Zarza Latin Food & Grill - Lakeland — Restaurant in Lakeland

I'll start with the good (sorta): the food was ok; ordered a Cubano sandwich, empanada, breaded chicken with black beans/rice and corn. Flavor on the sandwich was ok, empanada was tasty, breaded chicken was ok flavor-wise. Beans and rice were fine, nothing amazing.

Here's the not-so-great:

The corn was definitely non-salted out of a can, no seasoning whatsoever. No salt, nothing. Room temperature.

Breaded chicken was a little on the chewier side.

When ordering an appetizer empanada, it is just one single empanada. I believe the menu said "Beef Empanadas" plural, but it is just one - which is fine if they would just correct the menu.

The Cuban was crazy light on the pickle, like maybe two small pickle chips on the whole thing. No sides included, which isn't a big deal but even plantains would've a been nice touch.

Here's where things go from ok to bad: service. While the staff are in fact nice, we ordered food between 8:10pm and 8:15pm and didn't get food until 8:55-9pm. They were not busy, and while they do close at 9, others who came in after use got similar dishes before we did...here's the important info...

We had dogs and sat outside, on previous visits food had been brought to us during lunch so we thought it might be this evening as well, or at least we'd be told our food was ready. Nope. Our food definitely sat out and some even cooled before we went in looking for it. We thought we would at least be given a heads up it was ready. This is really disappointing when they are a local shop, with a really good lunch special, but I think they drop the ball on service.

A small thing, once finished with the sandwich, there was definitely a hair underneath, that could've been my own, but it was too difficult to tell.

Overall, a little lackluster with lots of potential, but flavors...

We went there on a whim based on reviews while we were in Lakeland. We went at lunch and they were customers through the order line fairly quickly. My wife and I especially enjoyed the two screens over the order area with a picture of all their dishes. The folks taking our orders were very nice. The plates coming out of the kitchen were placed on the opposite counter for folks to pick up. I would suggest some sort of ticket system and a corresponding screen showing which ticket has been placed in the window for customer pickup as it was kinda noisy in there and we were talking to each other and not really listening for a dish name to be called out. My wife ordered the half chicken, she said it was good but under seasoned. After a few questions we both agreed it was missing the "made with love" ingredient. I had the steak fajitas, mine was seasoned well and the accompanying side were as expected. The rice was bland with no seasoning. The beans were nicely prepared. I wasn't happy with four tiny tortilla and a big plate of stuffings. I would suggest going to a 10in tortilla so we can get most of the stuffings in the shells (oh yeah, go to five shells) . The meal itself was nice, it wasn't overly greasy which is easy to happen with the fajitas. Would we go back if we were in the area and had a hankering for their style of off-Latin menu?...

The best Latin grill in Lakeland. Their menu is filled with the best dishes from Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Cuba, Mexico, etc. Great entrees, awesome sandwiches, empanadas... I could go on and on about every item on Zarza's menu. They even make a great cheeseburger. Don't miss the Seafood Chaufa (Chaufa de Mariscos); which is a typical dish from Peru. The portions are huge, and it's not expensive, at all. About their prices: Not expensive, at all. They could easily charge double, but they don't.

And last, but not least, their owners are super wonderful people. They're always there making sure that your dining experience is absolutely perfect every single time. I also love their staff. Everyone at Zarza is friendly, warm, sweet and honest. Oh, I almost forgot, they have the cleanest restaurant kitchen I have ever seen. You can see the kitchen from everywhere as it's an open-concept restaurant. ...