Zoco — Restaurant in Dubai

Extremely disappointed with our visit to Zoco. We had a reservation for 4 on Monday September 16th, which was pre-booked at the start of our trip 2 weeks earlier. Upon arrival our table was not ready and we had to wait to be seated..not too long but seeing as it was busy we were not too bothered. We soon came to understand that it was Mexican Independence Day which was the reason it was extremely busy. Also, it was Lady's night so the two women in our party were provided with 3 free drink tickets.

Upon being seated, we were not greeted by our server for a good 20-30 minutes..not even offered water for the table. While music was blasting and the dance floor was busy we were left looking around for a server so we can place our drink orders. Our server finally visited our table and he asked if we had looked over the menu and were ready to order. At this point we had had enough time to place our orders. We placed orders for appetizers first and were rushed to get our requests in as he stated "please make your request i am very busy with other tables to serve, so if you are not ready you will need to wait". I was extremely annoyed with this response for the fact that we waited a long time to even speak with our server and he was rushing us to move onto another table already. The women in our party at this time asked if they can place their drink order which he stated "no problem, but it will be at least 15-20 minutes because our bar is busy" At this time, approx an hour went by and we had not received any food or drinks. When our food finally showed up with drinks we did not see the server again until we were ready to leave and pay our bill. I understand that it was extremely busy, but management should have taken this into account and scheduled additional servers to work this night if they knew the importance of this day. With that being said, the Manager as well was completely unprofessional. He was more worried about talking to girls, taking pictures with friends on the dance floor, and flirting with his staff rather than attending to his customers.

We were told the ladies tickets for drinks needed to be in before 11pm as that is when the ladies night ended, so we asked the manger that he put the remaining tickets into the bar so we can use the free ladies drink tickets. We had asked at 10:45 to get them in and he said no problem. 11:30 came and went and we still had not seen the drinks. We were finished our food, and ready to leave but wanted to take advantage of the free drink tickets we had so we continued to wait. We noticed the manager in the corner taking pictures with a group of girls so we approached him and asked him when our drinks would be ready..he looked at us confused and reached into his pocket and pulled out the drink tickets and said "Oh i was looking all over for you, i will have them out to you shortly" he was looking for us??? we were seated at our table the entire night and had not moved, if he cared about doing his job he would have gotten the drink orders in on time instead of enjoying his night instead of doing his job

All in all, the food was good but spending 3+ hours at the restaurant and struggling to be served and communicating with the staff and management at ZOCO was horrendous, if this is how it is on a regular basis I would strongly recommend avoiding this restaurant on...

It’s weekend and it means one thing, party time.

Visited the place to experience their Arriba Arriba Brunch.

The location itself was good so we were expecting more from the restaurant from it’s interior and of course the reason why we were here was the food.

Upon reaching the floor where the restaurant is, i thought its gonna be a typical peaceful friday, however after getting in, there are a lot of happenings inside which makes me feel so alive.

Couple of people celebrating their birthdays and others they are just literally having fun.

Of course we were there to do the same so before anything else, so lucky to have met the Chef introduced to us by the Manager and he was so accomodating. The chef introduced us all the available tacos that day and how they prepared it to perfection.

We then grabbed our tacos and quesadillas and we were served with fresh nachos with their own guacamole.

They have sweets readily available on the counter aside from that they also serve freshly made donuts and churros which i will rate shortly including their flavored ice cream pops.

You also have the option for alcoholic beverages however we prefer non alcoholic beverage that time.

Everyone was so friendly, both staff and the crowd will smile back at you and greet you.

Now time to rate the food.

I had variety of foods, however let me give emphasis to those we really like the most.

Fresh nachos with their own guacamole - Nice crunchy nachos with their unique tasting guacamole as you can also taste the sourness from the lemon aside from the avocado. Tacos - we find it very authentic, since 1st of all it was prepared by a Mexican, secondly have tried couple of tacos around the city, this is by far the most different tasting tacos (in a nice way), deliciously prepared for hours which you can really make out by it’s taste,filling but not so heavy.(beef suadero, mizote chicken, salmon and lam barbacoa) Quesadilla - For me, it’s the best!!! Good amount of everything on each bite. Churros - Everyone loves it, but this one is on a different level. Crunchy, light tasting for me best paired with their dulce de leche, not too sweet just right amount of sweetness, same goes with their donut, i can eat it even without any sauce, lil crunchy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. For the drinks I highly recommend their berry cocktail, refreshing and appetizing at the same time, i prefer a little less of sweetsness tho to make it so perfect.

General Rating:

Food/Drinks-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Ambiance- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Staff- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 🚗 - Valet parking available 🚬 - Available just outside the restaurant entrance.

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I have had my eye on ZOCO since they opened but never had the chance to come by until recently.

As soon as I made it through the entrance, I was immediately impressed with the decor, vibe and ambience of the restaurant. The restaurant itself is upscale and I would say close to a fine dining experience. ZOCO’s business model is to keep it between casual and fine dining, which works for them. The restaurant can get busy between shows as they are in the same area as La Perle, one of Dubai’s newest premier attractions

Normally I wouldn’t think too highly of a Mexican restaurant that isn’t manned by Mexican staff, as that is the only way to have a truly authentic experience, but the staff here are all professionally trained and provide that same level of Mexican hospitality that you would expect if you have been to Mexico.

At the moment, ZOCO is serving a fusion menu, with a few authentic items on the menu if you know what to look for. That will all change soon as the restaurant is looking to provide a 100% authentic experience.

The drinks were creative and innovative in terms of flavours and combination. All the items I felt were a nice change from the same traditional cocktails that you will find at 9/10 restaurants/bars.

The restaurant was completely packed when I went and I was extremely impressed with the rate that the food was flying out of the kitchen. I thought and expected it would take a pretty long period of time before my food would arrive but were came out of the kitchen after what seemed like only minutes after I ordered them.

As mentioned earlier, I would like to see more of an authentic experience in terms of flavour for the drinks and food. At the moment, the right ingredients are present in the dishes but they are just not combined and executed the way they should be. A new executive chef just came on board at ZOCO and I hope he will take a more traditional take on Mexican cuisine. The previous chef implemented some ideas that I think would have confused many customers. For example, I have always been a fan of chorizo, but the chorizo that I had in my dish was grinded to basically a fine grain of salt, which I had no idea what it was and didn’t end up eating it. I was left wondering if the kitchen forgot to add the chorizo onto my dish.

There were a number of items, from sauce, garnish and even the main entree were overly salty but I know these will be addressed with the new menu that is forth coming so not a big issue.

Despite these minor issues that I experienced, I would still visit ZOCO again with their current menu and will definitely come back to try their...