Macaroni and cheese can be a staple in any student’s diet. Usually, there’s not much to it; mac + cheese = cheap and yummy goodness. But what if there was something more to this magical equation?
Enter Mac & Cheeza, a place that promises both “eats and sweets.” With only two locations, one locally at 1818 L St. and another in Los Angeles, Mac & Cheeza is putting a new spin on an old favorite. Offering regular or rice noodles, three-cheese topping or soy cheese topping, and plenty of add-ons, this place is all about options.
Baby Mac, Momma Mac, Daddy Mac and Mac Daddy are the sizes to choose from, then guests pick their choice of noodles and topping. Picking the additions is where Mac & Cheeza gets fun; collard greens, peas, tomatoes, jalapenos, ground beef, bacon, chicken and tuna are just some of the choices.
With more options than this vegetarian is used to, finding a place to start was hard. Eventually, I decided on the Baby Mac with soy cheese and rice noodles, and added mushrooms and black olives. The melted cheese that topped the macaroni was similar to that of a pizza: chewy, stringy and just the right amount of greasy.
Although it was topped with the three-cheese topping, the mac inside was mixed with soy cheese. While the soy cheese offered a different flavor from the three-cheese on the top, it wasn’t a funky different. Still, the soy was not as good as I had hoped, so next time I’ll stick with macaroni’s longtime BFF, real cheese. The macaroni was somewhat bland, but the add-ons made up for it. The mushrooms and olives meshed well, and the addition of the two different flavors to the much-loved mac and cheese made it more exciting, and, oddly, almost more sophisticated, like mac and cheese for grown-ups.
My friends enjoyed their dishes as well. One commented that his mushroom and hotlinks with real cheese topping was tasty, and that the hotlinks were “robust in flavor while not overpowering their spice.”
The other said her pepperoni pizza mac, the special of the day, had a good flavor. The pepperoni and cheese went together well, unsurprisingly, but it was a pretty simple dish. If someone wants pizza, they should just get pizza and it’ll taste better than trying to pair it with mac and cheese, she advised.
At first, the Baby Mac looked like it might leave me hungry, but it filled me up with just a little room for a shared dessert.
Mac & Cheeza offers red velvet cake and banana pudding, but we went for the peach cobbler. It was sweet, but not too sweet and was a great way to end the meal.
Prices at Mac & Cheeza are pretty reasonable. A Baby Mac is enough food for one person and costs about $5. The alternative options, like soy cheese and rice noodles, did not cost extra like they might elsewhere. Our cobbler was $6, which isn’t bad for a dessert that satisfied three people.
Mac & Cheeza is a kid’s dreamland. Mixing and matching all kinds of toppings with the already beloved favorite lets each visit be different than the last.