Zinc Café & Bar — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Service is a little slow(ish) but please understand this place is busy like alllll the time! There are 2 gals that work there that are just the best! One may be a lead or manager, if she isn't she SHOULD be, and the other is just so kind and frankly adorable! There are a couple of people with lackluster personalities but hey to each their own AND they are at work so there is that!

I don't appreciate it when I go to the salad bar/deli area and the person serving me touches the inside of the metal container or holds the plate past the edge, I have OCD and ADHD so I notice EVERYTHING! With that said the sever may touch the tablet used to ring folks up, that is then offered to a customer to complete payment, it is generally dirty/smudged, then that server will grab your plate to serve you and touch into the surface where food goes, this totally freaks me out, or they may do other things with gloves on and not change them before serving. Mindfulness, being mentally present, or considering and centering the customer can rectify this, managers ought to drill that home. While it freaks me out it is NOT enough to keep me from eating the delicious pastas and veggies they have on offer!

I wish they had more vegan breakfast options, maybe one tofu scramble, or just egg product, perhaps some soyrizo or tempeh - honestly I would give them ALLLL of my money every day if they did so maybe don't! 🤭

The store is super cute and they have random home goods and gifts for sale in the little marketplace space. Also, you can pick up a bottle of real champagne in the refrigerator area. However, do not try to buy a bottle of vueve and have it served at your table - you will be charged a corkage fee. I HATED that because they only have sparkling wine on their menu most of which gives me headaches - the vueve is a decent price but not once you tack on the corkage fee.

I am a pretty particular neuro-divergent person so a lot of stuff gets to me, I see all and am freaked out by most so this review is critical! With that said, I am STILL willing to visit this establishment weekly and that says A LOT! Could some adjustments be made? Sure but they have not been critical enough for me to 86 the place. Lastly, if you sit in the patio area during the day, you'll get to see a bunch of adorable birdies making the space their home.

Update 6/1/25: I hate it here! Took away all the things I ate as a vegan. Ughhh oh well, saves me money! Staff is different, the seating is different, the salad bar is gone... They don't even have the lemon ginger spritzer I...

I was a little confused initially about how to get my food and drink. I wish the signs were clearer for new people like me. You wait in line, order your food, then find a table. Don’t forget silverware because while they bring your food to you they won’t bring silverware. Unless you got desert, then they bring a spoon. If you want a beer you then go to the bar and get one. Then sit back down. it was triple payments so triple tipping. It’s probably a strategy. They said you can sit in the bar or patio and they will do “full service” but I wasn’t convinced they would notice me especially after my invisibility cloak malfunctioned and turned on without input, or so it seemed when not one, two, three but four people cut in front of me. It was the third that I saw one of the cashiers notice but he just continued, probably seeing I was not going to make a big deal of it as I kinda laughed it off. But then when the other cashier was free two girls passed me and the people in line behind me to take the spot at the counter. At this point I had already made sure my being in line was clear and with the people behind me also in line I find it difficult to believe it was a misunderstanding. So when these ladies did this I threw my hands up and very loudly protested and made sure everyone behind me knew I was next and to cut was to put themselves in grave danger. The ladies did not seem to notice but The cashier did and loudly offered to take me instead, however the two girls didn’t notice or chose to ignore this. they never turned to see who he was speaking with, never offered an oops, I’m sorry. They literally seemed oblivious so I waved the cashier on. I finally made it to the counter. 10-12 minutes later than I should have. The cashier apologized. Nice guy, not his fault. I’m sure they both felt worse when they saw my disabled walk. Not the ladies though, they didn’t feel a damn thing! Let the gimp stand they cried! I would be lying if I said i was comfortable in that time. But everyone was nice and the...

We ordered cheese burger, chilaqueles bowl and American breakfast with 3 different drinks. They asked how we wanted meat to be done and we said medium rare. The petty was well over done, parts being burned. But we let it slide as we felt bad restaurant workers working on the long weekend Saturday. They also asked if we wanted to add an option for truffle fries which we did but the regular fries came. We asked this hispanic male server who took the order and he said they don’t actually serve truffle fries, it’s just the pinch of truffle salt added so it shouldn’t taste like truffle???? (he’s the one asked if we wanted truffle fries when we ordered without specifying how it actually comes out).

We’ve been coming here regularly and ordered truffle fries as a separate order for appetizer numerous times. It always came out with truffle oil sprinkled where you can smell it from far. Instead, he just placed aioli sauce on our table and just walked away like he was mad. None of the servers came to the table afterwards and we had to grab one of them to ask for the check. It was a long weekend and we went around 2:30 pm, the restaurant was very slow unlike other days.

We are not pleased with the service and quite frankly this is not our first time dealing with unprofessional servers. I don’t want to be nit picky but had to constantly remind servers for our ordered drinks and utensils on other times we visited because they kept forgetting (and it’s not during busy hours, our server was literally chatting with their coworkers).

What it used to be our favorite brunch and mimosa place turned out to be the place I just wanted to leave immediately. We love this place and ambiance as a long time customer but today’s incident really wanted me to leave a review and will not...