Doma Kitchen (Closed)

5 of 5 Stars

Doma Kitchen started serving eastern European food in a tiny converted house with only outdoor seating on a small, triangle-shaped lot in Redondo Beach across one street from Whole Foods and Rite-Aid and the other from a psychic reader. They closed to look for a new location -- I forget whether the owner of the lot had already decided to redevelop it or if they just wanted more space -- and did the occasional pop-up event in the meantime.

=> in a tiny converted house | pop-up event

Side note: It took a couple of years before the old building was demolished, a couple more until construction started, and something like five years to build a blocky triangular office building. The steel frame went up in maybe 2018 or 2019, and I remember it standing open for quite a while. I don't think the fencing came down until earlier this year -- maaaaybe during 2023. But I haven't noticed any actual business signs on it yet as of summer 2024!

In 2015, the restaurant found a space in a storefront next to a movie theater at the end of Manhattan Village mall. At the time I posted this on Yelp:

=> storefront next to a movie theater | I posted this on Yelp

It was great. The lamb stroganoff and kasha with bratwurst were both different takes from what you usually find and very good. There's a good variety on the kids' menu too.

The look of the place is a lot different from the old Redondo Beach location. It's more trendy than homey, but that goes along with the bigger kitchen and menu, so it's hard to complain. (It's also a lot quieter when dining outside than it was when they were right next to a major street.)

It wasn't long before the mall decided to raze the building and put in a parking structure. They moved to Marina Del Rey in 2017, opening in a strip mall connected to a grocery store. I can't remember if I ever got around to visiting that location, though I used to visit a Japanese restaurant in the same strip mall with coworkers from time to time. Sadly, it closed permanently on the last day of 2019.

=> moved to Marina Del Rey | closed permanently

Pokémon Go Note: The mural at the original location was a Pokéstop (and the oldest postcard I have saved!), though the restaurant had moved by the time the game launched. The stop lasted longer than the mural and the wall it was painted on. I call these ghost Pokéstops, and think of them as a digital afterlife for a landmark. Eventually someone (not me) reported it to Niantic as missing, and it's been removed from the map.

=> ghost Pokéstops

— Kelson Vibber, 2015-08-05. Updated 2024-08-28.

Doma Kitchen (Closed)

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