Zenola Mediterranean Restaurant Vienna

Always a delicious meal, beautiful small plates that are exciting, entrees are seasoned beautifully, service is attentive and pleasant, drinks are tasty and innovative.

We've been to Zenola a few times now, and every time we come away even bigger fans. Everything we've had was great, but the spreads (all of them), fattoush (salad), shankleesh & tomato, allepo batresh, and believe it or not the cheesecake have been our favorites. The warm pita is great. Wonderful cocktails, wine, and beer selection. The staff are super friendly and have great recommendations. They're also completely fine with several rounds of orders, which is great when we're not sure how hungry we are to start. Food arrives quickly after ordering. Very vegetarian friendly, a ton of dishes are vegetarian. The portions are great, my wife and I are usually full after splitting 3-4 mezzes and a dessert. Can't recommend Zenola enough.

Parking: Large strip mall parking lot, we've never had issues parking, usually plenty of spaces.

I have eaten at Zenola for dinner several times and had a fantastic experience every time. Their food is absolutely delicious, and I especially recommend the mezze dishes and spreads. Any dishes with eggplant and lamb are particularly good, but really you can't go wrong at this place. And don't think of leaving without trying the cheesecake, which is light and fluffy yet so flavorful. The service has been excellent every time, and the restaurant itself is very cute and well designed. Zenola is a gem and a NoVA can't-miss.

I visited to Restaurant Week and found it to be a great choice. The food was so fresh and you could see the chef working hard through the kitchen window. After our meal the chef came out and greeted us. What a nice touch! The wait staff was friendly and fast. I enjoyed my experience.

Vegetarian options: The lasagna was filling! It's not recommended for vegans, because it had cheese.

Parking: Directly in front of the establishment.

Overall good food and cocktails. Tried the sea bass entree and kabobs. Both were good. Humus topped with duck was very

We visited during Restaurant Week for the first time. My favorite part was the cocktail list, which had lots of really interesting/unique options, including non-alcoholic drinks for Dry January -- both of our drinks were amazing! With great staff and beautifully plated dishes, this is a really fun spot for date night.

The food here is top-notch and the service is so friendly. The cheesecake with the date crust might be the best dessert in Northern VA (though Chocolate Passion is close competition!). Definitely a favorite local place in our regular rotation.

Following our tradition of celebrating at a new restaurant (one that the inviter had never been to), I picked this from the Washington Post review of summer of '22.First, I was extremely pleased with the "feel" of the place. The music was pleasant to hear modern take on middle-eastern and low enough (and the background noise as well) to make casual conversation easy, even for those of us with less than optimal hearing. The amount of open space around the tables is nearly unheard of in the current drive to push in more seating however it can be done. This left us hopeful even before we saw the menu.The number of appetizer/mezze choices was wide (two to three times as many options as the entrees), so it is obvious which way you were expected to go. That said, I recall only 5 or 6 entrees, so the number of choices were not overwhelming by any means.Two of our party had the cream of chestnut soup, and one of the two tasters wondered aloud at the end of the meal if some kind of drug had been put in it, as she was stuffed but still wanted to order another serving. Definitely an item worth noting. The two person mixed grill was an enjoyable mix of the same kind of items that one would see, but all of the highest quality (and the tiny drumsticks from the deboned half Cornish game hens that were part of it were charming, as well as well seasoned). The whipped garlic was a surprising condiment, if mildly overpowering, take care before diving in too deeply, unless one is ready to have the taste linger for hours.The price range puts it out of my regular dining rotations, but it was a wonderful celebration, and one of my party is already planning how to lure more people back so that she has an excuse to go again.Definitely recommended.

Parking: In a shopping center, so lots of parking.

Wheelchair accessibility: There should be no issues.

Pleasant almost European atmosphere. Pleasant welcome from attentive wait staff. Food excellent. Variety of Meze both hot and cold first class. Will return

Situated in an unexceptional shopping mall the fine Middle Eastern food and excellent service combined for a marvelous experience,

We had a reservation at 5pm in October and I the sun coming through the front window left half the people in the dining room staring into it. I am surprised that the staff listens to customers complain about the light in their eyes every day since they open at 5 and haven't satisfactorily addressed the issue. Their current blinds are just not doing the job. So that was not a great start. We had a great waitress who was very attentive though we waited about 45 minutes between our small plates and main entree. Some small plates were very good like the beef shawarma and hummus. Some items were just okay like the falafel (I've had as good or better at Mezza). And then one small plate was not good-- the tomato dish with goat cheese really wasn't doing it for anyone. There's a small amount of main entrees to choose from. Probably most do the mixed grill. Of course the star again was the beef, and everything else was good but not special. If you come, make your reservation at 6pm or later, and focus on the beef dishes.

We went looking for a Mediterranean restaurant and this this not disappoint! This Lebanese eatery is a gem. From it's fresh, modern, open floor plan to the house made hummus and the delicious warm bread. Definitely worth trying and coming back to again and again.We started with the Hummus and an order of the Batata Harra. The hummus was fresh and lively while the potatoes were crispy and flavorful. We ordered the Mixed Grill and Shepard's Pie and everything was well cooked and season but the stars are the whipped garlic and the pie...it was delicious!We finished off with dessert if the Pistachio Cheesecake and the Ismailiyah. Wonderful way to end the evening.While we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves we did think it took quite a while for the food to come out but the servers were great at refilling the bread and drinks and checking on us.

We met a friend here recently and were very impressed! Terrific food, excellent service! The menu is creative -- we variously had a couple of appetizers or one of the main dishes. Personal preference was for appetizers -- tried roasted root vegetable's & ground lamb. Excellent, and a very nice light meal! Want more -- add another small plate! Others ate the shepherds pie -- it was terrific too and very filling! Generous portion. We had an excellent experience.

went there for the first and only time last night for dinner. service was friendly but glacially slow. restaurant was way too noisy for easy conversation. observations about the food, the bulgar wheat in the tabouli was not soaked and as a result pebble-hard, the lebanese version of shepherd's pie was spoiled by a heavy-handed use of anise and tasted of licorice rather than meat. the octopus had a less than natural texture, as if it had been soaked in some concoction to tenderize. the hommous tasted store bought. appetizer portions were small, not really suitable for sharing by three.

An honest review. The food is good and the menu interesting. But the tiny portions at absurdly high prices made it feel like a real jip. A thin 5 inch sliver of grilled octopus for $18? Would it have killed the restaurant to double or triple the portion for that price? Two spoonfuls of ordinary grilled potato cubes for $11? Come on! I could go on but you get the picture. We were there on a Saturday evening and the restaurant was half empty. What a shame. If the owners doubled their portions or halved their prices the restaurant would probably be full throughout the week.