Zouave Restaurant — Restaurant in Seattle

My boyfriend and I made this our first sit down, go out meal after Covid this past Tuesday, June 9th. I am a previous chef/pastry chef at a multitude of fine dining restaurants, and I was utterly amazed with the food and Chef/Owner Abe, who is from Italy himself! My boyfriend also studied abroad in Italy for years, and said the food was spot on for Italian cuisine. I have never tasted such robust, yet subtle and delicious flavors; this is fully authentic Italian food! Chef Abe went above and beyond for us, my boyfriend and I being the only ones in the restaurant this rainy Tuesday. He lit lights outside and sat us on the adorable back patio, put a candle between us, allowed us to customize the menu if we’d like (I am recovering from alcohol addiction and requested my dish be cooked without alcohol, boyfriend made his vegetarian) and ask questions and share our own multi-cultural cuisine experiences, and was an absolutely delightful conversationalist! The bread he presented was hand baked by him, the whole restaurant was so snug and adorable with an open kitchen and wood floors, and was clean and bright and just romantic. I have been in the service/food industry for 6 years and I have never experienced such personalized, heart warming, caring and expertise service, let alone such delectable (delicious, timely, hot and perfectly presented) food.

Chef Abe even brought us out a custom prepared, free dessert when we informed him we didn’t have a sweet tooth and wouldn’t like dessert. We devoured it, it was such a surprise and a perfect balance.

All in all, the experience was amazing, and my boyfriend and I are thinking of making this our new spot. I have already been recommending a few of my clients in banking (my current career) go there as of right now, just the next day. Was just such a wonderful restaurant experience, which can sometimes be hard for me as I nitpick as an ex server/chef. I would recommend Chef Abe and his restaurant Zouave to absolutely anyone, especially anyone seeking authentic Italian food in a private atmosphere!

P.S TRY THE...

This was the worst food I’ve ever had. My friend and I were so freaking hungry and I was looking up restaurants nearby. I saw the 4.7 star rating and saw a glimpse of the photos (from far away they look good maybe even great when you’re hungry) I should have take a closer look. So I walk in and it’s a cute little place the chef/owner was on the phone had an accent and I was thinking I hit the jackpot we gonna have good food tonight! Server was super great. They bring out the bread and it’s terrible haha like worse than stale. Can’t really describe it. Maybe frozen for a while and thawed out. But we were like whatever maybe it’s an off bread day. The server brought out a free salad that was actually Good. Then comes our meals… I got the lobster ravioli broooo I’m telling you it was that store bought ravioli, over boiled, and microwaved!! With some over cooked shrimpys on top. My friend got some chicken polenta. Whitest chicken I’ve ever seen she thought it was fish 🤣🤣 some wet water trash Alfredo on one side and some odd looking pesto on the other. I ain’t ever seen polenta look like that. We were so hungry we tried to eat it but to no avail. We kept laughing cause we were so confused as to what was happening and if this was really life. The chef and server asked how we liked it. They were dead serious and I didn’t know if I was in an episode of twilight zone or what. I said yes it’s great and got a box so I could throw it away at home. They gave me a free tiramisu which was more like teramieeeeewwwww cause it was also no good. Looking back I wish I would have told them it was horrible but it was so bad I felt bad. Then we ran out of there and the chef who had an Italian accent earlier suddenly had an American accent and I knew either this was a joke or the beginning horror film. We got outta there so fast and were on the toilets the rest of the night and some of today. But it was a great laugh and one of those hilariously funny and terrible experiences I will tell my family till I’m...

EXTRAORDINARY!

A good friend took me to this Ravenna gem for a belated birthday dinner last night and it was absolutely perfect. Chef/owner Abel is a gifted multilingual, multinational chef philosopher. He draws from his Algerian, French, Spanish and Italian life and cuisine experiences to assemble a delectable, varied menu and serve what I would call pan-Mediterranean gourmet home cooking. The ambiance, prices, portion sizes and service were perfectly balanced and combined. So much so that we were there for 3.5 hours, eating and talking and enjoying several chats with Abel. (My only small recommendation on ambiance would be to dim the bright overhead lights and create a warm local light source -- candle or electric candle -- at each table.)

Home-baked bread fresh out of the warmer: Divine. Mussels appetizer: Gorgeous, huge, Mediterranean mussels in an irresistible broth for which we needed another basket of bread. Lamb shank with gnocchi: Rich, both literally melted in my mouth. (I can't believe I ate the whole serving.) Chicken marsala with penne: Sauce and chicken bursting with flavor and the pasta perfectly al dente. Not a fan of pears, we still decided to try the baked d'Anjou, delightfully presented as a flower with petals, drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette. It was all I could do to keep from licking the plate. The tiramisu: Just as good. The wine choices: Solid and affordable.

I dined there once shortly after they opened in 2014 and had a good meal, but hadn't been back since because I moved away from the Ravenna neighborhood. I am now kicking myself for this prolonged absence and will do my best to never wait that long again. Go eat chez Abel at Zouave! Tell him...