Mezza

The 5 star reviews for this place are highly suspect. This food is mediocre and amateurish. An octopus tapas had the least octopus I have ever seen in a dish that had octopus in the name. I realize this is tapas, but compared to portions at other local tapas options, this was a truly miniscule portion for the money. Service is haphazard. The proprietors seemed to be drunk or on some kind of happy juice, loudly carrying on with pals while the rest of the place went unattended. Each dish that came was a disappointment, under-​seasoned, either under– or over-​cooked, and seeming to have been recently blasted out of the nuker. Normally, I wouldn’t have reviewed this place yet since it was very recently opened when we went there, but when I saw the obviously fake 5-​star reviews, I thought I owed it to fellow Unilocalers to set the record straight.

In a nut shell, under-​seasoned bland food with mediocre service.
Fiancé and I went this past Friday for dinner. We walk in the front door directly to tables. No hostess stand, no one at the door, no sign saying what to do. There was a gentleman staff member who saw us but went back to his conversation, then eventually came over to seat us. We sit and they fill our water, and then we wait. They finally bring us a menu. One menu for the table. One single sheet of old greasy reused menu that they are erasing the previous persons order off of. We order drinks. Waitress comes back, they are out of cider.
We get bread to start (not free). After she brings the bread, we go ahead and order the rest of our stuff. They treat it basically like you get one chance to order. This is where having multiple new menus for people to place orders with would be helpful. I ask what cheeses are on their cheese plate and get «I don’t know» as a response. So we order and start the bread. This is by far, the worst bread ever. It is in such desperate need of salt. The oil for it has no seasoning in it. Its just bland generic oil, and not even enough of it. We couldn’t even finish a single piece of it bread.
Out comes the meat and cheese plates. We actually laugh because it comes with more of the bread. The cheeses and meats are good. Pretty standard. There was a darker cured meat on the charcuterie board that I found really fantastic. We didn’t bother to ask what it was knowing the waitress probably wouldn’t know. The other two meats were more of a cold lunch meat type style, but they were good. The cheeses were a bleu, a manchengo and a semi harder sharp cheddar (?). Some orange slices, apple slices and a big thing of grapes on the cheese board. One slice of a kosher dill pickle, a handful of olives and two banana peppers on the charcuterie board.
While those two dishes are on our table, and the giant plate of bread that were not about to touch, out comes the shrimp dish. And then right behind the shrimp comes three other dishes we order. So we now have our entire order on the table at once. This is tapas, it should be in sections. We had zero room on the table and ended up putting food in the windowsill.
Sherry Shrimps, organic spinach, crumble bacon. The sauce on this plate was really good. It came with four shrimp that were fine. Seasoned and cooked fine. A little bit of fresh spinach underneath and some cold bacon bits on the spinach leaves.
Meatballs, organic eggs, tomato sauce, cilantro. This was three small meatballs in a ramekin. The egg on the top was overcooked and rubbery. The meatballs had no seasoning. The sauce was ok but we didn’t notice any cilantro.
Lamb kebob, sweet couscous, raisins, toasted almond. This was lamb kofta. Fiancé said this was the best dish (not saying a lot here) of the night. I tried the cous cous and it followed suite with the rest of the meal. Bland and no seasoning.
It took forever for me to get a second glass of wine. When it did get to me, they left my dirty empty glass on our already who overflowing table.
We were hugely disappointing with the entire evening.

Had an incredible dinner at Mezza restaurant. Our group had Pizza, butternut squash and an egg plant dip and it was all amazing. We finished a few bottles of wine, met the owner Alan (turns out we have a mutual friend in LA — who knew??) and a great desert. We will be back again when we visit Charlottesville in the fall.

We got a bottle of red wine, the bread, baked brie, cheese stuffed, prosciutto wrapped medjool dates, beef carpaccio, bacon wrapped scallops, and the meatballs.
All of it was INCREDIBLY bland. For a tapas place with a pretty exciting menu, we were disappointed. Going on a Saturday evening at 830 we thought their A-​team would be working the kitchen. All warm dishes that were served (with the exception of maybe one) looked like they had been pre-​made and then over-​cooked/​heated before dropped at the table.
Takeaways–
Pros: Attentive and friendly service; cute décor; romantic setting
Cons: Nowhere near the best tapas in Charlottesville, the chef had a hard time with the basic flavoring of each dish (I hardly add salt to anything I eat normally and needed to add quite a bit to several dishes here), the food did not taste fresh.
We won’t be going back and would not recommend this establishment to friends. Very sad, because I had high hopes!

Had a great dinner experience here the other night! Lots of options for vegan and vegetarian customers. We really enjoyed the butternut squash, the grilled pizza and the spanish egg/​potato tortilla. We had wonderful service and liked the cozy home feel of the place. We will definitely be back.

Overall, a very good experience and we’ll definitely head back again. For vegetarian and vegans there’s are lots and lots of great options here. If I could give half stars, this would be a 4.5 star review.
Last night my wife and I had six food items and three drinks. Of the food items:
– 2 were excellent (Caprese salad, Buffalo mozzarella, Vine tomato, Basil dressing;
Baked Potato, Bechamel, Parmisan, Crumbled Pancetta),
– another was very good (Mixed mushrooms, Fresh tomato, Garlic, Cilantro served on delicious freshly baked bread), and
– two more were good, but not quite good enough to order again (Grilled Artichokes hearts served with red pepper sauce; the flan on the dessert menu).
The only off-​note was the Grilled Polenta, which was improved when eaten along with one of the tapas but not quite flavorful enough to stand on its own. (To be fair, it is listed as a side; however, it was brought out on its own before when we lacked anything else to eat it with.)
Of the speciality drinks, I enjoyed the Mezzatini (Vodka Prosecco, Lemon juice, hibiscus juice, Rose water) and my wife the Gingertini (Ginger syrup, Fresh mint, Beefeater Gin, Ginger ale, Lime juice). Both were on the subtle flavor side, neither overwhelming. Finally, we also had a small bottle of Prosecco that was also quite good.
Service was good, though a little slow at times – I think they had an unexpectedly busy start to the evening and were short-​staffed. As a Tapas restaurant you get little plates coming out regularly, which gives the feel of a multi-​course meal.
In all, a great addition to W. Main Street. I look forward to eating here again (and again).

Mezza it’s great new tapas place. In fact it they had such good dessert, my girlfriend ate it all. Will return!

Outstanding new Tapas joint. Great service, great food, and a great selection of Vegetarian and Vegan options. Will definitely be back soon!

I highly recommend a visit to Mezza. The menu is creative and the dishes are excellent. The Tapas prices are a strong value. The service was attentive. The restaurant reminded me of what Mas Tapas was like a decade ago. We will be returning again soon.

Delicious Brand New Tapas bar in the old L’Etoile space which has a lot of historic Starr Hill district character and an eclectic menu to boot. I ordered six items all very well prepared by the Chef Kareem who came out and introduced himself. My server Ricki took good care of me and was friendly and attentive. You could tell the staff were well trained and having fun which is a great omen of things to come. Check out the generous portions and delicious food!