Tag: Zaka Bowl

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Zaka Bowl Expands Menu, No Longer Vegan

Zaka Bowl, the build-your-own veggie bowl restaurant which opened in East Memphis last fall, recently expanded its menu.

Not everybody is happy about that. But first some background.

The restaurant was the brainchild of Ed Cabigao of South of Beale. Cabigao had undergone a major lifestyle change. He went vegan, dropped some weight, became healthier, and wanted to spread the word, so to speak.

Originally, guests could choose from a base of quinoa or zucchini noodles or whatever, then build up the bowl with warm and cold veggies, choose premium items like tofu, and then top it with one of ZB’s great sauces. They also offered one or two set veggie bowls for babies like me who get overwhelmed by too many choices.

The new menu greatly expands the bowl offerings under three categories: Salads, Poke, and Zaka. There’s the Tofu Poke Bowl with pineapple pico and jicama slaw and the Smoked Portabella Steaks Zaka Bowl with cinnamon chili sweet potatoes and roasted beets. Also among the options are the Tuna Poke Bowl and Herbed Chicken Zaka Bowl.

Tofu Poke Bowl

Zucchini Noodle Salad

This once-vegan restaurant now serves meat and you can best-believe Cabigao heard about it. (City Silo received similar blow-back via social media from some frustrated vegans when it veered from its vegan roots. It was crazy packed when I was there for lunch last Friday.)

From Cabigao:

When we opened Zaka Bowl, we had every intention of staying vegan and promoting the vegan lifestyle. But throughout our first seven months of great reviews but lackluster sales, we spoke with a lot of guests, and people who had never been in, about what they wanted and wished we had. We also asked them about what would draw more people into our restaurant. We went through a lot of testing and surveying. And as a business, and as someone who feels responsible for his employees, we eventually decided that we had to make this pivot of providing a couple of non-vegan options.

We are now repackaging our message as a healthy veggie-centric restaurant serving everyone’s fast-paced life. At the end of the day, I want to be able to provide jobs for some awesome people who have helped me open this venture. I totally understand the negative comments we have and will receive from some people, and I would just like to point out that we are still 98% vegan and completely dairy-free and gluten-free. Our chicken and sushi-grade tuna are the only two non-vegan ingredients out of over one hundred that we have in our kitchen. And we are very excited about our new vegan options as well- Baked Falafel, Tofu Poké and Beet Poké!

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Now open: Zaka Bowl and DWJ2.

There’s a new trend on the Memphis dining scene, and hopefully one that’s here to stay — healthy offerings. The build-your-own salad bowl has become a leading part of that trend, and Zaka Bowl is the latest to surface, this time with a full-of-flavor vegan slant.

“I went vegan in February 2014 after doing a lot of research on factory farming,” Zaka Bowl’s co-owner, Ed Cabigao, also the co-owner of South of Beale (SOB), says. “I weighed 220 pounds at the time. About six months later, I got down to 180.”

As he considered opening a second restaurant after SOB’s now seven-year run, and continued to lose weight once he picked up running, he wanted to share the health.

“That whole experience made me passionate about that kind of lifestyle,” Cabigao, who owns the two restaurants with his wife, Brittany, says. “I always knew I wanted to open a second restaurant, and I knew I wanted to meld my love of the restaurant industry with my lifestyle goals.”

Zaka Bowl is clean, simple, and engaging.

Diners walk into a colorful and graphic-laden room and up to the counter, where they begin to create their bowl. A plant-based biodegradable bowl, with lid options, I might add.

First they choose a base from four options, such as Garlic Olive Oil Quinoa, Wild Rice, Vegetable Noodles, or Chopped Spinach. Then they add H.I.P. veggies — “high in protein,” not bearded, tattooed, with a ukelele, or whatever the kids are doing these days — choosing three from a list of options such as Smoked Portabella, Roasted Tofu, Mustard Herb Cauliflower, Lemon Garlic Broccoli, or Agave Brussels Sprouts. Then come three Hot and four Cold Garnishes, including Roasted Beets, Cinnamon Chili Sweet Potatoes, Rosemary Carrots, Guacamole, Pickled Jalapeño, or Pineapple Pico, among many others.

The salad artist can then add as many housemade sauces as his or her heart desires, including Creamy Avocado, Green Tea Vinaigrette, Coconut Curry, Sriracha BBQ, Sesame Soy Vinaigrette, and the Zaka Sauce, a sort of comeback sauce but vegan. I’ll take a bowl of the Coconut Curry sauce, please.

There are a couple of featured bowls on the menu, including the Zaka Flocka Flame and the Samurai Soy, as well as House Blended Juices, such as Pineapple Mint and Blueberry Lemonade.

All bowls are $10.

“I wanted to make something that’s easily accessible,” Cabigao says. “And I know how much better I feel after I eat a bowl of veggies.”

Zaka Bowl, 575 Erin, 509-3105

zakabowl.com

Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily

All of Midtown is abuzz about the latest in cultural cuisine offerings — DWJ2, which opened in the old Greencork space the week of Cooper-Young Fest.

Korean food devotees may know that the “2” stems from its being a second location for DWJ owners, and brothers, Hwan and Jun Lee, who opened the original DWJ in East Memphis in 2002 and is now at Hacks Cross and Winchester.

“We had decided to open another restaurant, and we were looking at Ole Miss or Denver, Colorado,” Hwan says.

“The partner of the landlord dined in our first location, and enjoyed the food and dropped the question if we would like to be their new tenant,” Jun says.

They describe their food as traditional Korean food with an update.

They offer pajeons, bibimbap, stir fry, noodle dishes, rice dishes, hot pots, some extremely intriguing fish dishes, as well as the whole barbecue experience, with grills at every table and the option to finish cooking your food if two people order from the barbecue menu.

Prices range from $9 to $34.

“We’re very satisfied with the response,” Hwan says. “There has been a really positive vibe. I didn’t know people would be so excited. I can’t stop smiling.”

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Visit to Zaka Bowl

Earlier this week, Bianca and I were invited to check out Zaka Bowl. 

Zaka Bowl is a build-your-own veggie bowl restaurant that is 100% vegan. There are no appetizers or desserts. 

The design, from the decor to the logo is spare, without frills — a visual nod to the menu with its emphasis on whole foods. 

But don’t equate this with boring or flavorless. Guests can choose such veggies as smoked portabella, an excellent roasted tofu, mustard herb cauliflower, lemon-garlic broccoli, and sesame eggplant to build on a base of either zucchini noodles, quinoa, wild rice, or spinach. Garnishes include charred corn, roasted beets, edamame, pineapple pico, and rosemary carrots. All this topped by sauces — creamy avocado, green tea vinaigrette, coconut curry, sriracha bbq, sesame soy vinaigrette, and Zaka sauce (a spicy mayo).

There are two featured bowls, and the owner says he’s thinking about creating more. I went with the Zaka Zen with the broccoli, tofu, eggplants, carrots, beets, and pico. I thought it sounded perfect for the recently cooled weather, and it was. Earthy with dashes of sweet from the pico and the beets, and totally filling. Try as I might, I couldn’t quite finish the bowl. 

Bianca went the build your own route and chose quinoa, tofu, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, beets, carrots, and jicama slaw with the Zaka sauce. She also got a mango pineapple lemonade — very tart and very fresh!

I have to say I’m sold on this concept — to eat well and simply with no loss of taste. 

Bowls top out at $11. 

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Peek at Zaka Bowl’s Menu

“Almost there,” says Ed Cabigao of the opening Zaka Bowl, a create-your-own veggie bowl restaurant in East Memphis.

Cabigao, who owns South of Beale with his wife Brittany, says they are putting the finishing touches on now — painting, testing menu items, training the staff. If permit process goes well, Zaka Bowl could be open as early as September 16th. 

Of Zaka Bowl, Cabigao says, “Our mission here is to show that compassionate choices can lead to a cleaner, happier, healthier you and planet!”

Here’s a peek at Zaka Bowl’s menu:  

[pdf-1]
Zaka Bowl is located at 575 Erin Drive. 

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Peek at Zaka Bowl

Vegetarians take note: There’s a new restaurant in town.

Soon.

South of Beale owner Ed Cabigao recently experienced a transformation, and he wants to extend it to his community. First for ethical reasons, which then turned into health-related incentives, Cabigao became a vegetarian and later, vegan.

His passion for this lifestyle and the impact he would like to have on the world caused him to consider opening a vegetarian restaurant, and a trip to D.C., where he discovered a successful build-your-own bowl-style restaurant sealed the deal for him.

Cabigao and his wife will open Zaka Bowl in late July/early August at 575 Erin Drive, with the concept of using locally produced food to create build-your-own veggie bowls with ingredients such as quinoa or wild rice, tofu or meaty vegetables. banished such as roasted corn or apple slaw, and a choice of house made sauces. 

Cabigao is working with Loaded for Bear for his branding and design. The 1,500-square-foot property is leased by Loeb Properties. He hopes to begin construction June 1st.

Stay tuned for more information in the Memphis Flyer coming soon.