Zov’s Pan Seared Pork Tenderloin
My idiot dad was supposed to buy a gift card for my big sister’s boss, but he bought it for some place nobody had ever heard of. So naturally my sister refused to give the gift card to her boss, and we ended up being forced to use it ourself. It was for a restaurant called Zov’s, self-described as “contemporary cuisine with Chef Zov’s signature Mediterranean flair.” The restaurant location itself was not bad, in an affluent-looking shopping centre in Irvine, California.
Zov’s apparently isn’t a chain restaurant, with only three locations all close together in Orange County, so the feeling of the restaurant was much warmer and felt a little more special than, say…Olive Garden. I hate Olive Garden.
I don’t eat Mediterranean food very often, so it took me quite some time to decide what to order. I decided to share something with my sister – the food at Zov’s tends mostly to lean towards the pricey side, on my cheap-ass standards. We finally settled on the “Pan Seared Pork Tenderloin,” (pictured above) which was served “over gnocchi with crimini mushrooms, applewood bacon, zucchini & white wine cream sauce.” I am certainly no food connoisseur, so I had no idea what gnocchi, crimini mushrooms, or applewood bacon were. I don’t reckon anyone else in my family did, either.
Service at Zov’s was friendly, but rather slow. My mother made a big fuss about the staff’s supposed incompetence. I meanwhile passed the time watching the Olympic football (okay, fine – soccer, Americans) game on television) match on the television – Great Britain vs. South Korea. I have no idea what the score was because the television was too far for me to be able to read it, but by the sour looks on the British footballer’s faces, I’m guessing South Korea won.
So after half an eternity of waiting, the food arrived. It turns out gnocchi is squishy pasta made of potato, which I found myself liking a whole lot. The zucchini was also well-cooked and tender. I’m not particularly fond of mushrooms, but I gave them a try anyway. Despite their fancy name, they didn’t taste much different than run-of-the-mill mushrooms. The pork was a little dry, but with the sauce, it was a bit better. Speaking of the sauce, it was very rich – not excessively heavy, but combined with the gnocchi, left me feeling a wee bit sluggish. The taste and texture was just fine, and complimented the marinade on the pork well. However, it didn’t stick out to me particularly as being worthy of exceptional praise. It was evident that a lot of care and personal flair had gone into the preparation of the dish, though.
I am not an expert food critic, and I’m certainly not an expert on Mediterranean food, so in the end, I can only answer plainly and without any frills; the bare bone of all questions about food: Did it taste good or bad? For the particular dish I sampled at Zov’s, I’d say, it was just fine, though I doubt the taste is enough to tempt me back another time for those prices.
More about Zov’s: http://www.zovs.com/Default.aspx
♫ Song of the Day: Rest Your Head by Lali Puna
The Tragedy of Errors. 