Over 200 Google reviews about the burgers, all but two of them five stars. A monthly omakase dinner waitlist nearly 700 people deep. A burger that has quickly become a contender for Raleigh’s best.
Since opening in October, LaGana has made some big strides.
“I think if I have to say—it is the simplicity of the burger that makes it so good,” says chef and owner Luis Zouain of his signature burger, the Textbook. “When you don’t overcomplicate [things], you’re gonna crush it.”
Zouain’s Textbook Burger is aptly named. It’s a straightforward rendition of a cheeseburger with no frills: double smash patties topped with American cheese, “el sauce,” the chef’s special secret sauce, a shredded lettuce and onion blend, and a confit tomato sauce.
At a recent dinner with a friend, I kept eating it well past the point of being full—it was just that good. Perhaps it’s the wagyu beef that Zouain sources from Wilders Farm in Clayton, or the buns he’s perfected with Andrew Ullum from Union Special. It could also be the ghee he makes and infuses with herbs and garlic and uses to season the grill before lightly toasting said buns, or maybe the special sauce pushes it over the edge. Whatever the case, the burger lives up to its hype.
After my burger, I couldn’t not try a slice of the chocolate cake, inspired by the towering, decadent cake in the movie Matilda. One of Zouain’s business partners, Carlos Lemus Sr., was one of the original bakers at The Cheesecake Factory and is responsible for the dessert. Decadent chocolate icing is thickly slathered over a double layer of chocolate cake, and honestly, no one would have to twist my arm to eat the whole thing.
Zouain’s path to opening his own burger spot is anything but linear. Originally from the Dominican Republic, Zouain studied to be a dentist and owned his own practice for a decade.
While working in dentistry, he began cooking to “do something besides the regular me being a dentist.” He started cooking more and more on the side, eventually getting a call from the cooking show MasterChef Dominican Republic to join the show.
After that, he says, he knew it was time to choose between careers.
“[Things were] going crazy,” he says. “I was working in the mornings in the [dentist] office, and in the night I was in kitchens jumping around.”
That was that: he sold his dentist practice and went all-in on cooking.
Zouain moved to the States in 2021, eventually landing in Raleigh, where he was the opening chef at Madre. All the while, he says, he had aspirations of opening his own restaurant.
“I always have had this dream of having a super small restaurant where I can connect with people and talk to them,” he says.
A chance game of pickup soccer led him to meeting his business partners in LaGana, Carlos Sr. and Carlos Jr., the latter of whom handles all of the day-to-day admin. The trio bonded over their love of food, and the idea to open a spot with burgers, bubbles, and cake started to take shape, culminating in LaGana’s opening last fall.
But Zouain isn’t just making burgers. Once a month, he hosts a multi-course omakase dinner, an event that’s become one of the hottest tickets in town.
When I found out about the last ticket drop, in February, I started stalking LaGana’s Resy page early the morning of the release, and was able to snag a few tickets. While January and February’s menus had more of a Japanese influence, the omakase I attended in March was course after course of spins on steak. I can still taste the prime rib, perched atop homemade focaccia with melty gorgonzola, melting in my mouth.
“I love burgers, it’s my thing,” Zouain says of why he does a monthly omakase, “but creating is the most important part for me, and I just feel that I cannot stop creating and showcasing things.”
LaGana is closed Sundays and Mondays but otherwise open for lunch and dinner. They only accept reservations for omakase dinners (a birdie told me the next drop is the first week of May), but you can always hang next door at dive bar Stella’s while you wait for your turn to experience burger nirvana.
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