[My apologies, this didn't seem to post yesterday...]
After Chez Panisse, Zuni might be the Bay Area restaurant most frequently accused of being over-rated. People don’t usually complain about the food (although I’ve heard those too), it’s more the service. They find it snotty or snooty or dismissive. I have never had this problem there. Seriously. Even when my mother ordered a cup of coffee at the beginning of dinner on a chilly night, or when I had Ernie in a sling at a friend’s pre-wedding gathering.
And last night, yet once again in 15 years, I had a great meal at Zuni.* The food was great, the service was professional and pleasant and even a bit warm, the atmosphere the lively free-for-all I’ve come to expect. Everyone is there–regulars, tourists, people out for a special night and getting oysters and champagne and every possible course, people just grabbing a bowl of polenta and a glass of wine, couples on romantic dates, people with kids sleeping on the bench next to them–and that is part of the fun. It’s also the draw, for me anyway, and the part I have trouble explaining to people who move to town, go to Zuni, have bad service, and swear off the place (which, truth be told, is fine with me–it’s one less person waiting for a table, after all).
I don’t love Zuni because of any single meal I’ve had there; I love Zuni because of all the meals I’ve had there. Lunches with friends, meetings over coffee, a big dinner with out-of-town guests the week of our wedding, birthday celebrations, and, like last night, countless easy and fun evenings with family or friends.
So my little brother, his gorgeous wife, my dashing husband, and I took our place at the bar after having canceled our reservation that was just a bit too early. We had drinks and waited for a table. When our turn came we got one upstairs that looks right over the kitchen, which I love. We had oysters, we shared heirloom tomatoes and pimientons de padron with a carrot-zucchini salad, we had a shelling bean soup and a clam and chorizo stew, and then we dug into the chicken with bread salad. Then the fig tart with super-flaky crust and perfectly caramelized figs arrived. Is it all stuff I can make at home? Sure. My cooking tends to have that one less ingredient or slightly rougher cut, but the food (as regular readers can tell) is strikingly similar to my own cooking. Perhaps that’s why so many are disappointed. They come expecting the moon or some transcendental fine dining experience. They forget the full name of the place – it’s a café.
* I did have one less-than-pleasant dinner there once. But it wasn’t Zuni’s fault. My dashing husband and I were sitting next to a table of fat out-of-town lawyers dressed in golf shirts and talking about their previous evening at a strip club. It was just all very depressing. But our food was good, even then.
Kahli | 01-Dec-11 at 11:10 pm | Permalink
I just moved away and I miss many, many, many things about the sweet, sweet City. I WILL be back as soon as I finish nursing school! And damn: I miss Zuni so much.
I was a live-in au pair and from 3 months old- in a sling- on through 3 years old, I would take Little Mama to Zuni for polenta and a glass of wine. They were always kind, it was always delicious. They were good to my mom when she came to town. She always orders White Zinfandel on ice– they introduced her to Kir Royales and nary a nostril was flared. They were genuine, kind and real: we are here to eat and pursue our varied aesthetics therein. I love Zuni. I love your writing and cooking. Thank you for sharing. Peace.