We sent Hashtag Life writer May Pham @mayandtravel for a spectacular dinner at The Esplanade Hotel’s renowned, and world-class Zinfandel Restaurant; here we share her review.
During our trip to Zagreb, we stayed at the renowned Esplanade Hotel. To our surprise, not only is the Esplanade the best hotel in Zagreb, but it also hosts the best restaurant in town-Zinfandel’s. Zinfandel’s is undoubtedly Zagreb’s finest dining experience that takes the best of Croatian traditional cuisine and gives it a modern twist. We booked a window table at Zinfadel’s for our romantic dinner on our first night in Zagreb. When we arrived at the restaurant for our 7:30pm seating, we were in awe with the glamorous décor of the restaurant that combines the elegance of Art Deco heritage and contemporary touches. Soaring ceilings and sparkling chandeliers convey the true essence of glamour and style. Greeted us at the entrance was the restaurant manager, Stjepan Okun and he led us to our lovely window table which has a magnificent view of the spacious terrace Oleander Fountain Park.
Before ordering, we had a lovely chat with Stjepan. He briefly told us some interesting facts about Ana Grgić, Zinfandel’s Chef de cuisine. Ana is young, charming, and highly talented. She had numerous experiences working alongside a number of 2-Michelin-star chefs and through her invaluable training among the world’s top chefs, in 2012 she took over as Chef de cuisine to become the first woman to lead the Zinfadel’s. Since then she has received numerous awards for cooking style and excellence. Between 2012 and 2016 Zinfandel’s Restaurant gained various awards thanks to Ana’s supreme menus and creative cuisine
For entrée , I had pan-fry scallops with truffle puree and my husband had foie gras mousse with raspberry cream. I was really impressed with my dish since Anna managed to pan-fry the scallops to perfection for such an elegant taste. As a fan of the show Hell’s Kitchen, I remember the difficulty contestants had to go through to prepare scallops to Chef Gordon Ramsey’s standards. Scallops are tricky to cook since they are easy to get overcooked and overcooking will ruin their texture and flavor. Ana’s scallops were just perfect and had that crunchy and tender texture and heavenly paired with her soft, creamy, and intense truffle puree.
We finished our delicious dinner with beautiful and delectable desserts. I had my all-time favorite vanilla crème brulee with strawberries and my husband had papaya sorbet with coconut and bergamot mousse. These creative and lovely deserts were an excellent way to end our dinner at Zinfandel’s.
Follow May on Instagram: @mayandtravel
Visit May’s blog: www.inarabymay.com
