Zea Rotisserie & Bar — Restaurant in Ridgeland

Nine of us from work went for a Christmas lunch, getting there before noon, with a reservation. We had to wait 5 or 10 minutes for a couple of co-workers to show up, but the rest of us went ahead and gave our drink and appetizer orders. The drinks were not brought promptly. Then we had to wait another 10-15 minutes for the appetizers to come and for our meal orders to be taken.

The Thai ribs in the appetizer were good, flavorful and tender. The hummus was bland, even for hummus.

It took at least 45 minutes after ordering the meals for them to arrive. No one had special-ordered. Most of us got rotisserie samplers, pork roast, red beans and rice--things that should have been ready in a timely manner. A manager came by at least once to apologize for the delay.

The meat portions for the rotisserie sampler claim to be 3 oz. for beef and pork, and a quarter-chicken. The chicken quarter was tiny, and the beef didn't meet the "deck of cards" or "palm-sized" estimating method for a 3 oz. serving. Not enough food to justify a price of $17.50--excuse me, "17.5". On the other hand, the red beans and rice entree size was more than a grown man could finish.

The house-rub chicken, what there was of it, was tender and had good flavor. The baby bella and balsamic infused glacé almost completely hid the taste of the beef. The rosemary garlic glacé on the pork roast was overly salty. One co-worker tried the trout Lafitte, which she said was good.

We were seated at a high-top table. The chairs would have been OK for a typical one-hour meal, but for the two-plus hours we were there, became somewhat uncomfortable. Several of us stood part of the time while waiting for the meal, because the chair seats were making our dangling legs fall asleep.

As far as desserts: It's hard to mess up a root beer float. The brownie wasn't as dense and heavy as many restaurant brownies tend to be, the sweet-potato bread pudding was "different but good" with a noticeable cinnamon taste. (It's more like a pie, not a typical bread pudding presentation, and it's huge.) The chocolate toffee mousse was also a pie, which isn't clear from the menu description. Nice and chocolaty, with a chocolate-crumb crust, but the bottom third of the mousse and the crust were frozen and were hard to cut with the provided spoon.

I"m going to chalk a lot of the delays up to the restaurant's having opened less than a month ago, and the staff still working out how best to do things. I would probably try Zea again in a few months, maybe the half-chicken, or beef with the sauce on the side.

ETA--The restaurant was loud, with high ceilings and exposed ductwork that allowed the sound to bounce around, and louder-than-necessary background music. It was hard to hold a...

On 6/11 a few friends(5) and I visited this place for a birthday dinner! Due to me running late my friends was told to sit at the bar until the full party arrived before being seated! Once I arrived they seated us and whatever my friends had at the bar while they waited for me that ticket was brought to the table within 5 minutes of them seating us! Almost immediately a friend noticed they charged her for 6 drinks when she only had 2 plus 2 appetizers that she got at the bar! They did correct her receipt. We all ate enjoyed our self in didn’t think anything else about it! After everyone paid and we got up to leave the manger(Marisa I think was her name) came to the table saying it’s still a ticket from the bar that had not been paid! We explained to her several times we gave our waitress (Jessica) 3 tickets together which included 1 from the bar and the other 2 tickets was separate! The manger insisted we had not paid although we did and refused to go get Jessica so we can speak with her directly to clear everything up! She was very rude! All she kept saying was she trusted her employee and mentioned Jessica couldn’t cash out a bar ticket! She couldn’t answer what happened to the CASH we paid Jessica and never would go get her! I never been so embarrassed in my life being accused of trying to leave a place before paying! We had to pay again for a meal that was already paid for! Although the food was great I absolutely wouldn’t go back and wouldn’t recommend anyone going! That was my first and last time! If I could rate zero...

First time to go here and I was very impressed. Nice atmosphere awesome food, superb cocktails and outstanding service. My wife and I had the crab cakes for appetizers which had excellent sauce and seaweed salad garnish. They were perfectly fried and great flavor. We both had the Asian Tuna Salad and that was the best I've had. Their sesame based dressing was spot on and the tuna was seared to perfection. Finishing up the meal was a chocolate brownie and vanilla bean dish with caramel and nut sauce. That was out of this world. We had a few very unique cucumber and jalapeno Margaritas there and I have to say, this is something I have to go back for alone! Overall the experience was great with a kudos to our server Shannon C.. She was one of the best servers we can remember and not only gave us good input on the dishes, but was more than attentive. We will be going back often, I'm sure.

UPDATE: We now have been to Zea about a dozen times now and I have not changed my opinion of their food and service. The food is excellent and everyone, that we have had serve us or act as hostess, have been wonderful and that goes for the bussers as well. We are always well- taken care of and really enjoy eating here. BTW, today I had the Sedona Chicken Panini with the Tai Snap beans side with a frozen Peach Bellini cocktail. I have to say that that Panini was out of this world. Absolutely the best Panini I've had ever. Still five...