ZAYNA - TUCSON, AZ

This mediterranean and middle eastern restaurant is on Speedway between Columbus and Alvernon - closer to the Columbus intersection.

We started eating here when they were located on Tanque Verde. We would stop off on our way back from hikes on Mt. Lemmon. When we heard that they were opening another place really close to us, we were excited as our experiences with the food and service were positive. (they have since sold the one near Mt. Lemmon).

However, the first couple times we ate at this new location, we were really disappointed. The eating space is small and quite a few tables are jammed in; mostly 2-seaters. The menu was just as big and the prices reasonable but the quality of the food was not very good. Each time we went we had a different complaint; lukewarm  Greek fries, stingy amount of tanini sauce, service surly. So we just quit going and focused on Fronimo's as our source of good mediterranean food.

But last night's dinner was superb and now we are eager to go back. I had a taste memory of a gyro salad we had at the 'old' location and so we thought we'd give it one more college try and we are so glad we did.  We both had the salad with a side of pita bread (once pita bread gets less than hot it starts tasting like compressed flour.)

The salad is $7 and is a big pile of lettuce, lots of feta cheese, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers and savory tasty slices of gyro meat. The dressing is a wonderful tangy-sour-sweet herbed oil and vinegar vinaigrette. We were very very satisfied.

 absence makes the heart grow fonder could be  applicable to restaurants too, it was in this case.