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REVIEW: Z’Mariks is fresh, fast and filling

By LaDawn Edwards

Iowa City is so full of good restaurants that I feel like I’ve wasted an opportunity if I eat at a chain restaurant or even one of my usual favorite. On a recent Thursday, following a shopping trip we drove from Coralville in search of a hard-to-find Mexican place that had been around since the 80s. After 20 minutes we tracked it down only to find a big disappointing "For Sale" sign in the boarded up window.

Now what?!? We’d put off dinner for something special, rather than grabbing a bite at the mall, so now we were more than slightly hungry — dangerously close to snapping at each other if we didn’t find food soon. My husband mentioned that his stomach was a bit upset, so unfamiliar foods were out. I pointed to downtown, Iowa’s mecca of interesting food, and crossed my fingers that we’d end up someplace that didn’t take forever to deliver the appetizer. Within 10 minutes we had secured both a parking spot — hurray! — and a dinner decision.

Walking into Z’Mariks Noodle Café, 19 S. Dubuque St., where I’d eaten once before,  we noted that most of the bowls of rice or noodles offered a choice of beef, chicken or tofu — important information, whether feeding a carnivore, vegan or somebody in between. A sign read “Have a Seat. We’ll serve you. We’ll clean up. Relax and enjoy!” My stomach started to unclench, because at the moment that was exactly what I wanted to hear.

I got the Krith-a-raki, Greek pasta with broccoli sautéed in a sauce of butter, garlic, green onions, freshly grated Romano cheese and parsley. I “went authentic” as the menu says, adding salty squares of feta cheese and swapped the orzo for whole wheat penne tubes (each of these requests were 50 cents extra.) Very tasty and there’s plenty of other interesting items for adventurous eaters to explore — lemon sautee on bowtie pasta, spicy peanut sauce on rice stick noodles, and garlicy mostaccioli on penne.

My husband went with marina and noodles — simple and satisfying. His primary comment was that he usually likes his sauce spicier, but he liked it a lot. (I suspect they feed a lot of spaghetti to kids.) After serving our own drinks, we received our bowls in about five minutes. After a few bites I realized that they’d forgotten my feta cheese — a quick trip to the counter got things sorted out with an apology.

On the walls we noticed a series of Art Deco style framed posters in French all relating to food. After a few minutes of thoughtful chewing he commented, “Did you notice that nothing on the menu is French?” By golly, he’s right.

The young ladies behind the counters (and guys working the woks, presumably) wore brown T-shirts featuring a steaming bowl of noodles that read “Try me. I’m nice.” It’s not every day that I agree with a T-shirt slogan, but for fast, filling, fresh food, you should try Z’Mariks. It’s nice!