A few weeks ago Mike and I had the pleasure of checking out Zoës Kitchen, a new restaurant located at Cordova Mall here in Pensacola. I had never even heard of  Zoës Kitchen, but I love when new things come to Pensacola, so I was excited when I was invited to go on opening night to learn all about it.

Zoës Kitchen is a popular, Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant that offers amazingly fresh meals for dine in or to go. The menu features made-from-scratch entrees using fresh, honest ingredients. Vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes are also available. They even offer catering – which is great for events or just in office meetings!

We arrived around 6:30 on Thursday night – and the place was already packed! They had only been open since lunch, but the manager – who was awesome – said it had been busy since the doors opened. I guess everyone is excited to check it out! I was super impressed at how well everything was running – especially for it being the first day. All of the staff was cheerful and seemed knowledgable about the menu and were happy to help us.

We began with the Hummus Trio… now I have to admit I didn’t think I was going to be that much of a fan of pesto hummus – but if you mix the pesto hummus with the roasted red pepper hummus… my goodness it is like a flavor explosion.  You also get great dippers – like fresh cucumbers, soft pita bread and toasted pita chips to dip. I could have just made this my entire meal. It was delicious.

I ordered two types of Roll-Ups – the Spinach Roll-Ups with Grilled Chicken and the Chicken Roll-Ups. They came with a dipping sauce that the manager explained was made with a Greek yogurt and green onions… I could have drank it with a straw. It was awesome. Mike ordered a Zoës Club Pita which was really tasty, and also checked out the Grilled Chicken Fingers from the Kids Meals. I loved that they had healthy options even for kids – I know I am sick of my girls eating fried chicken tenders all the time so we were happy to have some healthier choices. The thing we kept saying over and over was just how FRESH everything tasted.

Like a good blogger, I updated my Facebook page to say I was checking it out – so as we were being served, several of our friends showed up to check it out as well! We thought that was awesome! They ordered the Steak Kabobs – which looked and smelled amazing – and the Salmon Kabobs which I was really impressed by. Salmon is so easy to mess up and I am often disappointed with restaurant salmon knowing I can make it better at home. This was fresh and flaky and cooked to perfection.

I also loved that there is a nice big table right in the front of the restaurant – perfect for a big group to meet up! The table sat ten – something that it hard to find in most restaurants – but especially with “fast food!” And since the food is not only delicious but healthy too, I could see this being a great hangout after a POUNDFit class or for a working lunch!

We thoroughly enjoyed Zoës Kitchen – in fact I took the girls back the very next day – I had to have more hummus!!! They loved it and my Dad joined us after seeing we were checked in there on Facebook. In fact just yesterday I was heading home from a meeting and zipped in to get some food to go. I love that they have a “Fresh Take” section where you can literally just grab and go.  Zoës Kitchen has quickly become one of my favorite places to eat in Pensacola – hands down.

You can check out Zoës Kitchen now at Cordova Mall – right on the corner near the Ross entrance. Doors are open daily from 11am to 9pm. You can see the entire Pensacola menu on their website – ZoesKitchen.com.

Have you been to Zoës Kitchen yet?