Friday, February 12, 2010

Mac & Cheeza Comfort

Although its website says "Opening Fall 2009," it was during last night's art walk the little shop soft opened.

Mac & Cheeza
Located on 8th between Broadway and Spring, (next door to Kelly's fudge) if you blink you might miss it.

The shop specializes on one thing: Mac & Cheese. It comes in some 4 different sizes from "Baby Mac" at $5 to "Mac Daddy" (which sounds like a family size portion) which runs about $25 and includes one additional item. Items like mushrooms, spinach, collard greens and meats like bacon or chorizo, or veggie sausage are $1 each.

Order at the counter, and it's made right in front of you.. Choose your size, what kind of mac (whether regular or rice) regular cheese or soy, any additions you want or if you want a toasted topping..

heating the mac & cheese
They make it to order and put it through their little oven..

IMG_1984
"Baby Mac" w/ Spinach...

We got ours pretty quick and the container was HOT.. so be careful. It was also cheesy so we made a little mess taking the lid off.. They have Tapitio sauce to put on it so we got a packet of that.. (personally I like sriracha as it's a little hotter) and split it in half.. I'd say it's about a cup and a half serving.. Which technically is more than a serving. One person could definitely eat as a meal.

"baby mac" w/ spinach
With the tapatio added and mixed up.. You can see the cheesiness and spinach..

HOW DID WE LIKE IT??

Well, for the price point it can't be beat.. I'm a big fan of mac & cheese.. This isn't my favorite mac & cheese.. I want to go back and try the chorizo or the collard greens.. anything that will give it a bit of a kick. The cheese blend is very mild and doesn't really add anything to the dish.. The spinach was good but again, there wasn't much flavor in ours.. It is what it is: Mac & Cheese.

Mac & Cheeza won't unseat my favorites: Royal Clayton for portion, price & creaminess.. or Nickel Diner's Smac & Cheese for zestiness.. even Pete's Cafe, which is somewhere between Royal Clayton's & Nickel Diner in portion, but has a 5 cheese blend that is cheesy.. but not zesty, would win out over this place.

Will I go back (I think I said I need to try more flavors!)? Yes.. not too often though.. after my art walk adventures (splitting a strawberry shortcake at Syrup Desserts and a couple minis from Big Man Bakes) I gotta pace myself.. I gained a pound overnight from all my food naughtiness... Also the Nickel being my favorite is a lot closer. ;P

Mac & Cheeza is soft opening over the next few days.. and then they'll have a Grand Opening the beginning of March. Check them out if you're in the area.. They're soy/ veggie friendly and again, they are very reasonably priced. CASH ONLY for now..

menu and art

Mac & Cheeza
223 W. 8th St
Los Angeles, CA 90014

HOURS PRINTED ON THEIR MUNU:
Sun-Thurs 11am-11pm
Fri & Sat 11am-2pm



Here's the rest of my Feb ART WALK Photos (food & cat heavy)

2 comments:

Joe Cornish said...

I have to admit that this looks good, but there's noooo way I'd touch this food right now. I'm on a diet too and I've lost 14 pounds since November 1. I plan to lose 4 more (down to 190) and then decide whether to stay at that weight or put the weight back on but with a Mediterranean diet.

I love the photos you took and if I ever do slip and try this place I'll go with the bacon, of course!

MeekoRouse said...

yeah splitting a small seemed like the smart (and bad) thing to do..

They have a lot more additions than I mentioned.. (ground beef or hotlinks among several others)

bacon definitely sounds like a good idea. I have to avoid bacon now though.. (unless I know exactly what I'm getting).

Congratulations btw! Sounds like you are doing a most excellent job!