CoZara

CoZara (3200 Chestnut Street) is a relatively new Japanese Tapa style restaurant in University City on Drexel's campus. My friends and I went there for happy hour for my birthday last month even though I didn't order from the happy hour menu. I am a pescarterian; however that day I was eating a vegan diet. I actually decided in advance on this restaurant for my birthday happy based on a friend's recommendation. I didn't want to change the restaurant at the last minute and there were vegan options on the menu that I can eat. Below you will see how I wished I had changed the location.

For my first dish, I ordered a vegan roll- Veggie Deluxe Roll (crispy shallot, asparagus, carrot, shiso, wasabi stem dressing, micro greens, and ginger dressing. So when they say tapa style, they really meant it. The rolls were super tiny and there wasn't much of it- only 6 rolls!  I felt like the diameter is just a little bigger than a quarter. The ingredients were fresh and tasted alright. They was nothing special about it, though. It was basically all the ingredients rolled up together and the sauce wasn't unique or anything. These days a lot of place offer sushi made with fresh ingredients. I could have gotten a good amount of better quality specialty vegan sushi for a better price elsewhere. One place I can think of off on the top of my head is BubbleFish in Chinatown. Their Green Peace vegan roll is the bomb dot com. It's cheaper. They give you more rolls and they are much thicker rolls. In addition, their sauce for their sushi is awesome. 

Veggie Deluxe

Lastly, I got the Vegetarian Mazemen. Based on the menu there were supposedly going to be arugula, pickled red cabbage, and miso in it. I beg the differ. It was basically ramen noodles with mix greens not arugula (I feel like when menus say arugula they give you arugula not mixed greens with arugula with other greens in it, no?), fried shallots, alfalfa sprouts, pickled red ginger not pickled cabbage, and sesame oil not miso. I didn't really taste the miso. I just tasted sesame oil with the noodles. I let my friend try it and she agreed with me. At the bottom once I finished eating the noodles, there was more of a tangy flavor like vinegary maybe that was the miso or where the miso was.  I felt like I could have easily made this at home. I already have ramen noodles, fried shallots, and sesame oil at home. I just needed to get some pickled ginger, alfalfa sprout, and mixed greens from the supermarket which I can do so for cheap. This was not worth $10. The amount was little and this just simply was not an exceptional quality dish in my eyes. As I mentioned, I could have assembled this entree myself. 

Vegetarian Mazeman

Not sure, if I didn't order the right things.  Maybe my standards are too high. Maybe they placed more focus on other dishes. My friends who ordered the fish and meat dishes seem to enjoy them. I, on the other hand if you can't tell already, was highly disappointed at this restaurant. I don't think I have ever been so disappointed at a restaurant before. Even though the food was fresh, the quantity was small (okay that was probably given because it was tapa) and it was expensive for not very unique food. I guess with all the competition out there and for them to be tapa style,  I just expected alot more. I would think the establishment would want to differentiate itself with their offerings or their taste of the food but I didn't find this here. I will not be returning and I would not be recommending this place to anyone. There are far too many better restaurants in this city of Brotherly Love.