When friends and family come into town, I like to show them a good time. You may be thinking that I give them a great city tour to Angels Flight, the Hollywood Sign, and then for a drive down Pacific Coast Highway. If that’s where your mind went then I’d tell you to pump your brakes buddy, you’re wrong. I actually suck at being that type of host. Instead, I take them out to eat. I know how to find a good restaurant and how to give a visitor a plate they won’t forget. So when my best (female) friend Lauren came into town, we engaged in some food festivities. While we’re relatively fit on the outside, we are pretty fat on the inside. In order to prevent our inner beast from eating its way out, we feed it. And that’s exactly what we did when we went to Chomp Eatery in Santa Monica.

Walking into the restaurant, I already knew what I wanted: the Cinnamon Crumb Fried Chicken (Donut) Burger ($5.95). Sounds amazing, right? We’ll get into the details later. Standing at the register, we took a glance over the menu to pick a few drinks, sides, and to get Lauren her own dish. No copycats allowed. To drink, Lauren ordered the Green Lemonade ($6). It had lemon, agave, cucumber, kale, romaine lettuce, parsley, celery, and water. The lemonade seemed nice, but way to healthy for me. It’s probably an ideal drink if you’re riding a bike with a basket down Venice Beach early in the morning or right after your second gym visit for the day. In no way am I dissing it, but I came here to eat a donut burger, what do I look like getting a green drink? That’s like the person who orders a large pizza with a diet coke. Oxymoron. I went with the Black Lemonade ($5). It sounded so mysterious as it was made with lemon, agave, water, and activated charcoal. I doubt that I’ve ever had charcoal before, but today would be the day! It tasted exactly like a traditional lemonade but mixed in with the sweetness was accents of charcoal. The only disadvantage to the drink is the density of the charcoal is weightier than the lemonade itself. So that means, the charcoal will gradually disperse to the bottom of the jar and toward the end you might feel like you’re drinking asphalt. My suggestion: only finish about 90% of it, what you get before you hit the bottom will be more than enough! What I thought was really cool is when you buy the drink, you get to keep the branded mason jar! That was a nice surprise for us, and less cleanup for them.

For her meal, Lauren ordered The Famous Burger ($10). The angus beef burger had two thick slices of applewood bacon, caramelized onions, arugula, pickles, tomatoes, and was infused with mustard and their own homemade mayonnaise on a toasted brioche bun. She got a side of French Fries ($3) to go along with it. While I waited for my burger, Lauren didn’t. She dove mouth first into the brioche bun tearing through the bacon, beef, and onions. For a moment, I saw her inner beast break through and was taken aback. I whispered to her, “You there Laurie?” She quickly returned to normal, looked down, and handed the burger to me. “Eat it. Tell me what you think”, she said. I bit into it and while I thought I would anamorph like she did, I didn’t. The reason was, the burger was good but there wasn’t anything special about. The bites I took from it made me feel like I was eating a burger my friends make at backyard bbq or kickback. It was fine, but considering this was served at a restaurant I was hoping for more. If I were to pin it down, I could say the quality and presentation were fine, but it would come down to the fact that the taste of the burger didn’t match its quality and appearance. We both would have loved if it burst with lively flavor. Right at this point, my fried chicken burger arrived. With the stagnation of Lauren’s burger I was nervous about my own.

I picked up the cinnamon crumb fried chicken burger by its donut ends and with the first chomp, I could tell it was going to be great. The burger took a fried chicken patty and topped it with arugula, provolone cheese, tomatoes, and smeared with a pumpkin spice aioli in between two halves of a cinnamon crumb donut. Oh-my-gut, it was delicious! Originally, I was nervous that the donut “bun” would collapse or become soggy, but it maintained its form and texture perfectly. Speaking of texture, the crumbled cinnamon on top of the burger presented so much sweetness that I thought I was having a dessert, while the fried patty and aioli gave it an enjoyable savory taste. The chicken was juicy and it aligned with the donut nicely. I know Lauren and I were not in an ordering competition, but I have to say that if we were, then my fried chicken kicked her burger’s butt. Oh geez who am I kidding, we were in a competition and I won!

I really wish I wasn’t this childish.

The last part of my meal was my Sweet Potato Waffle Fries ($4). They were a nice and pleasant balance of crispy and soft that went well with my over the top burger. A pro tip that you’ve probably heard from me already: stuff the fries inside the burger. Game changer!

Although our entire meal wasn’t exceptional, there were parts that I truly enjoyed. If you couldn’t tell, the part I liked was my fried chicken burger. It was a fun idea that played out well in its execution. Combining my love for sweet fats and savory fats, I was happy. The burger is actually a promotion for October and is only available until the end of the month. So that means you only have a few days left to get this burger in your hands and anamorph into the food monster you really are. Get it and free your inner animal, you’ll be glad you did.

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