Review: Zapata in Palisades

(Credit: Vincent DiSalvio)

Photos:

Hunkered down on a lonesome stretch of Route 340, the Mexican restaurant Zapata gives the appearance of a lively pueblo outpost between distant and dusty haciendas. Inside, blue and coral arches are set against canary-yellow walls, and a silhouetted image of the restaurant's namesake, the mustachioed Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, not only graces a hanging sign out front but also appears, handpainted, on each of the eatery's tabletops.

Like Zapata, who has inspired everything from a Marlon Brando movie to modern-day Chiapas revolutionaries, the restaurant has style and ambition but falls somewhat short of its own goals.

Dinner here began with a complimentary quesadilla, which pleased us as the staff mixed up drinks, including a mango margarita. For appetizers, we sampled the nopalitos — a cool cactus salad, dressed with vinegar and onions — and the tortilla soup. The soup wasn't mushy, as I've heard it can be (it was actually filled with crispy tortilla chips), but the fresh avocado and sour cream I had expected weren't there, making for a boring broth.

For entrées, we ordered shrimp al diablo, a request that immediately provoked a warning from our waitress: "It's very hot." No worries — we wouldn't have expected anything less from a dish prepared "devil-style." After a short wait, the shrimp emerged, and so did our other entrée, a serving of chicken enchiladas doused in mole poblano sauce. First, though, we reached for the shrimp. We were surprised to find it wasn't spicy. At all. We might have been less disappointed had it not come with such a foreboding portent.

If the fire was missing from the shrimp, the dessert compensated, literally. A snowball of fried vanilla ice cream, sheathed in a coconut batter, arrived in a flaming puddle of rum. Along with the ice cream, we ordered the Sweet Rodonda, a pinwheel of mini, banana-filled, chimichangas flanked by cinnamon chips (think Doritos-sized pieces of Cinnamon Toast Crunch), and topped with ice cream and whipped cream.

Surprisingly, the waitress ended our meal with another free treat. This time it was a small tumbler full of a milky, butterscotch- flavored liqueur: the perfect buenas noches.

For pics to click, go Inside: Zapata in Palisades

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