Dinner at Zanata

This past Saturday we had dinner with my parents at a new (to us) restaurant called Zanata. This locally owned restaurant is located in downtown Rockwall, a suburb of Dallas. There’s also a location in Plano now that opened in July of last year.

A short description of their menu and restaurant from their website:

“Our Italian-Mediterranean infused menu features handcrafted pizzas, fulfilling entrees and other mouthwatering bites, all authentically cooked in two wood burning ovens.

Our menu highlights flavors from afar, while utilizing local farm fresh ingredients, bringing the warmth, relaxation, and great food culture of Italy and neighboring countries right into the heart of historic downtown Rockwall.”

My mom has been wanting to try this place for some time now, and we finally got a chance to do that this past weekend. We arrived around 6:30, and there was about a 10 minute wait for a table. I was glad that we got there when we did because the dinner crowd started showing up after that and the place was packed.

The restaurant is in an old downtown building and had the neatest front windows, which slid open. Temps were pretty nice that day, so they had one or two open to let the nice breeze in.

The menu featured appetizers, soups, salads, a variety of entrees, but this is what we were here for.

Loved the look of their menus!

All of the pizzas sounded tasty, with the exception of the Happy Hour one. I’m not really a ‘pineapple on pizza’ kind of gal. We ended up choosing two different pies, one that was a little different for me, my mom and husband, and one that we thought my dad would actually eat. He’s not that big on pizza, but really isn’t into trying new and different foods.

On the left, the San Jacinto: goat cheese, pine nuts, prosciutto, balsamic, figs.

On the right, The House: prosciutto, house sausage, olives, onions, tomato sauce.

I tried a slice of the San Jacinto first. I loved the sweetness of the figs combined with the saltiness of the prociutto and the acidity of the balsamic. The House pizza was very good too, but my favorite was the San Jacinto. My mom really liked it too. My husband liked the House one best, and even my dad said that he liked the house sausage on that pizza.

The restaurant was pretty noisy, so conversation was a little hard. It wouldn’t be a place I’d recommend for a romantic date night on the weekend, but perhaps during the week, it’s a little quieter.

I’d definitely go back. There were several other items on the menu that I’d like to try in the future. I really enjoy supporting local businesses and restaurants!

We walked down the street to a fairly new place called Hen’s Dining and Roosters Too, for a little dessert.

My mom and I both got the Key Lime pie, which was just okay. I kind of wished that I’d tried the banana pudding. It’s supposed to be made from scratch.

I think that this would be a nice place for a group of ladies to come for tea or coffee. We plan to try to make it back over there for lunch sometime soon because the lunch menu sounded pretty good. The people running the restaurant were very nice and attentive.

By the way, my dad says hi!

It was funny to see my dad and husband trying to hold those dainty little tea cups to drink their coffee! My dad was being silly and had his pinky turned out, so I had to snap a pic. That’s a keeper! 🙂

How was your weekend? Did you run any races? Try a new restaurant?

By Tempie at May 6, 2013.