Zaoka – Paris – France Visit Review: 11

Let's be serious...

- Christina Huang/Guo

Dear restaurateur friends, a word of advice: be as afraid of positive opinions as of very negative ones. And stop running after the crazy rave. Having recently read about a restaurant at the discreet front of which I spent regularly, I thought I had to try. Result? Nothing more.

Zaoka Façade

Zaoka Couverts

So obviously, it’s an “exotic” restaurant. It therefore benefits from a priori from some columnists who, between feeling of incompetence to evaluate a foreign cuisine, the well-thought of not being able to criticize everything that is foreigner, the hope of being the Michelin guide by discovering the improbable awesome canteen of street-food deserving three stars, you arrives to lay lines outrageously apologetic on a plate which, without being bad, is only the result of a normal and honest job.

So it’s the case of Zaoka, a nice 16-seat canteen that stunned one of my colleagues.

Two menus at 19 and 22 euros.

Zaoka Carte

Three mini (but really mini!) starters: cups of purple cabbage Espelette pepper, a tartar of apples and beets and finally a shitake broth. It tastes but so small that it is more of an appetizer. We are amused by the carved fish at the bottom of a cup. We are waiting impatiently for the rest.

Zaoka Entrées

Zaoka Fond bol de soupe

The famous Taiwanese Gua Bao for which some would make you cross all Paris. A little lukewarm, no specific taste.

Zaoka Guabao

Let’s hope that the pork braised and cooked for several hours will excite us a little more. The only real worry is that with just one piece of meat, you barely have time to taste. Three small bites and then…leave. It remains the plaster of rice and lamb’s lettuce to fill your stomach.

Zaoka Porc mijoté au riz

All this tastes good and is well cooked and we could still say that we will not regret the trip too much. But the “specialty” of the chef, slices of beef, again cooked several hours in the stew, offers a result of great banality taste and a texture that can almost be described as failed. Meat a little dry despite hours of beating, it takes the cake!

Zaoka Boeuf mijoté

And the Tai-Pei Sunrise salad is nothing like a sunrise over the honeymoon bay.

Zaoka Salade TaïPei Sunrise

Dessert is the most interesting product technically but not very finished. We understand the desire to balance the acidity of citrus with an original tea in the blood orange flash, but the balance is not there. As for Tatin whipped cream and pepper, it’s nice.

Zaoka Eclair orange sanguine

Zaoka Tatin crème fouettée et poivre

So when I read lines like “melted pork belly crying”, “best gua bao of the capital”, “nugget” or “fantastic”, when I come out I tell myself I smell a rat.

So, dear restaurateurs friends, remember that this type of articles, if they fill you briefly your establishment, also make a disappointment with the real customers, those who come back, those who make your base of business because they will become regulars. Those who will talk about you to their friends.

But these customers, even if they basically do not “badly eaten”, hate the disappointment. And as the raven, caught by beautiful words of fox, by slamming the door of your establishment, they will swear, but a little late, that one will not take them again more …

In conclusion, it’s a nice neighborhood restaurant but do not cross especially Paris especially to restore you there.

Bill of 140 euros for 4. 20% too expensive.