Zanzibar Blue

Personally, my experience was pretty bad. Maybe I chose a bad day, I don't know. My best friend and I were on a mini vacation and wanted to dine somewhere nice. We liked the place, but the service was bad and the dinner wasn't superb. Our cocktails didn't arrive until we were ALMOST done with our dinner! So I thought maybe my Martini would save the evening... NOPE. Even though, we wasn't happy, we're going to give it another try.

Came for the brunch without reading any reviews. The ""Basket of the Best Breads"" was so much less than that, barely enough for two people (2 slices of each bread) at $7.95, missing some of the advertised breads and definitely not warm. The Challah bread was hard as if stale, not pleasurable. In the starters the ""Mixed Greens"" were minimal and the Overflowing Melon Bowl was anything but, the equivilent of one slice of unripe melon and a dollop of yogurt. The waitress was not even aware that certain items were not available until she put the order in and we had to reconsider our orders. The main dishes did not arrive until we had been there one and a half hours. In the mean time the band was loud, not together (a member was learning the tunes), and played motown soul cover tunes not jazz. When the food finally arrived Huevos Rancheros and Poached Eggs Oscar it was cold. The side of bacon was only 2 slices, and the homefries side was barely the equivilent of a 1/3 of a baked potatoe at $3.95 each. Finally it was time for dessert. The ""Homemade Godiva Chocolate Bread Pudding"" was replaced by a Brownie, and the ""Peach Crisp"" by peach cobbler. Neither were good. We came in with an open mind and average expectations, but left disappointed, disgusted, and hungry.

I went with a few friends on a Thursday night during restaurant week. The bar has a nice layout, and the jazz was excellent. Our server was also very nice and attentive. However, the food was awful. The cuts of steak consisted of 50% gristle, and the red snapper tasted like all the moisture had somehow been sucked out of it. More disturbing than the bad food, however, was the belligerence of the bouncer/maitre d' who came rushing over to our table and menacingly screamed, ""you need to calm down, son"" to me, as I was responding to an amusing story told by a friend. The use of the term ""son"" when addressing a 28-eight-year-old was particularly appreciated. The hostess then ran over, bewildered, asking whether anything was wrong. For the rest of the night, the bouncer/maitre d' glared at our table. If you plan on smiling and laughing DO NOT come here. Perhaps they took Ari Gold's admonition, ""Silence is golden,"" a little too much to heart.