The Weekly Eater
CHEFS WOULD LIKE to base their restaurant successes on their dazzling menus and personalities, but the real difference between success or failure might be something far removed from any display of stovetop studliness - like the choice of lighting or the availability of parking stalls. Italian-style Zia’s
Caffes have something
for everyoneOf course the seasoned restaurateur will consider and tend to all such variables, but what cannot be controlled are the customers. They create an energy and ambience of their own that pulsates, feeds on itself, and hopefully, grows. The restaurateur may have an idea of the demographics of a neighborhood, but can't really predict who will walk through the doors.
Take Zia's Caffe, open in two neighborhoods -- Kailua and Kaneohe -- with two sets of clientele.
In Kailua, where the restaurant first set up house, the customers have tended to be couples, both young and old. This makes sense. There's enough low-priced fare on the menu to allow a budget-minded couple to splurge at least once a week on a $20 to $30 meal that's nice, though homey compared to fancier Kailua neighbors Assaggio's and Baci Bistro.
In Kaneohe the couples and friends appear, but during early evenings, there's a whole lotta kids - well-behaved ones are slurping up noodles.
So it is that Kailua's casual "date" restaurant is that, plus family restaurant to the people of Kaneohe. But this makes sense, too. This is not the finest "Italian" fare you'll ever have, but the restaurant has no pretension of being more than an affordable family restaurant. While moms and dads sample such adult fare as spinach pesto and tapenade, what could be more palatable to a kid -- after hot dogs, hamburgers and french fries, that is -- than basic spaghetti with tomato sauce?
ZIA'S CAFFE
Food 1/2
Service Ambience Value Address: 45-620 Kamehameha Highway, formerly Pizza Hut / 235-9427
Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, 4 to 9 p.m. Sundays to Thursdays and 4 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
Cost: Anywhere from less than $10 per person to $20 to $35 for two
Also at: 201 Hamakua Drive (near Jaron's) / 262-7168
JUST AS IN KAILUA, meals start out with bread and a small portion of olive tapenade to accompany small rounds of French bread. Junior probably won't like the looks of this delicious brown-black paste, but that's OK, more for the adults to enjoy.
Look for the Zia name on the menu for some of the best offerings. First, sample the Zia-style mussels ($7.95), steamed in white wine and served with your choice of a white wine, roasted garlic marinara sauce, or a white wine garlic butter sauce. I'm fine with the marinara so was never moved to try the white sauce, figuring my figure could do without the butter.
Move on to Zia's pear and blue cheese salad ($7.95) of mixed greens -- don't expect any fancy mesclun; it's mostly lettuce -- splashed with a light red wine vinaigrette, then sprinkled with walnut halves, the crumbled cheese and thin-sliced pears.
At this point you have a choice of going for a sandwich, inexpensive pasta or a house specialty. You may find the inexpensive pastas (about $6.95) strictly for kids. They're exceedingly tame, so as not to spook or shock tender young palates. The pasta -- your choice of spaghetti or the pasta of the day -- is coated with a tiny bit of sauce. That's it. You can have chicken ($3) or shrimp ($4) added to any of the pastas. I suggest you go for the splurge.
When asked "spaghetti or fettuccine," my snooty friends picked fettuccine right away and urged me to do the same. There are some restaurants where every dish is a winner. Zia's offers a more typical experience, where choosing right is essential. I was slow in making my choice so a waitress tried explaining the difference between the two pastas for me. It was second nature to her as the question seems to come up often, but puh-lese, I was just trying to calculate the odds of the sauce or noodles being less than scintillating. In case of either occurence, spaghetti would have an edge because at least the texture would be interesting. Fettuccine would just lie there.
So while my friends complained about their limp fettuccine and scant sauces, I was enjoying the chewy, bouncy spaghetti with one of the house specialties of chicken arrabiatta ($10.95), six or so pieces of chicken tossed with basil and a marinara sauce spiced with just the right amount of red pepper.
For those whose diets still allow cream sauce, there is Zia's plain Alfredo ($6.95) or seafood Florentine ($13.95) in which the same pasta is topped with sauteed spinach, three plump, juicy shrimp, mussels, chopped clams and a sprinkling of nutmeg. Again, this sauce is helped considerably by the seafood.
Then while couples pucker up at the end of the evening with a taste of zesty lemon sorbet, the kiddies can take a bite of peanut butter bread pudding. Something for everyone.
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Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews run on Thursdays. Reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to nkam@starbulletin.com
excellent; very good, exceeds expectations; average; below average.
