Zza’s Trattoria
552 Grand Ave., Oakland, CA
zzasonline.com
Photo: yelp.com
So I spent Labor Day weekend in the East Bay… Piedmont, Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, and the like. Forgive me if the next couple of posts bore you city-folk as they will reflect my time out in the sunny land that is the other side of the bay. (Sadly, I didn’t go to Ahn’s Burger during my stay – sorry Matt. But thanks for reading!)
Zza’s is a nice little spot right across the street from Lake Merritt. One of the best things about the place is it’s location. Never mind the recent spike in crime in the area or the never ending parade of cars down Grand Ave., this place has a view! In all seriousness, the location is central and the view is very pretty around dinner time. Thumbs up!
The interior is sort of dirty. Or at least it feels that way. The restaurant consists of one large, long room. The cement floors and barely decorated walls make it feel very empty and basement-like, which makes me think it’s dirty. Then there are the chairs, which are your basic wooden chairs with leather seats. Except the leather on all the chairs I saw was ripped. Bleh. And the tables are covered in white butcher paper, which can be endearing if you have small children and crayons, but, we didn’t so it wasn’t.
As you can see in the photo, there is a big, bright sign at the back of the room that reminds you of where you’re eating. It’s actually pretty neat since it’s made of actual, classic, little yellow light bulbs. Not Christmas lights, not neon, not CFLs, actual light bulbs. Sure there are other lights, but this is obviously the center of attention.
Anyway – the food! I had the insalata special (special salad). It was mixed greens with beets, Feta cheese, almonds, mango, and balsamic vinegar dressing. I got it without beets. The dressing was good, but they put it on a bit heavy. The greens were really nice, very fresh and tasty. The mango was a great sweet compliment to the tangy dressing, and the almonds, who doesn’t like almonds? They made the salad crunchy and were oh so good.
Main course was the capellini con pesto genovese (angel hair pasta with pesto and shrimp). Pretty amazing. Unlike other seafood dishes I’ve had, this one wasn’t overwhelmingly seafood. The rest of the dish didn’t taste like shrimp, and there was a good shrimp to dish ratio (about 6 shrimps overall). The shrimp tasted fresh – firm, not soggy. Sadly, I apparently wasn’t in a shrimp mood and I didn’t eat more than a couple pieces.
The pesto was also done very well. There wasn’t a lot of garlic, which is nice. Usually pesto is like, BAM, IN YOUR FACE GARLIC! This time around it was subtle, thus pleasant. It allowed the basil to come through. Instead of grinding up the pine nuts in the pesto, they were sprinkled in the pasta, which I didn’t like so much. They were here and there and I didn’t enjoy the inconsistency. There was a lot of olive oil at the bottom of the dish, which I also didn’t like. Though I know olive oil is good tasting and good for you, seeing that much oily stuff isn’t appealing.
One of my dinner-mates ordered the crespelle, which is a crepe stuffed with fontina, and roasted portabella and shiitake mushrooms. She said it was delicious, I’ll just have to take her word for that since mushrooms ain’t my thing. I did, however, try her side of tomatoes with basil. They were amazing! The tomatoes were served cold and they were fresh, not over ripe at all. The basil flavored it perfectly. It was very refreshing.
Service was quick and the place wasn’t crowded. We were able to get a table next to the window, which was awesome. It was a great way to end a very, very hot day: cooling off near the window while watching the sun set near the lake.
There’s also a wine bar adjacent to the restaurant. It looks fancier and my guess is that you need to drink wine in order to sit there. It’s a good idea, probably too hip for me. Go online and you can order from their website for delivery – very awesome. Prices are a little on the higher end, but still reasonable. You’ll pay about $5-$8 for appetizers and salads, and anywhere between $12-$22 for main dishes. There’s a nice selection of pizzas for one and calzones, the pasta gets a little frou frou.
Overall: A nice place to eat with decent prices to match their decent menu (in Italian). The food is very fresh and tasty, but ultimately not my style (seafood). What they do, they do very well. I’d recommend it, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to return.
Rating: 7/10
choice chow 
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