Zingerman’s roadhouse is arguably one of the most thoughtfully curated restaurants in the Midwest with intentionally selected, meticulously researched ingredients. Last night, my friend asked the owner if he was in an alternative reality what he would do differently for work, and he made it clear that this is inDEED his dream fulfilled. His and his team’s collective work, researching & traveling to find delicious and unique traditional foods around USA to create nourishing traditions for us lucky patrons is something I appreciate immensely. This establishment fortunately a local haunt genuinely increases the quality of my life.

While it’s common place to hear jokes about the price point of menu items, it’s really comparable to many other table service restaurants, and with ingredients coming from local farms or curated sources of higher quality (the butter is cultured Vermont butter, the grits are from some special place) and not Cisco etc, as most other restaurants, it is, TRULY, by the book, a BETTER value. Case in point subway- it is “expensive” in the sense that cost of ingredients is low and markup high, not a good value.

Came here inspired to write a review based on my recent awesome experiences there, the customer service is unparalleled. You see the owner almost every time you go, making sure customers are happy, and educating us about cool rare-gem culinary finds offered on the changing menu of that week.

I had a delightful, perfectly spicy fresh vegetable loaded appetizer on top of an amazing green salsa called something that I can’t remember but makes me want to say “Casablanca” ;), sorry for butchering the title.

The fried ribs were to die for, but I will go to the gym or on a bike ride today so that I won’t.

My go to is the Caesar salad, chopped, with added anchovies along with whatever is new on the menu specials. The Caesar dressing there is homemade and outstanding. I’ve tried to replicate it but still theirs is better. The Tempranillo wine selection is always on point. The specials are always great, love the Passover traditional dishes when it’s that time of year. The kale pine nut salad with adding a some sort of medium rare steak will make people around you jealous they didn’t order it or know about that one, again the dressing is outstanding and will leave you craving it for the future.

All in all, it’s a great vibe, you can hack the menu and not spend over $30, or you can have a smorgasbord and spend $200 easily on two people, and will leave feeling like you had a wonderful experience to remember.