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(COOLLIST) the new ZuZu review

Synopsis: Ben goes to a new restaurant and doesn't die.  If you live
in Austin, you might want to visit it too.

This afternoon I ran some errands, nothing too unusual.  I needed to
replace a bed frame that had finally given out, plus I wanted to find
some holiday gifts.  After I finished, I decided to take a late lunch
(4PM), so I went to a place I'd not visited, ZuZu on Bee Caves Rd.

I had travelled by this restaurant about a month earlier after dining
with a friend.  We were in a silly mood, so we both started saying
ZuZu over and over and laughing.  I did a web search on it the next
day and found out it was a Mexican chain out of Houston.  The menu
looked appealing, with a variety of handmade, healthy dishes.

My visit proved to be a bit different that I expected.  ZuZu isn't a
sit down restaurant; you order from a counter then find a seat.  It's
decor was sparse, consisting of white, diner-style tables and mostly
bare walls.  I chose a bean and cheese burrito platter with a garden
salad and Mexican rice ($4.50) for my meal; it arrived about five
minutes later.  The salad was little more than romaine lettuce with a
light oil and vinegar, the rice was tasty but a little dry, but the
burrito was quite good--a combination of black beans, rice, and cheese
with a fresh scoop of guacamole on top.  The portions weren't big, but
they weren't miniscule either.

After eating the burrito, I ordered an endless bucket of tortilla
chips ($.50) so I could munch on something while reading my book.  I
got to try all three salsas they had available.  Two were red salsas,
a finely chopped tomato and chile mix and a watery diced pepper combo;
the other was a thin salsa verde.  None really felt appropriate for
the hard, thick, and flavorless chips, although the salsa verde did go
great as a tangy topping for my burrito.

I will return to ZuZu sometime soon, probably bringing someone with
me.  They seemed to have a good selection of vegetarian dishes, and
some of the manager's specials looked interesting.  There is another
Austin location off Mopac near Far West road which might have a better
atmosphere--I'll have to stop by sometime.  Its not quite the value of
Taco Cabana, but its lighter selection is a nice alternative.

Non-review note: I'm going to be revamping the (CL) archives over the
next few days, turning it into a well-organized reference to back
issues.  I think there is some useful stuff among my past writings,
but the archives currently don't do a good job in pointing to where
information and opinion is.  If you have any feedback about it, let me
know.

-- 
Benjamin L. Combee (combee@techwood.org) <URL:http://www.yak.net/combee/>
that public-access-TV-making, video-game-collecting, cryptography-pushing,
World-Wide-Web-explaining, fem-music-loving, bad-pun-creating guy in Austin
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