| Address | 800 F St., Washington, DC 20004 |
|---|---|
| Phone | (202) 654-0999 |
| Fax | (202) 654-0998 |
My colleagues/friends and I had the worst experience in Zola one can have in a restaurant in DC. We just went there tonight to celebrate a milestone. We were respectful, professional DC residents just having fun. In return we were served by a rude bartender and a rude 20 year old "manager". I will hopefully never ever have to go there again and endure the sort of bad service one can have in a restaurant. I hope the manager of Zola (or the evening manager on Thursdays, perhaps) can learn customer service is everything, one day.
I had lunch at Zola recently and was fortunate enough to hit the restaurant during DC Restaurant Week. Unlike many of the restaurants that participate in the promotion, Zola offers its full menu for Restaurant Week diners. The three course lunch for $20 was a steal and I left feeling that, despite a few service hiccups, I had certainly gotten my money's worth.
The fried chicken liver slider appetizer was rich and decadent. Foie gras mayo - awesome! A small vegetable salad with some acidity and texture would have made the dish a home run. 4 sporks.
For the main course I had tuna mignon, which looked a lot like a filet mignon when it was set down in front of me. The tuna was perfectly cooked even though I didn't care much for the bland and mushy sunchoke puree that came with it. To quote Wolfgang Puck on a recent episode of Top Chef: "People think you need a steak and then you need the baby food." 4 sporks.
The key lime cheesecake was the perfect blend of sour lime and sweet cream cheese. Rich, sour and sweet - it was the perfect end to a good lunch and I would order it again. 5 sporks.
The only real clunker at the meal was the service. I'm sure the restaurant was busy as a result of restaurant week but our drinks took a long time to make it to the table and the waiter cleared my silverware without replacing it. I spent 10 minutes hacking at a piece of tuna with only a fork before a waiter reappeared so I could ask for a knife. But the wait staff was friendly and courteous even if occasionally missing in action. 2.5 sporks.
When all you can say to criticize a place is that your waiter was maybe a minute too slow here and there—bringing your water after you already started eating the bread, or giving you a black napkin to match your pants after you had already spread the white napkin on your lap—you know that the evening was nearly perfect. And that is how it was with Zola, even during Restaurant Week. Service was timely but not rushed, food was excellent, and even the din, on this crowded evening, was not too loud for a normal conversation. The décor is sleek and spare, and the menu is exciting, though it has a distinct affinity for mushrooms that might be overdone. I started with the truffled sheep-ricotta tortelloni with fresh anise cream, truffles, and shaved manchego, a good-sized portion for an appetizer. The only vegetarian entrée option was the Madeira-glazed tower of mushrooms and peas over a deep-fried potato tart, which sat in a pool of green and yellow puree of some sort. For dessert, I chose the strawberry whipped cream, fresh strawberries, and crisp shortbread cookies, which pleasantly shattered my image of this simple dessert. Though Zola’s located in the Spy Museum, there’s no secret here: assuming they change their menu occasionally, this is a place I’d return to again and again.
I took my aunt here - it was great. The service was impeccable - our waiter was charming and attentive but not hovering. Our meal was wonderful - note...the lobster mac n cheese could be an entree. I defnitely will recommend it to friends and colleagues who visit town...this is a great DC restaurant and a nice change from the over-fused, too trendy places of late.
With all of their classy accoutrements, Zola should be a classy night out. Their decor has that touch of je-ne-sais-quoi that promises a night of sophistication, both on the plate and off. That promise unfortunately goes unfulfilled, on both sides of the plate. My recent trip there, this time for an anniversary dinner, ensured I won’t return. We arrived to an incompletely-set table and were ignored for over ten minutes. Our waitress (the disheveled young lady whose precious nap we’d clearly disturbed) made four huge mistakes before we’d even tasted anything: she left our $11 martinis on the bar to drown, she snapped at me to keep my wine menu until SHE was ready, she tried to ungracefully upsell me out of a wine I’d been eager to try, and finally she didn’t get the requested water to us until we were halfway through our entrees. Despite all this, the food is quite tasty. I found the Lobster Mac and Cheese to be flavorful and innovative; the ribeye was perfectly cooked and wasn’t overly fatty, but the “froth” lacked tang; the wine list is easy to read, and well-balanced. All of these things were very difficult to see in a positive light when shadowed by bush-league service. Furthermore, I’d liked to have tried their desserts, but I wasn’t inclined to sit through anymore uncouth shilling and instead retreated to the homier Chef Geoff’s. From the reviews below and my past visits, its clear the restaurant has only recently taken an ugly turn. What should be a true gem has become a waste of obvious culinary and stylistic talent. They'll have to get their act together before I ever go back.
A bit pricey, but makes a great impression. I suggest the coconut rimmed martini.
I'd heard so much about this place, I just had to try it. Went there on a first date and it was amazing. The Zola Martini was to die for. We started with the cheese fondue. OH MY GOD. How can you go wrong with melted cheese, tomatoes, sausage and bread?? The lamb was great and the chunky mashed potatoes were unreal. The chocolate fondue for dessert was quite the treat. Not that I had room for it, but we had to try it. The service was great, very friendly and knowledgeable. Highly recommend it!!
We went for a restaurant week special but the pricing on the menu seemed good for a nice restaurant anyway. Our waiter was very nice; they have a lovely bar area; the restrooms are clean and ineresting looking.
The desserts are beautiful and fabulous- very visually appealing food! Very interesting selection of food as well.
Cross street is 8th.
Food is not worth the price. Visual appeal of the duck entree was poor. The duck was tasty, but it looked like brown goo. The best part of this meal was the lobster mac and cheese. The lobster was very flavorful and was pretty large. Speciality drinks were also very pleasing to drink.
Zola is buzzed about, but I think it lives up to its reputation. For a Tuesday night, the bar was packed and the service was excellent. I highly recommend the Zola martini, and make sure to save room for dessert!
We had 200 bucks in gift certificate (Thanks to the City Paper), so we got absolutely everything we wanted. For drinks I had the Passion and a friend had the Zola. Both were deliciously fruity without being sweet, and yet my friend who ordered the T&T was disappointed. For appetizers we had the asparagus and crab (pretty good) and the lobster mac and cheese (sounds amazing, but it's quite bland). For dinner we had the scallops (cleaned plate), the tuna (should have gotten it rare, though the chef suggests medium rare, odd mustard sauce), and the veal tenderloin (highlight, amazing sauce and shrooms). For dessert we had the flourless chocolate cake (wanted to finish it, but too rich) and the mango, passionfruit, and blood orange sorbets (outstanding). Service was a bit indifferent. Decor is cool. People are trendy. The cheap pre-theater meal is the real steal here. Try that.
Food was great, but the service was TERRIBLE! Seated immediately and then sat for 15 minutes before anyone asked if we'd been helped. The place was half empty, yet we had to flag down the manager to get a drink and then waited another 15 minutes before our order was taken. We were there to celebrate an anniversary dinner and the service really put a damper on the experience.
We were very impressed with our dining experience at Zola. Though Zola is not an inexpensive restaurant, the attention to detail and quality of service was similar to those we have had in very expensive restaurants. Staff was attentive and informative about the menu and wine list.
I ordered the Lamb 3, which was a combination of a lamb sausage, lamb meatloaf, which were both good, and lamb chops that were absolutely superior. A reduction sauce complemented the lamb perfectly.
My husband took advantage of Zola’s Pre-dinner theatre three-course deal for $28.00 (available 5 to 7 pm). You are given a limited choice of items from the appetizer, entree and dessert menus. The appetizer was a cheese fondue with bread and sausage for dipping. The sausage was slightly sweet and slightly spicy, and complemented nicely with the cheese in the fondue. It was a fun appetizer to share. His entree was a very good grilled chicken, but compared to my lamb seemed plain. Dessert was a flourless chocolate cake with ice cream and a raspberry sauce. For those who really love deep rich dark chocolate, this dessert is an orgasmic experience.
My only criticism is I wish Zola offered more choices for their Pre-dinner theatre meal special, and offered more menu items that are complemented by a good hearty Cabernet. I know it is summer and menus change to include lighter foods, but I really do love Cabernet with a really great meat dish.
Overall, Zola was a great dining experience. Service was great and the food was excellent. Did I also forget to mention the elegant, modern and fun spy atmosphere? Yeah that was great too!
The decor was nice but not particularly striking, though the booth seats are fabulously comfy. Our waitress was friendly and helpful. Food was tasty overall -- in fact, my tuna steak sandwich will probably go down in history as the best sandwich I've ever had! Basically, a good experience all around: The only thing that kept me from giving it five stars is the higher expectations that I have of fancier/pricier places.
Zola has an exhilarative atmosphere and the decor keeps with the Spy Museum theme. It's a great place to dine or just have drinks!
Well-reputed Zola had an off night on our recent visit. The food was mediocre (my prawns were overcooked, for example), and the service was abyssmal (a glass of dessert wine didn't appear until after dessert had been completed.)
This restaurant is in the Spy Museum close to the MCI Center. I love it! One of my new favorite places to go. The bar is awesome! Beatiful people, great drinks, very hip. Everything on this menu is good. My favorite aps are the fondue and the chicken croquettes. For an entree, I suggest the monkfish or the pork chop. Dessert... you can't go wrong, but the cookies and creme or the chocolate fondue are both great.
Beautiful people, chic trendy atmosphere, first thought would be pretentious and snooty. Upon further investigation, nothing short of fabulous! Zola's is certainly a place for the progressive minded, in-the-know crowd of Washington. The atmosphere is very easy on the eyes as the design, decor, and color scheme shouts inviting and excellence. The age range varies. My friends and I however seemed to be on the younger end of the scale (early 20's). So, to the good part. It was Saturday night so naturally we started off with a drink. In the restaurant business, presentation is everything, the long artsy glasses not only looked cute, but its tasty contents of champaign and mango juice was delicious. Each night the chef has a taster sample, tonight's was a unique Thai fusion bread and salsa treat. My entree, Pan Seared Salmon, not over seasoned, not under seasoned, but just right. The meat tender with a unique vegitable mix on the side. Afterwards, being a chocoholic, I certainly could not pass up the Chocolate Balm! A mousse like creation served with a dainty scoop of vanilla ice cream. Our service? Surpisingly we had a fun waitress who was not pushy at all. There's nothing worse than getting a sales pitch at the dinner table. She simply presented, knowing that the menu would speak for itself. What I really like about Zola's is that it is one of VERY FEW places in DC where you can pull out that little black dress and some heels and not be overdoing it. It's definatly a dress to impress locale. Overall, two thumbs up! Whether it's girls night out or a hot date with someone special, this is an IT place so check it out.
Waiters hand white napkins to some diners, but black napkins to those wearing black pants so as not to get napkin fibers on their clothing. The Zola cocktail, a Cosmo with white cranberry, is different enough to be excellent without being weird. "American" is the best way to describe the food; the carpaccio of beets salad is pretty on the plate and dressed, not doused, with vinaigrette, the lobster roll is not stingy with the meat, and the french fries are as excellent as those served at Firefly and Poste, though here they don't come in the cool holder thing. The plates and glassware are stunning, as is the space, although the booths lining the walls are not quite big enough to seat five comfortably. The bar gets crowded and loud, but the rest of the restaurant is suprisingly quiet, given the number of lobbyists lobbying each other over dinner.
While the ambiance was inventive and exciting, the cuisine did not match. Although our dishes were good, they lacked a creativity that would have made it an excellent dining experience. The wine list however, was superb and we particularly enjoyed the way in which the wine was displayed on the center islands. Overall, a trendy and visually exciting restaurant that does basic dishes very well.
Zola surprised me because after mixed reviews my expectations weren't sky high -- but I thought the food was. Probably the best new restaurant I've been to in a year. They seem to have a knack for really doing American cuisine -- that is, cooking sophisticated dishes of American ingredients, and elevating down and dirty American food of the kind normally brought to your house by delivery boys to a quality that deserves fine china -- an example being the buffalo chicken croquette, a twist on buffalo chicken wings, which are a little spicy and a little creamy inside, a little crunchy outside, with sauce and carrot and celery to dip, outstanding in taste, texture and fun value. Salmon with chard and butternut squash was the first time in recent memory I really felt ordering salmon in a fine restaurant was not a grevious error; but the outstanding dish was boyfriend's veal hanger steak, whose taste was unlike any other meat dish I've had and which I would make a return trip to order. On top of the savory successes, desserts were the best in variety of selection and individual quality of any restaurant in recent memory -- where else can you get a cookie selection to be dipped in cream, or chocolate fondue with cookie dough and rice krispie treats, or stick with the elegant individual desserts like the chocolate bombe? Zola is unique in being the height of elegance and "in"-ness without removing the fun factor, down to the portholes that let you spy on the kitchen.
Zola is a restaurant worth going to just to say that you have been or at least to see the bathroom (the entrance is a moving wall right out of a Bond movie). The bar was pretty packed and the wait staff very friendly. Unfortunately, this restaurant missed the key ingredient - it's food. Dinner was mediocre and certainly not worth its price.
Not the place for a romantic date, but a good place to take out-of-towners who want to see some DC hustle/bustle. The service is good, but the food is ho-hum boring if you're a foodie. The layout/ambiance is crowded and noisy - and the bar is sporty.
