They are serving cold pizza for you to eat in a pigsty. Dissapointing.
2025-01-20
Sarah S. C.
Google
It is with a perplexed heart that I write this review. For reasons beyond my control... I've had the occasion to visit the sculpturial Zagreb airport many times over the past year. And often during my relaxed stroll through the singular terminal, I've had a quick lunch or more relaxed dinner at Spread eatery.
It excels at some things... The chicken fingers are much better than anyone would expect at an airport eatery. They are fairly priced and served with a spicy dipping sauce. Fries leave something to be desired, however.
But again and again, I come back to the one puzzling flaw. This restaurant which essentially succeeds principly by allowing people to order and eat quickly has taken a very interesting approach in terms of presenting their menu. Instead of posting it visibly, as, I would argue, 1000% of other restaurants have done since the history of time, this establishment has decided to install four gigantic LCD screens above the registers and those screens flash subsections of the menu at brief and unpredictable intervals making it literally impossible to quickly (or even slowly for that matter) read the entire thing. To further complicate matters, the heavy-on-rotation "Burgers" menu lacks the full breadth of offerings, notably excluding the exceptional chicken fingers and at least four other dishes I saw being prepared or shown, epileptically brief, in photos.
To further confuse literally everyone, on this socalled "Burgers" menu, an Artisan Hot Dog and Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich are gathered. Despite being a Philadelphian, I've never been stupid (or perhaps brave) enough to order my hometown's namesake sandwich outside the City of Brotherly love and I'm not about to start at the Zagreb airport.
To add insult to confusing injury, the Smash Cheeseburger happens to be one euro fifty cheaper than the Smash Burger (sans cheese). I plan next time to order the cheaper of the two and request the cheese on the side. The cost is anyone's guess.
Now for the first half a dozen times I've walked past this restaurant, I've wondered, both to my self and aloud, why God, why would an eatery display anything other than their menu (essentially what is served and what it costs) as potential patrons desperately try to decipher the flashing images. Instead, Spread has decided to feature blank screens and photos of dishes that are not listed on the menu and may or may not be available for purchase. They, metaphorically, woke up today and chose chaos. I suppose we need more risktakers in the world. Why sell food to customers when you can confuse them and probably not sell food to them instead?
So finally I decided to get the bottom of the mystery and find out if there is in fact a definitive and comprehensive menu, somewhere for this establishment. I asked the somber pre-teen behind the till and he informed me that unfortunately he himself is not in charge of the menu and even he does not know what is on it. Chapeau, my dear friend, chapeau.
My conclusion is this eatery exists in liminal space of culinary commerce where there is no actual list of foods for purchase instead you must decide purely by vibes or, if you're lucky, taking a peak of what someone else is already eating and coyly asking what it might be called so you too can, someday, eat it. Ideally before your plane takes off.
Four out of five stars. As you can imagine, the chicken fingers (not listed on the menu) are doing the heavy lifting.