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I know what you're thinking: What Hollywood needs is another burger-centric restaurant. Okay, so burger lovers have a pretty impressive smorgasbord of burger options in and around the Cahuenga corridor (Umami, Juicy Burger, Go! Burger, Stout, Lucky Devils, 25 Degrees) so if another burger spot is going to give it a go, they'd best have a unique spin on meat meets bun. Enter Fuku Burger, a Vegas food truck that has gone brick-and-mortar in Los Angeles, where the food and drink have a fun Japanese flair.
If you think it will take luck for a burger joint to standout in the aforementioned crowd, well, luck is on Fuku Burger's side; "fuku" means luck in Japanese.
Backed by local businessman Harry Morton (The Viper Room, Pink Taco), Fuku's Los Angeles arrival found Fuku's co-owners Colin Fukunaga and Robert Mags Magsalin taking over a vacated spot on Cahuenga. They redid the interior to give it a vibrant, urban feel, with an open front facing the street, red lights, screen displays showing Tweets by and about the restaurant, and a custom street art-style mural done by a local tattoo artist.
On the menu are Japanese and pan-Asian inspired burgers, like the Tamago (Fuku patty with furikake, wasabi mayo, teriyaki, fried egg and onion straws) and the Kinoki (Fuku patty with grilled shitake mushrooms, pickled red ginger, teriyaki, and wasabi mayo). They have chicken katsu (panko-crusted and fried) burgers, a housemade veggie burger, and the must-order Jazz Fries (smothered in gravy and "crack" sauce).
Fuku Burger has an adequate beer list (props for carrying Hitachino's White Ale), and is making cocktail concoctions using sake and soju, like a boozy Root Beer Float, and forthcoming adult milkshakes. An emerging "secret" menu is in the works, so diners are urged to keep their eyes on Facebook and Twitter, or just cajole their server, into getting a taste of items not up on the menu board. As a nice bonus, Fuku's price point is a wee bit friendlier than its burger-making neighbors in the 'hood, coming in at around $7 a burger.
Things can get a little crazy at Fuku: The restaurant was fun enough to inspire one Yelper to write a song about its deliciousness! More adventurous than that? Try a Fuku bomb: Caroline on Crack shows us Chef Mags schooling her on how it's done.
