Richmond Virginia

[Julia'sChild]

Visiting Richmond Virginia

What are the don't miss food spots?

Thanks

[maggie]

Don't miss Mama Zu's, downtown by VCU. I haven't found anything else there worthwhile--I have family there and visit often--but Mama Zu's is fantastic! It's Italian, the menu is written on a chalkboard nightly and it's delicious. The decor is horrible, the plates are all cracked and chipped, the waiters have attitude, but the food is very, very good. And they don't take credit cards, so bring cash!

[kendrabail]

Visiting Richmond Virginia

What are the don't miss food spots?

Thanks

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Yes, Mama Zu's is an excellent choice. Don't snack before you go. Portions are huge! Wine list is dirt cheap. Service can be less than friendly or so some say. I have personally never had a problem. Fantastic, Northern Italian.

Millie's (downtown) is great, too. Part diner, part upscale bistro. Tons of personality, both in the food and the ambience. Jukeboxes at each table. A small, chalkboard styled menu. Everything is outstanding.

Dogwood Grill (in the Fan area) Limited, yet strong menu. Try the grilled ceasar salad.

Acacia (in the Carytown area) Dale Reitzer, who is EC/Owner creates some amazing food using only the freshest, local ingredients and produce. You can sit outside, too, which is nice.

Can Can (a French bistro is a lot of fun and they have a nice wine list as well as a decent moule frites)

Hope this helps!

[Kim Shook]

See what I posted re: 1 N. Belmont on the other thread where you first posted your question. I would definitely choose Can Can over 1 N. Belmont any time.

[chiantiglace]

Sidewalk Cafe

[K_A_S]

From all that I've read and heard, Mamma Zu's tends to get quite mixed reviews. Maybe I'll have to give it a try.

The only Italian restaurant that I've been to in Richmond so far is Pasta Luna, which seems to be a Richmond Magazine favorite. I tried it twice and was disappointed both times. Can anyone recommend a top-notch Italian place in Richmond? Or maybe even more than one?

[dscott]

Hey K_A_S, If you haven't tried MZ yourself, I would not pass any judgement on the basis of what you've heard. Much of what I "heard" was good while I lived in Richmond turned out to be hogwash (witness the following that Ukrop's has).

However, I was never led astray by any of kendrabail's recommendations.

Mamma Zu is without a doubt the first place I hit when I'm back in town. Most food-oriented pp I know in Richmond love it but it is all about the food, not much attn paid to decor there. Most complaints I heard were about the decor or the service. I never found the service bad, just consistently harried and/or indifferent. Of course, the service always got better if you ordered a bottle of wine and several entrees (i.e., pushed your check total higher).

I suspect if you like Kuba Kuba (boy do I miss that Tres Leche cake and California Huevos), you'll like MZ. Give it a shot. Plus, it can be cheap if you order carefully.

[K_A_S]

I suspect if you like Kuba Kuba (boy do I miss that Tres Leche cake and California Huevos), you'll like MZ.  Give it a shot.  Plus, it can be cheap if you order carefully.

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I'll have to give Mamma 'Zu a try. And thinking about Kuba Kuba's tres leches cake is making me hungry; although I really like good tres leches cake, I'm very often underwhelmed by what I get in most restaurants -- Kuba Kuba makes a pretty darned tasty one, though, and I always order it when I eat there.

[IR Chef Salad]

MZ is still what it always has been: garlicky good italian food with a bad attitude. If you take the place for what it is, the food will bail you out most times. I have had a couple of bad meals and I think the kitchen dudes are not as hot as they once were.

Try Edo's Squid if you need a bit more service and credit cards...the food is pretty close, although MZ still makes me hungry when I think about it.

And try some of the Vietnamese food off Horsepen Road...and the Full Kee!!

[K_A_S]

I finally had dinner at Mamma 'Zu recently, and it was quite good. We started off with some very tasty antipasti (roasted red peppers with fresh mozzarella and an arugula salad with shaved parmesan) before splitting some pasta (a la carbonara) and an amazing merguez with beans and polenta main course. For dessert, we split a heavily boozed tiramisu.

It was all well prepared and tasty; my only complaint, which isn't really a complaint, is that I was completely unprepared for the portions, which were enormous. We ended up bringing almost all of the main home, which wasn't a terribly bad thing, of course.

Although everyone had warned me about their legendary bad service, I had quite the opposite experience. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that our service was great, with the exception of not being able to pay with plastic (for which I was forewarned and thus prepared).

[Kim Shook]

We ate at Edo Squid last night and had a fantastic meal. Started out with Scungilli Insalata, Fried Squid and Fried Oysters. The scungilli is something we always get. I have never had such tender meat and the dressing is so good that we always ask for extra bread for dunking. The squid and oysters were sweet and tender and perfectly cooked.

Main courses were Penne w/ Gorgonzola, Penne Al' Amatriciana (sp?), Spaghetti w/ sausage, ricotta & brocoli rabe and the Rockfish special. The gorgonzola dish and Al' Amatriciana are regular dishes for us and we love them and we had the Rockfish one time before (simple and perfectly cooked - the kind of dish you want to give fish haters so they will understand how good fish can be), but the sausage, ricotta and rabe was a new try. Really hearty and good. There were also tomatoes in the sauce and the sausage is, I'm sure, house-made. Lightly spicy, but not hot and a little loose textured. I am so glad that I have a little appetite - I brought my leavings home and it is enough for at least 3 more meals.

[kendrabail]

Oh, you just mentioned my favorite dish, the scungilli.... My mouth is watering. Actually, one of the best pieces of fish I have ever had (outside of the rock's we catch in the Northern Neck, of course!) was at Mamma Zu's. Very simply prepared with lots of olive oil, lemon, garlic and a little parsley, it was to die for. Mamma Zu's used to do their rockfish whole, head, tail and all, but I am not sure they prepare it that way anymore. I've only seen it go out as a filet.

I did hear a rumor that some West Endy folks visited Mamma Zu several years back and ordered one of their fish specials (don't know which fish tho). When it came out with heads, tails and all, they freaked out and sent it back. About 3 minutes later, the owner (no names mentioned here *smile*) came out and asked the whole table to leave. When they tried to pay for the food they already ate, he told them where to put their money. heheh I suspect this story is a typical Richmond rumor, like the one about a live goat making its way through the back door of the restaurant only to reappear on the menu with a side of cannellini beans later that night, but I like to believe these things anyway. Makes our town so much more interesting!

[SondraG]

Oh, you just mentioned my favorite dish, the scungilli.... My mouth is watering.  Actually, one of the best pieces of fish I have ever had (outside of the rock's we catch in the Northern Neck, of course!) was at Mamma Zu's.  Very simply prepared with lots of olive oil, lemon, garlic and a little parsley, it was to die for. Mamma Zu's used to do their rockfish whole, head, tail and all, but I am not sure they prepare it that way anymore. I've only seen it go out as a filet. 

I did hear a rumor that some West Endy folks visited Mamma Zu several years back and ordered one of their fish specials (don't know which fish tho). When it came out with heads, tails and all, they freaked out and sent it back. About 3 minutes later, the owner (no names mentioned here *smile*) came out and asked the whole table to leave. When they tried to pay for the food they already ate, he told them where to put their money.  heheh  I suspect this story is a typical Richmond rumor, like the one about a live goat making its way through the back door of the restaurant only to reappear on the menu with a side of cannellini beans later that night, but I like to believe these things anyway.  Makes our town so much more interesting!

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No rumor, Kendra, fish delivered "in situ", guests no longer welcome there. Lol...

[menon1971]

Oh, you just mentioned my favorite dish, the scungilli.... My mouth is watering.  Actually, one of the best pieces of fish I have ever had (outside of the rock's we catch in the Northern Neck, of course!) was at Mamma Zu's.  Very simply prepared with lots of olive oil, lemon, garlic and a little parsley, it was to die for. Mamma Zu's used to do their rockfish whole, head, tail and all, but I am not sure they prepare it that way anymore. I've only seen it go out as a filet. 

I did hear a rumor that some West Endy folks visited Mamma Zu several years back and ordered one of their fish specials (don't know which fish tho). When it came out with heads, tails and all, they freaked out and sent it back. About 3 minutes later, the owner (no names mentioned here *smile*) came out and asked the whole table to leave. When they tried to pay for the food they already ate, he told them where to put their money.  heheh  I suspect this story is a typical Richmond rumor, like the one about a live goat making its way through the back door of the restaurant only to reappear on the menu with a side of cannellini beans later that night, but I like to believe these things anyway.  Makes our town so much more interesting!

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No rumor, Kendra, fish delivered "in situ", guests no longer welcome there. Lol...

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I had a friend who used to do prep and dish washing at MZ. One night a drunken patron got into it with Ed about the wait and Ed decked him. MZ is great, (one of the few places I have ever seen sweetbreads in Richmond) and I was glad to see Full Kee get a mention in an earlier post. Earlier in the year I had a nice meal at Juleps in Shockoe Bottom.

[dscott]

Was back in Richmond for a day. Had a killer meal at Edo's (only went there instead of MZ b/c I needed to use visa). Squid, white beans and arugula salad, fried sardines, and the broc rabe, sausage, ricotta penne. Great as always, although the orrechiette is better at MZ than the sausage pasta at Edo's, IMO. No salt issues (as referenced in the DC thread) and still cheap, cheap, cheap (if not ordering entrees).

Would love to have edo's and MZ back home. Y'all are lucky.

[kendrabail]

Did Mamma Zu's last week and it was back to awesome. Several egulleters, myself included, have posted that, lately, M Zu's food has been rather on the salty side (i.e. spend the rest of the night with your tongue stuck to the top of your mouth). See DC Delmarva thread. However, upon last visit, it seems that the old Zu is back. Scungilli was spot on as was the broccoletti. I smelled like a garlic press for two days, and that is exactly what I go there for. Sweetbreads were back on the menu as was a nice fried oyster app (which was unfortunately 86'd like a lot of stuff tends to be if you don't get there early).

Drank a nice Sangiovese at $18 a bottle and stuffed ourselves silly.

In defense of the terse nature of some of the employees, I can say that I am starting to understand why they may appear not-so-friendly at times. We ate at the bar and had outstanding service from our bartender all night. As the restaurant began to fill and shifted over to full-on crowded with plenty of starched Oxfords and pharma sales banter, the mood distinctly shifted. The servers were still the same, but the patrons were total jackasses. Of course, not everyone in the place was a rude ***hole, but quite a few business suits were plain ole nasty-- to us, to the bartenders, to the servers. One such visitor proceeded to curse out our uber-helpful bartender when he simply asked the gentleman if he wanted this wine open (meaning, if he wanted to open it now at the bar or later at the table) to which loser-guy replies, "Of course, I want the wine open, you idiot. Did you think I bought a $100 bottle of wine just to stare at it?" No joke. I wanted to punch the guy out, but I have to admit, the bartender was super cool about it. He simply opened the bottle and passed it back to him without comment. Then this guy and his VERY well-endowed counterpart proceeded to down glass after glass of Caymus Cab while complaining about their wait for a table--over and over and over, essentially ruining our dining experience since we were about three inches away from them. It didn't help that said well-endowed lady of the evening kept bumping her Chanel bag into my plate while I was trying to scarf up some broccoletti.

Maybe all M zu's needs is a bouncer.

So, I guess there is clearly two sides to every coin.