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  • Reviews

  • Zagat Survey 2012 – NJ Restaurants

    Food 23 out of 30

    ‘This “creative” New American BYO in a Pennington strip mall delights fans with its “imaginative” menu served by a team that “makes you feel like part of the family”; although “small” inside, it also features “romantic” outdoor seats that are “magical” when the wisteria garden is in bloom; P.S. a renovation and expansion are in the works.’

    (Za: renovation completed, new dining room, the Gallery & remodeled Jewel Room)

  • A lively seasonal menu offers cross cultural comfort cuisine with flair

  • Friday, August 6, 2010 By Faith Bahadurian

    ZA Restaurant promises “cross cultural comfort cuisine,” and it really delivers. A wide-ranging menu tours Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the U.S. of A., and does it all with flair.

    Enter through the restaurant’s wisteria-bedecked water garden, latticed and shady. It would have been so enticing, were it not for the searing heat outside on the day we arrived.

    On Sundays, Za serves its dinner menu from 2 to 7 p.m., and we were in search of a Sunday dinner experience, a leisurely way to wile away an afternoon too hot to do much else. Later in the afternoon, the place would be quite busy, we were told, but for the time being we had it to ourselves, which did not feel at all awkward thanks to the relaxing ambience and nice staff.

    Inside, buttery yellow walls are a highlight of the jewel box room, with white tablecloths, garnet red and golden yellow napkins, and mellow music. Gauzy blinds and beaded white curtains close out the heat and parking lot outside, and there are little table lamps with gilt-embroidered red shades. An artistic menu sports a red cover and binding.

    Our meal started with a serving of warm naan, Za’s signature Indian flatbread, cut into pieces and drizzled with just a touch of butter and sprinkled with parsley. That same naan is used in lunchtime “naanwiches,” and is a welcome change from the usual breads. (The lunch menu also offers several egg dishes, made with eggs from nearby Kerr’s Farm.)

    There were a couple of specials, but for appetizers we stuck with the regular menu.Any one of these would have sufficed for two servings, but both were so good that we threw caution to the winds and finished them, figuring to take leftover entrées home instead.

    Sautéed chicken livers ($9) were, as promised, sautéed to just pink and served with caramelized onions and grilled slices of bread. I love chicken livers, but like so many people almost never cook them myself anymore.

    Thank heavens chef/co-owner Mark Valenza knows this about us.

    And the Arabian lentil and spinach salad ($12)… At home, this much work would likely be saved for an entrée, and this warm salad could indeed double as one. Green lentils were combined with sizzled cumin and coriander and served with sautéed spinach and cherry tomatoes. Twin accents of curried pistachio nuts and golden raisins elevated the dish to perfection.

    For her entrée, my friend snapped up the one remaining serving of Saturday night’s sea bass special ($24), and was rewarded with a piccata preparation, tart with lemony caper sauce, the flaky fish arrayed on a bed of spinach. Saffron-tinged rice accompanied the dish, but my friend was more interested in the crispy roasted red potatoes on my plate.

    The potatoes were part of my Sunday special of Chateaubriand, in a single portion at $19. Normally it is $33 for two, so I wasn’t about to pass this up. (Check their well-maintained website; as of this writing the special was still on offer Sundays.) The prime beef, from the central portion of the tenderloin, was char-grilled to perfect rareness, sliced, and served up with a winey caramelized onion sauce, slender haricots, and the potatoes.

    Save room for desserts here. I’ve written about Za’s toasted almond crème brulée ($9) previously in my “In The Kitchen” recipe column, but only now was able to try it for myself. Just as promised, it takes me back to my favorite childhood Good Humor treat. They turn out a mean key lime pie ($7), too, the best I’ve had. No limp graham cracker crust here, this one has crunch. The key lime filling is studded with lime zest and more is sprinkled on top of the whipped cream and strawberry sauce garnishes.

    We didn’t bring wine, but I couldn’t resist trying one of their non-alcoholic blender drinks, the Southern Belle ($6), since house mixologist/co-owner Chaz Valenza (Mark’s brother, who also designed the garden) had sent that recipe to me for a recent recipe column. The tangy mixture of ginger, lemon, and mint was perfect on this sweltering afternoon. After dinner, my friend ordered iced decaf hazelnut coffee ($3) that was brought to her on a retro cocktail tray with a glass full of ice, a stainless cocktail shaker full of coffee, and a colorful ceramic pitcher of cream. Milk was pleasantly substituted at her request.

    Za’s owners and staff work hard to create a pleasant experience. I’ve long been a fan of Mark Valenza’s cooking, from early days at Nodo on Witherspoon Street to his pre-Za years at Triumph Brewing Company. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute, he wasn’t in sight during my visit (and of course our reservation was under my friend’s name), but the execution under Chef de Cuisine Jean Giunta was commendable. The creative yet simple décor, the non-intrusive music, the coddling touches such as with the iced coffee — all are mindful, deliberate choices meant to create and sustain an enjoyable experience but with an artful lack of pretension.

    There is not an item on this lively seasonal menu (in effect until Sept. 21) I would not eat with relish. It’s as if they climbed inside my gustatory brain. From vegetarian risotto (add chicken or shrimp for additional charge), to sole with sweet corn and avocado sauce, to the Berkshire pork chop, to the extravaganza “Sol Splash 2010” signature dish of poached lobster and shrimp Española, I want it all.

    Food Very good to excellent

    Service Very good

    Ambiance Fresh and appealing jewel box room

    Read Faith Bahadurian’s Blog

  • ‘Cross-cultural comfort cuisine’ is menu theme at Za in Pennington

  • Friday, March 5, 2010 – THE TRENTON TIMES By Susan Sprague Yeske

    When chef Mark Valenza launched Za Restaurant four years ago, it was his dream come true. After years of working for and with restaurants owned by other people, he was able to create a menu that reflected his personal vision of what food should be.

    Fast-forward to today, when much of the restaurant industry is struggling to get ahead and consumers are reluctant to spend a lot of money when they go out to dinner.

    “We’re doing very well,” says Valenza, adding, “there’s a lot of people who really like and support us.”

    In addition to loyal customers, some of whom come in once or twice each week, “we get new customers each week, including more young people, Valenza says”

    Customers have responded well to Za’s expansive lunch/brunch menu, which ranges from eggs Benedict to pasta to his trademarked “Zaanwiches” made of naan bread. Some are regular customers at dinner because he always has a 2-pound lobster on the menu, he says, which serves a specific niche of customers. To satisfy those looking for a value-priced meal at an upscale restaurant, he serves a $19 chateaubriand for one on Sunday nights.

    A firm believer in the value of serving local products, Valenza continues his practice of using as much local food as possible. But over four years, much has changed at Za, including his movement away from New American cuisine.

    “I have refined our cuisine to the level where it’s distinguished from New American,” he says. He calls his dishes “cross-cultural comfort cuisine,” and says, “the comfort food level of the food has more to do with identifiability. It is a well-defined plate; foods are rarely stacked.”

    An example of his cross-cultural approach is his coconut snow scallops, $25, which are plump day-boat scallops, perfectly seared and warmed all the way through. They become a cross-cultural dish with the combination of his spicy-sweet coconut sauce — made with coconut cream and shaved coconut — and his mildly spicy and Mexican pico de gallo. Paired with lightly dressed mezza greens from Blue Moon Acres in nearby Hopewell Township, the well-defined plate reaches new heights of satisfaction.

    From the appetizer menu, an order of Roman semolina gnocchi, $11, is just about perfect. The light semolina rounds are topped with broiled Montrachet goat cheese and finished with a Parmesan walnut sauce.

    A risotto entrée, $18, (add $4 for chicken and $8 for shrimp) is creamy and hearty, served with sautéed cremini mushrooms, diced tomato and spinach, then topped with shavings of Grana Padano cheese and finished with a drizzle of arugula oil.

    Honey and rosemary add flavor to Valenza’s rack of lamb, $27 for four New Zealand chops cooked to a perfect medium rare and finished with a Dijon honey sauce. Sharing the plate were lightly crunchy and flavorful haricots verts and smashed potatoes flavored with goat cheese.

    When the server takes the dinner order he asks if the diners want to try the chocolate soufflé, $12, for dessert, which takes 20 minutes to bake. That way it will be ready when the main course is finished.

    Light but rich and piping hot from the oven, this dessert is big enough to share, except perhaps for the chocolate devotee who will want to devour every morsel of moist confection.

    Key lime pie, $7 a slice, is among a select number of dishes made by the newest member of the Za chef staff. Fans of the former Andiamo in Lambertville will remember the pie as a creation of chef Jean Giunta. Bright and tangy, it is served with freshly whipped cream and a drizzle of strawberry sauce.

    Za has an extensive non-alcoholic beverage menu including many fresh-brewed coffees and teas. A cup of tangerine-flavored white tea, $3, was soothing and satisfying.

    Za remains a dream come true for Valenza, who is happy that he can “go to work every morning and do my food my way.”

    “Opening my own restaurant was absolutely the right place for me,” he says, and, having tasted what Za has evolved into, we have to agree.

  • An Exuberant Menu, Globally Inspired

  • New York Times, December 3, 2006 by Karla Cook

    IN this holiday season, some contemplate peppermint, cookies or hot chocolate. I am thinking about chicken liver pâté, and have been since my visits to Za.

    Served as an appetizer and enough for at least six people, the restaurant’s rendition is a smooth, enveloping, earthy spread lightened with port and enough cream to turn it into mousse. It is a fine introduction to this effervescent new spot.

    Mark Valenza, the chef and co-owner of the restaurant, graduated from the French Culinary Institute in 1999, and after cooking at the Frenchtown Inn in Hunterdon County and at Nodo and the Triumph Brewing Company, both in Princeton, opened his own place in July. Za, with 32 seats, occupies a long, skinny room reminiscent of an upscale railroad car. The walls are light, the ceiling is low and the floor is carpeted. The kitchen is behind the headwaiter’s station, which is on the way to a pleasant patio for dining in nice weather.

    The menu is modest, with seven appetizers, four salads, seven main dishes, four desserts and a few nonalcoholic beverages. Mr. Valenza found inspiration worldwide — grilled Korean beef is listed immediately below smoked salmon and endive, for example — but what could seem disjointed is intriguing, mostly because of the enthusiasm of Mr. Valenza’s brother and business partner, Chaz, who runs the front of the house.

    The restaurant’s menu starts off with flair. The pumpkin soup maintains the squash’s flavor and is enhanced by cinnamon, white pepper, ginger and chives. Indeed, each appetizer stands out: the semolina gnocchi with Parma prosciutto in spicy marinara sauce; the tender Korean skirt steak with sweet and sour bok choy; the scallops with deep green arugula oil and apple-cranberry chutney.

    Salads, too, are satisfying, especially the harvest salad, abundant with diced apple, pear, red grapes and walnuts with blue cheese, endive and mixed greens, tumbled together with an apple cider vinaigrette that flirted with being too tangy but, in the end, wasn’t. A retro-style iceberg, cucumber and tomato salad was redeemed by its rémoulade vinaigrette. The baked goat cheese atop mixed greens was also saved from banality by its panko crust, baked to a deep golden crunch.

    Main dishes, all in alarmingly large portions, are less consistent, but there are standouts. The melting fillet of sole with imperial lump crabmeat poached in a shallot-mushroom-wine broth over saffron rice was worth the trip — and rich enough, with its broiled double-cream sauce, to be split for two (though the menu warns of a $10 charge for sharing). The schnitzel was its peer: smoking hot, pounded center-cut pork sautéed to perfection — tender on the inside, radically crunchy outside — alongside a peak of mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, all touched by a Granny Smith apple cream sauce. There was, however, a paucity of vegetables; the pattypan squash and peas seemed present more for color than for a balanced plate.

    Fricassee lamb shank was a close runner-up, with a dramatic, bony presentation that turned heads throughout the restaurant. The meat was tender and luscious; again, I wished for fewer mashed potatoes and more squash and peas. Apricot chicken had its fans, the tender chicken braised with apricots, orange, leeks, cardamom and cinnamon; the mixing of lentils into the rice accompaniment was a welcome touch.

    Though the sweet red pepper stuffed with sausage and herbed rice was a hit, the accompanying garlic prawns were less successful; their Parma prosciutto wrapping lost delicacy and tenderness when subjected to the stove’s heat.

    The remaining two dishes, three-cheese cannelloni with bay scallops and peas, and chewy grilled braciole with mushroom risotto, were less clear in concept and, consequently, in execution. Flavors competed for attention and eventually lost.

    Desserts are similarly showy. Best bet? Order the rolled sugar cookies with berries — and the whipped cream on the side. Za’s exuberance is terrific, but with whipped cream, as with portions in general, less is plenty.

  • Man of many interests offers meals for many tastes

  • The Star-Ledger, Friday March 13, 2009 by Cody Kendall

    The food is as unusual as the chef at Za, where the meals are billed as “cross-cultural comfort cuisine.” That definition neatly covers everything from the Arabian Lentil and Spinach Salad ($11), highlighted by a sweet and savory blend of raisins with curried pistachios, to Saltimbocca Chicken Schnitzel ($26), which mingles panko-breaded chicken breast and shaved maple ham in an assertive caper, lemon and sage butter sauce. Then there’s the restaurant’s piece de resistance, the Porducken ($33), a take on the more usual Cajun Turducken. This one involves an enormous amount of sturdy food; sauteed duck and chicken breast with brandy cherry stuffing, enveloped in roasted center-cut pork (in lieu of turkey) and completed with a sherry pomegranate sauce. Mashed potatoes and green beans complete the dish, which would be tough to demolish in one sitting for all but those with the most hearty of appetites. But many items, while they may indeed provide comfort, tend more toward high style than down-home, such as the Three-Sauce Tempura Shrimp ($13). The four jumbo shrimp are only lightly fried, so you don’t have to cope with a covering that needs to be hacked through, which is the unfortunate character of some tempura dishes we’ve encountered elsewhere. The sauces are all distinctive and different. That makes a dip into each a revelation, whether it’s the eye-opening cayenne pepper or the sweet and sour apricot that contrasts with the old world style of the balsamic reduction. Sole Bonne Femme ($33) is a combo of sole filet and imperial lump crab meat. It’s poached in a shallot, mushroom and white wine fumet. A broiled cream sauce is the finishing touch for this rich dish, served with saffron rice.

    Chef/owner Mark Valenza christened the restaurant after the last syllable of his name (calling it Valenza would have led people to mistakenly believe it was an Italian place, he decided). A graduate of the French Culinary Institute, he previously worked as a drummer for a band that opened for The Police, among others. He wrote a book “Baseball and Benevolence” and was employed by Muppets’ creator Jim Henson’s organization. Valenza worked in the mail-room and as a manager while on a first-name basis with Miss Piggy and Kermit. He even played poker games where the puppets would sit in; the velvet Elvis painting that has a place of honor among the eclectic decorative items at the restaurant was among the fruits of his victory at cards. The chef, whose brother, Chaz, runs the business side of Za, comes from a restaurant family. Valenza previously cooked at Nodo and the Triumph Brewing Company, both in Princeton, but Za gives him a place where he really can cater to his whims.

    The chef likes the “intellectual side” of cooking as he experiments, using tortilla chips to line a bowl filled with traditional jambalaya ($26), another Louisiana favorite, or adding a Parmesan walnut sauce to semolina gnocchi topped with broiled goat cheese ($9). He is assisted by chef de cuisine Jean Giunta, formerly of Andiamo in Lambertville. She’s the namesake of Chef Jean’s Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Strudel ($12), a phyllo dough extravaganza featuring an abundance of cremini and portobello mushrooms. This dish is an appetizer, but so filling it could double as an entree. Although it’s not likely you’ll have room for dessert, try to make the effort. Don’t miss the large, puffy chocolate souffle ($12), a standout of its genre, with a generous side of fresh whipped cream. Strawberry shortcake ($9), layered with puff pastry, had the best attributes of this genre. If you’re looking for something you don’t find very often, try the robust walnut cake ($10). Those who would rather indulge in the familiar won’t go wrong with toasted almond creme brulee ($9) or the mini cannoli ($5) with a Grand Marnier mascarpone cream. And while winter is still with us, give the fresh hot cocoa with whipped cream ($4) a try. The restaurant seats 40 indoors in a nicely appointed dining area with butter-colored walls, and 48 outside in a wisteria-draped area with a water garden, which will be opening soon with warmer weather.

    There are a few other things to know about ZA: You can get a 5 percent discount if you pay cash, and a $50 deposit is required for groups of five or more for Friday or Saturday night dinners. Management reserves the right to attach a 15 percent gratuity to any check. Oh, and everything served is free of transfats.

    Za is a bit off the beaten track with its choice of dishes. It’s fun for those who want to try something that’s different, but not outrageous.

    Cody Kendall may be reached at CodyDine@aim.com

  • Za – Three Stars

  • New Jersey Life Magazine, April 25, 2006 by Pat Tanner

    Za wins my “sow’s ear into silk purse” award. Brothers Mark and Chazz Valenza took over a space in an aging strip mall at the busy intersection of Route 31 and Delaware Avenue that had a narrow,
    unlovable dining room and a patio mere feet from noisy traffic.

    Mark’s talented wife, Barbara, transformed the dining room into a warm, chic space by employing inexpensive yet stylish touches that, in a way, mirror her husband’s artfully crafted yet unpretentious
    food.

    Transforming the patio — the only edeemable asset of which was a wisteria-covered pergola — fell to Chaz, whose other business is designing water gardens. He kept the pergola and added a dramatic
    sight-and-sound-muffling collection of boulders, plants, and cascading water at one end.

    One long side is lined with stone planters packed with fresh herbs that often find their way into the kitchen. Chaz
    also serves as host and sometime server at this family endeavor.

    Chef Mark, who was last at Triumph Brewing Company in Princeton, calls his oeuvre “cross-cultural comfort cuisine.” I would call it simply the most likable food I’ve encountered. At a time when many
    restaurant menus look alarmingly alike, this one stands out.

    Take for example the Roman-style semolina gnocchi. Unlike the more common potato variety that can
    be heavy or gummy, Valenza’s are light and soft. They are topped with a dab of goat cheese and rest on just the right amount of creamy parmesan walnut sauce. Every component is in balance.

    Ditto for a green salad tossed with honey balsamic vinaigrette and topped with a disk of warm Montrachet cheese. Restaurant menus abound with similar versions, but here the cheese is dredged in finely ground Japanese breadcrumbs, baked to a crisp, greaseless brown, then topped with a housemade chutney featuring port wine and cranberries.

    That each of us at my table thought his or her entree was best is a testament to the chef. Schnitzel made with pork rather than veal could easily be a dry, tasteless disaster. Instead, more of those
    Japanese breadcrumbs afford a supremely crunchy exterior and a juicy, flavorful interior. An inspired apple cream sauce made with Granny Smiths amps up the enjoyment.

    Short ribs get an Italian treatment with tomato, basil, and garlic, served over penne with parmesan and nubbins of melted mozzarella. Somehow, the result is not a typical red-sauce dish but something
    altogether new.

    Sole Bonne Femme, true to its roots by being poached in white wine fumet, is otherwise transformed into a multidimensional risotto-like dish by the addition of imperial lump crabmeat and powerfully foresty mushrooms, the whole set over saffron rice and finished in a broiled cream sauce.

    Three winning desserts were available the night of our visit. Be sure to put in for the chocolate soufflé when ordering entrees. It is simply as good as any anywhere. Then again, the peach sabayon with fresh berries is perfection, and a deconstructed cannoli is fun.

    Za is a BYO. My only quibble is a wish for bigger, better wine glasses for quaffing — both inside and out on that improbably delightful patio.