Zaytinya

Friday night Drew and I decided to check out the much-hyped Mediterranean tapas restaurant Zaytinya in Gallery Place/Chinatown. I really wanted to give this exotic-sounding place a try, since both my boss and the Washington Post raved about the food. According to Frommer’s:

“Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s May 2003 issue named Zaytinya as one of the top 75 new restaurants in the world…”

So needless to say, Zaytinya comes highly recommended.

I made a reservation ahead of time for 6:30, which turned out to be a good thing. The place filled up quickly, with people waiting for tables. We sat right next to a huge window, where we could see lots of curious people walking around outside looking in at us. Zaytinya is certainly hard to miss, a massive glass structure with a (somewhat gaudy) colorful metal sculpture out front.

We sat down and were promptly handed two very loooooong menus filled with delicious sounding mezzes, mediterranean tapas. Our first reaction was “wow”. How to decide? Luckily, most of the mezzes were $7 or less, so we felt comfortable ordering several dishes.

The waitress recommended 2-3 mezzes per person, so we ordered 5 to share. We decided to be adventurous, choosing scallops in a yogurt sauce, raw beef tenderloin, braised lamb, rabbit with lentils, and an eggplant stuffed with onions and tomatoes.

All of the dishes were unique with powerful flavors and appealing presentation. My favorite was the scallop dish, as the scallops were cooked perfectly and seemed to melt in my mouth. The eggplant was tasty but forgettable. The beef tenderloin was disappointing–both Drew and I expected thinly sliced bites of beef with seasoning, but were served what looked like a lump of raw hamburger meat. I wouldn’t recommend this dish.

The lamb was served in a bold and spicy brown sauce and was cooked to perfection. The rabbit dish was also very good, although the lentils served with the rabbit were far more spectacular than the meat itself.

One of the best parts of the meal was the unlimited servings of pitas, delivered hot and puffy. Not only were the pitas great to eat, but they provided some entertainment for Drew and I, as we challenged each other to ridiculous dares using the pitas as props (pitas potentially make great whoopie cushions). Also interesting was the dish of olive oil (the restaurant’s namesake in Turkish), drizzled with pomegranate juice.

While the food was delicious, my personal favorite about Zaytinya were the cocktails. I enjoyed the Lemonos Maximus, refreshing and well worth the $9.50 price tag (the cocktails were more expensive than any of our mezzes!).

Overall, Zaytinya offers an interesting and exciting atmosphere in a convenient location. The prices are very reasonable, and the mezze focus allows you to try lots of new things. I could see this place being great to go with a large group of people to share various dishes.

On the downside is the wine list, which was expansive, but also expensive. It was a little intimidating reading the list, as most (if not all) of the wines were Greek/Middle Eastern, which I am not familiar with. The waitress, who was a bit brisk, did not offer to explain anything about the wine list.

Also, I would not recommend Zaytinya to people who are not adventurous eaters. If, however, you like to try new things, Zaytinya is a great place.

Overall, I was a bit underwhelmed by my Zaytinya experience. I’m not sure if this was due to all of the hype I heard about the place before I went, or if it was actually due to the less-than-impressive nature of some of our mezzes. I would probably go back, but might consider going to the bar to enjoy the atmosphere for a happy hour or something rather than going to Zaytinya for a special dinner out.

Considering the affordable prices, great cocktails and pitas, and fun atmosphere, balanced out by the odd and somewhat underwhelming food, served by an unfriendly waitress, I would rate the restaurant a B+.

http://www.zaytinya.com/

Check out the restaurant’s review in the Washingtonian.