Cafe Zola

Cafe Zola has been in AA since 1996 - launched by husband and wife duo Hediye Batu and Alan Zakalik who are of Polish and Turkish descent, respectively so they fused their backgrounds with their inspiration for pretty dang tasty food.

Apparently back in the day, Cafe Zola was THE place for business meetings. While it seems relatively packed on weekends these days, I don't know about suits and limos anymore.

OK for the food --

AA Restaurant Week was what brought me in! So I had an app + entree:

*Grilled Radicchio + Kale with Orange + Hazelnuts w/Pomegranate Vinaigrette - this was a super lovely warm salad. Dressed perfectly and really tasty! The kale was the lacinato/dino kind so just held up so nicely. The radicchio was cut into little squares for easy eating. The hazelnuts were generous and added some great texture. On the regular menu, this sits in the specials so it sounds like I need to go back ASAP for this!!

*Shakshuka (sautéed peppers, onions, cumin and herbs and baked with french feta and olives, two organic eggs) - I'm used to pretty bare bones shakshukas with just some tomato sauce basically and this was a really nice filling version. It had lots of peppers & onions.
This is served with either white bread or rye. The rye was the way to go forsure!

FYI - they also have a second location called Zola Bistro in the Arbor Hills shopping plaza. I'll have to stop in when I'm there!

So we visited Cafe Zola on Mother's Day, which you would expect to be fairly crazy. So I'm taking that into account in this review but unfortunately, this place wasn't even equipped for what they faced so I wanted to make sure I highlighted some of the problems so they can get things right for the next holiday.

Here are some of the things we noticed:
- We had made a 12:45pm reservation about a month ahead, so we were surprised when their planning was still so poor that they were about 20 minutes behind our time seating us.
- We ordered fairly quickly...I got the roasted mushroom toast and my wife ordered some type of special goat cheese frittata with potatoes, and we got just water to drink. As expected, it took a while for our food to arrive but my rating is based on a few things in particular: our server seemed to pretty much disappear after we ordered; the potatoes that my wife was supposed to get, never arrived...our server said that they went to another table, but then he never ever did get them to us before we left even though they were promised a couple of times; our water glasses were filled when we sat down, but then left dry for forever, even despite multiple requests. The same occurred for the coffee cups that the couple we dined with had ordered.
- My wife's dish was ok, but pretty ordinary given the price. My dish, however, was pretty good although the poached eggs were overcooked.

Bottom line: Cafe Zola seemed to have some potential, but they need to up their game if they want to not turn off people from returning.

We went for lunch on Monday, April 8th before we headed to the airport. I let my daughter find a place to eat and apparently she chose this place from a tik tok review but I don't know how it has scored good reviews. So we got there about 11:45 and there were about 4 tables with people at them and about 5 tables that had not been cleared of the dishes yet from the previous patrons. We were seated right away as the restaurant wasn't busy. I noticed an older couple sitting behind us and they had their menus. The server Alexandar came over and introduced himself to us and asked if we wanted anything to drink. We ordered still water and my daughter ordered an orange juice. Alexander came back a few minutes later with our drinks (a bottle of still water) and a glass of orange juice and then was going to go away but I said that we were ready to order. I did notice that no one seemed to stop by the table behind us the whole time and ask the older couple if they were ready to order. We placed our order, my daughter ordered the Kobe Burger medium well and I ordered the grilled chicken sandwich with no mayo. While we were ordering I noticed the couple behind us get up and leave as I take it they were tired of waiting.

After we placed our order, more people started to come in and the hostess sat them at tables around the ones that still had not been cleared. We ended up waiting 40 minutes for our food and during this time the server only came over once to check on us and also during this whole time none of the tables in the restaurant were being cleared when people finished. So if there was no busboy for the day, wouldn't you think the servers or hostess could clean up the dishes and put them in a bin for the kitchen. When our food finally came, my daughters burger was not cooked to medium well as requested it was more on the medium rare side and my chicken sandwich was missing the cheese that is was supposed to have and the bread was so thick you could barely taste the chicken so I ended up taking off the top part of the bread. We did order more water so the server brought a 2nd bottle.

We finished and it took a while for Alexander to bring the bill so when he did I didn't really look at it as we were running late I just paid and we left but I did notice that it came to $73.09 and I thought it was was over priced for what we had for lunch. Now one of the reasons I decided to write this review now is because I just looked at the receipt and we were charged $5 for panna water + $5 for panna water so I am assuming he charged us for each glass we had even though we had 1 bottle at first so that first bottle was $10 and then at the bottom of my receipt I just noticed that he charged us $9 for panna water so that must of been the 2nd bottle of still water. $19 for 2 bottles of STILL WATER!! THAT IS ABSOLUTLY OUTRADEOUS!! We live in California and not even the Beverly Hills restaurants charge that for still water, sparkling yes but not still. You can buy more than a whole case for that amount. I gave it a 1 star because the server was friendly. But as far as the food quality it was not worth rating and for what they charge for water I would not recommend anyone going there. Not to mention they can't even clean the plates off a table when people leave, we were there for just over an hour and there were tables that had dishes on when we walked in and still had those dishes on when we left. I travel quite frequently around both the US and Europe and I am so surprised this restaurant is even in business. I feel like I got ripped off. I should almost contact my credit card company.

Went here for a leisurely dinner to catch up with a friend. The service was very friendly and helpful, but leisurely.

We started with the Goat Cheese and fig jam appetizer. This is one of my favorite flavor combinations and the crostini that came with it was very nice. Our waiter thoughtfully gave us extra crostini without us asking.

We had the Kale Salad with lemon, Serrano chiles, and mint and it was very good. We also had the Bodrum Shrimp with Raki. This was flavorful, but the shrimp were overcooked and tough. We finished with the blueberry cobbler which was very good.

Enjoyed drinks, apps and dessert at Cafe Zola on a trip to AA to Shinola for a watch battery change. Loved the jalapeño spiced martini! Apps were great and extra crostini with hummus were appreciated . We shared the ice cream filled eclairs with cafe-made Chocolate ganache atop- the dessert was the hit!

We visited Cafe Zola during the summer--off season from the other college related reviews. The day was pleasant and we chose to sit outside on their picnic benches adorned with umbrellas.

Overall the food was delicious and the service was solid. The smoked salmon omelet was literally off the charts good! SO rich, however, I'm glad we split it and enjoyed the other sides that came with our meals.

My only complaint was the bacon. It looked great, crispy and thick cut...but the OVERWHELMING smoke flavor absolutely ruined it. To the point I only ate two bites because I started feeling nauseous. I'm not sure this is a fluke moment; I sure hope so.

I have been to Café Zola twice, once for lunch, and once for brunch. I like the place, service is good, and the ambiance is nice and relaxing. Food is pretty good. However, it's overpriced relative to other restaurants in AA.

My friend ordered the crab cake Benedict and there was only one crab cake and one poached egg, which was a weird sight considering how pricey it was. Most places would have a crab cake and egg on each piece of bread. My other friend ordered the shashuka and there was no bread with it. CZ felt like it was missing a touch especially considering how pricey it was.

While I could see myself coming back, it wouldn't be the first place I'd think about.

I want to love Cafe Zola - the space is adorable and the service is always friendly. But every time I go, I am underwhelmed by the food and shocked by the price.

The only thing I've ever had here that pleasantly surprised me was a matcha tahini latte. Their shakshuka was lacking flavor and served with some sort of multigrain toast that did not seem at all authentic. Their ricotta pancakes were fine, but certainly not worth $20. All of the portion sizes are small compare to the menu prices.

Ann Arbor lacks nicer brunch spots so I wish I liked Zola more. I just can't justify paying NYC prices for mediocre Midwest brunch.

If you can justify spending $100+ on a breakfast for two that doesn't include any alcohol, then this is the place to do it because the food is amazing and the restaurant is extremely pleasant to dine in.

We just stopped in for drinks. Our server was friendly. We were greeted promptly and sat. We came here over the summer so I already knew what cocktail I was planning to order.
The French Ginger. It's delicious and refreshing. With a wonderful fresh lemony taste. The only drawback is that every time I order them they are never as chilled as they should be. I often have to order ice which no one wants to put ice in Prosecco yet drinking it warm isn't great either. My husband has the Bloody Mary which he thought was great. Not too spicy, unless you order the spicy version. Served with two olives and celery. Bacon is an additional $2 if that's your thing.

I think they have a great menu. I saw so many dishes I would love to try. Unfortunately; as someone with food allergies/sensitivies I didn't see anything that would work for me. I will be back for drinks though