Ziziki's

Went to Ziziki’s at Travis Walk last night for A’s birthday. Ziziki’s is one of A’s favorite restaurants so I wasn’t surprised when she picked it for her birthday dinner location. I just have never felt the Ziziki’s love. I don’t know what it is. Maybe just going to Travis Walk makes me miss its glory days. You remember those days, back when you’d partied til the wee hours at Sipango’s or drank mojitos on Wednesday at Samba Room, or had a great meal and some wine at Il Sole (so miss their calamari). Now we are stuck with Trece and Villa-O which are just so, eh.

I don’t know what it is. Or maybe, I do.

Here’s the thing about Ziziki’s – I order the exact same thing there each and every time I go – lamb salad. It’s a good greek salad covered in well seasoned and (usually) tender lamb, but that’s my order. When I mentioned that to the folks at my table, I was amazed at how many said the exact same thing – when they come to Ziziki’s they don’t know why they bother to look at the menu because they always order the same thing. Now, not everybody orders the same thing I do. Some people order the Chicken Slouvlaki. Others order the Salmon Salad. But they all have their “dish” and that’s what they order. And maybe that’s what Ziziki’s is – the place where you go when you have that craving for that one thing. And that’s, okay, I guess. I just prefer to be more adventuresome when I dine, that’s all.

We started with some appetizers. Hummus and Dolmades. Ziziki’s has artichoke hummus which is good but I really prefer regular old chickpea hummus, myself. The dolmades were good but, wow, were they garlicky. (More on that in a moment.)

My lamb salad was as it always is and forever shall be. They did go a little lean on the salad toppings. I think I had 2 grape tomatoes, a couple of olives and a smattering of feta. I forgot to tell them no onions (I like cooked onions but not raw ones), but they were cut so thin I hardly noticed them. But I did get a generous helping of well-seasoned and tender lamb which was much appreciated because the last time I ate at Ziziki’s the lamb on my lamb salad (did you think I had ordered something else?) was really tough. 3 others at my table ordered the salmon salad, which is the lamb salad, 86 the lamb, and substitute salmon. (Give you 2 guess what the chicken salad consists of). They all made happy plates but when our server laid their plates down, I thought salmon had a bit of a fishy smell. K had her usual order -- the chicken slouvlaki with salad instead of potatoes -- which is basically the chicken salad but with the chicken in a pita and the salad on the side. Hmmm, maybe that’s why everyone orders the same thing every time they go to Ziziki’s? Their menu is basically different variations of the same thing. Yawn.

So I went home, got ready for bed, brushed my teeth, flossed (see Dr. Cortez, I do floss sometimes) and gargled with some mouthwash. Why is she telling us this, you ask. Well, despite my impeccable dental hygeine, I woke up with the biggest case of garlic breath I think I have ever had in my life. That’s great if you want to keep the vampires away but not so great if you want a good morning kiss from your sweetie. Thank goodness I'm single, right? (see Mom, it does have it's advantages). But this was no ordinary garlic breath. After another round of brushing, flossing and gargling, it was still there and I had a plane to catch. Great, I'm going to be banned from Southwest for stinky breath. Luckily, I found the cure for Ziziki garlic breath at Love Field -- Cinnabon coffee. Just another handy dandy little tip for living from WiDiDallas.

Cheers!

And btw, thanks to all who are now "liking" WiDiDallas on facebook. It's a work in progress but I really appreciate. it.