Restaurant Evaluation

Authenticity. I’m still not sure what that constitutes, but I don’t think I found it at Zooroona. I remember walking into the restaurant thinking, “Wow, this place looks really different.” I realized upon leaving that I used to consider any place stocked with enough antiques and old-looking furniture to be authentic. I can’t help feel that Zooroona just tricked me into believing I was getting that unique experience. Maybe it was the crazy waiter, who tried so hard to impress his customers, who tricked me. No, it was definitely him. But this all goes back to my initial fear/question in my expectations piece: should we really believe our waiters wholeheartedly? I wanted to, and I didn't have any reason not to. Maybe that makes me a sucker.

I didn’t need authenticity though, because I was with good friends and I was eating good food (for the most part!). I guess in this sense, a place can be authentic if it’s conducive to friends enjoying each other’s company. But that’s certainly not the only, or most important, criteria for authenticity.

Eating at Zooroona was an enjoyable experience, no doubt about it. I initially feared being completely overwhelmed by foreign words on the menu (thankfully, I had an Armenian friend along to help me out) and feeling like a tourist, as strange as that sounds because I attend school down the hill. But the experience wasn’t as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be. I tried the lamb, and everything I normally would not have tried if I wasn’t writing a restaurant review, and I surprised myself by how open I was to the experience. I didn’t revert to the familiar. After a while, I forgot I was at Zooroona for a class assignment and just tried new things for the sake of stepping out of my comfort zone.

Like I said in my expectations piece, based on my experience at Alhambra Palace, I believe the atmosphere can make up for a lot. I think this is true at Zooroona. Maybe the chairs were imported from World Market, and maybe the waiter stretched the truth just a little (who will ever know?), but at the end of the day, I was pleased with the atmosphere it offered--real antique furniture or not. I didn’t exactly feel transported to the Middle East, but I did feel, if just for a while, like I was somewhere special.

That’s what study abroad will be: a six-month experience of some place different and special. Eating at Zooroona might not have been as dramatic an experience as study abroad is likely to be, but it’s the idea of crossing borders, being vulnerable in a foreign situation, that came across with this assignment. I’m glad I reviewed Zooroona instead of a place like the Union, or Food Dance, or Roadhouse--and I’ll try not to stay in my comfort zone when I’m abroad either. Even if my future culinary excursions aren't so successful, and even if my experience abroad confuses my idea of authenticity even more, I want to at least be able to say that I tried something new and that it helped me grow.