For those of you who do not know us, Gus is my better half. He works hard to support me as I struggle through the trials and tribulations of law school. Most days, I enjoy cooking for the two of us, but occasionally, I do not have the time or energy to make a healthy, delicious meal. When that happens, we go through the process of deciding where we should eat out in the thriving metropolis of Valparaiso. When we first moved to town, we had no clue that there were incredibly diverse dining choices available in town. Although Applebees and Fridays are great to go to on occasion, I soon tired of their selection, and we began to branch out to locally owned restaurants. One place I am happy to have discovered is Mezza, at 607 E. Lincolnway.
The word “mezza” actually means appetizer in Arabic. When you eat at this restaurant, you will quickly discover that the menu consists primarily of various “tapas,” or appetizers. Some of the menu options include an order
of five cold dishes and five warm for a table to share at approximately sixteen dollars a person. This may seem a bit pricey for appetizers, but once the food starts coming, you aren’t likely to miss having a main course. The only problem with this particular option is that the entire table has to agree on which ten items to order. This can be difficult, but it is more cost-effective if you can make it work. It also assists in the flow of the meal, as the food comes out in courses, and it is not particularly pleasant if some people at the table have to sit and watch the rest of the table eat because they did not order anything for the first course .
When evaluating a restaurant, I
find that there is a simple test for deciding whether I would recommend eating there to a friend or not. This test consists of four elements, none of which are decisive in my conclusion. These elements are: ambiance, service, cost and taste. In considering ambiance, I look to the decor, the table arrangements, whether there is music, and whether there is entertainment available. When I evaluate the service, I primarily consider both the speed and the accuracy of the wait-staff, but I must also consider whether the server is friendly and charismatic as well. Cost seems like a relatively simple factor, and it is, but quality plays a part in that consideration; I am unwilling to pay much at all if I feel the quality is low, but I may be willing to splurge on a high-quality restaurant experience. The final element in my analysis, taste, is given the most weight in my balance of elements. I may be willing to put up with poor service, bad ambiance, and high costs if the food is incredible, but if it is so-so, any one of the other factors may tip the balance away from the restaurant. In considering taste, I look to more than whether I simply enjoy the meal, but also to whether it is original or unusual. In other words, I want the food to be the main reason why I chose a particular restaurant. The application of this test to Mezza is as follows:
1. Ambiance
The decor of Mezza is lovely. There are shades of blue and yellow throughout the restaurant, suggesting the feel of the Mediterranean, without being obvious or overdone. The table arrangements are overcrowded indoors, but wonderful outdoors, where there are garden lights and tiki-torches burning. There was no noticeable music playing while I was in the restaurant, but there
was the exciting entertainment of a fire-dancer, Ian Jahnz. It was an extremely diverse way to spend an evening, and infinitely added to my experience at Mezza. Overall, the ambiance of Mezza is excellent, with the available entertainment and pleasant decor outweighing the crowded feel.
2. Service
The one problem I encountered while eating at Mezza was that the service was slightly slow. We arrived at the restaurant for our 7:30 reservation, but did not get menus until 8:00, and
were not served our first appetizers until around 9:00. However, we did watch the dancer during part of that time and later discovered that there was a shortage of wait-staff on that particular evening. Therefore it is uncertain whether service would always be so slow at the restaurant. Whether or not that is the case, I would recommend making sure you have the evening free if you are having dinner at Mezza, just in case.
3. Cost
As I stated above, you can share ten menu items for a price of sixteen dollars a person, which is not overly expensive for the food that is served at Mezza. If you choose to take a different route in ordering, the appetizers
range from five dollars to ten, depending on what they involve. Entree items are generally around fifteen dollars, and sandwiches are no more than eight dollars. However, Mezza does offer a student discount for lunches, which is any of six sandwiches with a beverage for only six dollars.
4. Taste
Our meal began with hummus, a spread made of chickpeas, and baba ganouj, a spread made from mashed eggplant, which we ate with warm pitas. We moved from there to falafels, which
are fried treats with a filling made of chickpeas and fava beans. Arguably, the best menu item we tried was the scallops. They were cooked to perfection, and delicately spiced. The item I would recommend to anyone carnivorous, however, is the kefta quesadilla. Gus’s response to his first bite was “Oh my God,” followed by delighted silence, which always means he believes eating is more important than talking at that particular moment. Kefta is grilled sirloin flavored with five-spice. It tastes exotic and familiar all at once. I felt that Chef Sarah Geary outdid herself with this appetizer, and I wanted to eat more.
Conclusion
I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants to treat their dining experience as an evening out of the ordinary. It provides a relaxed environment with delicious foods that are generally unavailable in small-town America. More importantly, I believe from what I tasted that everything on the menu is probably worth trying, and the more I try, the more curious I get about what else is offered.
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