Steve Helt, the owner and executive chef of Zydeco Kitchen + Cocktails in downtown Bend, was reflecting upon how diners’ desires have changed in the decade since he opened his popular restaurant.

“When we first opened,” he said, “we were offering organic food and grass-fed beef, but people would just want to know, ‘Does it taste good?’ And now it has shifted so that people, especially in Bend, are really clear and straightforward that they do want (this kind of) food. It’s been very cool to see the town blossom with that.”

Zydeco remains in the uppermost tier of Bend’s fine-dining experiences, more than five years after relocating from Southeast Third Street to Bond Street downtown. Its level of service is second to none; its ambience is equal parts hip and romantic.

And the menu has evolved with the times.

Southern style

As its name might suggest, Zydeco has always had a touch of Southern flair in its kitchen. Dishes like blackened redfish and jambalaya share top billing with continental plates such as roasted duck breast and rack of lamb. Helt, who was born and raised in upstate New York, learned New Orleans-style cooking during several early-career years in southern Texas, and he loves sharing those flavors with Oregon diners.

“We started with jambalaya at the old location and added shrimp etoufée. Then we started introducing other Southern-style food,” Helt said. Among those dishes are Acadian flatbread and artichoke-and-corn fritters. A longtime favorite of Zydeco diners is barbecue shrimp, served atop grit cake with a cayenne-rich sauce.

“In the last couple of years,” said Helt, “we’ve brought on a natural beef program. Our filet (au poivre) and steak Delmonico, and our burger meat, are all grass-fed. That’s something we’ve been very adamant about.”

Helt continues to design all recipes and menus, assisted by Mary Diehl, his chef de cuisine for 10 years.

Quinoa, a nutritious Andean grain, has been an especially popular menu addition, Helt said. He pointed to a quinoa salad, with white and red quinoa, avocadoes and olive oil, as a dish “that people have really gravitated toward.”

Midday meal

On a midday visit, my dining companion wasted no time in checking out some of these healthier temptations. She decided on blackened tofu, grilled with Cajun spices and sliced, served atop a salad of quinoa blended with black beans, corn, avocado, cucumber and basil pesto.

Even the soy-based tofu, a meatless food that is not often savory, was full of flavor. “Our blackening should be flavorful,” Helt said. “It is not oversalted or overspiced.”

I enjoyed a salad of my own at that lunch — Mama G’s steak salad. I’m not acquainted with Mama G, but this was an excellent chop-style salad, with rows of sliced avocado, pear tomatoes, chopped hard-boiled egg, crumbles of sharp blue cheese and crispy house-made croutons, presented upon a bed of mixed greens. The beef, tender and medium rare, was perfectly complemented by a mild vinaigrette.

Dinner hour

A few days earlier, we had enjoyed a more substantial dinner that started with a loaf of fresh bread, warmed and with a crispy sesame-seed crust. It was presented with a tasty olive-oil dip that incorporated garlic and parsley, along with salt and pepper.

Crunchy corn-and-artichoke fritters, with ’choke hearts and corn kernels in a masa-style cornbread, were a battered and deep-fried appetizer. A honey-jalapeño drizzle and aioli dipping sauce added zing.

We shared a delicious spinach salad, tossed with ground pistachios, creamy goat cheese and sliced red onion. Honey-mustard vinaigrette was more sweet than tangy.

For my entrée, I had the blackened redfish, a menu standard at Zydeco. Served upon mashed potatoes with sautéed spinach and hearty chunks of Dungeness crab meat, it was finished with a “Zydeco sauce” of lemon butter, clam juice and Creole spices. A wonderful dish was made even better with a side of warm, coarse cornbread.

My friend stayed Southern with the restaurant’s version of jambalaya, a moderately spicy and delicious casserole of rice with meats (andouille sausage, shrimp and crayfish) and vegetables (celery, onions and chopped green peppers).

Our desserts — an almond wet cake with caramel sauce and a flourless chocolate cake with peanut butter ice cream — were very good, but neither was as unforgettable as Zydeco’s moist, homemade carrot cake. That is normally our go-to dessert here.

Mood and service

Zydeco has three chic, contemporary dining areas. A central room, featuring a high cutaway window to the bright kitchen, divides the bustling and colorful lounge and a subdued back room that is more conducive to a romantic dinner. There are about 130 seats and another five sidewalk tables.

More impressive than the ambience is the service. Every one of the black-clad staff of waiters is attentive, knowledgeable and completely professional. That’s by design.

“Service has become almost as important as the food at restaurants,” Helt said. “We have expanded our seven-day training program to include quarterly, or even monthly, retraining. We want everyone involved in describing any food or wine to a guest (to do so) in a comfortable fashion. We help them to sharpen up their approach when talking to a table.

“Our idea is to empower our people to do a great job, to understand the product and have a good depth of knowledge. If everybody does that, the whole restaurant wins.”

— Reporter: janderson@bendbulletin.com