Zac Yeow (Zac Zakku)
Google
First impression wasn't great. Entered alone, immediately asked still or sparkling water. Knew this meant paying (but I didn't know it was $3 per person + tax/service - seemed expensive for filtered water). Said I'd wait for friends and see the menu. Waiter poured still water anyway 2 minutes later without me saying okay. Did the same quickly and smoothly when friends arrived. Felt too insistent about selling water. Anyways small stuff with the water lets flow to the food.
Best Dish: 5/5 Beef short ribs. Literal melt-in-your-mouth good. Very rich though, gets 'jelat' fast. Would order it again.
Excellent Veggies: 5/5 Roasted eggplant and cauliflower were perfectly cooked. Amazing flavors.
Lamb: 4/5 Decent and worth the price. Had a slight gamey taste but was well done.
Staples: 4/5 Haloumi, done well, delicious but very small amount. 2/5 Hummus, pita, and Yemeni bread were just... normal. Didn't feel they were worth the price charged. They didnt make me crave for more at all, it was just, meh, next.
Missed Item: Ordered saffron rice but it wasn't served. We forgot about it too, and there was enough food anyway.
For dessert:
Good Dessert: 4/5 Rice pudding was delicious. Great balance of sweet, sour(cherry), chewy(glutinous rice), and creamy textures(coconut sorbet), the cinnamon was good to bring everything together. A great dessert.
Bad Dessert: 2/5 Knafeh was a miss for me. It was a weird twist on the original, looked like a Chinese dragon whisker dessert. Taste-wise, it was just a creamy center inside crispy vermicelli with some pistachio and rose petals, as literal as the description. My main issue was it wasn't sweet at all. Not worth getting.
Overall, a mixed experience. Some really good dishes (short ribs, veggies, rice pudding), but let down by water and the basic items (hummus, bread), and a poor dessert attempt (knafeh).
I give the food 4 stars but it is bordering to 3. is around 3.5 for me. Maybe management/concept/chef has changed since the name change, i am not sure, because my foodie bestie gave it a 5 stars a year ago. But overall 2 stars because of the insistent selling of water even after rejecting.