Marty's Flying Vegan Review: Doomie's of Hollywood, CA. Excellent Comfort Food. Period.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Doomie's of Hollywood, CA. Excellent Comfort Food. Period.

I eat at a lot of vegan places and I'm a comfort food kind of guy. I love my fried stuff and my stacked burgers and most of them are above the line of acceptability. There's usually one or two things on a menu that are good or really good but it's been a long time since I was over the top like I was a Doomie's.

The sign as you are driving down Vine is small and buried among 20 other signs
and I just noticed the "Vegan/Vegetarian" as I went by. Yup, had to turn around because
you can't see it if you're coming from ... well, LAX like I was. It's also tucked
away in the corner of the "L" shaped strip mall.

Doomie's makes no bones about not being a healthy kind of place. It's the last thing on Chef/Owner/musician Phil Doomie's mind. What is on his mind is giving us vegans something to sink our teeth into and boy does he ever. What else is there after textures and flavor profiles?

The chicken poppers were given to me gratis by server Tegan, who I must thank for guiding me through some difficult menu choices. It's tough when you want to eat everything you see.

Instead of repeating myself by saying everything was perfect let me just say that in the whole array of food I glutinously had placed before me the only thing I didn't care for was the bacon bits on top of the mac n cheese. They were a bit soft and soggy and didn't add the crunch that I think was the intent. So what? Big deal? Everything else was, perfect.

Peppery, chickeny, crunchy on the outside and moist and flavorful inside.

The poppers were incredible. I haven't had real cheese in years but this is what I remember a popper being. The outside takes some tooth to break through and then you slide into the gooey interior, hit the resistance of the jalapeño and then feel the creaminess and heat invade your mouth.

I was enamored by Quarrygirls review of the Big Mac but Tegan suggested getting the burger Big Mac style. Good move. Finally a burger that doesn't squirt out of the back of the bun or need you to sharpen your incisors. The texture of the burger was just like it should be. Something to tear apart with your front teeth and still need some grind by your molars. Taste was nice and beefy and the bun paired so well. The special sauce on the bun, the onions, pickle, man, it just worked.

I also can't help but order onion rings. I'm a junkie. And these were worth the extra buck. Sweet on the inside and crunchy on the out, just the way a "real" onion ring should be. I'd order a bowl of these and 2 bottles of ketchup and leave a happy camper.

Why 2 pics? Well, here you can see the burger better and ...

here the color of the onion rings are better.

A little out of sequence here but the start of the meal was chicken legs. They weren't from Mai Wah but were of a similar texture and I think nothing special about the chicken but the buffalo sauce was indeed a real buffalo sauce, nice combination of Louisiana hot sauce and fat. Now the Ranch was another stroke of genius. If you didn't know ... well, I'm telling you you'd never know.

That's a nice big glop of special sauce on the bun and you can see where how it's grilled in a buttery garlicy shmear to a nice toast. It really matters when you have that subtle crunch!

Seriously, can't you just feel that in your mouth?

Now the other thing I tried was the pulled pork, mac n cheese, fries, and cole slaw. From last to first, the slaw was creamy, the fries, which I hadn't held out much interest in were so perfect that I decided to use the word perfect again. And for fries no less! Perfectly cooked, crunch outside and cooked potato inside and perfectly salted. The mac n cheese was ... what can I say, cheesy. The pasta cooked just right and not too soft or mushy. And the pork, omg, just sweet enough, just bbq-y enough and texture, although not stringy like pork, (who cares ... really), had some tiny pieces and some medium pieces and some large pieces. You mouth shmooshed and you you bit and you chewed. Then if your taste buds needed an acid trip of flavor, you just dump the slaw on top and call it a day.