David S.
Yelp
First of all, this is a GORGEOUS new addition to the Bham dining scene. The buildout is sleek, sophisticated, open, and airy. And it's clientele are stylish, well-heeled suburbanites. From the looks alone, I was anticipating a meal to match. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed.
My Sapphire martini up with 3 olives, and my wife's pomegranate martini were both excellent. A good start! Then the chopped wedge we shared to start had a lovely, slightly sweet cream dressing tossed with fresh greens. But it also included big cubes of bacon. Their purpose was to pair with perfectly portioned chunks of blue cheese to balance the sweetness of the dressing. But the 1/2" cubes couldn't be included in a bite with with the other components. They were so big and chewy, that you could only eat them by themselves - like a separate starter on their own. For those to work in this salad, they needed to be about 1/4 the size.
My salmon entree was beautifully plated, visually lovely. Alas, the fish under its nicely crisped crust was dried out and tasteless. Fish always requires a light hand. Overcook it, and it's dead. But salmon with its higher fat content is one of the more forgiving of fishes. For this piece to be as dry as it was meant that it was either on the fire way too long. Or it sat under the lights in the pass long enough to bleed every bit of moisture out of it.
My wife chose the meatball appetizer and fries for her main. Meatballs need the meat part to be super rich (fatty) to begin with, or combined with breadcrumbs to insure they're light and juicy. These were like eating golfballs in tomato sauce - hard, dense, flavorless. But the one thing you can almost always count on at a high end restaurant are great fries. Done properly, they can redeem almost any lackluster meal. Sadly, not at Zana. They had nice color but were lacking in flavor. And worst of all - NO CRUNCH. These were limp and greasy. Great fries are crispy outside, soft and fluffy inside. Not always easy to accomplish. But if you're in Birmingham, and that's what you're craving, head past Zana and go straight to Townhouse, 220 or The Hunter House.
The manager did stop by to apologize for the fish. And our lovely and attentive server did take it off the bill. But we were done with this disappointing experience, so we skipped dessert and coffee. (But if this were my floor to run, I would have come by with a couple of desserts gratis and maybe an after dinner drink to try to win back some goodwill. Just sayin...)
I typically don't review the restaurants we visit. But if I do, never would I spend this amount of time on one. So why this time? Because one night a week my wife and I like to walk up town, have an admittedly pricey, albeit yummy dinner and a cocktail. Walking into Zana we were so excited to have another go-to spot. Not to be. And given the number of open tables at 8:30 on a Saturday night, I suspect that others have suffered the same disappointment that we did.
So, to the owners of Zana... I know this ain't NYC, and I'm not expecting Per Se or Le Bernardin. But here's my advice. Find yourself a top level chef to fix the menu and the prep. Then get yourself a storm trooper of a GM, and an Expediter to partner with him/her to oversee the kitchen staff and make sure every plate that leaves the pass is up to snuff. Otherwise, I fear you'll be another one of the cool, pricey restaurants that have previously occupied this spot that now have "Permanently Closed" stamped at the top of their Yelp! listing.
