Zebu Grill

[Sneakeater]

I sort of stumbled upon the Zebu Grill -- a Brazilian restaurant on E. 92nd St. between 2nd & 3rd Aves. -- last night. It's never been reviewed here -- although a search disclosed, to my surprise, that it's listed in Michelin.

Zebu Grill is surprisingly good for a neighborhood Brazilian place. As one of my dining companions exclaimed when the first plates of food came out, "This looks like it's very fine!" And that really is what's surprising about Zebu Grill: the food seems "fine", i.e., prepared with above-average ingredients with a lot of apparent attention to detail and to execution. Which is not what you (or at least I) would expect at a place like this (I was expecting the standard glop). Prices are moderate (appetizers going up to, say, $10 but mainly hovering around $7 and $8; entrees going up to $20 or $21 but mainly hovering around $17).

For the rundown, I had the pork ribs with coffee glaze as an appetizer (not really recommended, in retrospect). For my main I had the picadinho -- diced beef in some sort of gravy with a poached egg on top -- and it was good, but frankly everybody's entree looked good. Our table split an order of deep-fried yucca, and to me that's the dish that, in a way, tells the tale here: perfectly, greaselessly fried, much better than you'd have any right to expect.

I find this a hard neighborhood to eat well in, and am happy to know about this place.

Edited February 23, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[liamdc]

Anyone else been here lately? Looking for a not-too-pricey dinner at a family-friendly place (bringing an infant) tomorrow night, somewhere in the 80s or low 90s on UES.