Chez Zee

News about recent changes at Chez Zee piqued my interest so I dropped in a couple of times to check things out. It's indeed true that Northwest Austin's premiere power breakfast meeting spot has changed their weekday morning menu from a full breakfast to what they call "Z Breakfast Express." This new offering includes bagels, muffins, danish pastries, the restaurant's famous croissants with strawberry butter, cold cereals, hot cereals such as oatmeal and cheese grits, fresh fruit and a daily quiche special. Their enormously popular weekend brunch remains unchanged. Comment cards are available for migas and omelet lovers to vent their spleens but the morning I was there, business was brisk and the Cappuccino muffin ($1.50) and cup of cappuccino ($1.25) got my day off to a fine start.

The other new wrinkle that intrigued me was the addition of former Mezzaluna chef Brad Yerkes to the staff. I was curious to see what impact Yerkes' fine dining background would have on Chez Zee's American cafe food menu. Initially, his influence is apparent with more sophisticated off-menu specials. Though the voluminous Chez Zee menu offers many good choices, we opted for all three specials on a recent evening and, overall, were very pleased. We chose to split a Focaccia topped with fresh basil, tomatoes, feta cheese and thin slices of smoked chicken breast ($8.99) for an appetizer. Redolent with the aroma of fresh herbs which preceded it to the table, the flatbread was chewy and substantial enough to hold the fresh, juicy toppings. It made an earthy, satisfying beginning to our meal.

The other two entrée specials were fish dishes, a Panfried Ruby Trout ($11.95) with a Diane Sauce and House-cured Salmon ($14.95) with Angel Hair pasta and cherry tomatoes in a lemon butter sauce. The trout was marvelous, dusted with cornmeal and cooked just right, swimming in light burgundy, mushroom and tomato sauce usually reserved for cuts of steak. My only complaint was that it could have used a side dish, perhaps polenta, rice, or couscous to absorb some of the good sauce. The salmon dish had some interesting elements but didn't quite work. The fish was excessively salty, even for cured, and we decided that a flatter noodle might have worn the sauce better. Both were attractively presented and our complaints were minor.

Bear in mind when dining at Chez Zee that you need to reserve space for two very important items: the warm sourdough bread served with the house special smoky, garlicky olive oil and pastry chef Corey Harris' stellar desserts. We had to force ourselves to stop filling up on the warm bread and addictive oil ($18.95 in wine bottles at the restaurant counter) in order to evaluate dinner. Then we moaned our way over to the dessert case, swearing just to have a bite of something and take it home for tomorrow. Yeah, right. The delicately astringent Key Lime Pie ($3.50) and definitely decadent Mocha Truffle Torte ($4.25) never had a chance of seeing the inside of a to-go box. -- Virginia B. Wood