Zacary's Restaurant at Paradise Club

The Club La Costa Eatery in Tenerife

Sep 14, 2009 Sasha Arms

Zacary's restaurant on Club La Costa's Paradise Club resort in Playa de las Americas is not the place to go for typical Canarian or good-quality cuisine.

As one of just two restaurants on the Paradise Club resort on the outskirts of Playa de las Americas in Tenerife, Zacary’s is in a clearly advantageous spot for business. In fact, Zacary’s is a well-known brand to any Club La Costa regular, as the restaurants tend to be found in Club La Costa resorts across the world. In theory, the menus differ to incorporate local specialities and flavours, although in practice the menu is fairly generic with one or two local additions. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the quality of the cuisine varies from restaurant to restaurant as well, presumably depending on the chef and access to quality produce.

Zacary’s in Tenerife’s Paradise Club

The branch of Zacary’s at the Paradise Club is unfortunately not one of the best. The lunchtime menu is full of the usual poolside suspects – toasted sandwiches, burgers and hotdogs, salads, fries and jacket potatoes – which is fine because guests don’t expect to see much else at the poolside cafe at lunchtime and the food tastes fine. It’s the evening menu that’s more of a disappointment.

Marketing itself as ‘a la carte’, with prices to match, the end product is nothing special in the slightest. Most main dishes cost between ten and fifteen Euros, which is far steeper than diners would pay elsewhere in Playa de las Americas, but then Zacary’s does offer the convenience of not having to step foot outside the resort.

Poor Food at Zacary’s

The evening menu has just one token Canarian dish available – pork with Canarian potatoes (charred baby potatoes cooked over coal). Although nothing spectacular, the food tastes fine and the portion size is decent. The rest of the menu is filled with steak, more burgers, pizzas, fajitas and salads. These are the foods to avoid. In particular, the chicken fajitas are chewy and bland and the pizzas are paper-thin, although taste more like cardboard.

The desserts are impressive-looking, decorated with coloured edible paper (a sure way to make the children beg for them) and are again over-priced at up to five Euros each. The chocolate soufflé is more like a sponge, but still tastes ok.

Entertainment at Zacary’s Restaurant

To make up for the food, or perhaps to tempt people to eat there in the first place, Zacary’s hosts early evening entertainment on some nights. It’s mostly for the children – magic shows and a reptile show-and-tell for example – but it’s not bad and much better than the whining tribute bands in Murphy’s Law bar upstairs. They also have a number of regular theme nights – Spanish nights where you can order paella and Italian nights for pastas and pizzas. The Club La Costa welcome meeting is held at Zacary’s every Saturday lunchtime, and while the talk goes on, a chef is cooking a crater-sized paella. This is by far the most delicious meal a guest can eat at Zacary’s and is highly recommended – although guests are only eligible to eat the free meal if they’ve arrived at the resort the day before and have sat through the two-hour talk.

Against a backdrop of intermittent Spanish and British pop music, Zacary’s has a far classier look and feel compared to Janice’s café/restaurant next door. It’s a nice place to sit and have a drink during the day or evening while watching the chaos of the swimming pool from a slight, but much-needed, distance. But while diners are hard-pushed to get a very average quality evening meal (with wine and desserts) for much less than twenty Euros a head, it’s not the place to go for a decent evening out.

The food at Janice’s next door is not haute cuisine either, but then it’s not trying to be, so it's a far better option for an unfussy meal. Better still would be to venture off the resort altogether and sample some of the delicious, typical and good-value food available in some of the family-run restaurants hiding in Playa de las Americas’ streets below the resort.

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Zacary's restaurant, Paradise Club, Tenerife	Menu at Zacary's restaurant,Paradise Club,Tenerife	Entertainment at Zacary's, Paradise Club, Tenerife
Janice's (L) and Zacary's (R), Paradise Club	Paradise Club resort, Club La Costa, Tenerife