Tasteem Review: Z's Bar & Restaurant Grand Rapids Michigan

This past weekend my wife and I took my nieces to see a concert in Grand Rapids, MI. This is the first time my wife and I have been there together, though I travel to Grand Rapids about once a year for work.

Being a college town, there are lots of great places to eat, but one of my favorites is Z's. My wife has never been here before, so I was really excited to share this place with her. The downtown area of Grand Rapids is pretty busy, with lots of business people moving about and going here or there for a drink after work. Z's is able to retain a small town bar feeling while being right in the middle of the craziness, and that is what I love about it.

There was a huge art fair going on in the city on this particular weekend, but we were still able to get a table fairly quickly and our service was fantastic despite the busy-ness of the restaurant. It is pretty large inside with a raised area at the front for seating. On specific evenings they clear that area and they have karaoke. The rest of the establishment consists of a large bar in the center with tables and booths surrounding it on each side.

You can get a pretty good idea of what the place looks like if you just look past my niece's head there!

We were all on a time crunch because we had a concert we needed to get to. Like I said though, the service was prompt and friendly. They have pretty substantial list of beers on tap and they also serve decently strong mixed drinks.

My wife started with a Captain and Diet and I started with the "Mosaic Promise" which is from Founders Brewing right there in Grand Rapids.

It was pretty good, but tasted a little too much like grapefruit for my liking, so I eventually switched to my old standby.

We also started our meal with an order of the Wisconsin CheeZe curds.

If you are wondering how they were, let me just say, the kids decimated them. I have yet to have a meal at Z's that wasn't top notch and this night was no exception.

We quickly decided what we wanted to eat and put our order in. I would say that our food was out and on the table within 30 minutes which really wasn't that bad given how busy they were. As we were waiting for our food we could hear and see them seating more people. The wait to get a table had definitely increased from the time we got there.

My wife and I shared the Tandoori Chicken Tacos

They were fantastic, the flavors worked together really well from the cilantro-lime rice you can't see to the Tandoori chicken and the pico de gallo on top. The cilantro-lime sour cream on top finished them off perfectly. After we shared the three of them we almost wished we had gotten two orders.

My one niece got the Z's burger.

She was generous enough to give me a bite of it and although it was a little more done than I typically like, the flavors were still fantastic and it was a solid burger.

Finally, my other niece went with the good old American standby, chicken fingers.

These were pretty typical, probably purchased frozen and then fried, but they were fried perfectly and I found myself eating a couple of them when she wasn't able to finish them.

The niece who got the burger usually judges the quality of a restaurant by the quality of their honey mustard, my wife and I tend to judge based on the quality of their ranch dressing.

I know it probably seems like a silly thing to judge a whole dinner experience on, but let me say she gave two thumbs up to the honey mustard and my wife and I recognized ranch with great flavor as soon as we tasted it.

Our total bill came to about $97 USD before tip. It was a little more than I was expecting, but really not that bad when you consider my wife and I each had three or four drinks. We were walking from there to the concert venue. Plus, the fact that I am not used to buying dinner for four people since it is usually just my wife and I.

My wife was definitely impressed though and I have a feeling if we had not had the kids with us, we probably would have stopped back in on the walk back to our hotel for a while longer. Being her first time there, I think this “date night” was a success.

Another cool fact about Z's is they have a party store in the basement. You can see the entrance on the side of the building in my opening photo.

If you are in Grand Rapids, MI and are looking for a great place with awesome food that treats you right and feels like home, check out Z's.

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Restaurant Information

Z's Bar & Restaurant

168 Louis Campau Promenade NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA

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Tasteem Review: Z's Bar & Restaurant Grand Rapids Michigan
This post participated in the Tasteem contest Where to eat for my blind date?

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