TLDR
Art-forward seafood destination in Bushwick featuring experimental flavors, meticulous sourcing, and arguably the city's best double-fried fries.
Resy highlights Zoli, a sleek newcomer from chef Ned Baldwin that focuses on meticulous sourcing and satisfying, seafood-centric plates.
Zoli is a sleek East Williamsburg newcomer from chef Ned Baldwin, offering meticulously sourced seafood and some of the city's best fries.
A seafood-forward restaurant from chef Ned Baldwin featuring straightforward, high-quality cooking in a sleek East Williamsburg space.
Tejal Rao reviews Zoli, an ambitious new restaurant at the Amant art campus in East Williamsburg. The review highlights its experimental, cross-cultural cuisine and bold dishes, set against a backdrop of avant-garde art, offering a unique dining experience.
Ned Baldwin's new restaurant, Zoli, located within the Amant art space, offers a vision of "museum food" focused on honest, confident execution and New York's evolving global mashup of flavors.
Willa Moore reviews Zoli, a seafood-focused spot nestled in the Amant Arts Campus, highlighting its striking art installation and unique museum-like atmosphere.
Details
Located within the Amant art campus, this ambitious eatery helmed by Ned Baldwin blends avant-garde art with a sophisticated, seafood-centric menu [4]. The kitchen balances honest, straightforward cooking with experimental flavor pairings like monkfish with ras el hanout or sweetbreads in burnt-onion sauce [3], [4]. While the environment is highly evocative and unique, the experience can sometimes feel more focused on the artistic setting than the meal itself [8].
Food Overview
The menu focuses on high-quality seafood, including butterflied black seabass, grilled monkfish with ras el hanout and carrot amba, and grilled whole scallops [3], [6]. Diners consistently rave about the double-fried fries served with savory rouille, often calling them the best in the city [3], [5], [9], [10]. While creative successes like the sweetbreads are praised, more unconventional experiments—such as the black-garlic buttercream chocolate cake—tend to divide opinion [4].
Customer Sentiment
Feedback is generally positive, with many diners appreciating the precise execution and unique flavor combinations [4], [9]. However, experiences can be polarized due to the challenging nature of the experimental menu and the intense influence of the artistic environment [4], [7], [8].
Caveats
The avant-garde dining experience may not appeal to all, as some diners find the art-focused environment and experimental menu items, such as the black-garlic buttercream chocolate cake, to be hit-or-miss [4], [7].
Reddit Opinions & Reviews
Top Reddit Posts About ZOLI
Recent Reddit Mentions
From post: Best Restaurant Recs With Unlimited Bread Thats
"Zoli is mentioned as a place with good bread."
PositiveFrom post: Are There Any Similar Restaurants Akin To Foxface
"This user suggested Zoli in Williamsburg as a spiritual successor to Foxface Natural. They highlighted its genre-bending, eclectic cooking that balances challenging elements with deliciousness, and mentioned its current braised goat with clams dish as being similar in spirit to Foxface."
Positive