Elm City Eats: Slow Food Movement or Just Phenomenally Slow Service?
Zinc
964 Chapel
Street
http://www.zincfood.com/
Location and décor: Across
the street from the New Haven Green and a short three block walk from YLS. Very wanna-be NYC trendy hot spot décor.
Items Sampled:
-Grilled Natural Hanger Steak
-Scallops and Beef Kielbasa
(Market Menu)
-Maine
Crabmeat and Cucumber Salad
-Roasted Organic Yellow Beets
-Peach Crème Caramel
The evening started off oh-so promising. We had a lovely and attentive waiter who
delivered our pear martinis, bread bites with salsa, and other appetizers
without a hitch. The yellow beets were
wonderful, and the dab of cool ricotta cheese on top, a great compliment to the
sweet taste of the beets. The crab salad
with cucumbers was delightful (or so I was told, as seafood makes me tad
squeamish) and I can certainly vouch for the parts of the salad that were sans
seafood (the radishes and cucumbers).
Content with our selections, we waited for the main course …
And waited
And waited
Exactly one hour and twenty minutes from when we were seated
our meals finally arrived.
My hanger steak could have been phenomenal, except that the
meat I was served was definitely not cooked to “medium” as I had ordered. (We suspect that the plates were mixed up,
as someone else in the group had ordered theirs well done, and got something
pink and juicy instead.) On the plus
side, the greens and manchego cheese tamale were yummy. The tamale was a bit spicy, with a taste
reminiscent of the salsa that we were served at the beginning of our meal.
The scoop on the scallops and kielbasa was that although the
two didn’t conflict with each other, they also didn’t complement each other or
blend well. The green lentil ragout and
salsa verde were unfortunately not magical side dishes that turned the seemingly
random hodge-podge into a dazzling culinary treat. And while this is the inherent risk for a
fusion inspired restaurant, it seems to me that trying to fuse scallops and
sausage into a treat for the taste buds is prima facie risky.
So as not to end my restaurant review on a down note, I must
say that the dessert, a mix between crème brulee and flan with little bits of peach
throughout, was absolutely delicious.
Cool, creamy and light, it was the perfect end to a … well, a meal that had the potential to be perfect.