Zest- Revisit (Lunch)

*****ZEST IS OUT OF BUSINESS******

I have wanted to go back to Zest ever since we last went for dinner (and it wasn’t so great). I always hear people say such good things about the breakfast and lunch, and I have had a pretty good lunch before, but have been anxious to get back. A friend suggested it for lunch one day, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity for a re-review.

I will say the breakfast items were really tempting and since I was in an eggy kind of mood, I did a sort of crossover thing and got one of the quiches of the day. I have this problem- I like to order quiche and I have had some really good ones, but seems like they always tend to be too poofy/eggy and not have enough of the seasoning ingredients. Finally, I got a really good slice of quiche! Zest’s quiche of the day had mushrooms, goat cheese and greens mixed in. I really liked it. And with every single bite, you got a fair amount of the ingredients. There were a lot of the mushrooms and a nice dollop of the goat cheese one top. It was a thin style quiche, it almost looked like a tart. The crust was very flakey and tasty—it was so flaky when you cut a bite of the end, it sort of just fell to flakey pieces... which is a good thing!

You also get a choice of a side with the quiche—fruit, a mixed green salad or a cup of the soup of the day. I went with the soup of the day because it sounded yummy--roasted cauliflower. And I was right, it was yummy. It was a puree type soup, but not so smooth that you couldn’t taste the texture of the cauliflower. And you could see different color tones in there to know that there really was truly roasted cauliflower in it. It was served with a piece of seeded cracker/flatbread which was nice to dunk. The flavor of the soup and the quiche were both very good. And I liked that the tanginess of the goat cheese made the meal not feel just purely rich. The only thing that was a let down on the plate was the little pile of greens on the side—I am assuming they were just there as a garnish, as I don’t think there was any dressing on them, but I didn’t even try them because they were so wilty. They looked like they had been put on the plate quite awhile ago. If you are gonna throw some greens on there, make ‘em fresh and dress ‘em a little please.

But speaking of rich, my friend had an omelet and was raving about her side of cowboy potatoes. I had never had them before, and she offered me some, so I tried them. Wow, those things are really tasty (and super rich!). They are chunks of potatoes covered in a creamy cheesy sauce of some sort. Really good, but there is no way I could eat a whole side of them. Well, maybe….

All in all, I was very pleased with this lunch experience at Zest. The food was good, and the service was extremely attentive and quick. The place is busy, but not so busy you have to wait. I would really like to go back and get the breakfast panini, with scrambled eggs, white cheddar, bacon, tomatoes and dijonnaise. Sounds delish as well.

I know Zest has a lot of fans out there, would love to hear your favorite dishes…

Zest Exciting Food Creations
1134 E 54th Street
Indy 46220
317-466-1853
www.zestexcitingfood.com