Ana Eats : Zizzi’s Restaurant Review

Enjoying a meal together out as a family is a real treat. So you want to be assured good service, and very tasty food.  Our go to choice is the Italian restaurant Zizzi’s.  We visit our Nottingham branch of  the chain regularly for just these very reasons. We headed to our local this bank holiday weekend to review the food overall, but especially the new Bambini kids menu. So first up, we were shown to our seats in one of the ‘funky booths’ I must admit the alcoves are our favourite places to sit, as you can see the whole room from here so even though they feel private, and social for a family, they are great for people watching too. Our local Zizzi’s is fairly large, and on two floors, and two bars. So once seated we perused the menu. The (Kids) Bambini Menu, I think is excellent, just enough choice, and a good mix of Italian dishes. The starter, which was gobbled up so quickly, I didn’t get a good photograph of , it comes in a coloured beaker, and is a mix of carrot, cucumber and fresh dough sticks.  I thought it needed a dip or salsa of some kind to go with it, but we had ordered starters with dips, so Miss A used ours. Our waiter offered to bring the Bambini starter straight away, which I thought was really helpful, especially if you had very small children. Miss A was happy though using her stickers, the crayola twistable crayons she’d been provided with, to colour both her menu and the chefs hat! Nia (11) and Tall Dad went for a sharer, Fritto Misto, and they both really enjoyed it. It had King prawns, calamari, whitebait, peppers, artichoke and courgette, all lightly battered. Served with chilli, lemon and an aioli dip. Love the greaseproof paper which was, a printed Italian newspaper it was served on, great touch. I however, when for Fonduta Formaggi starter – A melting pot with gorgonzola, gruyère and pecorino cheese with baked dough sticks and focaccia bread for dipping, absolutely amazing! It was very rich, but so delicious I ate every mouthful, and couldn’t help but do ‘ the stare’ when they all asked if the could try it too. The bread had been drizzled with extra olive oil, was crisp on the edges and soft inside, and it was presented beautifully on a long wooden platter. Next up was mains : Now the Bambini menu, had lots of choice, several types of pasta, or pizza.  Miss A (5) would usually go for pasta, her absolute favourite meal, but she loved the sound of getting creative and making her own pizza.  So armed with a  Zizzi selection pot she decorated her pizza with tomatoes, olives and ham. . It was just the right size for Miss A, she ate all of it, and it was beautifully fresh and looked really tasty.  They had divided it up for her, so eating it was easy too.   A small thing but just makes life easier when you are eating pizza with small children.

Tall Dad and Nia had the same mains, as they both fancied something with a spicy bite. They went for Rustica Sofia – Spicy chicken, pepperoni, spicy sausage, mozzarella, chilli and rosemary. It was spicy, as it had slices of chilli on it, so not one for the faint hearted.  They both really enjoyed it though.  It was very large, and we took away lots of it in a pizza box, thanks to Daniel our excellent waiter.  Tall Dad ate it for his supper, I’m not sure how he had the room, as none of us ate for the rest of the day. I went for my favourite Strozzapreti Pesto Rosso –  Spicy piccante chicken, red pesto, crème fraîche and spring onions, I have it without the chicken, as I don’t eat meat.  This is my favourite Zizzi’s dish, and I’ve written about it before on the blog, you can read my recipe for it HERE. It was delicious, but I prefer it with more pesto in, maybe that’s because I make this dish myself, so I am comparing it to how I make it. We all had fun with the Chefs hats that the kids receive with the Bambini menu! Finally desert for Miss A from the new Bambini menu was Zizzi Bambini Cones – 2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream with 3 sugar cones to fill yourself and a bowl of chocolate popping candy to decorate.   A really great dessert I think for children, its fun, not to big, and the chocolate popping candy was delicious!

  Tall Dad, is not a fan of desserts, but Nia and I managed to find room.  We thought it was our duty for the review to try them 😉 Nia went for the Chocolate and Banana Calzone – Sweet, warm dough filled with banana, chocolate sauce and mascarpone cream, served with crema gelato & hot toffee sauce. I sneaked a try of this, and its was really deliciously sweet, a great addition to the new Zizzi’s menu.   I really craved chocolate at the end of the meal so went for the Chocolate Melt – Hot, gooey chocolate pudding served with crema gelato. The perfect ending to a meal for me.   Finally, Miss A enjoyed a Chocacino which is also included in the children’s Bambini menu- its a steamed chocolate milk.   The service and food were fantastic, we all thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a long leisurely meal, a real Italian feast, and we were in the restaurant for around 2 hours in total.  Our waiter Daniel was excellent, despite it being a very busy lunch time, he was attentive but not obtrusive.  He didn’t realise it was a review meal, as he gave us the bill at the end, so the service was definitely a true reflection of the kind of service you receive at Zizzi’s Nottingham.

The new Bambini menu, as described above, so starter, main, dessert and Chocacino is £6.75

We received the meal free of charge in order to write a review, no other payment was received.