Zucca European

I am biased. I proposed to my wife here… so of course it gets 5 stars.
I had flowers delivered to the restaurant in advanced.
The ONLY misstep they had was the manager had the table set up with the flowers as expected. The «greeter» not realizing my special table was already prepared offered to seat us outside because the weather was nice. My wife was like honey. its a nice day, lets sit outside all the time I was going nuts looking at the flowers sitting at my special table thinking… dude. just sit us at the prepared table. Still I appreciate him offering us to sit outside on a nice day. Any other day, I would have appreciated it.
Oh well.
The food was great, the server was nice. He knew I was going to propose and took care of us. We both had a great table by the window away from everyone else and it was just nice. I think the owner was late to the restaurant and as we were leaving offered his congratulations to us. That was a nice surprise.
Zucca has two restaurants (one in Palo Alto and one in Mountain View). Although the MV one is more reviewed and frequented, the Palo Alto one is nice in addition.

Still vacant here… walked by this morning. Does anyone know what will take it’s place? We need a café on this block!

Might be closed? I just walked by what I thought used to be Zucca and there’s a sign in the front window saying something else is coming in its place. Double check before you head over.

I took my husband here back in 2005 when his startup got its first round of seed funding with Y Combinator. I really liked the atmosphere, and the food was above average and the waiter was fine. My husband thought he talked down to us though so we have not come back.

Yeuk! Hate this place! Didn’t even want to give them a star!
The service was terrible… food was wrong/​cold… and at the end of the evening, after the waitress forgot to bring the final round of drinks we ordered, the host took my credit card and told me I’d have to pay additional for the Amex fees… it’s a «policy» apparently. Soooo, I said «fine, I’ll take it out of the tip»… and he seemed fine with that! No wonder the service is so lousy because I wouldn’t work there if the management encouraged unhappy clients at billpay time! NICE!

I am not sure if this is a good review since i got to eat there for free, but here goes anyway.
I had the salmon with potatoes. I’m no connoseur but it was pretty damn good. Salad, drinks, and dessert (tiramisu) were just ok. Nothing spectacular.
I gave it a 3 b/​c the service was kinda slow. It’s a decent place. I would go again, if it were cheaper.

After reading the reviews, some good, some not so good, I decided to give this restaurant the benefit of the doubt. I went here for dinner with a friend. We were seated immediately for the restaurant was mostly empty (there were only two other parties in the restaurant). This is unusual since it’s a Friday night in downtown PA.
The food was well sub-​par. We ordered mussels for appetizer (French style) and I order the skirt steak and my friend ordered the duck at the recommendation of the waitress. The waitress brought us bread while we’re waiting for our order. The bread was stale and looked like it was heated using microwave so it was warm but very stringy and when cooled, hardened. I guess which such low turn-​over they just couldn’t bear to toss out old bread. But I’m paying $ 20+ for an entre, I expect decent bread. I have much better bread at much lower-​priced restaurant.
The mussels had a nice flavor, but they were a little over cooked and the broth very salty. Also many of them were sandy. My steak was okay. Nothing great, but palatable. My friend gave me some of her duck to try. Again, it tasted old. It tasted like it’s been sitting around for a while and finally someone had ordered it. I know this because I love duck and ordered duck fairly frequently. And this duck tasted far from fresh. I didn’t say anything because my friend seems to think it’s okay. I didn’t want to ruin her meal.
Overall, I think the ambience is decent and comfortable and service is adequate. However, prices are quite high for the quality of the food. Frankly, had it not been for the good pomme fritte, I may give it even lower score. I was pretty disappointed. I really hate it when the restaurants try to cut corners and use stale ingredients especially when they charge me a lot of money for it. It shows that they have no respects for their guests. It was an unsatisfying $ 42 (per person) dining experience.

Horrible place! We didn’t even finish our dinner. I ordered the swordfish which was overcooked, and asked for a side of lentils. The lentils were undersalted so was the swordfish. The wosrt part though was my husbands meal. His steak was spoiled! They actually serve their customers meat that has gone bad. We couldn’t believe it. Never in our dinning experience have we been served spoiled food. Never will we set foot in this dump of a place. Get a new chef!

It was our first time dining here last night, NYE dinner. We were greeted by who seemed like the owner. Our server was very friendly and attentive. So was the water boy. I decided to try their NYE prix fixe menu. For appetizer, I had the fresh oysters that came with different sauces on top. My fiancé had the French style mussels soaked in white wine. The mussels were cooked just right. It was the first time I saw mussels that weren’t dried up. Even soaking bread in the sauce was yummy! Then, came the butternut squash soup in a little «pot of gold» cup. Surprisingly, the soup was very rich and thick. It came with cinnamon flavored croutons. The portion was perfect. Then came the grapefruit sorbet. Not too sour.
For main entrée, I had the lobster strudel. Interesting I thought. It came with the lobster head and tail. The strudel had luscious chunks of lobster with some veggies. The flaky pastry was baked just right. It came with a side of greens. There was a lemon cream like sauce, but unfortunately it was a little cold. I almost ate the whole plate. My fiancé had the rack of lamb with orzo. The portion of the lamb was huge and so was the bone! For dessert, it came with cake with vanilla and strawberry sauce. Perfect to share. The cake reminded me of tiramisu as it was soaked in some juice. It was a soggy cake, but delicious.
Overall, I was very impressed with the service, food presentation, and quality. I hope to go back again.

Not so impressive. The food was pretty good (I had the duck), and there was a good selection of good-​value Italian wines, but the atmosphere was a little stale, and the service, while friendly, was mildly sloppy. It was an OK night out and certainly, if you’re looking for something decent away from the chaos (for California) of a Friday night on University Ave., then this isn’t a half bad choice, but i’m not really a fan.

Praveen, the owner, and his staff have to be some of the nicest people we’ve ever met. Two weeks ago when we started looking at the menus for Palo Alto dine about town, we realized we couldn’t get to their website and so we chose not to go here (new site at
), wowever we ended up nearby at a different restaurant. When we were done, we caught the awning for Zucca and walked around to check it out. While looking for the menu, one of the staff took us in and we were greeted by everyone working there.
Praveen took us in, talked about how the space was still a work in progress, his various ideas on developing the restaurant, showed us the kitchen, and just made us feel like we were long lost friends. We weren’t even eating here! How incredibly inviting when we were just walking around. So we made a promise to return.
We came back for Dine About Town again, and this time we were prepared. The first nice thing we encountered was everyone remembered us from our brief stint a couple of weeks back. They were so happy to see us, which put us off to a good start. The entrees span many different countries, with pan European being the closest identifier of the selections. The set menu here is a bit different in that it’s geared for two people. doesn’t include dessert but does include a bottle of wine. Two appetizers, two entrees and a bottle of wine for $ 58. That’s a pretty damn good deal. So we chose the following:
— French Cheese & Mushroom Timbale & Fondue
— Scottish Salmon Tartar with Apple and Capers
— Butternut Ravioli, Lemon Cream Sauce, Cranberries, Baby Arugula (added grilled prawns)
— Steak au Poivre, Pomme Frites
The mushrooms came in a round atop this delicious savory cheese sauce consisting of Parmesan, Manchego and goat cheese with some toast points. The sauce was so tasty we took the bread from the basket and started sopping it up. The salmon also came in a similar round but had the added kick of some chili peppers and was distinctive in its spiciness when most fish tartars are very mellow. The prawns were perfectly grilled and complemented the ravioli and sauce well, so we were glad they were added. The steak was cooked a perfect medium rare over a pan sauce and the fries are the crispy shoestring style that had a good crunch to starch ratio.
Obviously since they recognized us we were well taken care of. I still can’t get over the fact how amicable everyone was. The ambiance was rather quiet and the fact that they are off the main path of University ave is a factor. Praveen was talking about redesigning the interior and since their next door neighbors were vacating, they have a small outdoor courtyard in addition to the area out front for al fresco dining. In looking at the previous reviews, they look up and down, and I can see that Zucca is still going through some identity, new restaurant transition issues. However I wish them the best of luck because we’ve had such an impeccable experience in both the food and personal interaction.

I’m going to rate this place 4 stars, though I am on the fence between 3 and 4. I like this place a bit better than i-​tapas, so that’s part of why I’ll give it the boost.
I like the cozy ambience at Zucca. We actually sat at the bar and enjoyed half price tapas, which was very nice. Not all the tapas were great, but you do expect some favorites, and others… meh.
Service was good. Mainly the friendly and chatty bartender who was very much a facsimilie of Joey from ‘Friends’. A good guy, and happy to give his recommendations.
Available wines were noteworthy, with good selections of half bottles and by the glass offerings.
I liked the stuffed Spanish Piquillo Peppers. Others liked the potato-​mushroom croquettes (I don’t eat ‘shrooms).
We also got the vegetarian antipasti, which I would say was solid, and I definitely recommend the Butternut Ravioli. We got a few more items, but they weren’t memorable (literally…I don’t remember what they were…)
We’ll go back, I am sure. We may have been a bit underdressed, as we didn’t know what to expect. Usually that’s ok in PA, but as a hint, they seem to want to be a bit more upscale.

The dinner started out great, we got the potato croquettes with mushrooms (which I highly recommend), then we got the appetizer platter for 2 served with soft pita bread. Then we got one of the specials of the day – porcini encrusted sea bass. I didn’t taste much of the porcinis, but the seabass was a little too overcooked for my tastes. Still, it wasn’t a bad dinner. However, we also ordered a side of orzo pilaf which was absolutely disgusting. It smelled funny when it arrived, and then when we ate it, it tasted like the butter they used was rancid. NOT GOOD. We did complain and then it was taken off of our bill. I think that was what redeemed this place, the service and the good appetizers.

I’ve only tried this place once, dinner on a Thursday night if I remember correctly. I only say this because the place was practically a ghost town with only two or three tables filling up the whole time we were there, well inside the restaurant anyway. I couldn’t see the patio area. Maybe because of this, or in spite of this, we had impeccable service from our waiter, the manager and the chef. The chef came out to our table to ask if he could serve us some specially prepared oysters as we perused our menus, to which we obviously said a resounding YES! He was surprisingly young for a head chef but he continued to present us with some very solid tapas dishes after his delectable oysters. I should mention that he was kind enough to whip up four oysters instead of his first offer of three and that he made me cooked ones and my friend the raw variety just so I could taste them too.
On to the tapas… though our waiter informed us that their sister restaurant in Mountain View, Cascal, had a better ambiance for tapas, Chez Zucca also had great dishes and he proceeded to tell us the specials. We ultimately ordered several small plates and an appetizer portion and salad, all of which were split between us and brought out in the order determined by our waiter. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is at a tapas place NOT to be served your food all at once! And Chez Zucca did not let us down. They were great about plating things on time and swapping out dishes until we had moved through our entire order. My only complaint is that the order of the dishes were a little off. They should have served our hummus and flat bread platter first not last as we really didn’t have room for all that starch at the end of our meal and it was the largest of the dishes we had ordered.
All in all, from the attentive service, relaxed and yet still sophisticated dining room ambiance to the quality of the food and presentation, I would not hesitate to suggest this new treat in Palo Alto. It may have some quirks to work out as it is quite new but I’d wager it’s going to require reservations most nights of the week in a few months so try it before you have to beat the crowds!

The overall look is cute but they’re still working out the kinks. First of all, the dining room chairs are on wheels. This means that if you’re on any kind of angle in the restaurant (which I was) you’ll feel like you have to constantly be pulling yourself back to the table.
The food wasn’t that great. The tapas were nice (and I can see coming here for just tapas and wine) but the chicken wasn’t completely cooked on my caesar salad. The fish was OK but if I’m spending $ 21 on a meal, I want it to be more than just OK.
I really really wanted it to be better since everyone was nice but it just wasn’t for me

Wow. Wow. Wow. Just ate dinner here last night with a friend and we were both blown away by the food — and the value. The place oozes class, with a dimly-​lit glass-​walled décor and snob mod china. Our waiter was very on the ball and had good recommendations. In fact, we had him choose our entire tapas-​style dinner for us except the filet mignon tartare which we had to have — recommended or not. The best tapas dish was the croquettes which came with a fantastic slightly spicy sauce. That filet was wonderful too when eaten with the exotic assortment of artfully-​arrayed toppings they provided. We both enjoyed the Greek yogurt though we were split on the poached mussels. The chicken liver wasn’t a good match for either of us, but the recommended dessert — mixed fruit in some magic cream sauce — made for a perfectly happy ending. As for the price, I just don’t get it: we nearly gorged ourselves but paid only $ 5 for each of the great tapas dishes and got out of there for $ 51 plus tip — and that even included a glass of decent cabernet. It felt like it shold have been double the price. Wow.

I’ve been here twice, once for a few tapas and once for the prix fixe. The service aspires to be excellent, and while it doesn’t quite meet those goals it is still WAY better than most places in town. The décor is quite nice, with a beautiful bar (complete with an ostrich leather trim) and a nice little outdoor area. Now let’s get into the food.
The prices at this place are by far the best in town for this level of quality. Forget the dine about town PA has a couple of times a year, just go here early instead. Tapas are half price from 4 – 6 and the $ 17 (!!!) three-​course prix fixe goes from 5 – 6:30. The tapas are good with the fries especially well done. The prix-​fixe is an amazing value. They have about 7 choices of main courses with a soup or salad and a choice of a couple of desserts.
I had the gazpacho, snapper, and snow pudding, all of which were good to great. They also comped a round of muscat wine after dessert which was a really nice touch.
Palo Alto has a lot of places that are expensive and bad. Lavanda, Blue Chalk, B412, MacArthur Park, The Creamery, and many more are examples of this. Places like Chez Zucca and Mantra are great and people should go out of their way to support them.
Update: They’ve killed the desserts from the Prix Fixe and reduced the number of choices of entrée. The tapas are still great, but it isn’t the same insane value it used to be, only merely a good value.
Second update: a couple friends of mine went and had a less-​than-​stellar experience, with so-​so mussels. I would still strongly recommend the frites as well as the prix fixe…

It is nice to have a new place to go for lunch down here and the bar and wine list look so great I think I need to come back for cocktails. I think I just ordered the wrong thing — I got the lamb wrap — and it was really tasty but it totally made my stomach upset. The ambiance is really cute and they have outdoor tables which is also nice.
There is a lot of yummy stuff to pick from on the menu so I will definitely be back soon to give it another shot.

another dining/​lounge concept comes to palo alto. i think this one is better executed than mantra, for eg.
it’s got a pan european emphasis, and the menu is sort of disorganized (not split into small plates or salads or entrees).
everything we had was delicious. i had a tartare starter. a little round of ground beef seasoned with the normal capers and with a surprising juniper berry kick that went will my boyfriend’s gin martini. the quail egg yolk was pristine. entrée was very large so we split it– braised oxtail, seared scallops on top of mushroom risotto. nice rendition of surf and turf, though plating was a little haphazard looking. just as succulent as it sounds.
the décor is a bit stark, but elegant. we went during the cold snap and they had space heaters. too bad their heating sucks, but at least they tried to provide the patrons with some comfort.
this place clearly has good food– let’s get some more patrons in there!
edit: went back– everything is good, but nothing is insanely good. this falls into the b412 category of food for me. way better than average food, way higher than average prices… but pretty much the same sort of medium to high end that you can find up and down the peninsula. does not stand out.

Owners Mehmet and Pravin have moved a little north of Mt. View and opened another Zucca. This one has more of a lounge atomosphere. There are chaises for literally lounging on as well as great wine selection, cozy bar and a romantic atomosphere for dining in the back. The restaurant is divided into 2 parts: lounge/​bar and dining area.
The food is Mediterranean/​Gallic that is nicely presented and well thought out. There are nice small plates and a nice sampling of entrees. We tried pasta, fish and meat and all were good.
The only drawbacks were limited street parking (you need to park at the civic center/​police station) and the newness factor (kink factor). I predict a five star rating in future. Highly recommended.