Sunday, January 25, 2015

Zinque : Melrose Cafe

This is where the cool kids go to eat. Upon entering the cute courtyard, you'll notice all the hip couples with their equally hip dogs. There's a fireplace to the right where you can lounge with some friends while drinking wine. 

The interior entrance is to your left and there's a counter for you to order food as well as tables, counters and some sofas in the back for lounging with friends. 

The ordering process is quite confusing as no one greets you, no one is at the counter to take your order and busboys pass you by without offering any assistance. 

We stood at the counter for a while before the guy took notice and asked us if we were ordering food to-go or dining in. I said we were dining in and he told us to have a seat anywhere. We went to sit at a table and 5 minutes later, a busboy appeared with a carafe of water and some glasses. It took another 10 minutes for the waitress to acknowledge us and ask us if we were ready to order. I mean, really? The place wasn't that busy and she had walked by our table a few times already!

I asked for the brown rice bowl with rotisserie chicken but she said they were out of brown rice! She offered up quinoa as a replacement and informed me there would be a $2 extra charge for that. I declined the offer since them being out of brown rice does not constitute me having to pay an extra $2 for something that be offered gratis. 

I opted for the rotisserie chicken salad instead. My child got the pork banh mi and my bf got the zucchini quiche with a side of fries. Well, he wanted fries, but she told him that they were out of fries as well!!! So, he reluctantly got the salad. 

At this point, I was thinking WTF, why do people rave about this place? Out of brown rice and fries?! And these are two of your most popular items!

Anyway, 5 minutes later she returns and tells us that the fryer has resumed working so he could indeed get his fries. Well, hallelujah!

The food arrives shortly after and we all dig in. My salad was pretty generous and I liked the arugula and dressing. I wish the chicken was only white meat as I did get some pieces of tendon that I could have done without. 



The pork banh mi was tasty, but tiny for $12. Bread was also a tad bit hard and cut my mouth a bit. 



Quiche and fries were good as well, although kinda small for $12. 



Overall, the experience was nothing special, and the service could use some improvement. I spent $45 for this meal and we were all still hungry.

3/5***
Riesling. This was a separate visit, but really good.


Zinque
8684 Melrose
West Hollywood, CA 90069