ZIki Austin Review
We visited Ziki this past week in Austin. The neon pink began to call to me about a block away. ‘Get Freaky with Ziki’ and ‘Ziki Loves You’ along with an array of pink-painted walls. Ziki is located at The Lawn and as I got closer I was greeted with a group of black shirts with Ziki logos, an open mouth with a brightly colored tongue sticking out, on them, and company-labeled trucks. The smell of food, bright colors, and a beautiful summer day set me up for a great time at Ziki.
Ziki Menu
As stated on Ziki’s website, “Ziki is Greek with a hint of Mexican”. The menu includes burritos with falafel, gyro beef, and pork; chipotle tzatziki sauce; and baklava made with pecans. It’s a wild combination of ingredients, inspired by such vastly different cultures. It’s hard to imagine what a falafel zurrito — Ziki’s term for their burritos — might taste like, but once you’ve experienced it, there isn’t any going back.
The falafel is simultaneously both moist and crispy. Honestly, it was one of the most well-rounded falafels I’ve had in a while. As with their falafel, their Ziki bite, a fried little ball filled with spinach and cheese, was a perfect combination of crispy and creamy rolled into one wonderful bite. A bite that contained within it the savoriness of the spinach while maintaining the sweet integrity of the secret cheese mixture alongside it. To finish the afternoon off, I tried pecan baklava. It was great. Excellent baklava and probably one of the best I’ve had in Austin. Although it was a little dry for my taste, the addition of pecans was really interesting and I would love to see more of it.
Conclusion
Everything about Ziki screams Instagrammable: eye-catching colors, interesting-looking food fusions such as the quezadilla, and cute slogans meant to cement their way into the part of the brain that clutches onto catchy songs. We look forward to Ziki evolving and fitting into the Austin food scene.