Zinc

Zinc
246 South 11th St.
Philadelphia, PA
19107
(Visit their website)

My dining companion and I had not intended to go to Zinc. While wandering around looking for another restaurant, which apparently no longer exists, we came across this establishment. Pressed for time and hungry, we decided to give the cute looking place a bit of our business. We were not overly impressed.

Zinc - cute enough but we were not impressed with the service or the food.

The restaurant/bistro/bar is charming enough and, for a Sunday afternoon, it was doing brisk business. Unfortunately, the management had not counted on having so many people. Otherwise, they would have had more than one server on hand. The service was slow but we were the lucky ones. There was a patron who was sitting outside, hoping to get some sun and some service. She got the sun but was ignored by the server. She came in to remind the server of her existence at least once and then just gave up and came in to sit inside.

We ordered water with lemon and the server basically ignored us. It was not until my dining companion ordered a beer that we saw service. By the way, the other tables got their beer, drinks, and bread, well before we did. Not fair and we were not impressed.

How was the food? I had the lobster bisque with chunks of crab meat. It was tasty enough, I guess but it was a bit heavy and a bit too creamy. There is no need to overload the diner's system, is there? My dining companion had the Trevisse Rotie Au Fromage, which was basically a roasted radiccio covered with cheese and Saucisson. She said that the Saucisson supplied the salty taste but since the radiccio was grilled and the cheese was melted, there was no balance of tastes. "It was just more salty," she said.

For our lunches we tried to Les Escargots "Pastis". They basically put cooked escargots on top of delicate, cute little puff pastries and topped it off with garlic almond butter sauce. Not a bad dish but not overly impressive either. The rest of the menu was seriously overpriced and I doubt that the portions were large.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with this place. Maybe others who are not in a hurry and just want a place to watch pedestrians while sipping drinks will find Zinc to their liking.


(Images by AG)