Zara Forest Grill

Zara Forest Grill Is Worth the Trip to Staten Island | The New Yorker

"Despite a soggy, hour-long, traffic-clogged drive from Brooklyn, I was determined to get to Zara Forest Grill in Graniteville, Staten Island, and the meal was worth the commitment. The new, larger sibling to the owner’s Zara Cafe & Grill (on Hylan Boulevard) opened in March in a former Perkins pancake-house building and, while the dining room has been thoughtfully renovated with wood beams and banquettes upholstered in fabric reminiscent of a Turkish rug, it still retains a diner-like aura and a broad menu that even includes avocado toast and chicken piccata. Breakfast offerings impressed me: gozleme folded around potato, spinach and cheese or ground meat; menemen, a curdy scramble of eggs, tomatoes, and peppers; and a generous breakfast platter with fanned tomato and cucumber, salt-cured olives, assorted cheeses, tiny beef-salami links, honey, cherry jam, clotted cream, warm pita, a small puffy omelette, and strong coffee or black tea. Lunch and dinner begin well with balon bread— a sesame-speckled, airy loaf perfect for swiping meze such as labneh that hides crunchy walnuts and aci ezme, a coarse, spicy mix of bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, walnuts, parsley, and chili flakes. Standout entrées include the Iskender kebab—glistening shavings of perfectly seasoned lamb gyro dressed in tomato sauce over silky-yet-crispy nubs of what the menu calls “butter-roasted bread,” served with tangy yogurt—plus a chicken gyro of thighs spiced with orange peel and oregano that, when ordered to go, arrives piled atop rice pilaf soaking in delicious fat. The ali nazik features smoky eggplant purée whipped with labneh and heavy cream topped with garlicky marinated beef shish and a brown-butter-and-paprika sauce, and the Zara Mix Grill is a mountain of lamb and chicken kebab, beef shish, adana, and kofte accompanied by pilaf, salad, and bread. Finish with the spectacular kunefe—a crisped nest of shredded phyllo layered with cheese, flipped and bathed in honey syrup and pistachio—and the kazandibi, a wobbly cornstarch-thickened milk pudding with a bronzed pan-scorched skin finished with cinnamon. (Dishes $7–$40.)" - Hannah Goldfield