Zed 451 rose, quite nicely, from the rubble (so to speak) of a similar eating venue known as Sal & Carvao. The name may have changed but essentially the game is the same: All you can eat at a fixed price.
It works like this: You get to work the "Harvest Tables" (aka salad bar) spread around the open fire pit in the center of the room. Six or so tables are loaded with everything from A (asparagus and assorted roasted beets) to Z (zucchini and zuppa). You can knock yourself out on this grand variety of dishes until you are sated -- but wait! As the servers and everybody else remind you, "Pace yourself."
Oh, yes, there is lots more. Select a rock from a dish of rocks, which the restaurant calls "River Rocks" to enhance, I suppose, the idea of being natural and getting cozy with nature (Sal & Carvao used a "chip"). Once you take a rock from the dish and place it on the table, all hell breaks loose. Guys and gals garbed in chefs' whites (replacing the gauchos with the skewers of meat at Sal & Carvao) swoop and swirl and dive like seagulls going after a school of smelt. Is it all a gimmick? Sure. But in a tilted sort of way, it's fun and very social.
Zed 451 is basically a churrascaria along the lines of many others (Fogo de Chao, Brazzaz), where eating has morphed into a style that is upscale from Old Country Buffet but downscale from, say, the Sunday brunch at the Peninsula Hotel. You either love the idea or hate it.
The price is $49 per person. Now factor in the cost of wine (excellent wine list, by the way, but no one ever asked about or suggested wines) or a cocktail. Add in the cost of a dessert (if you are not stuffed at this point) for around $10, and you can see the tab inching up toward the area of $70-$75 per person, plus tax and tip.
What did we eat? First, several "freebies" hit the table early on. A gazpacho shooter had a tasty shrimp draped over the side of the glass. After that, along came an escargot dish filled with three-cheese buttermilk biscuits.
Now it was time to raid the Harvest Tables. There are vegetables galore, and most of those sampled were quite good. The most memorable nibbles included roasted cauliflower with a tasty toasted pecan vinaigrette. The vanilla poached green beans were perfectly cooked -- not crunchy, not mushy. The Napa cabbage slaw laced with soy ginger was excellent. Marinated mushrooms with crumbles of feta were innovative and enjoyable.
Also the creamy slaw with blue cheese dressing was a hit. Cheese-filled ravioli varnished with a pesto aioli had moments of enjoyment. The "duck-roasted potatoes" were chunky and tender (but you could have fooled me about the "duck" part. Perhaps duck fat?) But it was the grilled vegetables -- baby zucchini, asparagus and carrots, among others -- that hit the spot.
After the Harvest Table, things kind of went downhill. There was no dearth of possibilities -- meat, seafood, chicken -- and the roving band of chefs toting skewers keep coming and coming (until you put that stone back in the dish). But a lot of what they offered was either dry (the chicken and the pork) or not hot enough (the mahi-mahi) or rather tasteless. Zed 451 should consider putting an assortment of sauces on the table and guiding the customer accordingly.
The best of the lot was the ribeye served medium-rare and quite good (making a meal out of just that would be fine). Also quite good were the chunks of mahi-mahi with a mango salsa. The lamb chops were overwrought with garlic and rosemary, goat cheese, mint and panko (breadcrumbs).
I am a sausage nut, and the chunks of linguica were juicy (and the accompanying mustard sauce was a perfect mate).
There are five desserts -- bread pudding, chocolate trio, lemon tart, chocolate chip cookie served in a cast-iron skillet and cherry cobbler. We had room for just one, the cobbler. It was chock-a-block with slightly tart cherries with an almond crumble top, and on top of that was a scoop of cheesecake ice cream. Quite good. I would order it again.
Pat Bruno is a free-lance writer, critic and author. E-mail brunoeats@aol.com.
