After a long day wine tasting (a classy way of saying unrestrainedly day drinking), a nice, tasty meal helps settle the stomach. Since we were in downtown Napa, we stopped by Zuzu under the recommendation of AW. The six of us cramped into a tiny table in the middle of the dining floor.
Boquerones: anchovies, egg, and remoulade on bread. I didn't feel like the egg added anything as it was literally mounds of egg white on bread.
Their shrimp was delicious, and we got two portions! This is the Gambas al Ajillo and it's huge shrimp in a garlicky, flavorful sauce. Do not let anyone clear your plate before you've sopped up all the sauce in these, or you might end up like me, wanting to order another plate just for the sauce.
I believe this was the braised pork cheeks with watermelon. The pork cheeks were very fatty; I personally didn't see a point to the watermelon as the pork cheeks were so flavorful and soft that the watermelon didn't add much for flavor or texture.
Zuzu offered two types of paella. This is the arros negra: a black paella filled with seafood. I thought it was good, very generous helpings of seafood in this, though I preferred...
...the house paella, which has chorizo in it - because chorizo always wins.
Cheesy, meaty nachos with an egg on top! It's not bad, but eat it quickly because it gets soggy from the runny yolk quickly.
Steak with jalapeno chimichurri. The chimichurri was weakly flavored, but steak was tender and melt in your mouth soft.
The lamb chops were great - cooked just right, tender, with a very flavorful sweet glaze.
I'm a little conflicted on Zuzu - some of the dishes were absolutely fantastic (shrimp, lamb chops), but others were extremely disappointing and weak (the boquerones, nachos). I think they do simple proteins well, but fall a little short on the more adventurous dishes. The portions of this place are probably better suited for a date rather than a large group of 6 as well. We unfortunately were wined-out from a long day of wine tasting, but they did have a large selection of wines and beers.
My personal peeve was that I found the restaurant to be too dark to have any ambiance at all - the pictures I posted were enhanced to the max and you could barely make out what it is. At one point, the staff had to bring out a high powered LED flashlight to help another guest look for something on the floor. AW does say that the upstairs has a good view, so your experience here may vary depending on your seat.
If I'm in downtown Napa again I might stop by for some of the star dishes of the night as a light tapas bite, but would be hesitant to try some of their experimental, fusion-y dishes.
Napa, CA
