Mazi’s menu takes a whimsical journey through Charlotte’s culinary landscape
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chef Whit Thomas fuses Mediterranean roots with Asian and Southern influences.
- Creative dishes like carrot salad and baklava sundae balance art and value.
- Mazi offers top-tier cuisine at $15 average prices amid rising Charlotte costs.
Halfway into a meal at Mazi in South End, I look around and wonder whether I have landed in Oz.
The banquettes that line the dining room are covered in an emerald green that shimmers in the light. The walls are adorned with gold panels. The dishes arriving at the table are plated with every color imaginable — over (and under) the rainbow.
And then in swoops the Wizard to say hello, though here she is known as Whit Thomas: chef de cuisine, worker of miracles, our Whit in Savior.
Surely, this must be Oz, I think, as I sit clicking my heels — only out of sheer excitement, though, because I never, ever want to go home.
At Mazi, Thomas is cooking some of the most exciting food in Charlotte, wielding ingredients like words in an epic love poem. She works alongside Chris Coleman, executive chef and partner in the Built on Hospitality group, of which Mazi is a shining star.
Just look at what she does with a carrot salad.
The carrots — orange and purple — are chilled, and oh how their sweetness is amplified by pickled apricot, red onion and a few red pops of pomegranate. The dish is almost a tease, tickling and poking you by showcasing carrots such that here a confident argument is made to herald them in as the pre-eminent salad vegetable.
Or, the prawns.
They’re grilled on a cast iron skillet, and I encourage you to use your hands, pull them apart and suck out all the flavor from the heads. But before that, pause to consider the plating: how the plump, pink prawns arrive swimming in a sultry and intensely red chili broth, accompanied by a piece of sesame toast. It’s a most magnificent dim sum, but here at Mazi, it’s dim sum by way of Greece.
Call it a different style of food, then; something new to Charlotte. In my four visits so far to Mazi, I have found food that is so much more than its pan-Mediterranean roots. There’s a bit of Asia thrown in, as well as seasonal nods to the American South. All part of the charm, I think. The food here transcends its roots, which means exciting and delicious things in store for diners.
Such as the salmon crudo: Try it, and prepare for the shakedown. No longer is crudo the wispy appetizer of yore. At Mazi, it’s full frontal avant garde. Bright orange pickled peaches, piquant and meaty, announce the arrival of summer. But it’s the dots of fluffy black garlic emulsion that are the real surprise, elevating salmon awash in cucumber gazpacho into the flavor heavens. The dish is sweet without being coy, savory without being a bore, thanks to popped flecks of sorghum. I’ve never had another crudo I’ve wanted to analyze for the piece of art that it is.
A grilled octopus leg is equally riveting, cooked to a texture that mimics a pillow. Whipped feta, thus, the perfect foil: soft, creamy textures intertwining into something altogether woozy. The watermelon and blackberries are helped by the chili crunch, all of which make the entire plate feel alive.
Did I mention that most of these dishes range from $9-$19? In these economic times, that’s comparatively affordable. That’s another part of Mazi’s charm as I see it and why I think it’s exactly the restaurant that Charlotte needs right now.
With absurd rents and the cost of living rising everyday, Charlotte is fast becoming expensive — to say nothing of Mazi’s nearly cost-prohibitive neighborhood in South End — so much so that dining out has become a luxury. “Treat yourself” now reads like a quaint saying of days’ past, as diners eschew lavish spreads and demand more bang for their buck. So what a whizz-bang wonderful treat it is, indeed, to be able to enjoy that rare night out when eating top-class food won’t break the bank.
And just because the food at Mazi is economically accessible compared to other similar restaurants in Charlotte does not mean that creativity here is quashed.
Check out the mushroom shawarma, if you don’t believe me. Lion’s mane mushrooms are prepared and cooked down into a texture resembling meat, paired with garlic sauce and dukkah spices. But the real twist here is the wrap of the shawarma itself, in this case, a collard green, steamed and cut into a circle, making for a quirky little bite.
Also, the m’battan, my favorite dish on the menu. Ground beef, mashed potatoes and a cheeky, savory tomato sauce appear on the plate as crunchy cubes. Think of them as deep-fried cottage pies, and possibly the yummiest way to ever have one.
No one should go to Mazi without saving room for dessert, and that dessert should be the baklava sundae. It’s a crumbled walnut cake and honeyed yogurt ice cream topped with a spiral of honey meringue. The flavors, the textures, the temperatures are all surprising and varied, and the result overall is as captivating as Thomas and her wide, toothy smile, popping out from behind the curtain of the kitchen to bring it to your table.
Coleman’s wisest decision in this latest venture was to hire Thomas as his partner. His Built on Hospitality group, which has restaurants such as The Goodyear House in NoDa, has always known good food. (Remember the cornbread service at the Haymaker?) But with Mazi, and with Thomas helming the kitchen, the food has become so much more.
Like the Wizard at the end of the yellow brick road, Thomas’ food gives diners their hearts’ deepest desires, making Mazi not only one of Charlotte’s best new restaurants, but one I’ll return to again and again.
Mazi
Location: 1300 South Blvd. Suite 101-F, Charlotte, NC 28203
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Instagram: @maziclt
