Anyone been taking advantage of these? Just had the Indonesian meal last night with food from Borneo Kalimantan, Medan Kitchen, and Bungkus Bagus. All really tasty and held up well to reheating (or were still hot in the case of the nasi padang). I haven’t seen any posts, but it’s a really great concept. They curate a take-out appropriate meal from a bunch of good places and deliver for pick up in a few locations. You just drive to the pickup and they look up your order and hand you the food. Living on the west side this has been a great way to access foods that would normally be very inconvenient to pick up, and even better I get a taste of several restaurants that I might never have ended up going out of my way to try.
The nightmarket they ran earlier this year was also excellent. Small, well chosen number of vendors. The event sold out, but it wasn’t too crowded and the waits weren’t insane except for the skewer vendor. You could buy anything and be happy with your choice instead of trying to figure out if a vendor was gonna be hot trash that just looked good. Prices were fair all around too.
I’ve ordered them a few times. It’s been great for me because I live close to one of the stops and have been able to enjoy food from restaurants that are a little too far for me (I’m super lazy). I’ve done the Woon Kitchen/101 Noodle Express/Mandarin Noodle House, Gamboge/Medan Kitchen, Jun Won Special, Chateau Brodard, and Jade Wok/Pearl River Deli.
Overall, it’s been a good experience, though there was one time where the portions for one of the restaurants was noticeably smaller than the other. The overall package price may seem high, but the restaurants keep all their profit and delivery is included. Plus, there’s usually some matching meal component where MAMA donates a meal to a non-profit that feeds seniors in minority communities.
I regret not having ordered the Mini Kabob/Zhengyalov Hatz combo last month. Now I just have to get my lazy self over to Glendale…
Yeah, I would characterize the price as fair, but not a deal/cheap. It’s certainly better than ordering delivery + tipping + fees. Given that some of the places are 40min - 1 hour away with weekend traffic I’m happy to pay for it! I was pretty disappointed that I was out of town for the Mini Kabob/Zhengyalov Hatz combo. I hope they bring it back.
Mama’s has started selling tickets for their second night market. NIGHTMARKET | MAMA
Admission is ~$23 after fees. Venue has enough space and there is free parking (which does fill up early). Vendors were excellent last time, no duds in the ones we tried. Highlights: Dollar Hits, Dolans, Chimmelier, Holy Basil, Jade Wok. This time they will have some hispanic vendors too.
Capacity cap was reasonable last time, the only crazy lines were for Dollar Hits. Alcohol available, not crazy prices and some of the sponsors were giving away free samples.
Thought I would bump the thread. Any thoughts on MAMA’s night market? There’s another one in a few weeks but tickets are up to $39 before fees Just worried about shelling out and having one of those nightmare food fair experiences, but should the capacity limit and ticket fee help guard against that? Also saw they’ll have mahjong lol
We’re probably not going to this one. The venue in Chinatown is smaller and less open than the other ones. Price might be higher to help with capacity, but I think we’re more skeptical. The one we went to last year downtown was bigger and busier than past ones, but lines were still reasonable except for the super popular ones. I definitely think the increased ticket costs and smaller area makes it less of a no-brainer. Also, they’re leaning harder into the music and non-food entertainment/party aspect which you’re paying for and it depends how valuable that is to you.
Hmmmm wish I took your advice. Got sucked in by the promise of waiting in line for prd. Here at 630 and there is a long line just to get into the market… making immigrant food accessible seems at odds with upmarket events where you cant get in without a $100 vip ticket …
I hope you ended up making it in and having a good time! Outside of their first event we’ve never really had problems waiting to get in, but they had less space to work with than previous events. I promise you the line was better than PRD’s last weekend
We did make it in sorry for the early write off. Things got better after we got in (only ~20 min) and got to eat. Lots of good bites (though lighting is poor). Will just them add them in here instead of making a new thread
Definitely leaning into the entertainment angle. Nice to have stuff to do in between bites and linger around, but definitely this venue has a lot of corridors that bottleneck foot traffic. Maybe time to check out some of the other night markets around LA!
Just worried about shelling out and having one of those nightmare food fair experiences, but should the capacity limit and ticket fee help guard against that? Also saw they’ll have mahjong lol
