Zengo, Denver

Zengo is a smartly designed and adorned restaurant/lounge in Denver’s Riverfront Park district. The colors and sounds are vibrant while warm and comforting. Zengo is part of Richard Sandoval’s Modern Mexican group of restaurants. For those who are not familiar with Sandoval, he was born and raised in Mexico City. He grew up in the business, literally, as his father is a successful and well-regarded restaurateur. Richard opened his first spot Maya, in New York City in 1997. Since then he has opened restaurants in Vegas, San Francisco, DC, Denver, Dubai, and most recently, his hometown of Mexico City. If you have not been to one of his restaurants – Go.

Back to Zengo Denver (they have also opened Zengo in DC). The menu is a brilliant marriage of Latin and Asian cuisines and most every dish contains carefully blended elements of these two cuisines. Most dishes are offered as small plates, very much like Spanish Tapas. This is ideal for grazing, sharing with friends, and discovering the maximum number of taste sensations in a single sitting. I must admit that this is my favorite method of dining.

A generous number of dishes are offered making choices difficult at times. If you get stuck, rely on your server as I found the service at Zengo to be superb. It is clear that they spend a great deal of time and effort to properly train their staff. I had a range of plates including: the ceviche camarom, which was a wonderfully fresh and zesty – with a mild sweet component – citrus cooked shrimp with green papaya and watermelon, a wonderful arepas de puerco – achiote & hoisin pulled pork atop a small cornmeal cake (arepas), Kobe beef gyoza, and a creative empanada that was filled with Thai spiced chicken, rajas (strips of roasted peppers with herbs), and Oaxaca cheese served with a mango chutney.

Zengo Denver is in the hands of executive chef John Calloway. He must be commended for the wonderful plates that flow form Zengo’s kitchen. Kudos.

Beverage seekers are in luck as well as Zengo offers a very well stocked bar with enough interesting choices to satisfy beverage obsessed diners like myself. The wine list is rather extensive as well with many of the usual suspects along side some well chosen, off the beaten path offerings that accent the Zengo cuisine flawlessly. Again, the service aspect gets high marks as our server was spot on with recommendations (Yes, I always ask the server to make a recommendation. How else can you judge their wine competency?)

In sum, Zengo is a “must dine” spot that offers tremendous variety and superb quality. I left that evening with thoughts of what would be ordered on a return visit. Equally pleasing are the prices. A pair of diners can enjoy a cocktail, dinner with a bottle of wine and tally a bill of roughly $100. Not bad, not bad at all.