LA Grinds: Zankou Chicken
On a recent trip to LA, on our way to the Getty Museum, my friend Will and I were looking for a place to eat and we stumbled upon Zankou Chicken. It boasts Mediterranean cuisine and it got pretty good reviews. Of course, if you have the word chicken in the name of your restaurant you gotta try the chicken (although they do serve other meats and vegetarian options as well).
We ordered the quarter chicken plate which, in addition to the chicken, comes with a variety of pickled vegetables, fresh pita bread, hummus and their famous garlic sauce. I’m not sure if we caught them on an off day, but the chicken was very underwhelming. It may have been old or cooked too long but I ordered the dark meat and it was pretty dry. It was, however, seasoned well, it just seemed that it was overcooked. The pickled vegetables had a nice crunch and flavor and the warm pita bread and hummus was also very good. The real star, though, was the garlic sauce. You could have put that on anything and it would make it taste wonderful. It’s pretty potent but it tasted so good we couldn’t stop eating it. Luckily, Will and I both ate the garlic sauce so we couldn’t really smell each other but we both admitted to burping up garlic for the rest of the day.
Overall it was an okay meal. I would go back for the pita bread, hummus and the garlic sauce (and maybe give the chicken one more chance). Those three things alone made the trip worthwhile. If I was a vegetarian this place would definitely be on my list. If you have a chance to go, let me know what you think.