Hidden in a dimly lit alleyway on the Country Club Plaza is the underwhelming restaurant Eden Alley Vegetariá. It is located at 707 West 47th Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64112, just off the beaten path of the bustling Plaza so it can be somewhat tricky to find. After you do find the restaurant, it offers unique vegetarian and vegan options but does not live up to expectations.

On a Thursday night two of my good friends and I, who are also environmentally friendly and one of which is vegan, decided to try Eden Alley Vegetariá. Before looking up vegetarian restaurants online, I would have never known this one existed, which is surprising because I go to The Plaza fairly often. Upon walking in the door you take in the big, open, artsy and renovated theatre space. I’ll admit lots of the artwork was really impressive and captivating, but it was almost like the restaurant was trying too hard to be trendy and cool with all the artwork and chic plant dividers.

We waited around for almost 10 minutes to be seated, which was odd because there were only four people in the restaurant when we arrived. We were then seated at a colorful, abstract table and handed the most confusing menu. It was very hard to read the bolded text that wrapped the edges and different fonts that scattered the page like a sixth grader’s first powerpoint project.

After getting past the menu design flaws, I was actually conflicted with the what to get because all the choices seemed appealing and diverse. They had things such as the “Avocado Sammy” which included local farm-to-market garlic grilled bread, avocado and cheese, tomatoes, greens and pickled onions. All this came for $12 and you had the option to make it vegan. Another popular menu item was “The Loaf” which is made with fresh greens, mushrooms onions, black forbidden and brown rice, with Central Soyfoods tofu, bread crumbs, garlic and thyme and oregano. It is baked and served with roasted potatoes and tomato basil coulee.

One of my friends ordered the vegan falafel platter which included soft chickpea chia patties, made with tahini, garlic, olive oil, parsley and cilantro. It was also served on top of black and brown rice along with the house made hummus and pita bread. This dish had well-balanced hummus but the falafel was dry and the potion was on the small side. My other friend went for one of the restaurant’s specials: spring street tacos. The way the waiter talked this dish up had all of our mouths watering with the short grain brown and black rice, refried pinto beans, sun-dried tomatoes, smoky jalapeno cauliflower cheese, chickpea pico and micro greens. It went downhill when they informed us after ordering it that they ran out of taco shells and they were going to make it into a burrito instead. This dish ended up being very heavy and messy. I did enjoy the spicy kick but I wouldn’t order it again.

I couldn’t decide what to order so I had our waitress pick for me. She said she was going to give me her favorite thing on the menu. Well, her favorite thing wasn’t mine. I ended up getting the regular menu tacos which had a vegan mix of vegetable protein, mushrooms, onions, cumin, chili and cayenne, topped with the creamy vegan cheese sauce. I was very surprised with this dish because it actually tasted like I was eating meat. It was a tad spicy and oniony but the downside of this dish was that it was very small. These three little tacos were paired with the house rice combination and salsa. Both had great texture and flavor but it lacked a wow factor.

The only thing that was genuinely noteworthy from this restaurant was the vegan bread pudding dessert. This warm creation consisted of bread crumbs, oak milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate chips. It was topped with a nice chocolate ganache that wasn’t overpowering but enhanced the pudding and made it moist. This bread pudding was probably the best dessert I’ve ever had. It was so gooey, chocolatey and warm it tasted like something your grandma would make on a cold winter day.

Overall, Eden Alley Vegetariá was a big let down. It has the potential to be great but it lacked the boldness of flavor and taste of freshness that you would expect from a vegetarian restaurant. I give this restaurant 2 out of 5 stars because of how small the portion sizes were and the restaurant’s ability to bore me to death with the just below average meal. But I do applaud them for trying to have diverse menu items and how accommodating they were to dietary needs. Overall, I wouldn’t waste the energy or money searching for this place.