Japanese bar bites, but no sushi, at coZara — the latest from Zama

HEAD ON: Tempura-fried crispy soft-shell shrimp with yuzu and jalapeño.
Neal Santos

In an era when chefs can’t expand their empires fast enough, there’s something to be said for taking your time. Hiroyuki “Zama” Tanaka’s parents must have instilled in him that patience is a virtue. The Japanese chef opened his eponymous sushi temple off Rittenhouse Square in 2009 and managed to resist snake-oil suitors for five years before locking in a lease for a second restaurant at American Campus Communities’ new Drexel development.

That second venture is coZara, which sounds like a brother brand to the Euro fashion retailer, but, in fact, is Japanese for “small plates.” They’re the focus at this izakaya, and most are tasty enough to make it easy to forgive the restaurant’s dim design.

We’re not just talking light fixtures (red drums, wire trumpet pendants) and floors (poured concrete). It’s everything. The capitalization in coZara isn’t a cardinal sin, but follows a disturbing trend of restaurants wanting their names to resemble AIM screen names. On the menu, a font that belongs on an invitation for a 6-year-old's birthday party undermines the sophistication of truffled eel and yuzu soy crème. 

A long chef’s counter — don’t call it a sushi bar; there is no sushi here — offers a row of seats fronting the gleaming open kitchen. On top, tall stacks of jade, teal and orange bowls and plates provide glints of color and joy. Next to the chef’s counter, a small cocktail bar holds a half-dozen drinkers, one mustachioed bartender and 15 sakes. Take it easy on the excellent list if you plan to ascend the red metal staircase to the mezzanine dining room.

I sat downstairs, at one of the tables lined up along a bank of windows emblazoned with a giant red kana symbol representing the letter Z and looking like the mockingjay symbol from The Hunger Games. The separation between indoor and outdoor feels as thin, but not in a good way. With my back exposed to the street, I had a dark thought: “This is how people get assassinated.” Observed my guest, a former commercial real-estate broker, “This is what you get from a developer build-out.”

Chef Zama contends he had a lot of freedom in the design, but it’s hard to reconcile the tranquil, glass-smooth beauty of his Rittenhouse restaurant with coZara’s generic box. If those windows didn’t afford views of the resurgent Drexel campus, you’d think you were in Cherry Hill. Fortunately, there was nothing suburban about the food, a parade of traditional and reinterpreted snacks that began with a surprising chilled buckwheat soba salad mined with slices of refreshing Asian pear and ended with vanilla ice cream drizzled with sticky sweet soy syrup reminiscent of — and better than — salted caramel.

“I wanted to bring what izakaya means in Japan,” says Zama, who first started cooking at Camp Zama, the American Army base that eventually provided his nickname. “It’s where people go after work, a small-dish-and-drinking scene, not like a general Japanese restaurant.”

The menu is a master class of Japanese bar food — full of salt and fat and texture. It included shio buta, salt-braised pork belly that melted at the sight of chopsticks. Crispy soft-shell shrimp — “eat the whole thing,” the server advised — in tempura cocoons with jalapeño and lime. Outstanding yakionigiri, soft and chewy teriyaki rice cakes designed to soak up a belly full of alcohol. 

It bears repeating: There is no sushi at coZara, and some of Zama’s disciples aren’t happy about it. For this very reason, Zama is careful about how he describes his new place. “I’m not saying this is my second restaurant,” he explains. “It’s Zama bringing another, different concept to Philly.”

When the conversation began in 2012, Zama had planned to do a noodle bar, but as larger spaces became available, he expanded the restaurant’s reach to full-scale izakaya, which fits neatly in with nearby eateries. But even with Drexel on a trimester schedule and university staffers who live in the area, coZara was dead when I visited on a late, post-graduation weeknight.

To the staffers’ credit, they didn’t rush us out or cringe when we ordered the $39 whole chicken yakitori, the menu’s showpiece. Brined for a day with ginger, garlic, star anise and soy, the bird gets broken down, threaded onto skewers, grilled and arranged in a fun, party-pleasing mountain crowned with a sail of chicken skin. Sadly, that greasy, rubbery skin needed to be cooked a lot longer. And the gizzards were so hard, they might as well have been Legos. Lined between bits of scallion, the nuggets of breast and thigh were passively enjoyable, more vehicles for the three accompanying sauces (miso honey-mustard, yakitori, vinegary hot sauce), delicious in their own right. Such a high-profile dish should show more effort. 

There were some other issues. A Sichuan peppercorn-and-miso marinade failed to penetrate a dish of measly lamb chops. The red-bean pancakes sandwiching green-tea pastry cream was too savory (and bready) for dessert.

The menu’s affordability, at least, makes it easy to absorb the cost of mistakes. Not every University City student has a trust fund, and coZara is catering to a budget-conscious crowd with happy hours featuring select drink and food for $2. That should bring them in. After all, what’s an izakaya without the crowd?

COZARA | 3200 Chestnut St., 267-233-7488, cozaraphilly.com. Mon.-Thu., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri., 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sat., 5-11 p.m.; Sun., 5-9 p.m. Small bites, $4-$12; bites, $6-$13; whole chicken, $39; dessert, $3-$4.