Zul Cafe and Grill Brings Authentic Filipino Fare to Norwalk

Quick! Name a Filipino restaurant that’s close by!

Time’s up!

Stumped? Don’t worry, all of us in lower Fairfield County had no clue until now.

But before Zul Cafe and Grill opened its kitchen in Norwalk in early June, you likely had to venture to Yonkers, Nyack, or Queens to get your fill of Filipino fare.

The “why” behind Zul is simple. Owners and Norwalk residents Rob and Gladys Luz not only saw a void in Filipino cuisine in the area, but they also wanted it more readily available for themselves. Opening a restaurant of their own became all the more real when Rob had one of his cravings for the food of his culture.

“We would always just go to Queens because they have a lot of Filipino food in one small area, but we got tired of traffic and casually discussed opening a Filipino restaurant ourselves,” Gladys says. “We saw this house for sale and Rob said, ‘This is a nice spot for a Filipino restaurant,’ to which I replied, ‘Where?!’ I didn’t notice it because it’s residential. The roof was falling apart, the grass was high, there was a big tree out front. You couldn’t even see the building! It was a fixer upper. Rob had the vision. He saw it. I didn’t!”

Owner Gladys Luz tells us that everything at Zul is fresh, never frozen. Because of that, orders can take 20-30 minutes depending on what you get. Calling ahead or ordering online is recommended.

They called the agent, made a deal, and began of painstaking process of renovating the Main Avenue house to their specifications. Throw in the waiting game that is approvals and permits, followed by a global pandemic, and it started to look like Zul wouldn’t open until 2021.

During the shutdown, Gladys said that her husband spent lots of time developing a menu. Their research involved asking culinary questions to family in the Philippines, watching videos, and fine tuning each one with their own spin or making dishes like sisig, which commonly uses spare pig parts, more palatable to the masses by using pork belly.

They were ready to open, yet they weren’t open.

“It’s the end of May and I’m thinking we’re not gonna open this year,” Gladys says. “Rob is saying that we can’t, then I told him that I wanted to open on my birthday (June 5) as a gift. I wanted to prove that this place can work.”

“Our food is a mix of simple things like BBQ and stuff you might not want to make at home like chicken adobo, pork belly, or stuffed milkfish because it can take a long time,” Gladys says. “Good food isn’t always made quickly. We’re a family run business but it’s kinda my aunt who runs the kitchen here with other people. She’s a good cook and has a restaurant in the Philippines. She’s behind the savory flavors of Zul .”

Gladys, who’s a nurse at Greenwich and Stamford Hospitals, and Rob, who was formerly in the food industry as the owner of a Filipino grocery store, were not ready for what happened on opening day.

People showed up at 8 a.m. The parking lot in back was completely full. The phones wouldn’t stop ringing with locals placing orders for chicken adobo, deep fried snapper, BBQ pork, and other Filipino favorites.

“We sold out a lot at the beginning because we weren’t sure what the response would be; social media played a big role, I think,” Gladys says. “We kept preparing more each day until we figured it out. I felt so bad because important people in the community stopped by and we didn’t even have steamed rice left! I remember only being able to offer Senator (Bob) Duff bubble tea because we sold out of everything!”

Halo-halo!

Now that Zul has a handle on operations, customers can expect a mostly takeout experience. There are a few tables inside and outside on the porch where you can devour your choice of Filipino favorites.

Zul’s menu consists of dishes that are great for Filipino food novices like lumpiang shanghai (crispy deep-fried pork spring rolls) and there are lots of marinated, then grilled, BBQ pork or chicken offerings. They’re addictive, tender, with a sweet tangy sauce perfect to mix up with the steamed rice so you can full-on shovel it into your mouth.

There are also several fish entrées like fried tilapia or snapper and rellenong bangus, a deboned, then stuffed milkfish that’s smoked, then grilled. It’s a Filipino staple. Or you can share deep-fried fish or squid ball, a popular street food snack borrowed from Chinese dim sum culture. Each order is accompanied by a habit-forming soy, brown sugar, pepper, and garlic sauce. Normally, washing these down with a beer would be the right thing to do, but Zul is alcohol free, and that includes BYOB. Trust me, I asked.

Zul’s sisig—a popular breakfast dish—using slow cooked pork belly instead of traditional pig parts. “We made it more customer friendly,” Gladys says about their sisig.

For dessert, there’s the casava cake, a starchy, sweet concoction with a custardy top layer, made with grated yucca root (that explains the starchiness) and a reduced blend of coconut and condensed milks.

Then there’s the classic Halo-halo, essentially THE DESSERT in the Philippines, that’s either delicious or confusing, depending on your taste buds. I won’t get into the massive list of what’s in one, but some of those things are sweetened beans, flan, ube ice cream, coconut, yams, and chunks of fruit. I can’t say I love ‘em, but I don’t refuse one either…

When you do go to pick up your takeout, one should know that the assorted bags of corn snacks and boxes of Palvoron (a powdery, but tasty, peanut butter shortbread cookie) by the counter have an extension. If you venture upstairs, Zul has a mini grocery store stocked full of Filipino spices, sauces, canned goods, condiments, meat, and more.

Happy faces after a Filipino feast

As if that’s not enough, Gladys showed me what’s happening in Zul’s basement.

They’re building a bakery.

“We hired a guy for desserts and he’s going to run the bakery here,” she says. “We’re going to sell pastries, bread, ensaymada (a lightly, sweet, fluffy, usually brioche filled with cheese), and pandesal (a sweet roll ideally had with coffee).”

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for when Zul’s bakery starts baking, but in the meantime, we’ll be repeat customers over and over again. This is one of those instant gems that I’m selfishly glad opened up in my hometown.

268 Main Avenue; Norwalk
203.286.6080; https://zulcafeandgrill.com/