[REVIEW] UME Burger Pop Up

Who doesn't love a good food fusion? Especially when it combines two of the worlds most loved cuisines, American and Japanese. On receiving an email from Ume to let me know of this once a month pop up I knew exactly who I needed to cast for this project.... ROLL MOVIE CREDITS PLEASE.

Nathan Sasi
"Mr Food"

Sali Sasi
"Mrs Fashion"

Georges
"my partner in crime"

Jon
"all-things-Japanese obsessed"

Diego
"The Fixer"
(the man that introduced us to Ume)

The pop up opened at 12pm and with many of these one-off restaurant 'events' you find yourself standing in line and begin to wonder, "is this even worth the hours and hours of waiting only to be rushed out within 15 minutes of sitting down?".
In this case, I was pleased and pleasantly surprised to discover that they had a table ready within a few minutes of our arrival. Result.

Only a burger could put this smile on my face

Ume is not a big restaurant but the turn around is pretty respectable, lets face it, burgers and chips doesn’t exactly say long, lazy lunch. Even if you wanted it to last, you won’t be able to resist gobbling this down.

"JAPURGER...Burganese...
Umurger... I can SEE this catching on"

Is it just me or do chips always taste better off someone else plate? Sorry Nathan

The menu is small but perfectly formed, with four burgers, two meal combo’s, the option of making it a double, chips, fried chicken, soda’s and sauces to chose from.

Between our cast we ordered everything on the menu but I opted for the “Special” Ebi Burger which is a prawn Katsu with Japanese tartare sauce and shredded cabbage. It was seriously good. The bun was beautifully soft and the subtle flavours of the prawn and tartare made it easy to swallow.

However, I did take a cheeky bite of Georges buns (no, not those buns….) and his Ume Burger with beef pattie, Wagyu mince sauce, tomato, onion, mayo and cheese was...Holy Moly!!! What was that? That mince sauce was incredible, it was like biting through silk and being transported to a place where only happiness exists. I will be honest, I had a hard core case of food envy.

All week Georges had been talking about how he was going to demolish the Pork Katsu burger, so could you imagine the look on his face when he discovered they had sold out prior to his order at 1:30pm. Like every man who doesn't get his way he was inconsolable.

Strange you might think, for a Japanese restaurant to run out of pork Katsu. However, all it says to me is that the Katsu burger is really popular and therefore, must be really, really good. So the only possible cure to this disappointment is to go back for round number two.

By no means do I hold this against them as what we did get to devour was sensational. The burgers had their time in the limelight but lets not forget about the sides. The chips were beautifully thick, and crispy and dusted with kombu salt (an edible sea vegetable) and the house-made Yuzu soda made the perfect digestif.