More that's new downtown: Mac & Cheeza and Yojie

A restaurant aiming for mac 'n' cheese fanatics, Mac & Cheeza, is
officially open downtown, serving up cheesy pasta in take-away foil containers (there are a few seats in the diminutive space on 8th Street). Choose a size: Baby Mac, Momma Mac, Daddy Mac and Mac Daddy. Then choose your noodle (regular macaroni or rice flour macaroni) and your sauce (cheese or soy). Additions include collard greens, black olives, peas, jalapenos, mushrooms, hot links, choriza, tuna. It gets topped with either a cheese blend or spicy toasted walnuts.  

223 West 8th Street, Los Angeles; (213) 622-3782, www.macandcheeza.com.

Also new downtown: Yojie, which bills itself as a Japanese fondue and sake bar, is a new shabu-shabu restaurant a block from Staples Center. The restaurant has a purple glow, booths accented with bamboo, and sleek black tables fitted with electric burners on which you cook thinly sliced meats (Angus beef, chicken or seafood) in pots of boiling broth. Portion sizes are: Kodomo ("child"), Geisha, Samurai and Sumo. At dinner, Kobe beef also is offered.

501 W. Olympic Blvd., #102, Los Angeles, (2123) 988-8808, www.yojie.com.

-- Betty Hallock

Illustration: Mac & Cheeza logo