Zagat’s recently had an article entitled ‘8 Reasons to Drive to Richmond’.

In it, it celebrated Mamma Zu’s:

This place had lines down the block and a chalkboard menu before it was cool, and on that chalkboard you’ll find antipasti like scungilli (Italian for whelk) or roasted red peppers; pastas like the perfectly perfect marinara and the best carbonara we’ve ever tasted; and entrees like osso buco and rockfish.

As well as L’Opossum:

Like Mamma ’Zu, you’ll find this corner spot in Richmond’s residential Oregon Hill neighborhood near the James River. The restaurant is the wonderfully quirky brainchild of chef-owner David Shannon, who spices up his dishes with names like “vegan orgy on a Texas beach” — that would be papadums and dips — and “a tawdry and salacious arrangement of freshly procured Manakintowne mesclun” — aka salad. Sit under the colorful lights at a table lined with black-and-gold Andy Warhol wallpaper and order the eggs with caviar; the “the swank bank,” a bowl of buttery lobster mac ‘n’ cheese with asparagus and chard; and a dessert of grilled pineapple ambrosia with boozy cherries.