Zach’s Café

Wanting to go to a restaurant that I had never been to in the Valley, we picked Zach’s Café. We had received numerous coupons and I had always nixed going there because it is Italian, not one of my favorite foods. However, on this particular day I looked at the menu and decided it was time to use the coupon.

Zach’s is on Ventura between Vineland and Lankersheim in Studio City. It is sort of hidden away from the road with its parking lot in front of the restaurant. Although it was a beautiful day, we decided to eat indoors. The restaurant is rustic looking with wood slat floors. We were immediately seated and, although I had difficulty understand the guy who was going to serve our drinks and he had difficulty understanding me as well, we did get our drinks quickly and correctly and they were refilled at the proper times. I was happily surprised at the menu which is very extensive. What really surprised me was the very reasonably priced lunch menu, the dinner menu which had smaller sizes of their regular dishes at smaller prices and the rather extensive vegetarian menu.

I had already decided I wanted lasagna with meat. They have one with only vegetables as well. First we were served six hot cheese garlic rolls that were just wonderful. I had to be careful not to eat more than one so I would have room for my food (I did eat another one for dessert). The luncheon came with a choice of various soups or salad. If you have been reading my reviews, you will know that I picked soup – minestrone this time. Minestrone is not usually a soup I would pick as they also had the house specialty, chicken vegetable, but it sounded so good. It is vegetarian blend of beans and veggies with a touch of pasta and not much, if any, oregano. It was delicious, thick like Mom used to make. A bowl of this would be a meal. My lasagna was in its own casserole type dish. It is correctly described as layers of noodles with ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese covered with a ground beef meat sauce. I finished every last bit.

BK had trouble deciding what she wanted. Originally, she was going to rely on her old stand-by, spaghetti and meatballs, but, after perusing the menu, she decided on their specialty, chicken parmigiana. All their chicken dishes are made with skinless, boneless chicken breasts. Her dish had a very nice size breaded chicken breast (this can also be grilled), melted cheeses and marinara sauce with a side of spaghetti. I tasted the chicken and found it to be crisp, moist and extremely tasty. BK also had a clean plate when she finished.

My lasagna cost $8.00 and the chicken parmigiana cost $9.00. We showed the waiter the coupon we had brought in before we ordered and he pointed out that we had not read it correctly because it was only good for dinner. However, he said he would honor the coupon anyway. That was nice. At the dinner hour, most meals come in two sizes and I must say that both of us had plenty to eat with the smaller size. If you like Italian food, I highly recommend Zach’s Café at 10820 Ventura Blvd.