ZAZA Cafe and Nail Spa
Down a lane to the side of the Pearl Craft Market just past the Hong Mei Road pedestrian street lies ZAZA Cafe and Nail Spa.
Outside there is a nice decking area and inside, on the ground floor, there is a small chic café serving California style cuisine in a nice relaxed atmosphere and upstairs there is a nail spa.
The American chef, who trained under famous TV chef Martin Yang, prepared some very light, elegant and tasty dishes for us. Having an American chef is reflected in the quality and standard of the food. He is happy to cater for a wide range of tastes and to accommodate specific requirements be they vegetarian or even vegan.
Most of the customers at the spa upstairs are obviously women and therefore most of the customers in the restaurant downstairs are also women and the menu mainly caters to their tastes. The dishes have a very light and healthy feel. You won’t find any 32oz steaks on the menu.
We began the meal with a nice creamy tomato soup with cheese toasted fingers. Then we moved on to Ahi tuna poke which is a Hawian dish containing a combination of peppers and cucumbers with a light soya sauce. This is a very nice little dish and perfect for two to share.
For the main course I had a salmon fillet with sautéed sweetcorn and squash. The salmon was of the highest quality and excellent flavour. However, the best thing about this dish was the sautéed sweetcorn and squash. The two different flavours mix with each other to produce a sweet and “moreish” combination.
My friend had chicken pasta with a creamy white sauce and sun dried tomatoes. If fish isn’t your thing then I would highly recommend this pasta dish, as it too was excellent. Its light and creamy texture left the mouth watering.
This was all washed down with a very nice and healthy banana and strawberry smoothie. The café has a selection of many different equally healthy smoothies to choose from.
Although the food cannot be faulted I got the impression that the café has a bit of an identity crisis. Is it a kitchen for the spa upstairs or is it a café in its own right? As the café is attached to the spa upstairs it caters for customers of the spa as much as it does customers just coming in for a meal, if not more so. This has left its impression on the menu. Some of the dishes are less designed to be eaten as a sit down meal but more as finger food to be nibbled as you have your nails done.
This café is a great healthy option and is something a little different from all the other restaurants on Hong Mei Road. It’s also very reasonably priced. The main courses are about 40-60RMB. I left full, satisfied and, because of how light the food was, not at all bloated.
David Evans
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