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muma vegetarian: exactly what LA needed!
37July 1st, 2009LA restaurants, muma (NOT VEGETARIAN)UPDATE: it appears the owners of muma have serious integrity issues and have completely ripped off another restaurant. please read this post before you eat there. i myself will be staying away!
hey los angeles vegans, i have some pretty exciting news for you. if you are familiar with this blog and our travels, you may know that there has been one non-LA restaurant we can’t get enough of. maoz vegetarian is an animal-free and almost entirely vegan falafel shop/salad bar with locations all over the word, and i will go out of my way for their food whenever i visit london or nyc. for years i have longed for maoz to open up a storefront in los angeles, and i think i may have finally gotten my wish.
salad muma meal: salad box with falafel balls, eggplant, hummus and salad bar, plus a fresh juice. $9.50
muma vegetarian opened up yesterday on melrose, and in every way i see it, they are identical to maoz. the logo is similar, the menu is the same, the interior design is the spitting image, and of course the FOOD is tantamount to the ridiculously delicious stuff i remember. i asked the girl behind the counter if muma was related to maoz, but she didn’t know. muma is the newest vegan food to hit los angeles, and also definitely some of the best as far as i’m concerned. i urge you to go check this place out before it gets crazy popular and crowded.
so here’s how it works. muma has a bunch of meal options, the main ones being a sandwich or a salad box. for both of these menu items, muma gives you a simple base of food which you expand on by adding whatever you want from the exceptional salad bar. hot sauce, carrots, crispy broccoli & cauliflower, cabbage, salsa, tahini and more are all at your disposal…and you can take as much as you can cram into your box.
for instance, here is how a salad box starts out…
then you go for an intense round of food shoving at the salad bar…
and you end up with this…
muma salad box (fill it up as high as you want!) $7.95
or you can make it a meal with some fresh juice…
same goes for a sandwich—it starts out really simple with some falafel in a pita…
and you end up with a massive thingy stuffed with billions of vegetables, hot sauce and tahini.
muma falafel with salad bar. $4.95 (you can also add hummus and eggplant)
it’s pretty fucking awesome. oh, and everything at muma is vegan, other than the eggs and feta cheese. so feel free to fill up on the creamy green sauces and marinated vegetables…it’s all safe. muma also offers some fine house-made beverages like the refreshing jalapeno lemonade (pictured way up top), plus a pumpkin hummus blend. i tried both of these strange concoctions, and they were completely unique and delicious. i will never get enough.
check out muma’s menu. i can recommend….everything (other than the egg and feta):
click to enlarge
in addition to incredible food and a fill-it-yourself salad bar (am i the only one who gets super excited about that?). muma also delivers and has free parking. and you never have to worry about your falafel or pita being grilled with meaty nastiness…the whole places is non-meat!
so what are you waiting for? LA’s newest vegetarian restaurant is a must visit as far as i’m concerned.
muma vegetarian
7275 melrose avenue
los angeles, ca 90046323-936-7697
Tags: falfel, hollywood, melrose, salad bar
36 responses to “muma vegetarian: exactly what LA needed!” 
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A vegan place by my work…that delivers?! Praised be the veggie gods!
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Jesse July 1st, 2009 at 22:25
I also get super excited about fill it yourself salad bar, especially when there is no weigh-in scale involved at the end.
Absolutely love Maoz from when I lived in NYC. This is great news.
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That looks so good! I’m not down on Melrose much but I’ll definitely stop by there next time.
I should know better than to read your blog on an empty stomach!
But… you forgot dessert! What about the Malabi? I’ve never had it but it sounds good, and not vegan. What about the other two desserts?
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msmerymac July 2nd, 2009 at 07:36
Whoa! This seems close to M Cafe. I’ve been looking forward to trying Maoz in London, but I’ll probably hit up Muma this weekend!
Don’t know if I’d use refreshing to describe jalapeno lemonade, but if you say so. It sounds good, anyway!
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Oh man, I drove past the sign that said “Go Veggie” the other day and thought a new veggie restaurant might be opening but I couldnt find it online…until now, woo!
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Leaving Now July 2nd, 2009 at 09:58
*** PREFACE TO THIS COMMENT BY SITE ADMINISTRATOR ***
We closed comments on these posts as our poor server couldn’t handle it. We had to reconfigure the database to serve pages faster, but that meant that writes (new comments) were timing out. No comment has ever been deleted from this blog. Anybody can join the forums and leave as many comments as they want. Forums are on a separate database, so have at it!
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Thanks for wasting our time posting comments applauding your vegan study at that posting. Comments were inexplicably deleted before comments were closed.
Comments were respectful and legit.
Rest assured, we won’t be returning to this site. It was our first visit, and now our last. We will likewise tell others they are wasting their time with random and whimsical censorship of well written and actually favorable comments.
Something is wrong here. Bye.
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miss anthrope July 2nd, 2009 at 10:03
@leaving now: we had to close comments on the operation pancake thread because the page was getting so big, that it wouldn’t load. we even included a link to our forum, where you could continue discussion there.
as far as deleted comments, we never did it. you can probably tell by all the angry comments towards us people left, that are still there for all to see.
if your comment did not appear, it may have shown up as spam due to link in the comment, or perhaps the page got stuck and timed out.
feel free to leave your thoughts in the forums. nothing anyone says has, or ever will be deleted.
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Stephanie July 2nd, 2009 at 10:40
Ever since my favorite falafel place (Wholesome Pita, next to M Cafe) closed down, I’ve been waiting for the day we’d get a Maoz. This looks close enough for me!
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How does it compare to Maoz taste wise? My brother keeps going on and on about Maoz whenever he is traveling.
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miss anthrope July 2nd, 2009 at 11:31
scvegan: it tastes exactly like maoz, as far as i’m concerned.
i am convinced it must be the same company. maybe they didn’t call it “maoz” because on melrose it’s right next door to “mao’s”, a chinese restaurant.
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My taste buds have been in Garlic heaven for two days.
I survived off of Maoz in Europe, and even wrote the company begging for a west coast location. I’m so glad this place opened. -
I have never heard of this place, but am STOKED to try it tomorrow.
Falafel without potential meat contamination?
OH HELL YEAH!!!
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Was here for lunch today. It was all tasty and exactly the same as the NYC locales I have been too. The only disappointment were the home fries. They were not so amazing and I didn’t get many. But the falafel is peerless and the staff are super friendly…
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I am totally gaga for falafel! And I am even more gaga for good salad bars!! Thanks for the tip!
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Husband and I went today. He doesn’t “love” falaffel and really enjoyed his meal. I LOVED the different sauces and the whole vibe of the place. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is the fact that MUMA is Kosher certified. This is huge for me because my hubby and I only eat at vegetarian, vegan, or kosher.
The only thing I’ll do different next time is get the bowl, just not enough room to stuff extra stuff 🙂
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Maoz is opening in Berkeley soon or has already opened?? I guess you’ll have to come visit!
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Melisser, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Maoz Berkeley continues to appear to be months away from opening, or at least it did when I walked past it last week. No sign of construction aside from the permit posted outside.
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mr meaner July 4th, 2009 at 09:13
Muma is suspicious. I went there yesterday, and asked if it was part of the Maoz chain. The manager was very evasive, and when I asked for the ‘phone number of the owners he rudely said: “Why would I give you that? What’s in it for me.”. I further enquired and he said “are you trying to sell me something?”. We have contacted Maoz corporate to see if this is an approved franchise. If everybody who goes in there would ask about Maoz and post your experiences here that would be awesome!
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Maoz is better July 4th, 2009 at 14:27
This place ripped Maoz off and it’s not even close to being as good
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Maoz is better July 4th, 2009 at 14:28
Maoz is NOT affiliated with this cheap knock off place called Muma.
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I’ve eaten at a lot of Maoz in Europe, but never America: are things like radishes and broccoli normal for Maoz salad bars in America? Over here topping choices remain very idiomatic: carrots, pickled things, cukes, etc.
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miss anthrope July 4th, 2009 at 21:07
MEM: i have only been to two maoz locations (nyc and london). i am positive that the nyc shop had broccoli, because i can see it in my photos. i am pretty sure the london one did too, but i can’t be positive.
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Maoz is better July 5th, 2009 at 07:01
Yes the NYC Maoz locations have brocoli. And hopefully the real Maoz will be here soon. Then this cheap knock off place can go out of business
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miss anthrope July 5th, 2009 at 17:09
maoz is better: i totally agree with you. http://archives.quarrygirl.com/2009/07/05/muma-vegetarian-we-smell-trouble-ahead/
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I do not know of nor have I ever heard of Moaz, but Muma is kosher so to say it is a rip off of another company is perhaps stepping over the line. First of all I do know the owners who happen to be lovely people and local people. The food is excellent, the atmosphere nice and the service is great. I do not know why you are complaining that they might be like another restaurant, so what. That is enterprise my friends, look around, falafel is universal, so is salad. It is like saying that the steakhouse down the street ripped off the idea from the one on the next block, hmm, let me think, you are trying to say there is room for only on falafel restaurant in the world. Get a grip on reality. Just be happy there is a restaurant to go to. I am. If you choose not to eat there because they are like another restaurant then you are the ones missing out. It is strange how the beginning of the comments say the food is great and then after you say it is a rip off of another place, all of a sudden the food is bad. Hope you don’t have to make too many major decisions in your lives.
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miss anthrope October 20th, 2009 at 20:26
@hmmm: you obviously didn’t look at the two menus. muma committed copyright infringement, stole a unique design and concept from maoz, and basically admitted it by changing everything when a lawyer told them to. go get a grip on reality.
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While I’m not a big fan of copyright infringement, I’m a designer, I think that you are being too harsh on what seems to be a great lunch option for veggies in this (my) area. Their food is great, the service is awesome and the price is right.
Give them a chance, and maybe they will make enough money to hire some one to re-brand their identity.
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Maoz Vegetarian concept stolen by Muma Vegetarian | vegan food and living in Los Angeles July 5th, 2009 at 09:07
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