I can’t believe I’ve never blogged Zengo! I guess it is because I typically blog new restaurants I’ve not been to yet and Zengo has been one of my favorites since it’s opening.
It’s a great date restaurant. The lounge is a nice meet-up location (I even set up an unsuccessful blind date for my friend @meppers there once). And today… I took my mom for a lunch away from our impending tourist agenda at the Portrait Gallery next door.
We were seated in my favorite seat, a 2-top behind the big pillar next to the window, offering privacy, light and a view of the bustling 7th street below. The one drawback to this table, which I’ve experienced before sitting there, is that the server can sometimes forget you… out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. But that doesn’t matter when lingering over lunch.
Always craving the fish tacos, which come with a nice bit of guacamole, I immediately went to them on the menu, but was distracted by the Peking duck daikon tacos. Adventurous I posed them as an option, knowing full well mom would scoff at the texture of duck. Still, I suggested them to her, luring her with the appeal of the curried apples. I wish I had asked what the “tortilla” was, resembling some sort of very thinly sliced apple. I liked everything about this dish. She thought the “shell” was too drippy. The orange coriander sauce for this was zesty and along with the jalapeno hints, helped oust our other dishes as my favorite of the day.
Mom chose the chicken empanadas we ate as her favorite because of the mango chutney atop. While yes, I liked the chutney; I found the empanadas incomparable to the better empanadas I get in the little Cuban lunch stand I frequent in New York. The poblano and Oaxaca cheese flavors just didn’t come out. Had they, I think I would have still preferred the green olive and shredded chicken variety in NYC.
We picked Zengo over La Tasca today because we both wanted a bit of sushi, but were in the mood for more Spanish flair. Zengo expertly fuses Asian dim sum and sushi with latin small plates in an oft unsuccessful marriage of the divergent foods from these cultures.
Unfortunately Zengo’s sushi today was too advanced for mom’s pallet. While she likes sushi in general, she’s not a fan of large raw fish chunks. So we opted for the vegetarian with roasted red peppers and asparagus in it. I didn’t think I’d be a fan, but I was. I give them credit, though, for not folding with a bland California roll on the menu as the alternative option to the gourmet sushi choices.
Our final tapas today were the Thai lettuce wraps. I voted for them because of the tamarind sauce, missing this too-underutilized spice since I travelled to Mexico last year. They should have stopped with the shrimp because the chorizo in this dish didn’t add anything. Mom thinks they could have served this without the lettuce… once again a drippy dish. This was both of our least favorite of the day, albeit still good.
In the end, we split a Vietnamese coffee, Mexican Chocolate tort. Had its dry crust not been there, this sweet could have toppled our Kakawa chocolate elixir experience in Santa Fe. Sadly, the crust detracted from the otherwise well-executed dish.
On a normal trip to Zengo, I would not have overlooked my aforementioned fish tacos. My other favorites on the menu here are the overpriced, but exceptionally worth-it kobe beef plate and the not-for-tapas-dining choice: beef tenderloin palomilla.
Since this was a lunch date with mom, I also overlooked my standard drink choice at Zengo, the Kimono Kiss: an update to the drink I preferred when I travelled the air show circuit “goose and juice.” The Kimono kiss is made with Grey Goose l’orange, sake, orange and ginger. If I’m not mistaken, I believe it is garnished with a kumquat, but it’s been a while and drinks do tend to become a blurred memory. Hiccup.
The other thing I like about Zengo: it’s design. It’s clean, open, and yet intimate. The décor is simple and color palate of warm oranges and browns, very soothing and reflective of the menu. I also love the attention paid to the design of the bathrooms with the metal curtains serving as doors and Asian minimalist feel of the sinks.
While the service in the lounge downstairs can be difficult due to the sheer volume of people that congregate there during lounging times, I can say nothing bad of the service in general.
If you were going to have an “off day,” though, then a Monday lunch would be a good time to do it. While the food, as always was spot-on today, the computers were down and so the server couldn’t figure out how to deliver a check. After 20 minutes of trying to reboot, he went for the roadside diner’s receipt book and started to hand tally our tapas, comping a few for good measure as an apology for making us wait. Despite being ‘off’ with such an unavoidable glitch, they made up for it. I love a restaurant who does right by the customer… further earning my patronage for years to come.
1 comment:
I was not impressed with Zengo but this post makes me want to try again! Only if it's a date with you, though. :)
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