Zena's Bistro, West Street: It would be Sicily not to
A slice of southern Italy in Bedminster
Zena’s Bistro often flies under the radar, tucked away as it is on West Street. But every now and then, I hear someone professing their love for lunching there. Shining a light on such joyful, unexpected places with no big marketing budget or PR team is one of the primary reasons The Bristol Sauce exists. If you want to continue hearing about spots like this — please consider supporting our work.
I often lament, mostly silently but sometimes loudly, the dearth of fresh, hot, homemade, walkable, street snacks in our country. And, allegations of mass data gathering under the guise of health technology aside, I think the ZOE lot make good points about eating well — keep it fresh, whole, and high quality. Therefore, an Italian slash mediterranean bistro café in Bedminster selling homemade arancini the weight of a small shotput for a reasonable price (£7) — and much more — is my dream come true.
Zena’s (long ‘e’, as in pizza) sits amongst the massage parlours and bed shops of West Street and, drenched in a technicolour avocado-and-grocery-mural, is a corner of equatorial sunshine on overcast pebbledash terraces. Owner Mehdi named the restaurant after his mum. It means beautiful in Arabic.
Cannoli is imported to Zena’s from Sicily and the rest of the food is made from scratch onsite, which would be impressive for a small team running this petite joint six days a week, but the team is wholly, solely, Mehdi. There were employees once but for the last two years it has just been him cooking the food, baking the bread, making the coffee and serving his locals he knows by name. “Sometimes it’s a lot”, he says, with a grin.
Mehdi makes his arancini in the east Sicily style, shaping them into massive teardrops, or mini mountains; they are thought to be inspired by the outline of Mount Etna. A thick outside crumb crust holds a gooey rice filling that nestles ragu, truffle, salami, or quattro formaggi.
Fun language fact: east and west Sicilians are deep into a centuries-long feud about the linguistic gender of these delectable deep-fried rice balls. In the west, they are spherical and feminine — arancine — while in the east they are conical and masculine — arancini. People feel extremely strongly about it, thanks to a combination of colonial history and past invasions intertwined with local dialect and identity. Many a travel blog tella the dangers of using the wrong gender on either side of the island to order the iconic Sicilian snack. Such passionate cultural argument reminds me of the time I brought a look of pure WTF upon my Italian friends’ faces when I ate a mozzarella ball at dinner concurrently with salad leaves, on the same plate, rather than one after the other. I never truly got to the bottom of why this was such a heinous crime, so if any Italians can enlighten me, I would welcome it.
Zena’s pizzas are Neapolitan-thin with a soft base broken up by big bursted yeast bubbles and laden with whatever topping you fancy. Gluten free is also an option — just ring ahead to give Mehdi enough time to prepare the dough. Having not rung ahead for my gluten free friend, I waited in a mild panic as Mehdi checked his stocks, but all was well, and my gluten free friendship survived to live another day. I, and she, are delighted to share that the gluten free pizza at Zena’s is actually good, which as most know is a rare miracle. Neither shattering in structure nor cardboard-y in flavour, the dough is supple and tasty enough to perhaps not even give the free-from game away.
I highly recommend rounding off dinner with a chunky, cigar-thick cannoli stuffed with creamy ricotta — also gluten free and available in a rainbow of flavours — and a bitter espresso to cut through the sweet.
The closest you can get to a glass of catarratto here is a strawberry energy smoothie, but no matter — feel free to grab a beer from Christmas Tesco opposite (you know, the one with fairy lights strung up year-round) to enjoy with your spaghetti al ragu, beetroot gnocchi, burger and fries, or avocado toast. While he serves up a good slice of Sicilian authenticity, Mehdi’s menu is truly wide-ranging. Top-to-toe Sicilian it is not, but, to be fair, no one said it should be. It is exactly what it wants to be, and for that, we love it.
All words and photos by Caitlin Johnson Bowring
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Independent places sometimes thrive/survive by being many things at once (café, restaurant, bakery, neighborhood living room). Zena's sounds like a case study in that kind of resilience. Nice piece!!