress made everything sound high risk for gluten (my dil becomes very ill with any gluten, and cant take risks). The waitress overall seemed to be on another planet, and she came by every couple minutes to interrupt our conversation to ask if everything was okay, "still". My seared ahi sandwich was really sad... nice carrot, cabbage, ginger slaw, but the Ahi was a tough, dry, formed patty, with not nearly enough texture or flavor to hold up under the slaw. Seeing how unfresh it looked, I became concerned about eating it in its seared (extremely rare) state, and so didn't.
So on the up side, the wings appetizer was amazingly delicious, and the hostess was energetic and sweet. Except that they also don't have nonalcoholic beer, I could see going there after work just for the wings.
Great spot and my go to for burgers in the bay. Their umami and fusion style twist makes for a great culinary experience your tastebuds will thank you for. I m not usually big on chains because they lose their identity and sense of taste, but umami s got something good going. The only knock they get is from their corporate bosses switching up the damn menu and taking away the classics everyone loved so much. BRING BACK THE MANLY FRIES!!! ... Those damn higher ups always think they know.
Absolutely the worst service EVER! went on New Year s Day with only 3 tables, waited 40 minutes to be served flat soda. Had to get up and get our own water. Walked out. Never will go back.
Good burger place but definitely overhyped and overpriced. I had the manly burger, which was great but nothing I would come here Gaian for. My aunt had the ahi tuner burger. I ate some of it and it wasn't good at all. I'd say that their truffle fries were alright, but they were too salty. I had a good time but I wouldn't come here again.
Awesome burgers, had the Diablo burger and it was very good, but super spicy! I definitely recommend!
Great burger and side options. I love meet and the impossible burger was surprisingly delicious. The sampler is a great option since I'm so indecisive
Delicious burger and fries.. a little fancy for me.. but totally delicious.. sauces were great..
When I've eaten here the food has been amazing, but the wait can be painful at times.
Overrated to say the least. There are far better, and far cheaper burgers nearby.
The tuna burger, cheesy tots, and brussel sprouts are definitely enough to bring a smile to your face for the day :)
Went with a group of friends who are veg/vegan and, as a carnivore, I was pleasantly surprised. Lovely ambiance, great food, warm and inviting experience. Only downside, busy and could maybe use more servers, and no reservations are taken.
Did not like the vibes, the waiter had us wait for seats even though the place was 80% empty, he messed up our order, I had to ask for water on multiple occasions because he wasn't paying attention to us and when he brought our food he spilled some and just left it on the ground. Would not go back - Palo alto is way better.
This was my second time at an Umami Burger, my first at this location. The space was nice and open and the staff friendly. The reason they lost a star is twofold: we came into the nearly empty restaurant and, of all the open tables, they sat us right in the sun. We had to ask to move just to be able to see each other, which I don't think we should have when there were so many open tables. Secondly, when we ordered our burgers they asked if we were ok with our burgers being cooked medium-rare (the Umami standard). Both of us enthusiastically responded that medium-rare was perfect, however, when our burgers arrived they were medium well; just a touch pink. The burgers were delicious so we didn't bother to send them back, but it seems as if your standard is medium-rare and you bother to ask, that's how it should be cooked.
The food isn't as good as it use to be, the waitress bought me and my family cold truffle fries after waiting over 30 min. The size of the burger has gotten smaller, you ask for a med burger and it cooked well. Wasn't happy. I'll continue to go to Barneys Burger.
service was amazing and the food omg to die for!! i love love love Umami Burger. It s for sure recommended !
Usually order take out. Impossible burger with truffle sauce....to.die.for!
Small portions but big flavor. I had the manly burger. It was the size of your fist but paired with the edamame I left full. Very tasty nonetheless, and good vegetarian options (if you like the impossible burger).
It's too wild and genuinely "San Francisco-ie". But in all reality the food was good, except for my burger had two stale buns that were way to chewy, so they gave me two freshly toasts burger buns to fix the problem. Then it tasted very good. The fries were better than I had imagined and they're served In this funny little tiny deep fried pan.
The burgers are a little dry and a little overpriced. But their fries are really good. Good ambiance and customer service.
My first visit three months ago was pretty bad and I initially gave the restaurant 3 stars. That review read: "Burgers are OK. Fries are above average. Slow service and high prices knock this spot down a bit."
My second visit has lead me to drop the restaurant down to 1 star with good reason. I revisited, after being contacted by the restaurant and asked to give them another chance. Fair enough. I visited again. Same experience as the first. What brings us down to 1 star is this: the restaurant's front-facing all-male staff's completely inappropriate handling of a table of men making loud, inappropriate comments about women. That table wanted me to leave after I tried to engage them about gender politics and women in technology (and they laughed at and ignored me). Instead of addressing the behavior of that table, I was presented with my check before I was done and pushed out. The restaurant is not responsible for customers acting like jerks. The restaurant is, however, responsible for how the staff handle customers making discriminatory comments. Siding with the bullies is never the correct response. I will absolutely not be returning.
Great burger nice friendly wait staff and superbly house made pickles
Kind of bland burger and portions are small. A little overpriced for what you get.
Great burgers but has more of a chain feel to it. Large space though, for bay area standards. Usually easy place to go for lunch.
I use UberEATS all the time, very much not great for budget but I love the food here. Sadly almost every order the drinks are missing and any special instructions are often ignored. I've even talked to the very helpful sounding manager but on the immediate next order the problem remains. The only way I can actually get drink orders delivered and not have to call either umami or uber for refund is to specifically ask to make sure drinks are included. Poor form. It does speak for the food that I come back to this lackadaisical handling of customers orders, but it's gone beyond acceptable. I've left two separate messages for the manager to get a hold of me to resolve, but I've heard nothing. My only hope is posting this public moves things along and it is taken seriously. It's really the last resort as I don't like doing public call outs.
This is one of my favorite turkey burger spots. Being that beef is off my menu, that's a lot. But they also have chicken and the impossible burger. The impossible burger brought is to this joint, but they kept us with the distinct flavors, like their house ketchup made with truffles, which is my favorite sometimes, and not so much others. Besides the good though, we always get Bridgett and she has become part of the experience. Stop by if ever hungry in the the neighborhood.
Food was great & service was as well.The next time I would absolutely go back
To anyone who hasn t tried Umami Burger, I HIGHLY recommend that you do so immediately! Everything on the menu is great and the atmosphere is as well.
Got raw burger fries was so so
Change to chicken breast
What I got was discussing
Meat was drenched with oil
Meat was overcooked chicken was so hard
Felt like I was eating tree bark
Every other bite I had to spit it out
16.00 dollars really wow
This lunch was vile
They continue serving raw meat someone will get sick. ..major law suit
I cannot recommend this place
Am a chef myself
The burgers, although pricey and over-cooked, were delicious. Congenial staff was overwhelmed much of the time, but the food arrived in a timely manner. My favorite was the caesar salad with bibb lettuce and baby kale.
Burgers are just so great at this place
You can't go wrong with any an people very friendly
Very good meat quality but they won't let you modify the burger. Besides that I was immediately judged and told to bit get out if control because I have dreads, despite being dressed nice. Besides that, as my Friend left the bathroom he was greeted by some dude flashing his ass down the hallway. Wanted to speak to the manager and get my money back but my friends wanted to go
One of the top to bottom best burgers I have had. Great everything.
Pretty mediocre. Service was mostly non-existent and out of sync. I ordered the double impossible, but was only served a single. Food was predictable, TINY portions and overpriced. For Steffie Oakland, pretty disappointing...
An interesting take on burgers, it is different from what you would get in most restaurants. Each burger has a little crispy wafer in it that adds a nice crunch, as well as having some interesting flavor combinations.
They have some nice sides / sauces as well, such as garlic sweet potato fries.
Was not bad overall, although a bit on the pricey side.
Decent burgers! I love the atmosphere too. Very nice looking place and feels comfortable. Service is decent, I probably ended up with a new waiter last time. He was a little stiff and kept forget things.
The Beef Butt burger (Wagyu beef) will have me coming back.
Love this place, I always get the royale burger its excellent, they also have vegan burgers which is awesome for when I'm on my vegan kick. The manager, I think her name is Jeri, is amazing she was super nice even when faced with a non paying customer. She's also the reason that I will keep coming back.
Food is very good, but service is slow and confusing.
The servers are very helpful and friendly, but it takes a long time for food to be served.
Don't go in by yourself especially if you are not dressed up you will be ignored. Can't give a review on the food because I never got waited on
My burger was overcooked and under seasoned. They also got my husband's order wrong. The server made it a point of showing she put the order in correctly and it was the kitchen's fault. Was not impressed by food, slow service and cold space.
Best burger in a while..staff was awesome..will be back!!
04/24/19: Update to review. Umami corporate contacted us after our previous review. They issued some cards to be used and encouraged us to try them again. We did and it was a COMPLETELY different experience. Greeted at the door. Seated quickly. Menus provided. Orders taken quickly by a friendly and knowledgeable waiter. Food came quickly and was very decent. We went during happy hour and that kept the cost down as their menu is kind of expensive for a burger joint. The happy hour menu was good. Beer was cold and only $4 each. Overall a much better job!
Old Review: Don't go! We had a party of six on a Sunday evening. There were very few people in the restaurant. We got seated and had to go get our own menus.the restaurant was colder inside than it was outside very uncomfortable to sit there while you waited an hour for your food to come. They ran out of french fries! How does a burger place run out of french fries? They tried to make up for it by offering us complimentary cheesy tater tots. I guess they thought this was going to be our dessert since they showed up well after we finished our meals.while we were ordering we were also told they were out of about three of the seven or so appetizers they offer. To be fair the waitress, Bridget, did her best to accommodate us and apologized for the general manager who was never to be seen and hiding in the kitchen. My niece ordered one of the impossible burgers and it ended up costing somehow $19. Never going back ever! It was a long cold frustrating experience.
My food was very good and the staff was very friendly. My girlfriend on the other hand has a garlic allergy and made our server aware. She brought us a allergen list and we ordered. She got sick in the restaurant anyways and the manager was too busy to come out to talk to us. The carrot on her sandwich was pickled.
Good place to eat too. Great surroundings around downtown Oakland. Large screen TV'S for your entertainment while you eat (mostly sports). Took out one star because of difficulty in finding parking besides the restaurant.
The burgers are definitely good, but the price needs to come down about 25% for it to be worth visiting again.
Few places still serving impossible Burger after Burger King acquisition.
Really nice service. Amazing burgers. I had the Korean burger medium. I ll be back.
Great service and the burgers and fries are fantastic. Always ask for the ketchup
I usually don't write reviews especially not the bad ones but my experience at umami burger in Oakland was horrible. We arrived a party of 3 to a fairly empty restaurant we were seated at a somewhat dirty table which the waitress wipe down as we were sitting there. We ordered three beers to get started before our meal but it took about 15 - 20 minutes before we got them. All that we had at our table was water ketchup and pickles. Finally burgers came out after another 20 minutes of waiting after the beers out but my soda never arrived. I guess the food was descent not $25 worth but descent, if anything the tots and sweet potato fries where the highlight of the evening.We also had ordered an extra order of regular fries upon receiving my burger which never came even after we paid the bill. I usually don't like doing this but considering everything that I happen we decided not to leave a tip. After leaving I I realize I left my phone and went back to pick it up.when I got there it was the same waitress there and she's began to question me about not leaving a tip and just made everything feel uncomfortable. She was telling me how she had to pay out of pocket foe the fries so i deciedee to pull my card out to pay the difference but she just turned her back and walked away from me. Sad to say I will never be going back there again. I will not be going there again not because of the high price food but because of the unprofessional service that we had there and out of fear retaliation.
Really good burgers. They definitely have some odd combinations, be we were pleasantly surprised at the flavor and quality of everything we ordered. There house cocktails are also really good. Service was a little slow, but that was our only complaint.
Umami is means the balance of flavor to result in a "wonderful" taste. They do a mashup of flavors to enhance the burgers. The one I like most is the K burger - or kimchi burger. The bread is soft so it breaks apart easily. One recommendation is get their maple bacon fries, which comes with 3 dipping sauces, but tastes great on it's own.
Terrible service and poor food. Quality has really gone down.
We visited on 03/06/20 at approx 8PM. It was a little busy because there was a large table, but we were seated pretty quickly by a really nice lady! I wish she would ve been our server. Our server was Hana?(I think that was her name) She was so unenthusiastic and bothered that we came to a restaurant to eat. We ordered pretty quickly, I got the throwback in a lettuce wrap which was honestly the worst idea ever!! It was literally 1 pc of lettuce on top and one on bottom, and it had so much sauce on it, it was way to hard to eat and ridiculously messy, I thought it would ve been like other lettuce wraps I ve eaten where everything was secure but nope, not here. My bf got the beefy which he enjoyed, and we split messy fries (which was the best part of the whole meal for me and the ketchup is bomb) I had a pink margarita, and he had a Oaxacan old fashion with our meals. After we ate we decided on another drink Beverly Fizz and dessert the UFO which we ordered at the same time we got the drink in maybe 7-10 min, waited another 10-15 for our dessert and she just brought us our check, didn t ask if we wanted anything just set it down. Drink prices are steep for the amount of it that you get, and we never even got our dessert which my bf was excited about. If we return again, it ll probably only be for the fries. They re truly a gem.
I come here a lot. Probably more often than I should lol. All of the burgers are great. Pro tip, ask for the chessy tots off the secret menu. Don't forget about the double happy hour!
Also big shout-out to Nicole at the Bar for always holding down the fort when it gets busy!
Delicious food... Fun options, but very slow service
food was great with exception of a wood chip found in my salad
Good burgers, but way to expensive. $54 for two burgers and a drink
Customer service was on point, there was a bit of a wait due to what we ordered but the wait was completely worth it because the food was like no other experience I had. for sure get the umami burger.
Burgers did not have any leaves or tomatoes,just.okay burgers
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