If you are familiar with Duo, a steak house restaurant beside Conti’s, across Chelsea in Serendra, and you like it, then surely you will like Zuni. By the same group that runs one of my favourite restaurants, in comes Zuni. The establishment has been around for quite some time now. I remember having dinner there when it just opened but it was not until a few days ago that I was able to return after my first visit.

Relatively, my family doesn’t eat much. We order food for sharing even if conventionally, dishes in this casual upscale dining place are served per person. First we had the Tessie Tomas Salad (Php 650 / Php 820) (also described in my Duo post) which will remain to be one of my favourites. The salad was composed of mixed greens, 3 pieces of deveined shrimps, shitake mushrooms and smoked salmon (normally mixed with the salad but we had ours on the side) topped with creamy balsamic dressing and shaved parmesan cheese. This salad was a burst of flavours from the saltiness of the salmon and cheese, slight sweetness and pepper-y taste of the shrimps, slightly bitterness of the fresh greens to that sour hint of the dressing. It was salad made perfect. The only thing that I did not like about this salad was its price. It has gone up from the last time I blogged. It’s pretty surprising as this salad started only at somewhere around Php 300.

The US Angus Tenderloin (Php 780 – 120g / Php 1175 – 200g] came out next. We had the steak cooked in medium doneness. There was an option to choose your sauce and we chose their wild mushroom. The meat was perfectly grilled. The soft slight pink color in the inside of the meat and how my knife glided easily to it were indicators of that. The wild mushroom sauce tasted like an ordinary gravy to me but with mushrooms although the meat can be enjoyed at its plain moist form. Choices of sides were available at Php 60 per serving.

When I am having a meal with my family, there always has to be a pork dish for my Mom. And so for this dinner, we ordered the Barbecued Baby Back Ribs (Php 600). When we inquired, we were informed that this was good for one person, but for us with small stomachs (okay fine then, with my parents’ small stomachs), this was definitely good for sharing. The meat was tender, slightly falling off the bones and moist too, although I did not find the taste of the barbecue sauce to be extraordinary. The dish came with a serving of rice and a side of salad.

We had the Linguine and Shrimps (Php 395) for our pasta. It was cooked al dente. It was said to be sautéed in olive oil and garlic but it came out with too much pepper. The menu also specified this having some feta cheese but when it came out, parmesan cheese was served on the side. I had to ask for the feta before they brought it out. I wonder if they do that to their other customers.

Overall, the service was good. The servers were attentive and approachable. I loved the chic casual vibe of the place as well. I suggest you go there if you are looking for really good steaks at not so exorbitant prices, and of course for the Tessie Tomas Salad.

Zuni Restaurant and Wine Bar
G/F Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center
Legaspi Village Makati City
(63 2) 4673931 / (63 2) 7570361-62

Tags: beef, ribs, salad, tenderloin, tessie tomas