Patios and Boulder dumplings and scallops

On a beautiful saturday afternoon after five hours of AP biology, i met a friend for a quick and delicious lunch on the patio of  Squeaky Bean for my second visit in the last two months.  You can read my first review here.  Since Squeaky Bean eliminated lunch service effective last week, I was momentarily disappointed that the duck confit sandwich on the lunch menu did not appear on the brunch menu so on the waiter's recommendation I ordered the roast pork sandwich on a crusty ciabatta roll with wilted greens, an amazingly sweet sundried tomato jam and a small cup of butternut squash soup.

Though the pork was not particularly seasoned, it was tender and complemented each component of the sandwich beautifully.  Additionally the butternut squash soup was light with a beautiful maple flavor and topped with microgreens.  My friend's roasted beet salad had a green mild basil sauce with greens and toasted hazelnuts but the her side order of salmon lox was oversalted in the curing process and was inedible alone.

Plate Score: 8

As we walked down the the pearl street mall before dinner, we decided to stop into the fast casual dumpling and noodle bar Zoe Ma Ma on the west end for a quick snack.  We settled for one each of the regular and vegan potstickers, pork sumai and the bbq bun (not in picture).  Despite boasting fresh ingredients, the dumplings tasted anything but that. The skin was too thick, the filling was forgettable and had all been sitting in warmers when we got there.  Additionally the bbq pork bun from Star kitchen would blow Zoe Ma Ma's out of the water.

Plate score: 3



Zolo is part of the same restaurant group as Lola, Jax, Westend Tavern and Centro and I've had several excellent meals at both Lola's and Jax and continue to read reviews on Centro's superior brunch so I was excited to try this place out. 

The three giant scallops were perfectly cooked with a nice crust and came with roasted sunchokes, peas, microgreens, pickled onions with a balanced amount of heat from the spicy chorizo and a light seafood chile broth.  It was hands down the best scallop dish i've had in a while, might even be better than the appetizer scallops from Edge during restaurant week.  On a side note, we shared an arugula salad beforehand and was happy to find that the greens were perfectly dressed with a honey truffle vinaigrette and in my opinion nothing is worse than too much dressing on a salad.

Plate score: 9