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Zofia's Kitchen

Another new entry to the Ballston Quarter Food Hall is Zofia's Kitchen.  First and foremost, I like me a good pierogi.  I was thrilled when French Creperie Oby Lee added them earlier this year.  Zofia's gets major snaps for their unique creations and wide selection of dipping sauces and prep style.  They have two veggie and two vegan offerings.  On the vegan side there is Mushroom Herb or Beet/Ginger/Lemon Zest.  The two veggie choices are Spinach Feta or Everything Bagel.  One can order the pierogis "crispy", sauteed, steamed or "made for sauteeing at home" (I was sent specific directions for this last one but nearly burned the pierogies trying to follow it.)  Other offerings for veggies include their one-of-a-kind Latke Doughnut and usually a soup (the selections change frequently).  The good news -- these are quite good.  The strongest offering was the Beet, which was surprising, even refreshing.  Combined with a number of the dipping sauces it was hands-down my favorite.  The Everything Bagel was good -- deeply creamy, but less seasoned than expected.  The Spinach was also good but beyond the Feta there wasn't really any seasoning I could detect.  Again, the dipping sauce made a palpable difference.  The Latke Doughnut was fun but a little undercooked -- after reheating I found it to be great with the Horseradish sauce.  I also tried the Lemon Dill which was subtle -- perhaps a bit too subtle -- and the Mustard Cream, which was so good I nearly ate it out of the container with a spoon.  The best prep, in my mind, was the sauteed style.  It gave a little crunch but kept that nice slippery pasta feel.  The crunchy style left any sense of pasta behind, although it worked well for dipping things.  

Now the bad news.  It took two tries to get my order selections.  The first time I ordered online, went to pick up, order wasn't ready as promised and when I got it home it was ~~completely~~ wrong.  I didn't get what I ordered, I got things I didn't order, including a Lobster Bisque (major issue!).  The owner, who packed my order, must have realized the mistake and an email was waiting before I unpacked the bags.  He was very apologetic, talked about how they had gotten busy, offered me a number of options.  Since I wasn't interested in trekking out again (the order came after hours of running errands) he ended up comping the entire thing.  I gave the inappropriate options to neighbors.  So, the second time, I thought I would just go in person.  This didn't result in better service.  The young man who took my order couldn't get it straight.  It took repeating my request four times and a helping hand by someone else behind the counter to get it right.  (For the record, he was wearing a mask -- improperly -- which was covered with marijuana leaves.  I'm just saying ...)  While waiting, I went to another establishment, ordered a few things there, got my order there and returned.  The order still wasn't ready.  When I did get it, I checked it thoroughly before leaving.

Bottom line.  I like the food but the hassle in trying to get the order right might be a tipping point.  The Oby Lee pierogies don't have as many options but they are bigger and they've never messed up my order.  So, I don't know.  If I'm at Ballston for something else I might pick some up but two strikes in order issues so far is not a good sign. 

Food Hall Pierogis, Traditional and Innovative
Ballston Quarter Mall Food Court
http://zofiaskitchen.com/

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