Gold Dig #1

Plan Check is on Sawtelle, but somewhat past the Little Osaka strip of restaurants. It sits on a corner, and draws your attention because it seems to sit strangely by itself in the neighborhood but is also regularly packed with people, often taking advantage of the LA weather to fill the outdoor patio seating. It is one of the burger places that makes Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list.

The Dish

The food at Plan Check is “high tech”. They’ve trademarked “ketchup leather”, which is a sheet of dehydrated house ketchup they serve on some of their burgers. Naturally we had to try the two burgers that come dressed with this bizarre-sounding culinary creation.

Plan Check Burger

The Plan Check Burger comes with americanized dashi cheese, ketchup leather, schmaltz onions, mixed pickles, and a crunch bun. You can add bacon for an additional $1.50, which of course we did.

Chefs Favorite Burger

The Chefs Favorite Burger comes with cheese two ways, bacon two ways, ketchup leather, a sunny fried egg, and hot sauce. One of the cheeses is melty, and the other is a fried sheet. I know it’s trendy right now to put a fried egg on everything, but this is a trend I can get behind.

Sweet Potato Waffle Fries

I love the concept of sweet potato fries, but they often tend to be a bit mushy. Apparently doing them in waffle format helps! The sweet potato waffle fries at Plan Check have the crispness you look for in regular fries with the richer flavor of the sweet potato. Plus waffle shapes just bring back fun childhood eating associations!

Cruller Donuts

Crullers are my favorite kind of donuts (well, tied with apple fritters). Crullers with fruit and cream? Yes, please! Since the burgers and fries were stellar, I was pretty excited to see what wonders Plan Check would perform on my favorite donut. Perhaps a bit too excited. They weren’t bad, but apparently I’m not a fancy cruller kind of girl. I have to admit I prefer the down and dirty cruller you can get at the corner donut shop for like a buck.