Zea’s Rotisserie Grill – a foodie’s opinion

Here is my first official food-critique-ing entry…I suppose helps if I could spell, but my English has been flitting in and out, and all this French around me isn’t helping at all. Perhaps it’ll work out in the end. If not, feel free to be an American and correct the little Asian girl of her racially-anticipated grammatical mistakes in  speaking Engrish.

The night started with the decision to dress up like a million bucks. Level accomplished. We strutted in with our million-dollar selves and came upon the hostess who promptly took us to our table. Our waiter, a guy by the name of Chris, was nothing less than welcoming. I thought we had the best waiter around, but it seemed that everyone who worked at Zea’s pretty much loved their job. When asked to give us recommendations about what we should order, I almost thought our waiter would cry out for joy. He didn’t waste much breath in telling us exactly what we should get.

At first, my friend and I were thinking of skipping appetizers, but after listening to Chris talk about the Mediterranean humus–how it would change our lives, we couldn’t help but give in.

And he was right.

I don’t think I’ll ever buy humus in Walmart again.

The pita bread was warm when he brought it out. And the humus spread was UhMayZing*.  The humus was creamy, almost as if it had some sort of dairy in it. It’s hard to fathom what all went in there, but there were Roma tomatoes, which gave gave a zesty aftertaste when you are able to load a piece on your bread. The feta cheese was balanced well with the rest of the garnish. I love contrasting flavors, and the cheese helped bring out the flavor of the humus. It would have otherwise totally drowned in the black olives and other herbs, but the cheese tied the flavors of the entire dish. Oh and don’t get me started on the perfectly softened garlic halves. I like to chase things around with my bread, but the garlic halves surprised me at how they mushed against my bread. If I hadn’t spent so much time looking so good before dinner, I totally would have dropped my dignity and asked for a small plate of those garlic halves. Suffice it to say, This Humus Was Perfect. I can’t stop thinking about it.

We also couldn’t finish it. So if you just want a place to hang out. Go to Zea’s. Get a drink at the bar, and order the Mediterranean Humus. I’m sure the bartender would oblige you with a good conversation. The staff was wonderful.

For our entrees, I had the Rotisserie Chicken with Sweet and Sour glazing and my sides were buttered sweet potatoes and roasted corn. My friend had the Thai Style Rotisserie ribs, steamed broccoli, and Zea potatoes.

The chicken was well-marinated, and the skin of the fowl was very tasty. The breast was a little on the dry side but only on that side. The rest of the chicken was well-cooked to taste. The ribs were juicy, not overly succulent, just well put together. They didn’t drip of marinate either, which I think is a sign of well prepared meat: to have the marinate taste through without the excess slopping around it.

Now the sides were also very good. My sweet potatoes were rich and buttery, and almost reminds me of homemade carrot souffle**. My roasted corn was also very good. Quite oily, but the salt and the natural sweetness of corn was a very good compliment to my potatoes. The Zea potatoes my friend had were a little on the salty side, but they were soft and had a good spice. She says that she really loved the brocoli, it was simple, it had no garnishing, and it was perfectly steamed, as in the top green seed-like part didn’t fall off when she ate it, but it was soft and just… “Goood.”

We had our drinks as a dessert. She had the Tiramisu Martini, which we promptly discussed as ” exactly like how we make our Screaming Orgasms…only on the Multiple Level.” I had the Sunset Slowdown. A Midori based cocktail that was amazing and the perfect drink to end an amazing meal. I had never had a Midori based cocktail at a nice restaurant, most restaurants stick with Gin and Vodka and none-international liquor. So in other words, it was kind of awesome.

So that’s my first entry. I think I may have gone on a little too long, but I think when food is that good, it deserves some time, some thesaurus-looked-up-words, some TLC on a blog, a good Urbanspoon rating, and a smiley post-it note on top of the boxed leftovers put aside for tomorrow’s lunch.

*Sometimes, I like to misspell my words. Because correctly spelled English words just don’t cut anymore!

**Carrot Souffle from a Thanksgiving dinner I had at a friend’s place. I still think about it from time to time, whether or not she used cinammon spice or just brown sugar. Sigh.

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