Cousin’s Incredible Vitality

Here are my initial thoughts about Cousin’s Incredible Vitality: Great concept, peaceful environment, varied drink and food menu.
My secondary thoughts go a little something like this: Does my flavor palate suit this place? Are we allowed to talk between bites, or is this a meditation service with a buffet? Am I being charged $ 6 for each bottle (750ml) of water?
I am not sure exactly what I think about this place yet. I’ve been borderline vegan for a long while now and have been researching, studying and exploring raw food books for over a year… However, the concept of eating dehydrated blue triangles of seeds and ??? called «chips» still scares me a little bit. Who knows, maybe I’m losing ma’ stuff… I used to be Adventure Woman when it came to new and imaginative food but there’s just something a little unsettling to me about raw food trying to something it’s so very not. Raw food is the best kind of food we can treat our bodies to, so why does it need to mimic things we know are bad for us?

Awesome raw food

Wow, what a shady closing.
I wonder if he left this place just because his financial obligations went way above his head? Or was he just a snake oil salesman?
I met him once. My GF and I volunteered at the Green Fest at McCormick and was helping Cousin’s get the food ready for people to buy.
He was fine and nice for the most part. But two things happened. One, he was such dramatic personality on the phone when talking with his employees. Things weren’t being prepared according to his schedule and he would make a big fuss.
But the other incident raised a flag, The handling of the restaurant closure gives it more prescient. Mehmet had promised the volunteer coordinator some food for the other volunteers at the Fest the day before we volunteered. However, it seems he never really intended to give them the food because when she asked us about it (and we just got there to volunteer), we said we would pass the message to him. Well, he shrugged it off. Well, a few hours later, she came to the booth. While she talked to him, he excused himself to look for something in the back, and then «escaped» (or rather, probably went around to see other things to get away from the coordinator.) We never saw him again. She was really peeved, and I could understand why.
It was strange back then, because the other 2 chef’s we worked with under Mehmet were really cool and nice.

Just an FYI to you all — get this: according to the website «Attentions Please
There is an opportunity to become partners or new owners for Cousin’s IV. For more information
Until then Cousins will remain closed. We are very sorry for any in convenience.»
WOW, no information on how people who have been stiffed can get their money back for the live food boxes etc, NOTHING. What a complete bunch of expletive censored. Mehmet would be completely moronic to try to bring this place back after he hasn’t lawfully reimbursed those he has eff’d over in this mess. What complete crust. Made with love, peace gratitude and namaste my proverbial arse!

Seems like they have gone out of business. I just bought a live box during the «special», in which it seems that the point was to cash out and close up shop. The phone number is disconnected, and no one ever contacted me about the fact that I won’t be able to order boxes. I’m going to have to contact the credit card company to file a claim.
According to Raw B, his restaurant in Turkey has the same program, same looking website too. Here is a link to the only online review place I could find for it.
Mehmet Ak
La Veranda
Sra Kavaklar Sok. 14 zmit
Kocaeli Turkey
0262 – 3 237 755
Hatice Yavuz, co-​owner along with Chef Mehmet Ak of Cousin’s Incredible Vitality. (from
)
Hatice Yavuz — 312−806−1587
PH for Balance
800 S. Wells St. # 542 — Chicago, IL 60 607
T: 312.806.6828

November 1^st is here, yet Cousin’s shows no signs of reopening — now their phone is disconnected! Looks like Mehmet took the money and ran back to Turkey, his last comment here on Unilocal appears to have been posted on October 18 and nothing since. What does that tell you?!
I survived through one year of the Live Box («LB»), by mixing it up at home and adding my hubby’s incredible raw dressings and even cooking some of the dishes to make them palatable. But it made me feel healthy and is was easy to add a lot of raw food to our diet, so we signed up for another year in June. We got three boxes out of 32 that we paid for and now this pathetic excuse for a Raw restaurant is out of business. Great! Thanks a lot, «Chef» Mehmet.
Even if they ever open again (which I doubt) I will not do business with them, as I’m sure is the feeling of the majority of their other LB customers. I always thought that he was a jerk to his employees and customers, so no wonder they’re done. He’s always rude and condescending and I’m glad I will not have to deal with him or his lame restaurant ever again, too bad I had to lose the money on the box, but hopefully the CC company will refund it and go after him.
Or maybe all of the stiffed LB customers need to get together and sue Mehmet. We can pair up so that each claim is under $ 5000 and file a couple hundred cases in Small Claims court. If you’re interested in doing that, let me know and I can help out filling out the forms.

I am writing yet another review! WARNING THEY ARE CLOSED!
I ordered the 2 month live food box and I am owed a month. No food and I can’t get my money back. I was lied to last Monday and told I would receive my order (again). I found out the place had closed down last week — they guy that answered the phone could have at least told me to go grocery shopping! I got a call that they would reopen today… guess what? THEY ARE NOT OPEN! I have been told they are closed for good.
Not only did the owner stiff me, he stiffed his family and employees.
If anyone has information on how I can get my money back — please help.
Mehmet — it must be nice to burn all your bridges and flee to another country. It’s very sad that you have no integrity and talk about wanting to help others. How’s that working for you?

Was so excited to check this place out. First of all this is not a store by any stretch of the imagination. There is one wall with products and not very many products.
When my son and I walked in, the girls behind the counter ignored us. There were only 2 people in the place and they may have been regulars. Only an assumption.
I looked at the buffet items and they did not look appetizing at all. Whole foods has a much better vegan option. Also, my son said he thought it smelled of «wet dog» and once he said that I agreed. Will not go back.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO… DISAPPOINTED. :(I used to come here quite a bit and even was in their «livebox» program for awhile. I went here with a friend tonight, and we were planning on having a group come in for dinner after our scheduled Thursday walk. My friend brought along a Dealfind coupon and when we go to the place we see a sign in the window that says they do not accept Deadlfind or
coupons. We were told my one of the servers that Dealfind had posted these without the owners permission. It will be interesting to hear Dealfind’s side of the story tomorrow considering she paid for two coupons, which cost her $ 40. (I think too many people came in with them, and they decided they were losing too much money.) So anyway, because of that, my friend and I were the only ones who ate here tonight because no one else wanted to pay their outrageous prices.
We ordered the four appetizer platter, which had three appetizers a piece of the four items. Now how much sense does it make to have three of each item for two people? So if I hadn’t ordered a shake and her a dessert, we both would have walked out of there starving.
My poor friend was trying to enjoy her meal, when the server seemed in quite a hurry to move us along, even though they close at 9:00 and it was only 8:30, and we were the only ones in there, except for a few folks picking up their «livebox» and getting a drink at the «bar». We were halfway through dinner when she just interrupts us and asks if she wants anything else or a dessert. And what was up with the dessert selection? Only three choices tonight?
A family came in at about 8:40, and one of the servers gave them the most dirty look and didn’t bother to tell them they were about to close. I bet they are still sitting there… so rude of the server, really. :(
Then we waited for the check… and waited… why try to move us along if you can’t even move to get us our check?
The one plus to this night, the things we ate were very good, which was the cacao pow drink, brownie dessert, and appetizers (pizza, sprout avalanche, tacos, and stuffed mushrooms). However, for just these items, our bill was almost $ 40. And no, the server got a lame tip, mostly for her unfriendly attitude, which is sad because we are usually very generous tippers.
I’m just really disappointed in this place. Chef Mehmet’s sister was one of the most awesome servers I have ever had, and I usually had her as my server, but whoever these folks are… please give them some training. Surely there is a class on basic customer service. Being that I have multiple allergies, this was always a place I could count on, but I think making my things at home will be a better (and more cost-​effective way) of doing things. Too bad. :(

Do you know how Lady Gaga likes her food? Raw raw. raw raw raw…
The service here is consistently terribly slow and the food is very pricey (even with a
coupon, the bill was high.)…but boy, is the food good!
Everything is raw, which is such a strange concept, but I like it. The waitress explained that their philosophy was to not drink anything during the meal, but they do offer a wide selection of beverages if we choose to quench our thirst. I had the most incredible veggie burger here. I don’t even know what’s in it, I just know my taste buds loved it! Instead of buns, they used veggie cracker and it was awesome. It was also small, so you definitely need to come half full or order a few dishes. The waitress got our order mixed up and gave us some «taco» dish which turned out to be very good. I was so excited by the meal that I just want to try every dish.
They also had a buffet (which closely resembles a patch of grass), but I passed on that.

First thing is first: Cousin’s Incredible Vitality serves real food.
How do I define real food, you ask? Well, let me put it this way — is it stuff that existed 200 years ago? Or is it some type of new heebie jeebie food invention, created by trendsetters and crazies and big business? Don’t get me wrong — the recipes can be new, but the components should be old. Fake food includes a wide variety of things, ranging from what’s marketed as healthy and what’s not. Examples: chicken mcnuggets, tofurkey, splenda, all normal foods with factory invented preservatives, pretty much anything in a can, all imitation meats and processed soy, sports supplements, protein shakes, vitamin pills, energy drinks, msg (though to be fair, I like msg in small quantities), some varieties of sausages, etc. You know. Silly stuff.
Cousin’s Incredible Vitality is not silly. Every single thing I’ve eaten here is real food — food that exists in nature and fills your belly. The most important part? — It has fat. It has calories. It has seasoning. It has salt. It has sweetness — the sort that comes from fruit. It’s *moist*. Who’s the idiot that decided that healthy food has to be dry? — water moistens food just as much as oil does.
To be fair, Cousin’s sounded like the sort of place I hate. I hate food trends. I’m not a vegan. Raw food isn’t a philosophy for me as much as what I do in my kitchen when I’m too lazy to cook and just decide to arrange some chopped tomatoes, parsley, and nuts on a plate. I expected imitation food, dry weird stuff, and experimentation.
I was sitting at home one evening with my takeout Thai. I had asked for a steamed veggie dish, and instead the place had given me half rancid overcooked veggies in a bowl of oil. I was so disgusted that that thought of eating dry low calorie fat free food actually sounded good, and so I called Cousins for delivery. And I was pleasantly surprised by how good the food was. The «taco» with sesame paste was awesome, as was the wonderful olive-​pumpkin seed cheese wrapped in «fakin bacon (the name worried me and sounded like a weird soy product, but I was informed that their fakin bacon is just a dried slice of eggplant). The live pizza with cashew cheese and olive tapenade gave me the warm happy glow that only nutritious yummy food can give you. And everything had FIBER. A restaurant that serves fiber. What an idea!
Because of other reviews I also ordered the Healer Concoction, which is the reason Cousin’s loses a star. It tasted like over tart bitter crap. Sorry. I couldn’t choke it down, even though every ingredient is something I like. Unfortunately, I’m still of the philosophy that food should be enjoyed — I don’t force myself to ingest stuff that I don’t like, regardless of how good for you it is.
Anyway, give the place a chance even if you’re not a health nut — not because it’s healthy, but because it’s delicious and satisfying.

Horrible. If I could give it zero stars, I would.
So: I’m gluten intolerant, and since learning that my favorite stuff in the whole wide world (bread, breaded things, fried stuff) can literally kill me/​make me feel like dying/​wish I was dead, I have had to adjust my eating habits. And so I did. And with it, I began to get more aware of what exactly I’m putting into my mouth. A lot of what we eat, as a society, is filled with a bunch of preservatives, fillers, and generally crap that is meant to placate our taste buds and make us crave salt, sugar, and shitty stuff. We can’t always put shitty stuff into our bodies! It hurts them. Bodies like nice things. Healthy things. Things it can get the most nutrients from. Like fresh food. Locally grown food. Fresh, nutrient rich, and locally grown food can be easily prepared and taste way better than what you can get from a drive through.
Unfortunately, this is not the case at Cousin’s.
I went in with an open mind and a Living Social (Dealfind? Whatever, a Groupon knock off). Told the waiter I had the deal, was that cool? Yes, he showed my boyfriend and I to a table and gave us a simple run down of the menu. First we picked out what super awesome looking mixed shake/​elixirs we wanted. I was excited. I waited paitentily, like a little kid waiting for his order at an ice cream store, and when it arrived I nearly jumped outta my skin. I pressed the straw to my lips and took a giant sip and… EW. It was grossly room temperature, and tasted like they scraped something up from the alley and put some cacao powder in it. Now, I wasn’t expecting a shake, but I wasn’t expecting sludge either. We asked for some water, and tried to move on…
I thought, whatevs. Let’s get to the food. Look how good everything sounds! Get this girl a zesty ‘burger’! Some fake bacon! (I know, I know, this should be blashphemy, but if you love bacon as much as I do, and can find something that’s essentially HEALTHY BACON-​gimmie gimmie gimmie, I need some more!) So…
The boy and I ordered a mixed appetizer consisting of some ‘onion rings’, ‘bacon’, some tacos, and some… antipasto? ‘Pizza’? I can’t remember. I just remember how my excitement and gung-​ho-​ness was dwindling. The pizza really wasn’t too bad. I don’t think I would ever eat it again, but, it was tolerable.
We ordered some entrees, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And there was only one other person who had stopped in, to pick up something.
And we waited.
We heard a few dings from the kitchen window.
And we waited.
And waited.
And finally, we got our food. I was still unimpressed. I’ve had a raw burger before, but this was crumbly and just… not good.
We finally got our water. Then tried to shove down our food, because at this point we were starving, and I had to work soon.
We finished.
We waited.
And we waited.
And we waited.
And finally we had to ask for the check, and once it was brought out, (by a different server, apparently ours had vanished), I was told that I could not use the Dealfind deal I had, came in for, and was told I could use at the door. I explained this situation, trying hard not to be a big bitch. Hey guys, I cleaned my plate, didn’t make any faces, and now you’re giving me a hard time?
Well, we waited to speak to a manager.
And waited.
And waited.
And finally was given the deal I had purchased, and had been seated and served on the premise of.
Overall I think this meal had taken about 2 ½ hours more than it should have. Oh well, at least I got to work on time.
Bottom line: Cousin’s, I wanted to like you. Then you gave me gross food. Your servers also need to be trained better. Whether I’m into the whole raw food deal, good service is pretty universal, no matter what the cuisine or specialty. Never coming back.

So I had been wanting to try this place for awhile considering it is only 3 blocks from my apartment. So a girlfriend and I went there Saturday afternoon because we were interested in the all you can eat salad bar. We were expecting like a build your own giant salad, but thats not what it was. It was more like 10 different prepared salads, that didn’t look too exciting. Some were kinda creamy looking, and just not what we wanted.
After we sat down, it probably took a minute or so of the server not coming over until I just got up and got us menus. Then about 5 minutes later the server came over and asked if we want something to drink. No I didn’t want a $ 9 smoothie, so I asked for ice water, but the server said they didn’t have ice there. WTF? So we ordered off the menu…
I ordered the zesty veggie burger which was $ 12. The presentation was beautiful. The burger was small and served on crackers that looked like dried mud off of a tire, and sprouts consumed a majority of the plate. The whole burger was maybe 5 bites and left me still hungry. A mini rice (?) salad came with it, but it was boring and not worth trying to describe. My friend’s portabello melt was good, but again so small, especially for $ 10.
The atmosphere was kind of weird, and left a bad taste for me. Probably won’t return.

Since my initial review in which I stated that my food wasn’t very good and my waitress sneezed into her hands without washing them, the owner has emailed me three times to tell me that I’m a jerk for not liking his food.
When I finished my meal, I wrote on the receipt «Server sneezed into hands and did not wash them. Not ok.». That is all I wrote — he references it below.
Here is his most recent email to me (in response to my review):
_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​_​
«all I can see that you need love beny
i am very happy who i am and my people are great at cousins and they are very \clean and hygienic person that served you that I know because you also write on your credit card receipts how ever she came back and wash her hands but you did not see that or are spaying on people you miserable people!
we have more than 7000 people member in our life box program and our detox program is one of most successful in Chicago area we prepare 1500 raw meals everyday plus we have got 25 people working at cousins more than 5 years now
you got benny you want me to go more I have run 4 restaurant for 10 years and serve punk like you but first learn the be thank full as much is your right i do have and i don’t take crap people like you
cheers
we love you anyway benny!»

Bought a groupon for a raw cooking class, which is what my rating is based on. The class wasn’t a cooking class, it was a cooking demonstration. We sat in wooden chairs and watched someone chopped vegetables.
When we arrived, we sat around the table and took turns reading outloud from something the instructor printed off the internet. Then we moved to the storefront next door and continued her classroom exercise, of reading things she printed off the internet.
The recipes weren’t very complex, and the restaurant didn’t carry at least one ingrediant required in each rececipe.
I have to also mention the hygeine issue. There was no washing of the hands by the instructor… just dipping them into a bowl of water and drying them off, over and over again.
As food was finished, we were each handed a sample of it, sitting in our wooden chairs, to try it. That was it. There was no hands-​on, no sitting at a table to eat the prepared food.
The class would have cost $ 90, but the groupon made it $ 45. I wouldn’t pay $ 20 to sit through that again. Horrible, just horrible.

My husband and I had a Friday night Groupon date at Cousin’s this past weekend. The space was cozier than I thought and we had a nice table in the front window, where we could hear the trickling water fountain.
I was looking forward to the buffet, but it was looking a little weak and understocked, so we decided to go with the menu instead. There were a ton of choices, so I’m glad I’d read a few reviews before I ordered.
We started out with the live pizza, which was surprisingly good. We love thin crispy crust anyway, so the crunch of the dehydrated crust was welcome. The slices came topped with a creamy sauce, some mushroom, avocado and what might have been a kalamata olive purée. Whatever it was, it was really good.
My husband got the falafel wrap for his entrée and enjoyed it in all it’s messy lettuce leaf wrapped glory, but I think he would’ve preferred a bit more in the way of falafel. I got the seafood noodles, which was interesting. I wasn’t getting much of a seafood vibe. It was more like a creamy chopped broccoli salad. As a broccoli lover, I was fine with it.
We split a slice of vanilla cheesecake for dessert and it was truly outstanding! I was so enamored of that cheesecake that I immediately started looking for recipes to make one at home. Seriously, if nothing else, get the damn cheesecake! It’s splendid!
I didn’t have too many problems with the place, our waitress was really friendly, although her attention started faltering toward the end when we really wanted our check.

This health conscious, raw food, staffed by hippies, restaurant is nuts!
I had been desiring Cousin’s Incredible Vitality from a distance for quite some time by the time Veggie Supper Club finally made it to Irving Park for its July «meeting.» Vegetarian and Mediterranean together set my little heart a-​flutter. Little did I know that there was a dirty, dark secret that the restaurant was holding out on me — it’s flat out nuts.
No, the waitstaff isn’t crazy or anything (at least that I know of — unless you count being overly earthy as a hallmark of insanity). The problem is more insidious than that. Most of the menu, in order to be within the boundaries of the raw food movement, is made from nuts.
I’m not allergic to nuts (thankfully, for those who are, the servers warn you in advance — though this does leave few menu choices) but I am also not a fan. And they do sit a bit heavy on the stomach (especially my stomach). So I was completely expecting disaster when I ordered the dolma (which contain pine nuts here, although they do most other places too), the mini flax pizza (with almond cheese), and a chips (made with so many nuts you could see them on it) with dipping sauce. And disaster I got. My stomach has rarely felt as awful after a dinner (that didn’t include some sort of hidden meat in a broth). Thankfully, any three items off the meze menu are only $ 12.
Cousin’s, besides being a restaurant, are also a health food supplier and they offer cleansing. I don’t know if going on the CIV diet is worth the huge price, but they definitely cleaned me out.
Now to be fair, since I figured this was going to happen, I’m rating the restaurant purely on the food. The pizzas were excellent with each bite a unique bit of flavor. The chips, however, were flavorless. But since I love grape leaves, this is what severely disappointed me. There was a bitter, funny (almost waxy) taste to them. A fellow diner got them as well and we both agreed they were the worst grape leaves we ever had.
While a lot of things on the menu are made with love (as it even points out), I just advise that they’re also made from a lot of less savory things as well. It’s just sad that a restaurant devoted to the great concepts of healthiness and happiness made me so miserable.

I love Cousin’s food, I love it enough to go anyway despite their slowwwww service. The zucchini pasta is my favorite and all of their other stuff is also amazing. The taco appetizer is great too!
As mentioned before, the service isn’t too great. The servers are very slow to get you anything and on two separate occasions I asked for water and they never brought it. It’s kind of difficult to eat your food with nothing to wash it down. Given my last experience here I had to take one star off of their rating. Maybe take out would be a better option?

Good food, sloooooooow service.
This month’s installment of Veggie Supper Club brought us to Cousin’s. I was a little apprehensive about a raw vegan restaurant, but gave it a shot anyway.
After scouring the menu I settled on the Ravioli a la Turka. I found it funny that only certain dishes were prepared with love, I’m curious to know what those other dishes were prepared with — ambivalence, anger, annoyance, lust? Cousin’s menu is not only veggie and vegan friendly it’s gluten-​free too per our server. About the only thing it isn’t good for is those with nut allergies, many of the dishes on the menu have nut-​based ingredients.
My food was quite good. The pasta portion of the ravioli was made from turnip, something I didn’t expect to really like. In all I got approximately 8 ravioli and the plate was garnished with 3 very small salads. Everything was very fresh and tasty.
Service was sloooooow, particularly as far as the drinks were concerned. Our waitress was nice, but flaky; she forgot at least one drink and I believe one menu item. If you plan on ordering a drink, order it about 20 minutes before you arrive and it should come out right around the same time your food is done — I’m only half-​joking. One forgotten drink came after leftovers and desert!
Since our table was long I couldn’t hear what everyone thought of their meals, but it seemed like everyone was happy. Overall I’d have to chalk it up to a win as far a VSC dinners go.
As far as prices go it’s hard to say whether or not this place would be considered reasonable since I’ve never been to another raw restaurant. You have to get past the idea that you’re paying for uncooked fruit, veggies, nuts, etc. and think about the level of preparation that goes into each dish. I did feel the quality of my meal and the freshness of the ingredients was very high.
Bottom line: High marks for the food, low marks for service — don’t plan on this as a destination if you’re on a tight schedule.
TIP: Save yourself some bucks and pick up a
certificate before stopping in.

The food here is not the best raw food I’ve ever had, nor were the main courses even edible (in my opinion).
We started off with a «live pizza» ($ 6) which was, in fact, excellent. I’ve never tasted a raw pizza that good before. It was not only delicious and well-​presented, but it actually tasted like real, cooked pizza.
The meal went downhill from there, though. We also had a falafel dish ($ 11) and a burger ($ 11). I hated the burger and couldn’t stand the strong, displeasing taste that it had. The falafel was okay, but the falafel pieces themselves were not prepared properly and the spices were literally raw, which meant they were basically inedible. You can’t put falafel spices in a dish and then not cook them; you’ll end up with something awful. The only thing that made the dish palatable was the lettuce wrap around it and the vegetables inside.
Dessert somewhat made up for the terrible main courses. We had a piece of mango cheesecake ($ 7) which was well-​done, though the fermented citric taste of it was dangerously close to being overpowering.
I’d return to Cousin’s to give them another chance and try something else on the menu. Their live pizza was excellent, so make sure to try it. But I was extremely disappointed with the rest of my meal.
The service was friendly, if a little bit inattentive. Cousin’s location is also a bit out of the way and the nearest CTA stop is about a mile away, which makes this a difficult place to get to.