|
This restaurant review was undertaken on March 12, 2009
Décor
 Zizzi
is a large restaurant which holds many tables - a perfect venue
for large bookings. The high ceilings give you a feeling of
freedom and space. As soon as I walked into the restaurant my
eye caught a waiting area under the stairs with people chatting
over olives. The restaurant boasts a large pizza oven central to
the dining area and a view for us guests to watch the chefs
working away in their white hats and stripy tops.
Service
Our waiter
seemed to be on another planet at times. Although prompt in
delivery he lacked empathy and warmth. As soon as you finished
ordering any part of your meal he was gone in a flash. When our
olives arrived with no cocktail sticks we were made to feel as
though we had made the error. Or forks would do on this
occasion. This made us look at the other staff in the restaurant
and they seemed to be the opposite of our waiter – maybe we were
just unlucky on this occasion.
Atmosphere
There is
always a buzz to Zizzi’s restaurants and tonight was no
different. Three large party tables were adding to the vibe.
Watching the chefs cook behind their counter is always an extra
visual to your experience. Weekends are always busy and many
people dine before a night out on the tiles.
Food
Being in an
Italian restaurant we started we some green and black olives
marinated in spicy herbs (£2.25). As no cocktail sticks came
with the olives we used fingers and forks. The olives gave off a
powerful spicy kick. Within minutes they were gone from the
bowl. They tasted amazing with the house wine.
I am not sure
who Angelo is, but I ordered Angelo’s mussels. No waiter with
bulging biceps arrived but what did arrive was a large plate of
sea mussels with garlic (£5.65). This dish consisted of a bowl
of shells dripped in garlic, onion and cream sauce loaded with
fresh parsley. Although some of the mussels had that slippery
texture some were too small to even notice and some came quite
dry. The sauce was a little thin and reminded me of a cheap
onion soup you’d microwave at work. A couple of rolls would have
been nice to soak this up though.
 My
normally healthy guest ordered the oven baked Crostini formaggio
di Capra (£4.65). Goats cheese with caramelised balsamic onions
with seasonal mixed leafs and honey dressing on a ciabatta
bread. It’s quite a healthy choice excluding the well-flavoured
cheese. Who cares? The soft texture of the cheese on the rustic
bread and tangy dressing danced in the mouth and the plate was
left plain white as if it had been unloaded from the dish
washer.
My guest
fancied a pizza for mains but in the form of a calzone style
wrap so asked the waiter if this was possible to which the
answer was “yes”. Along came a Pollo al rosmarino (£8.50).
Marinated chicken, mixed roasted peppers, goat’s cheese,
mozzarella, tomato and rosemary.
I adore prawns
so much that I will have them for lunch, dinner and supper so
there was no chance these poor little, actually large gamberi
were going to escape me on this menu (£10.95). These bulging
sautéed prawns with Santos tomatoes, fresh chilli and basil
served with a tomato sauce turned out to be mighty fine. The
chef had cooked these prawns to the correct timings, not
rubbery, nor chewy but soft and tender.
Desserts
After a long
break (which we asked for) because we were full, another waiter
delivered our puddings. Torta Cioccolata - rich chocolate torte
on a thick hazelnut chocolate base, served with vanilla
mascarpone was my guests choice (£4.75). My guest simply loved
his dessert.
For myself I
chose the Mela croccante - hot apple and amaretto crumble served
with vanilla ice cream (£4.75). You need to allow 15 minutes
cooking time for this dish – well worth the wait. |
