Mystery Critic

Overall
Food
Service
Ambience
Value

OVERALL

Downtown Mountain View is an interesting place.  I've lived just minutes from Castro for ten years - but I STILL can't find any restaurant that is consistently good.  Then I found Zucca, which is a decent restaurant right in the middle of Castro (and the ONLY one that's worth my review time so far).  Not sure whether it's worth the score of 9.7 that it got on Citysearch....

FOOD

First of all, this place has been reviewed and awarded as a Middle Eastern restaurant.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but since when are Greek, Italy and Spain part of the Middle East??  It's a Mediterranean cuisine restaurant and that's its most precious asset - an amazing array of delicacies from many Mediterranean countries that makes the gourmet experience here inspiring (yes, the four simleys given are more for its menu than its taste - and I don't do that often).

While most dishes here are authentic (well, according to Mr. MC anyways) and good, I LOVED the small plates!  From roasted eggplant salad, greek dolmas (rice and condiments wrapped in grape leaves) to plain old hummus, the selection of small plates is almost a show of "Representive Tastes of Mediterranean Cuisine."  I'd highly recommend getting at least 3-4 of them.  Entrees are good too but not that memorable - just don't get the salmon (hint hint - salmon don't swim freely in the Aegean Sea).

SERVICE

The service here is decent but nothing too spectacular.  After many trips to Japan, I've become very hard to please when it comes to efficient and attitude of the servers.  The nights we tried this place were actually weeknights, so they were wildly packed, thus waiters moved somewhat slowly and the manager was able to walk around and recommend what's good and what combinations of dishes to try.

AMBIENCE

The restaurant is nice and casual.  To be aligned with rest of Castro occupants, this restaurant's decoration is bland and only slightly culturally-inspired.  The presence of a huge bar is a reminder that you are definitely in good old USA.  Unless you want your kid to sit besides a pile of liquor bottles (before they were smashed and you end up with a $1000 bill),

VALUE

This place is definitely on the expensive side for its bistro-style food and service.  Also, Castro is not exactly Union Square or University Ave. Palo Alto - I'm not sure whether many expect the Zibbibo prices that they mignt end up paying here.  Nevertheless, if you don't have a huge appetite and can resist that huge bar, you won't max out your credit card.

FINAL WORD

Some of the dishes here might be too middle-eastern flavored (I suspect that the owner is indeed from the Middle East), so order a mix of well-known dishes along with some of their specialties.