We went to a Spanish tapas restaurant in Napa, California called ZuZu.
It is a small, dimly lit restaurant in downtown Napa. We went without reservations on a Sunday evening. We were sat straight away. I noticed a few big tables, but primarily small tables for two. There is a bar at the end of the room and more tables upstairs.
We came to this restaurant because I wanted to try their Paella. I looked up Spanish restaurants in Napa and this one had a menu I most wanted to try. There are other Spanish restaurants in the area. In fact, there is another one two doors down from this one called La Taberna. Please note that their menu does change. But only a few of the items change.
We ended up ordering four (4) items from this menu: Ceviche de Calamar, Tortilla Espanola, Akaushi Flat-Iron Steak, and Paella del Dia.
Ceviche De Calamar
This dish was very delicious. The calamari was perfectly tender and chewy. The coconut milk enhanced the sweet taste of the calamari, papaya, and mango. It tastes like a thai ceviche with coconut milk papaya, and mango. The tortilla chips gave the dish the necessary crunch and salt, the dish needed to push the dish into “extremely good” territory.
Tortilla Espanola
Immediately after we finished the ceviche, the waiters took the dishes away and served the tortilla espanola.
The top and sides were a perfect golden brown. The potatoes were mushy and goes well with the sweet onions. The green onions gave it good flavor. When the white creme was added it enhanced the onion flavor. I wish it was bigger but it paired perfectly with the flat-iron steak.
Akaushi Flat-Iron Steak
The flat-iron steak was served less than a minute after the tortilla espanola was served. This steak is served medium rare. If you don’t like your steak medium rare, do not order this. They only serve it medium rare. If you like your steak medium rare, you will not be disappointed. It is so juicy and tender that it melts in your mouth when you chew it. To cut into this is like cutting butter. The fattiness, the sauce, and the natural taste of the steak are so incredible. It is one of the best steaks I have ever had.
Paella del Dia
The last dish was the paella. Paella is their specialty dish. They have three different types of paellas you can choose from. I chose Paella del Dia. The crispy rice at the top mixed with the soft rice in the middle, chorizo, clams, and meat was undeniably delicious. Lean-back-eye-roll good. The top was a little salty. The cream and green onions dialed the saltiness back. The rice in the middle was creamy and tender. The rice mixed with the meats and seafood was incredibly delicious. We could not finish the paella, so we took it home. When we did reheat, it was still creamy and delicious.
Dessert
To round out our meal we ordered two desserts; the Pastel de Tres Leches and the Apple Empanda.
This tres leches was one of the best. It was perfectly soaked in the milks. I have had overly soaked tres leches but this one, however, was just right. The cream had a slight, mellow banana taste and was not overly sweet. The warm caramelized bananas rounded out the taste of the cake.
The apple empanada was okay. It didn’t wow me as the tres leches did. The crust was flaky but a little dry for my liking. The apple filling was good. You needed to eat the apple filling with the edges so it didn’t taste dry.
Recommendation
I highly recommend this restaurant. The restaurant is a little pricy but the quality of the food makes it worth it. I will definitely be back to try their other dishes.
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