Doomie’s Home Cookin
Sunday, November 9, 2008 19:15Tipped off by FoodEater’s post about Doomie’s Home Cookin, the BF and I braved LA traffic this afternoon to drive to Chinatown for lunch. Doomie’s Home Cookin’ is located upstairs in a bar called Roberto’s Club. You can either eat outside on the patio, or inside in the bar.
We started off with the macaroni and cheese. The dish tasted almost exactly like Kraft’s neon-orange version in the blue box. The cheese sauce was the perfect amount of tangy and salty. I was almost afraid to think of what made up the cheese sauce — it was decadently fattening.
I ordered the fried chicken plate which came with a small side of coleslaw ad mashed potatoes. I know Colonel Sanders has a secret recipe and all, but the batter on Doomie’s fried chicken is pretty damn close to KFC’s Original Recipe: crispy, slightly spicy, and a lot of salt. The drumstick piece even had a fake bone in it. My usual gripe about soy meat products is that they all have that same soy-meat taste. The salt and spices in this fried chicken luckily covers up that taste.
What’s impressive is that the soy chicken even has fake chicken skin on it! The texture inside was stringy and chicken-like and while the skin is definitely tofu-skin, vegetarians who are scared of fake-meats that are too realistic should stay away from this dish. The sides were pretty ordinary. The mashed potatoes were a bit too heavy on the spice, and the coleslaw tasted exactly like cafeteria coleslaw.
The BF ordered the Philly cheese steak with a side of fries. I thought the roll for the sandwich was too soft and pillowy for a cheese steak. According to the BF, it was good despite the vegan cheese having too much of a smoky flavor. The peppers were cooked just right though. There’s nothing worse than having half-cooked peppers in a hot sandwich.
Lastly came what I thought was the most impressive dish: the chicken soup. It tasted exactly like Campbell’s chicken soup from the can even though it was vegan. It even had that “oh my god, there must be tons of sodium” taste that canned soup has.
Doomie’s Home Cookin succeeds in what it strives to do: replicate American comfort foods with vegan ingredients. Our meal, including a cupcake, ended up being a little more than $30. It was more expensive than we thought it should be, but I guess part of it is its concept. While omnivores still have their favorite diner for comfort food, it’s nice that there’s one now for vegans too.
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686 N. Spring St. Chinatown LA, 90012
Open Tue-Sun 11a-8p (714)883-7657
Doomie’s Home Cookin
By Louise (see more of her posts). You can find more of Louise's writing at her own website NakedSushi.
Foodeater says:
November 9th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Yay… Doomie’s food totally rules! That chicken looks fantastic, I can’t wait to taste it.
MaxMillion says:
November 10th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Without even tasting it, I’d hazard the educated guess that the Mac n Cheese contained (vegan) mayonnaise rather than cheese. Does that sound right to you? Was it served hot or cold?
Louise says:
November 10th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
@MaxMillion - yes I beileve there was vegan mayonnaise in the cheese sauce as well as some other stuff I couldn’t identify. It was served hot, but I think if it were served cold, it’d taste like macaroni salad.
Ed says:
November 12th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Was anyone else eating there when you went? I stopped by at noon on a Thurs or Friday and the place was deserted. I even walked in the bar/dance area and didn’t see a single person so I just left. I am wondering if the place is always a ghost town.
Louise says:
November 12th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
@Ed - Yes there were a couple of people eating when I went. I think a table on the patio and another table inside. When I first went in, no one seemed to be working there, but if you head to the left of the stage where the kitchen is, usually someone will see you and come out and help you out. There were tons of people in the kitchen on Sunday when I went.