Doomie’s Home Cookin’

They’re closed!!! oh no! I LOVED THIS PLACE!!!
i want them open. Ricky is the best!

Can’t wait ’til you reopen!
Once was not enough… and purdy please, bring back onion rings.

Damn! Sorry to see that Doomie’s has closed.
I only came here once — mostly because it was in such an inconvenient location for me — but the food was really GOOD. I could not believe that what I was eating was NOT meat. The Twinkies were also great.
Sad to see it is gone. Planned to go back — but I guess I should have done that sooner.

My favorite vegetarian restaurant EVER, in this history of the universe, is Red Bamboo in New York City’s East Village. So unbelievably amazing. I was hoping Doomie’s would be L.A.‘s answer to Red Bamboo, but… nope. The ambiance was pretty lame — that’s something I pay attention to unless the food is just so absolutely amazing that it distracts me from the fact that I’m sitting in a huge empty room in a McDonald’s-like semi-​dirty booth.
That aside, the food wasn’t bad. It also wasn’t memorable. The clam chowder was good. The chicken salad sandwich was pretty yummy, but had that odd soy aftertaste. I made a lot of faux meat type stuff at home and it doesn’t have that odd soy aftertaste. My friends weren’t too impressed with their dishes either — one of them vegetarian, the other semi-​vegetarian, and two huge meat eaters, one pretty adventurous when it comes to this type of place, and the other not so much. He just got dragged along. ;)
I would say this is definitely not a place to take a bunch of friends who aren’t into vegetarian/​vegan food. The menu needs to be expanded a bit, say a few salad choices, a pasta dish, at least something that’s not an adventurous fake-​meaty type dish that most non-​veggies would be afraid to try. The two meat eaters in the group ordered the veggie meatball sandwich, because those are often good, but they were out, so no dice.
But I suppose all of this wouldn’t be relevant if it’s closing, now would it? That’s too bad. If they open in another location I’ll give it another shot. The owner was very friendly and came out to see how our food was, which always scores points with me, but the service wasn’t great — forgetting drinks, silverware, etc.
So three stars… not great, not bad, but not overly memorable.

Sadly Doomies is Closed until further notice of a new location!
However if you’re craving this amazing food (as I am) check out his myspace page on how you can get him to cater your next event! I’m too late to put in a request for my baby shower but for my birthday the grubs on!

This place is AMAZING! I have had the chili burger, chili dog, mac and cheese, and fried oreos and everything was sooooo delicious!
If you are vegan and miss comfort food GO HERE!!!
Great food and awesome staff!

I’m hooked on Doomie. Everything is reasonably priced, the service is great and its right in the middle of chinatown ! Its a great place to get vegan comfort food even if you are not vegan. Their faux meat has great textures and flavors.
Some of my favorite things…
Buffalo legs with vegan ranch –perfection
Philly Cheesesteak sandwich — very flavorful, the faux meat is right on
Fried chicken — a hot plate of comfort with a side of rosemary potatoes
Pulled Pork Sandwich– way better then pure luck
Frech onion and Clam chowder soups
Try the vegan twinkie or the chocolate shake for desert !

I like Doomie’s a lot. It’s divey, it’s in a great space, they play good music, and it’s vegetarian. If only they stayed open later. But who knows how those hours might change in the future?
If you’re into fried foods and you’re vegan, this place is it. Their calamari is delicious and so’s the tartar sauce that comes with it. If you were ever a seafood junkie before you went veg, get their seafood platter and instead of soup or salad, ask for fries. You will not be disappointed. If you’re a big health nut, don’t come here. I mean, it’s certainly healthier than flesh foods, but healthy for the super health conscious it’s not. So be warned.
Also, do not come here expecting some kind of four star dining experience. It’s kind of a dive and comes with the service to match. And keep in mind that it’s one guy running the show, so have a heart. Come with your friends and plan to hang out, or bring a book or something. During the day the patio is great for writing and/​or reading while you wait, but so’s the inside any time. It has the underground feel of black market restaurants on the east coast except Doomie’s has regular hours. No looking for a red or green light to see if they’re open or knocking on someone’s back fence. This place is supercool.

I wonder if I came here the same day as Alysia M, the one star review from January 3^rd? Seemed like we ran into similar problems.
I was REALLY looking forward to this place after reading about it on numerous vegan blogs and Unilocal.I had been craving fried chicken for some reason lately, and really had my heart set on that meal. I went with my girlfriend, and our plan was to split the fried chicken and a bowl of clam chowder soup (another thing I haven’t had in probably 12 years and was really looking forward to). Upon arrival, we were greeted with a whiteboard sign saying they were out of, well, EVERYTHING. No fried chicken, no clam chowder, no meatballs, no soup, no onion rings, no shrimp anything, no chicken anything, no desserts. It was hard finding anything on the menu they had in stock!
We really were looking forward to Doomies, so we decide to try it anyways. We walk in and I couldn’t tell if they were opened or closed. Felt like we were intruding or something. Just not very comfortable.
We ended up settling on the Philly Cheese Steak (we got it with real cheese) and the Fried Calamari. The Philly Cheese Steak came out at least 15 minutes before the Calamari. I’m glad we were sharing food otherwise I would’ve felt like a dick finishing my meal before my girlfriend even started hers.
Finally the food comes out. We were never provided silverware and the server never really bothered to ask us if we needed anything. It would’ve been great to have ketchup for the french fries and a fork for the coleslaw and a napkin to wipe our hands with, but oh well.
The good news is — both meals were really good! And that’s why they’re getting 3 stars instead of like a 1 or 2 or something (which is what I’d give any other place that would make me deal with these situations). The Philly Cheese Steak used the rolls that I LOVE and the flavor was great. I’m fine with eating cheese so I’m a regular at Philly’s Best for their meatless Philly Cheese Steak (all vegetables), and to be honest the ones at Philly’s Best might be a little better and definitely larger — but this one was still really good.
The fried calamari was awesome! But nothing like calamari. It reminded me of little nuggets of fish n chips. I used to love fish n chips! I’d definitely order the calamari again if I was ever craving fried fish. If I knew how to make this dish at home I’d probably never leave the house.
This place would be my new favorite restaurant (and hopefully will be!) as soon as they get their act together. Some of the best vegan food I’ve had with all my cravings on one menu. Just call ahead and make sure they’re in stock before you make a long drive out!

Ok, let’s get one thing straight: I AM NOT A VEGAN. Ok? I like bacon. Bacon is meat candy.
That said, I love good food in all its forms, and more often than not vegan food is good food, simply because it requires such careful preparation and necessitates healthy, fresh ingredients. So this meat-​eater can happily say I eat vegan at least once a week, vegetarian more than that.
Now, on to Doomie’s. When you walk up the flight of outdoor stairs to this upper portico in a two-​level building smackdab in the center of Chinatown, you get the vibe as if you’d stumbled into someplace secret, a hidden outpost of meat-​free eating amidst a thousand other restaurants that have dead ducks hanging in their windows.
Doomie’s specializes in comfort foods. For the most part, that means FRIED comfort foods. This is prolly one of two or three places in the city where I don’t feel guilty for eating fried food, because everything else is so goddamned healthy. But you wouldn’t know it from the taste: no, happily everything tastes as wonderfully bad for you as the best mac’n’cheese, buffalo wings, cupcakes and twinkies (twinkies!) and chicken-​fried steak you’ve gobbled down in your life.
Vegan food, when it attempts to simulate meat, eggs & dairy, is a fascinating science – they’re trying to re-​create those textures, the flavors, the feel on your tongue – with soy, with wheat gluten, with fruit, with whatever they can use to fool you into thinking you’re eating dairy and meat. And Doomie’s really nails it.
One thing I noticed: you may wanna go earlier in the week if you want the big sellers like the vegan twinkies: they seem to sell out by week’s end.

The restaurant is in a night club. I’ve danced there once before so i was kinda nervous when i got there and noticed the place was still a club. They asked if we wanted to eat indoors or outdoors — we decided with the weather being a bit chilly we’d eat inside. Let me tell you… the indoor area was still a club. Its like… who the heck wants to eat on the dance floor and stare at the bar? After we ordered our food we sat outside. If you go — eat outdoors.
The service was great. I ordered the fried chicken. It taste great besides the fact that it had a popsicle in it for the «full effect» of eating a real chicken leg. The mash potatoes, dinner roll and cole slaw were nothing to write home about. I really enjoyed the french onion and the vegetable soup.
During our meal the chef came out and asked if everything was ok. I thought that was super nice.
I also tried the macaroni n cheese which was pinkish orange. It taste ok but the color of it threw me off. The chef said he was still in the process of perfecting it and asked what we thought he can do to make it better. I respect that.
Overall I did enjoy the restaurant but I think they need to change locations and invest in some hot sauce.

As we walked up the stairs to the restaurant we didn’t know what to expect. After we saw it, we were even more confused. It appears that the space is also used as a goth night club, sports bar, and vegan restaurant. Since it was a weekday during lunch time, we could clearly see the interior of the club/​bar which was dark and empty so we opted to sit in the patio. The restaurant is located in Chinatown and is completely surrounded by seafood vendors and restaurants. As we sat waiting for our waitress we could smell the stench of seafood – it was like sitting by the ocean, but with all the animals being dead.
However, even though we couldnt see a kitchen anywhere in sight, we still had hope that the food would be good. We perused the menu and noticed that almost every item on the menu was very «heavy”– meaning fried, cheesed, or sauced. Where are all the vegetables? For a vegan restaurant (minus the real cheese option) I would have expected to see more vegetables in their natural state.
We had vegan mac’n’cheese which was a neon orange version of Easy Mac. Boring, but cheesy (which is usually hard to pull off). My entrée was Doomie’s Southern Fried Chicken served with a side of Clam Chowder, coleslaw, and garlic, rosemary mashed potatoes.
The fried chicken tasted, smelled and looked just like fried chicken. However, there’s something unsettling about seeing a fake piece of meat with fake skin on it. The mashed potatoes and coleslaw were good, nothing out of the ordinary.
I was excited to try the clam chowder since that is not something I’ve had in years. It was good, and even the faux-​clams had an «ocean» taste. In order to make it thick they used potatoes which I thought was a good idea.
For dessert I bought a «twinkie» which had a funny after taste. Not reccommended.
Pros: Friendly waitress, great if you need a meat fix without actually eating an animal.
Cons: Completely surrounded by smelly seafood restaurants. Nothing is healthy here.

I must say that the food was different, and pretty good. Unfortunately the bikers on Sunday, the atmosphere of filthy Chinatown, and the run down nightclub/​sports bar that is a vegan restaurant by day kinda ruins it for me.
First off, I had to maze my way through street bikes to get to the stairs that lead to the «restaurant, nightclub, sportsbar, concert venue». To say the least… weird!
We sat, more bikers showed up. Apparently its a meeting place for them on Sunday. I’ve never heard of bikers meeting at a vegan restaurant… go figure. They must be friends of the owners, as they were controlling the TV’s, the bar, and pretty much had the run of the place.
The staff was nice, my ice tea came with no sweetner, soda was flat. We ordered the chicken, and the philly cheese steak, and waited an eventful 30 minutes for our food to arrive. The bikers weren’t eating, just drinking, and there was only one other table that was actually there for the food. So who knows why it took so long for us to get our food.
As we sat and waited for the food, we noticed 3 more parties come up the stairs, notice the weirdness, saw the bikers, and left. (There was a post that was deleted off of Unilocal that mentioned some of the staff looking at a playboy magazine in plain view of customers, this is true. To bad the post was mysteriously deleted off of Unilocal.)
The outdoor furniture is really trashed and ran down, sun-​beatin vinyl booths, mismatch chairs and dirty tables. Never made it to the bathroom, but from what i’ve read… thank god i didn’t make it.
Food finally arrived, I must say the chicken and philly were both pretty good. The staff was apologetic for the wait, but unfortunately the bad out-​weighed the good. I will not return to this place.
It seems that the owner of Doomies is friends with the owner of the sportsbar, an idea sparked to make extra cash during the day, so now we have Doomies.
Some advice, the cleanliness of your «restaurant» reflects on the cleanliness of your kitchen. If your restrooms and restaurant are as «dive» as noted in my post and others, I can’t imagine the kitchen being any cleaner. First impressions are everything folks.
I think its safe to say your biker buds are doing more harm than good. While I was there you lost maybe about 6 customers, which can be equivalent to about $ 10-​$ 12 a piece (not including returned business and referrals).
It does not help that the place is in Chinatown. Chinatown sells and kills live stock on-​site, so as you park and walk down the streets, you can hear and smell chickens. If you’re lucky you will see a butcher or two walking around.
My point, sanitize and clean-​up the place, make it comfortable for your customers, not your friends (the bikers) and serve good food.
THE END

Sooo I am an omnivore and my boyfriend is a vegetable-​leery vegan [ yeah… I don’t get it either] so naturally, we have a super hard time finding any restaurant we can agree on! I was sitting at home last night waiting for him to come over so we could go out for dinner wracking my brain trying to think of a good place to go.
Magically, as my lovely friend Sharon randomly IM’d asking me if I had been to Doomie’s yet and that I absolutely had to go.
Soooo freaking good. We got there about 7:20 PM and they close at 8. I had the chicken picatta and he had the southern fried chicken. We had the fried calamari for an appetizer. Doomie came out and hung out with us for a bit and seriously one of the nicest restaraunt owners I’ve ever met!
Our server was fantastic and informative and the outside ambience of Chinatown after-​dark was awesome.
Doomie is meat eater with a knack for all things culinary who always had picky vegan/​vegetarian girlfriends. He said he opened his place up because he knew he could do it better than anyone else around and he was right. The result: a fantastic menu!
Go go go!

DOO-MIE’S DOO-MIE’S.
I ate at Doomie’s and the next day Obama was elected President of the United States. I don’t wanna say the vegan twinkies I bought here in bulk had something to do with it. But, come on people, this is more than mere coincidence.
Needless to say that week, which I now refer to as Doo-​bama week, was momentous.
Let’s get down to business. Philly cheese steak– awesome. Mac and Cheese tastes just like Kraft mac, if you love that you’ll love it. Ranch dressing– mind blowingly authentic. The fried chicken, seriously WTF? so good.
I really enjoyed all of my food here. Yes, it’s in a night club which is a little strange at first, but I’m here to eat and my stomach doesn’t know Design Within Reach from Kmart patio furniture, so I’m not losing sleep over it.

First of all, if you go on a weekend, expect to pay for parking. That sucks.
I waited 20 minutes for the Classic Burger. The patty is hard and almost inedible. If I want to pay $ 9 for a burger and fries, I’d much rather go to Astroburger than this place. Guess I should have went for the Pulled Pork instead.
Nice try, but Doomies is doomed for failure.
Pure Luck is way better than this place and they are just ok.

It’s hard to rate a restaurant that’s so damn odd. It’s hard to sort through the experience to delineate those that were just plain bad from the parts that were just very strange.
First off — the… um…three staffers at the restaurant were perfectly lovely. They were honestly, resoundingly friendly and very attentive. They obviously care, and they care a lot. This is nice.
As noted in previous posts, this restaurant is apparently doing the split-​personality thing — by day, vegan comfort food destination Doomie’s Home Cookin’…by night, a kinda-​sorta Goth Club (
). Maybe this explains our beautiful server’s patent leather corsety-​thing, dead-​serious eye makeup and porcelain skin. Hmm.
I had the pulled pork — a messy, delectable method of putting a million fat calories between two skillet-​fried buns, sided with a surprisingly thoughtful mac ‘n’ cheese and crackle-​icious onion rings. HAPPY. My boyfriend ordered a chew toy garnished with cardboard (the Western Burger.) Not so happy.
Then he washed it down with a Rogue. On tap. HAPPY.
Then he went to the bathroom and came back looking like he’d seen dead people. Not so happy.
Then we had a fresh-​baked vanilla cupcake by Jenn’s No Whey Bakery. HAPPY.
So…three stars. And, by the way, a high five for doin’ it, Doomie’s-folks. ‘Cause you’re obviously giving it all you’ve got and, after all, you’re still a baby! :) I’ll definitely be back for another go.

I went to Doomie’s on it’s first week of being open, and though they were still tweaking everything, it was still super awesome. Los Angeles has needed a vegan ‘junk/​comfort food’ restaurant for a LONG time, and thanks to Doomie’s we have it!
I ordered the buffalo legs (with Vegan Ranch) and chili cheeze fries, which were AWESOME, though I would have preferred the legs oozing a little bit more with buffalo sauce… I’m definitely going to ask for an extra side of it next time. Timmy got the western burger, and it looked pretty tasty as well! I am looking forward to my next visit… it’s the ‘pulled pork sandwich’ for me!
I actually really liked the ‘ambiance of the place’, a rooftop patio with an awesome view of Chinatown and the fact that they have a bar in the restaurant is great.
I can’t wait to go back to doomies! Make sure to take your carnivorous friends when you go… they will be amazed at how good vegan can taste!

Doomie’s gets closer than most to duplicating the texture (and, in some cases, the taste) of various meats. They get a pass for having ‘calamari’ that tastes & feels more like scallops, because I like scallops better. The shrimp gets good marks, as does the vegetarian (but not vegan) bacon. In fact, their vegetarian bacon is the first I’ve tasted that truly escapes the ‘soy-​sauce-​flavored tempeh’ description.
The location is a bit awkward: a hardly-​converted sports bar that is perpetually 20-​minutes away from a Bruce Springsteen cover band jumping up on stage. The bathrooms are borderline scary. Major points for ample outdoor seating and some gas heaters, and a pretty nice view of Chinatown and the eastern hinterlands of downtown.
The service was friendly, but hovered around us with a slight air of desperation; it seems they are new at this, and I expect that they’ll find their rhythm in the coming weeks. Also, warning every customer that Stella Artois is «filtered through fish bladders», while resembling the truth, is probably not the best way to broach the subject of strictly vegan vs. non-​vegan beers (search for «isinglass» for more info on this topic).
It sounds like their first week in business was quite a success (by yesterday, half of the menu was 86ed), and based on the other reviews and the local blogs, it seems they made a great impression on most customers.
Cash-​only, but they have an ATM on-​premises.

doomie’s home cookin’ veggie-​vegan serves up a huge menu of sinful comfort food, all of which can be prepared vegan, and a offers a pretty nice selection of draft beer. i think i have found my new favorite place.
take the chilled out bar atmosphere, nice seating, and good beer from pure luck then combine it with the ridiculously «real» tasting junk food from the vegan spot and you have doomie’s. i think any meat-​lovin’ carnivore could dine out and doomie’s and completely forget they are eating a vegan meal. everything i tried was insanely delicious.
when i go to doomie’s next time and try something new off the menu, i know the philly cheesesteak sandwich will be extremely hard to beat. i threw caution to the wind and scarfed the the whole thing down pretty quickly, it was just soooOOOOOOOoooOOOOo good. the vegan cheese was absolutely amazing. it had a sour taste that seemed exactly like real cheese, and it coated the juicy beef strips and greasy vegetables perfectly.
additionally, doomie’s gets extra points for this sandwich because they were able to make it for me without bell peppers. i absolutely bloody hate bell peppers, and they come in so many vegan things. often at restaurants, when i specify that i want my dish sans peppers, they apologize and say it won’t be possible because the vegetables are already in a mix together that was made at the beginning of the day. doomie’s on the other hand, supplied me with a pepper-​free sandwich without any fuss, even though they also had a pre-​made mix that contained peppers. it was great to see a restaurant go out of their way to accommodate my request with a smile, even though it meant more work for them.
the side of homemade onion rings the sandwich came with were also out of this world. freshly battered and steaming on my plate, i could tell they had just been cooked. there were a lot of them too, $ 8.95 is a great deal for such a hearty sandwich and a huge side.
for you healthy eaters out there, doomie’s also has a wide variety of salads. we got the chop salad with ranch dressing and vegan cheese, and it was pretty damn tasty.
while this salad is still pretty decadent, it’s probably a lot healthier than some of the meatier-​cheesier stuff on the menu. all the vegetables were fresh and finely chopped, and the creamy dressing was delightful. i know anyone, vegan or otherwise wouldn’t be able to tell this stuff was lacking dairy. it’s just delicious, period. not delicious for being vegan.
lastly, we couldn’t leave without trying something really intriguing off the dessert menu… vegan gell-​o. i gotta say, it tasted even better the bone-​filled jell-​o from when i was a kid. this stuff had the same sweet flavor but was just a little bit thicker. a big improvement, and no bones!
on top of serving up arguably the best vegan food in the city, doomie’s has a pleasant outdoor atmosphere and friendly knowledgeable staff. it’s located in a place called roberto’s that turns into a swingin’ nightclub after dark. there are some seats inside and a huge sunny patio with tons of seating and a view of chinatown.
we had a couple questions about the veganocity of our food, and within moments the chef, doomie himself, joined us outside to chat with us and answer any of our concerns. he really knew his shit, as he talked about which menu items contained organic sugar and which products had been purchased from other companies whose sugar source couldn’t be verified. so even if you are the strictest vegan, this guy will have all the answers and be able to put your mind at ease about what you are about to consume. doomie also talked a little about his reasons for starting up this restaurant, explaining that he wanted to open a place that vegans and non-​vegans alike could visit and enjoy really good food. not healthy-​tasting vegan food, just GOOD FOOD, that everyone would love no matter what they were used to eating. i think doomie definitely succeeded. you really need to check this place out.
a couple things to note: doomie’s is CASH only. but they do have an atm. i suggesting coming prepared, however, with enough money so you don’t get bitch-​slapped with an atm fee. also, on sunday afternoons there is some biker event or something that takes place on the patio. you can still eat there, you will just be surrounded by rowdy bikers. they are actually pretty entertaining and i didn’t mind them at all, it’s just something you may want to know about going in.
so head on over to doomie’s home cookin’ veggie-​vegan, get a huge plate of vegan comfort food and a tall glass of cold stella. this place is giving all the other vegan restaurants a huge run for their money.