Best of 2000: Best Kosher Restaurant

Shmoozers Kosher Dairy Restaurant
6366 El Cajon Boulevard,
College Area
(619) 583-1636

Orthodox Jews who own restaurants have to decide whether they'll serve dairy or meat products. Can't do both. It's in Exodus: "Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk." Many vegans -- vegetarians who shun animal products like milk or eggs -- find an ally here. Shmoozers promises "all-rennetless cheese, vegetarian food, no meat, no animal fat, certified Kosher, 100% fresh ingredients." So you're stuck eating wobbly soy curd and soy milk? Uh-uh. Shmoozer's vegetable pizza, with olives, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, and tomato ($16.50 for a 16-inch pie, $2.95 a slice) tastes like the real thing. Baked and breaded eggplant Parmesan, with marinara sauce and garlic bread ($6.35), is delicious with kosher mozzarella cheese. (Problem for vegans. But Charles the owner can substitute "tofutti" cheese.) But here's why you come: the $3.50 veggie burger -- "It's Zoglo's," says Charles. "The patties come frozen all the way from Nahariya, Israel." Tastes better than standard vegetable burgers -- and the $3.95 "California-style" falafel. It's garbanzo bean "meat" has a crisp outside that you crunch through to release terrific tastes of garlic and sesame.