Ziss girl is studying French. Je parl a piu de Frances. Zo when our Darling friends called and asked if we would join them for a drive out to a restaurant in Sheffield, we said "oui". OK, ok I'll stop with the French talk. The name of the restaurant in question is ZBest Cafe on Main at 129 S Main Street, Sheffield, IL 61361. I'm giving you the phone number right away - so that you can call for a reservation ( you could NEED it) 1-815-454-2425. No kiddin' - this place serves impressive food. In case you hadn't noticed - I'm a bit of a food nut. My mom calls me a food snob. ZBest is well worth the hour or so drive to Sheffield.

Don't worry about foreign language menus; this restaurant is all about fresh, beautifully presented real food. (dare I say American food?) It's clear that freshness drives much of Eran B. Salzmann's menu. He is chef and owner of ZBest. And believe me, the people who work at ZBest are workin'; they are all moving at time and a half, double time or faster when necessary. The service personnel are pleasant and businesslike. They are very glad that you are there (we DID have a reservation). But they do not want to sit down with ya and discuss their day. I like that. I'll do my job and eat everything; they will do theirs, quickly and efficiently...nice. Now - the food, ahh the food. I did give ZBest a bit of a head start; DG & I (with nephew Jacob's help) unloaded hay today and put it up in the barn. We worked up an appetite and I was hungry, really hungry. No lunch hungry. Nothing like the sauce of hunger to enhance food.

The four of us ordered 2 appetisers, mussels and crab cakes. Btw - the portions at ZBest are generous. On a normal non hungry day, I'd have made a meal of the 2 crispy, golden, thick crab cakes. Salzmann doesn't stint on the crab, and it tasted very fresh. I wanted to roll in it or at least apply it to my face. It was smashing good. The cake itself was nicely seasoned and besides that clean oceany taste that good crab has, there was a nice cajun zip. Nothing to suprise or offend, but flavored well. The remulade that accompanied the cakes was zippier. Nice mustard flavor along with a peppery jab, good stuff. A bit of baby mesclun, lightly dressed w/ chopped tomato finished the plate. Next the mussels, not my favorite, I only ate 5 or 6 or 10. They were of the green lipped variety, accompanied by 5 nice sized pieces of garlic toast and lovely buttery broth. Oh my. We were happy diners. Then the entrees arrived.

I ordered the catfish fillet with crabmeat hollandaise. The vegetable was green beans, cooked just enough with summer squash & red & green pepper strips. Mashed potatoes formed the base for the two perfectly cooked corn meal crusted fish fillets. The DG ordered stuffed pork loin. The stuffing was rice based with cajun smoked sausage and a wonderful note of sage. The door guru was hungrier than I and he ate all his dinner. I was kindly given a go box for my leftovers. The Darling couple ordered the Cajun pasta and the pot roast. I found the pot roast to be very good, but still just pot roast. Not a miss by any means; I guess it's personal taste. The Cajun pasta was far more interesting with prawns, chicken and zippy smoked sausage. Penne with excellent cheese sauce enrobed the meats. It was yummy!

The table ordered bread pudding (with caramel pecan sauce) and honey crisp apple crisp (no, I'm not stuttering) with ice cream. The bread pudding appeared to be a cinnamon monkey bread roll lightly egged but nicely sauced. I like my bread pudding to be more puddingy with a more custard like texture. Once again, personal taste. The apple crisp was very good, but the Darling wife likes a crisp top.

So, we conclude that ZBest Cafe on Main is very likely serving the best food in the Quad City area today. Not the fanciest food, nor the most exotic food, just the most carefully prepared, best tasting food. The service is unobtrusive and efficient. My guess is, that is enough to make Eran Salzmann happy. It sure made us happy.

You can see the website at www.zbestcafe.com. We wish them decades of success.