Zia's, Hill Neighborhood - Visited January 2015

Today my wife decided we should go visit a restaurant we had not visited since they had a fire and had to remodel - Zia's "On the Hill"! Since we had not been there in a while we had to remember how to get there. We turned left off Hampton onto Wilson, but then we remembered that Wilson dead ends on Sublette so that you must go around some other streets to go back down Wilson the other way to make it to the restaurant (on the corner of Wilson and Edwards.) Luckily we found some street parking not too far down Wilson so we had a short walk, but as we approached the corner we noticed a very large tour bus parked on Edwards close to the intersection. When we entered the front door, our concerns were realized - the people from the tour bus were dining there and we would have to wait about 30 minutes for a table.

We decided to stay and that gave us time to chat at a table near the bar and peruse the menu on my son's smartphone (the HTC One M8 he bought shortly after Christmas.) They have a lengthy lunch menu of Italian items from pasta, sandwiches and entrees, and I was having a difficult time deciding. I noticed a number of seafood items there and that put me in the mood for something with seafood. I kept switching from the Tutto Mare to the Pasta Con Pesce, and finally decided on the latter since I was betting it was more flavorful. My son selected the Mostaccioli Al Forno, my wife selected the Spiedini Prosciutto, and my mother-in-law selected the Brochettes. We had decided we would also order an order of Toasted Ravioli for an appetizer and we were all ready to order by the time our table was ready.

We were seated at a table near the rear of the first dining area, and sure enough, every table was taken. The dining area is reasonably large but it is packed with tables and I was sitting next to a baby in a carrier (who slept through most of the meal and was quiet throughout our meal.) We were greeted by our waiter, Rich, who was obviously quite busy but tried to be pleasant. He took our drink orders and we went ahead and gave him our full orders since we knew the place was busy.  When he returned with our drinks he only brought sugar and saccharine as sweetener for the iced tea which always bugs my wife.  He actually came back not too much later with some bread, but we noticed we did not have any plates to put it on. He came back a few minutes later with some butter, but again, no plates! My son had not had breakfast and since he was so famished, he took a piece of bread, plopped his napkin on the table in front of him and buttered his bread on his napkin and ate it. When we next spotted Rich he had our toasted raviolis but still no plates. We asked him for some plates and he said he would get some. So finally we all had plates to eat our bread and raviolis.

The Italian bread was good but nothing special, but the raviolis were much better than average. They tasted fresh, with the meat filling still loose and juicy, and the marinara sauce also tasted fresh, and obviously made in house (not like the frozen ones we eat at home with sauce from a jar.) They gave us ten raviolis, which would not have divided too evenly among 4 people normally, but we ended up dividing them in an ascending number sequence: 1 for my mother-in-law, 2 for my wife, 3 for myself and 4 for my always hungry son. As we were finishing those off the salads arrived which were simple but also very tasty. They used unspecified "Italian cheese" which we guessed was mozzarella or provel and a sweet Italian house dressing that livened up the salad very well. It reminded us of the salads from the old Krieger's restaurants which have all seemed to have disappeared.

As we finished off our salads Rich returned with our main entrees. We noticed the portions for the pastas were pretty generous, but the two chicken entrees were not as large, along with their sides of pasta. I was lucky enough to taste all four dishes, all of which were good, but some more than others. The best was probably my son's Mostaccioli Al Forno, where the melted cheese had a delicious flavor that went well with the cream sauce, bacon and the pasta. The breadcrumbs added a nice texture and it was very good. I also liked my Pasta Con Pesce where the seafood tasted mild but fresh and contrasted well against the tangy, cheesy and creamy sauce. I could tell it was loaded with real cream, but my arteries could survive it for one day. My wife's Spiedini Prosciutto was also quite tasty, although not as good as the pastas. I liked the sauce and the cheese, but the chicken may not have been the best cut and may have been slightly overcooked. The Brochettes also seemed a bit overcooked and my mother-in-law thought it was too fatty. It was also not too flavorful, but from reading its description it was not something I ever would have ordered myself.

The timing of the meal was actually pretty good considering how busy they were, but our poor waiter, Rich, was running around like the proverbial headless chicken. He tried to be cordial and pleasant, but is was obvious he was trying to be two or three places at the same time. He did not mind letting us box up our own leftovers, and we ended up with four boxes left of goodies to take home for lunch tomorrow. On the ride home our car smelled like a delicious Italian restaurant which was not a bad thing. So our trip to Zia's was a good meal, and despite them being overly busy and crowded, the food was still delicious. It is always fun to visit the Hill and grab some genuine Italian cuisine in a charming city neighborhood. I am sure we will be back again some time, and it will hopefully not be in a few years.