We were excited for our big Greek feast at Zenon Taverna Zenon Taverna, after hearing about the Mezedes (meals) they offer. The Cyprus (or meat) Meze is $18.95 per person and the Fish Meze is $21.95 per person. We went with Sarah and Tim, so we got both (two of us Cyprus, two of us Fish) in order to try it all.
A ton of cold appetizers flood the table. The Scordalia, Potato Salad, Seafood Salad, Octopus Salad, Beet Salad, Tzaziki, and Melitzanosalada were all overly acidic. The Cyprus salad had these interesting caper leaves in them which I liked until Sarah found thorns on them. The Tahini is standard, the Tarama looked barely touched, but we polished off the whole bread basket.
The big plate of Fried Calamari was hot and crispy, one of the best parts of the meal.
The next plate was rather disappointing, the pork loin was dry, the cyprus sausage uninteresting, the Halloumi dry as well (Lon and Sarah seemed to still like it though. )
The grilled Octopus, grilled Squid, and grilled Shrimp were all similar, just simply grilled. It was good but not special.
The quail was a bit over-cooked, flavored similarly to everything else.
The Fried Cyprus Meatballs (pork) were pretty good, tender and moist, very pork-y flavored.
The grilled pork meatballs tasted very similar. The Souvlaki (pork kebabs) were pretty dry, bordering on the texture of gizzards.
The Salmon was fine but the Tilapia was quite dry. The mushrooms were stuffed with fake crab meat and lots of bread.
The meal was impressive in size, but otherwise pretty boring. The waitress was great, but Lon and I could make anything we had here and better, so it’s a no repeat for us.
posted by jessica at 10:47 PM
Filed under Mediterranean, Restaurants.
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beautiful pictures!
do you think that possibly restaurants KNOW that their food isn’t that great, so they try to make up for it in quantity?
i think pearl’s onto something there. it’s something i’ve noticed about several places with substandard fare.
Pearl and Grace, I really wonder…it’s definitely common, but I’m not sure it’s intentional. Don’t all restaurants think their stuff is the best even though they are wrong?