Gonna have to rain on the breakfast parade a little bit, I'm afraid.
I'm on an unofficial mission to try all the great or very good or excellent breakfast joints in the Phoenix area. On my Yelp search for a Sunday breakfast, I hit on Cafe ZuZu and decided to give it a try.
I wish I hadn't done that. $27 later, I couldn't wait to get home to eat after the meal.
In order and succinctly:
Spicy Bloody Mary - decent tasting, albeit not very SPICY at all. Came with a full stalk of celery, a wedge of lime AND lemon, and two olives. Problem: it was MOSTLY ICE. I got about 6-7 good pulls on the straw and it was empty. And there sat a full glass of ice, stuffed in the glass top to bottom. Look - I know MOST places do this, and at times I have even asked for NO ICE in my Bloody Mary. I guess I'm going to have to make that a solid habit. I don't like getting so obviously ripped off. I work hard for my money, and I don't appreciate having to pay $6.50 for 75 cents worth of Bloody Mary contents.
Side of Thick Cut Virginia Bacon - very nice taste, cooked about right. This was the highlight of the meal.
Breakfast Casserole - my SORE point, even more-so than the Bloody Mary. It was advertised in the menu as this: "sweet Italian sausage, roasted potatoes, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes + cheddar, topped with a poached egg (or substitute sour cream for egg)" All that WAS true. But here's the MAJOR PROBLEM: the amount of "sweet Italian sausage" was about the size of two quarters. I'm not kidding. There were 4 thinly sliced slivers of sausage, about the thickness and size of half a quarter dollar each. That was it for the sausage. The dish was SMALL too, about the size of my hand and not much thicker. It was mostly green, red, and yellow bell pepper. Mushrooms were good, what there were of them. The roasted potatoes portion consisted of about 3 medium-sized potato wedges. Here's how they made it: Cut all the veggies,add the two tiny slices of sausage, and cover it with cheddar. Nuke, then add a poached egg on top. It was something I could make at my house, but never would, because there was no seasonings involved. Just the ingredients, smothered with melted cheddar. Not creative, and not very tasty at ALL. Felt ripped off at $11.75.
Ambiance and setting was good. The facility is nice. The service was good. The food and the lack of value are what ruined this meal.
But if you can't bring me some tasty. memorable (in a GOOD way) food, then I'm not going to be coming back.