LET'S EAT - Zizzi Italian

After a whirlwind week of last-minute revision, my exams are over and I am officially no longer an undergraduate student! I'm also not technically a graduate, considering that the papers are yet to be marked and the ceremony doesn't take place until July... so I'm not really sure what I can class myself as for the next month or so. 'Exhausted' and 'relieved' are perhaps two good alternatives.

Anyway, I really just wanted to nap after finishing the last exam but that didn't seem particularly sociable so I went out for dinner with a friend to Zizzi instead. I've frequented most of the Italian chains (Pizza Express, Prezzo, etc) numerous times however had never been to Zizzi, so it seemed as good as ever a time to try it out! The following day I then headed to another Zizzi with some other friends, because why not. My NUS card gives me 40% off on Mondays and Tuesdays so it seemed worthwhile!


Like many similar chains, Zizzi offers a good selection of pizzas and pasta dishes, alongside risotto, salads and meat/fish dishes. They also have a good range of starters (single and sharing) and puddings, as well as soft, alcoholic and warm drinks. Both of the restaurants I visited were managed by friendly and attentive staff (although they were prone to vanishing just when you wanted to ask for the bill) and the restaurants had a open, cheerful feel to them. I partiucaly liked that the setting was very open plan and you could see the huge pizza ovens working their magic. 
The service was also beyond speedy, and the food was delivered incredibly quickly after placing the orders. On both occasions we had places to be after eating so the quick service was very welcome; however I think if you weren't in a rush then it would perhaps not be ideal.

As good as it looks!

On my first visit both myself and my friend opted for the Zucca pizza ("a creamy pesto base with mozzarella, roasted butternut squash, caramelised balsamic onions and spinach, topped with crumbled goats' cheese, pine nuts and rosemary") on the large Romana base. I overall really enjoyed it and thought that all the flavours worked really well together. There was a LOT of cheese (not a problem) as well as generous amounts of the butternut squash and the lovely sweet onions. It was all held up really well by the base, which was nice and thin and had the authentic air bubbles from where it had been cooked in the oven. Delicious!

The next night I opted for the Strozzapretti Pesto Rosso pasta dish, which contained spicy chicken, spring onions, red pesto and mascarpone. I really enjoyed the sauce; it wasn't overly creamy or too oily, but had a good flavour and coated the pasta quite generously. There were lots of decent sized pieces of chicken throughout as well (although I didn't think they were particularly spicy) and a few pieces of spring onion, although they were slightly lacking. It was a decent portion size as well, and very appreciated after an afternoon of walking around London!

For pudding I chose the Chocolate and Banana Calzone which was stuffed with banana, chocolate and mascarpone and came alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a salted caramel sauce. Again it was delicious (and surprisingly large) - packed full of banana and very sweet and moreish. I was a bit surprised to find that it was actually a whole banana folded into the calzone (I was expecting it to be mashed) which made a little difficult to eat, and I would have perhaps liked a bit more chocolate in the calzone as I didn't seem to have very much. Apart from that, it was delicious and I would definitely order it again.

My friends ordered the Carbonara and the Prosciutto Verde pizza for their mains, which they both seemed to really enjoy. They opted for the Coppa Cocco sundae and the Cara-Melba Sweet Pizza for desserts - again, both a hit (especially the sweet pizza).

Overall, my consecutive trips to Zizzi were declared a success - I'll definitely be visiting again in the future (there was a cheesecake that I was very tempted to try). The prices are reasonable (very reasonable with student discount) and the portion sizes are generous. It would be nice to see a few more vegetarian options on the menu, but for non-veggies there's a huge range of dishes to choose from! Well worth a visit! 9 out of 10 for food, 7 out of 10 for service.