Za Arlington — Restaurant in Arlington

Went to this pizza place with our family. I already knew that one of the servers was not that kind, from previous experiences, but tonight it turned ugly. In short: I asked if they serve bread, pasta, or anything else. The server answered as he was walking away from me and with his back half-turned at me: “No! We only serve pizza and salad! nothing else!”

So the first thing is that the menu is very limited. Which wouldn’t be a big issue in itself if the next thing wouldn’t have happened, but it did.

I needed bread or pasta for my 4 year old who is a picky eater. We lived next door so we knew the area. So I stood up and went and bought some pretzels for my child to eat, from the convenience store next door. Upon re-entering the restaurant, the same server who is apparently the manager stopped me in my tracks to say: “Mam, we don’t allow outside products in the restaurant “, I explained it’s for my 4 year old who needs to eat something and that they don’t serve anything he eats, no Children’s menu, nothing. The answer was a firm: “no outside products in the restaurant, we serve what we serve and that is that.” So we put our pizza’s, which were already on the table, in boxes, paid, and left.

How outrageous is this experience? In 2022 to have NO accommodation whatsoever for children?

No need to say that we’ll never return!

So if you are a family with small children, don’t bother.

And to the management of this establishment: SHAME ON YOU! To make a scene about a bag of pretzels, for a child, in the middle of the...

They do pizza and salad in a very comfortable environment. Both the Old School Potato pizza 🍕 and today's Mac & Cheese pizza 🍕 was excellent. They also have outside seating.

HASS AVOCADO ($12.00). "Black Bean, Tomato, Red Onion, Cheddar Cheese, Homemade Bread 'n' Butter Pickled Jalapeno, Red Pepper and Cilantro with Homemade Cumin-Lime Vinaigrette, Sour Cream and Tortilla Crunch". Hold the sour cream. If this is a salad, I need to eat more salads! This was absolutely delicious, and the pulverized tortillas added a nice texture. The size was right for two people to split as an appetizer. Next time I order a salad, I will order a pizza as well and eat half of each. Did I mention that it was delicious?

CUCUMBER Salad ($11.75) at @zacambridge but in Arlington. "Tomato, Kalamata Olive, Drumlin Farm's Radish and Potato Salad with Feta Cheese, Fresh Oregano and Homemade Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette". Well, potato salad it wasn't, but the mashed potatoes were excellent. In fact, the whole salad was very pleasant. Not as good as the Avocado salad. This was almost enough for lunch, but I ordered a pizza as well.

BUFFALO CHICKEN ZA Pizza ($15.50) at @zacambridge but in Arlington. "Grilled Chicken, Frank's Louisiana Hot Sauce, Caramelized Onion, Roasted Red Pepper, Sweet Onion, Mozzarella, Cheddar, Scallion". Not too hot, just pleasantly spicy. The pizza was cooked really well. The chicken was a tad dry, but it was still an excellent pizza. However, they could improve it by using dark meat. It wouldn't dry...

I first want to say I have been going to Za for nearly 14 years--and for most of that time it was my favorite pizza place in the Boston area. I used to live right across the street from it for a time, which was a treat. But something has really changed these past two years where it's been hit or miss and when it's a miss, it's really a miss--to the point where I just don't feel like gambling my money on it anymore. Case in point: Last fall, we got the zucchini za (my fave) once and it was so delicious--crunchy thin crust, nice amount of zucchini and other toppings....that a week later I was craving it again so we ordered it and it was just....awful. It didn't actually have any zucchini and it was missing other toppings too. It was basically a cheese pizza though we were charged extra. When we asked about it, they were "out" of zucchini (so let us know). And it was so greasy, it was barely edible. It was so bad in fact we took nearly an entire year out of eating there again (this wasn't the first time something like this has happened, but several times). Recently, I saw they had the zucchini pizza again this summer and thought I would give it one last chance. Big mistake. They have less topping than it used to. But most of all, it was again so oily the pizza literally fell apart when I tried to pick up a piece. I took two bites and wound up making a...