Nzuko

The food and drink served here deserve Michelin Star attention. I have eaten at star rated restaurants that don't come close to what I tasted at Nzuko.

The space is very well designed. Hip, without feeling pretentious. Fun, without seeming tacky. Neon letters and banana peel ceiling fans shouldn't work, but here they do.

That are not perfect though. We got our appetizer, the conch fritters, long before we saw our cocktails, finished it before our drinks ever arrived.

And those fritters were the worst part of the whole meal. It was as if there was no conch in them at all. Just spicy breading. No flavor or texture. On a bed of some kind of jalapeño aoli which clashed with the spices of the fritters.

I could have attributed dichotomy of that let down, followed by everything else, that made everything that followed seem even better, but it really was just an anomaly.

The cocktails were excellent in formulation and execution.

The entrées were masterful.

You look at my other reviews and you will see I am quite picky, to an almost hater degree. This place blew me away.

I had the lamb shank in a sauce I can't even explain the flavor of. Just...red wine and spice mined from Dune. With smashed, perfectly crispy potatoes mixed with the sauce from the lamb, given body by couscous.

The Jerk chicken is so tender and flavorful I cursed loudly and rudely out of surprise.

The fish led a journey of flavors that never went to expected places, but delivered you to a land of "very nice".

The cocktails were exquisite. One tasted like a fluffy sweet mint cloud, and the other like a spiced liquefied plum. Plus the tempranillo red wine was perfect with the lamb.

This place has possibly the best food and drinks I've had since I moved to the area.

There is one thing that knocks this place down a peg though. The Front of House does not stack up to the Back.

The service feels both lazy and apathetically rude. Totally lacking any energy or charm. I thought at first our server might have been autistic. We weren't even greeted. He just walked up and stood there till I said "ok... hi!" Then ordered.

While the rest of the staff had the same attitude. It was almost unwelcoming. It's not like they were being run ragged. We were one of 4 tables.

Logistically, the timing for things was off. We finished our app before we ever got our cocktail. I had to stop eating my lamb, or I would have not recieved my wine in time to pair it.

Worse, I didn't even have a chance to order it before my friends finished their meals, because no one came to check on us. They wouldn't even look us in the eye and barely spoke to us. There isn't a host station when you walk in the place. You just stand awkwardly until someone notices you. This weird vibe is all that's keeping the place from pure success.

Don't take my bashing of the service and fritters too far. The food and drink quality so heavily outweigh it, I didn't even ding them a star.

Yet... the one qualm I have in giving a 5 star review, is that if a friend of mine went here on my recommendation, and got the same quality of service, I would be embarrassed and feel I would lose credibility.

Still, if the chef and bartender are the same? Worth an hours drive just to eat here.