To stand out in the Restaurant/Food/Nightlife scene in New York, it seems you either need to have a flawless product/service or a gimmick, and Zoo Sindang went hard with the gimmicks. They're hidden up a flight of stairs behind a cafe, and they did a great job with decor. Colorful, whimsical flowers and greenery cover the ceiling leading up to the dim lit space, which is sleek and full of east asian iconography, like a buddha statue.
To access the menu, you're provided with a stamp and ink pad that will reveal a QR code to scan. Unfortunately despite several attempts, the stamp did not create the sharpest lines and my phone was unable to detect the QR code. They seemed to anticipate this and eventually gave up on trying to get the QR code stamp to work and just directed us to their website.
Their drink menu follows a zodiac theme, with each drink representing a different animal on the lunar calendar zodiac. The Tiger stood out to me because it featured dried persimmon, which is one of my favorite fruits. The drink was served in a cute blue ceramic mug which our server proceeded to spill about a tenth of while handing it to me, and did not offer to remake it. I didn't end up enjoying this drink at all, as it was too spirit forward and not at all balanced so I suppose a full drink would've been wasted on me. There were a series of comical gaffes like this, including the host not knowing what to do when I walked in at 5pm to an empty restaurant and asked if they'd accommodate walk-ins. The host seemed to only know how to accommodate folks with reservations until a manager swooped in to help and promptly sat us at the bar.
They also served a complimentary appetizer, which was beef wrapped in what I think was a jicama wrapper. I think this would've been nice if I ate red meat, but this was wasted on us and we felt a little bad about it. I was excited for this concept but the drinks didn't pass muster for me. read more