My husband and I were in town for the Medina Triennial, and decided to take the recommendation of…read moreone of the folks working the Triennial and have dinner at Zambistro before heading home.
It was a Thursday night around 5:30 pm. We did not have a reservation. Restaurant was about half full at that time, with lots of indoor and outdoor options. We chose to sit inside and JoHannah was our server.
First off, service: JoHannah (that's how it sounded, but might not be spelled right) was excellent! She was friendly, super knowledgable about the specials and the menu, very efficient, and attentive. She was there as soon as we needed her before we even called her over. Service out of the kitchen was great too - time from ordering to being served was short and courses came out without too much time in between.
Second, food: everything we ate was delicious. Food seemed high quality with nice presentation. We had a cup of the Italian wedding soup (soup of the day) to start - it was possible to have a cup or a bowl, and it came with a packet of crackers. It was great - broth was flavorful without being too herby, had a good amount of pastina, meatballs and cheese, and the cup was a nice amount before the appetizer.
Next, we shared the special appetizer of burrata with a local peach and jalapeño salsa, over a bed of arugula dressed with a lemony dressing, served with crostini. It was very very good. The salsa was very flavorful and the perfect combo of textures and sweet, spicy, salty.
For our main, we had decided we definitely wanted dessert, so we split a dish - we got a 10-oz steak with asparagus, and what was described as shoe-string fries. A side of béarnaise came with the steak. Steak was seasoned and cooked perfectly, and the béarnaise was a delicious accompaniment. The fries were 'regular fries' in our opinion, not 'shoe-string', which are usually much thinner. But they were fresh and crispy.
For dessert, there were so many options! This was definitely one of the best dessert menus I've seen around - besides gelato, chocolate lava cake and cannoli (which everyone seems to have these days), they offered affogato, several cakes, and the cheesecake, which we got, which had raspberry, blueberries and pistachios. We thought it was delicious - a generous slice and perfect for sharing.
All together with tax, it was the perfect amount of food for us, and the bill (we did not have any drinks) was almost exactly $100. We consider that, for the experience and food quality, to be a great value.
Final notes: They brought out a basket of their homemade rosemary sourdough bread with regular whipped (unsalted) butter and a 'butter of the day' (which on this day was (we think) blueberry) for the table. The bread was so good we ate the entire small loaf - and we probably shouldn't have done that only because we were extremely full by the time we finished dessert!
Also, ambiance inside is nice - feels a little fancy, though diners were all dressed comfortably, many in shorts. I would think this is a great spot for date nights, birthdays or family dinners where you want to feel special.
There is a small parking lot right next to the restaurant and street parking too.
Reservations are recommended for weekends (and by the time we left, around 7:15 pm, the whole restaurant inside and out was packed!)
We'll be back!
