Zola - excellent French restaurant debuts in Palo Alto
Zola just opened in downtown Palo Alto. Finally, I hoped, a foodie French place, worthy of taking my burgundies to, by the chef and wine connoisseur Guillaume Bienaime, previously of Marche in Menlo Park, a restaurant that was renowned among wine geeks for hosting great wine dinners. After 3 hours at Zola and sampling a dozen dishes, I am thoroughly satisfied. It was creative seasonal French cooking, comfort food, I'd say, taken to the next level. Not fancy gastronomic, but rather very very tasty. The style of food gave me a feeling like Pizzeria Delfina (of course, that's Italian) and Marlowe (California cuisine), in San Francisco, but with more selection, and it's French - my favorite! This will be my go-to place in Palo Alto, thank goodness, finally! It's not cheap, but not too expensive either, for the quality you get. Here are some quick snapshots of what we had. Everything was delicious, and paired with wine very well! We sampled a variety of appetizers w...