• November 23rd, 2010brittanyLA restaurants, mac and cheeza

    over the summer i spent a fair share of my free time in downtown LA. there aren’t many vegan-friendly places in DTLA, let alone places you can go to late night on the weekends after a night of drinking. mac and cheeza became my go to because it’s affordable and open until 2am on fridays and saturdays. scooore!

    back when mac and cheeza opened last february, i tagged along with qg to the soft opening. while i liked it back then, i thought the “cheese” tasted more like an alfredo sauce than a cheese sauce. WELL the cheese sauce has definitely improved since then and i found my winning combo of fixins – soy cheese, jalapeno and mushroom with the walnut topping. it’s tha fuckin’ BOMB.

    baby mac with soy cheese, jalapenos, mushrooms and spicy toasted walnut topping. $7

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  • February 28th, 2010quarrygirlLA restaurants, mac and cheeza

    as you may have heard, mac & cheeza is a brand new restaurant coming to downtown los angeles that focuses entirely on the popular side dish, macaroni and cheese. while they aren’t officially open just yet, the good news is they have been having soft launches sporadically where they serve their food to the public…and the even better news is they are very vegan-friendly.

    the husband and i hit up the small eatery last night during one of their soft openings, with our friend and fellow blogger brittany from sick of lettuce, to see just how good LA’s newest vegan mac and cheese offering is. the verdict? mac & cheeza is off to a great start and we couldn’t be more thankful for their vegan options…but there is definitely some room for improvement.

    the way mac & cheeza works is, you order at the counter and basically build your own mac and cheese. you get to choose your size, your noodle type (regular or gluten-free), then your cheese type (the soy cheese is vegan), and then whichever vegetables you want to add in. they even have a vegan sausage option as well. they mix and bake the whole thing right there in front of you, and call your name when your order is ready.

    even with all delicious-sounding toppings available, brittany went with plain in order to see just how good the mac and cheese tasted on its own.

    vegan baby mac. $5

    her initial reaction was that it was good, but not as cheesy-flavored as she’d hope. rather than a cheddar-style sauce, the mac was covered in a liquidy garlic sauce that tasted more like alfredo. i would have to agree that there are much better vegan cheese options out there, seriously some cheddar daiya would have done wonders on this thing.

    momma mac with vegan cheese, vegan sausage, mushrooms and peas. $12

    my husband and i split a momma mac sized mac and cheese with vegan sausage, mushrooms, and peas. i enjoyed it, but again the soy cheese left a little something to be desired. plus, they didn’t put enough peas or mushrooms in it, so the toppings were gone pretty quickly. that being said, the vegan sausage addition was absolutely delicious.

    the ambiance at mac & cheeza is nice and cozy—there aren’t any tables or chairs, but rather soft benches that line the walls where customers can eat. the whole place is decorated with art made from macaroni pieces, which i found quite adorable.

    overall, the food at mac & cheeza was really decent…and while i may not make a special trip downtown from hollywood, i would definitely stop by when in the area. i highly encourage you to get over to mac & cheeza as soon as they open though, and make your own mind up; let’s show these guys how grateful we are that offer vegan mac and cheese. plus, you gotta admit it was a pretty ballsy move for them to open a restaurant that only sells side dishes…

    mac & cheeza
    223 W. 8th Street
    Los Angeles, CA 90014

    to hear the latest news about when mac & cheeza is opening, and when they are having soft launches, subscribe to their mailing list!

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