Review: Zizzi

Final Marks: 1.5 out of 5

Exactly two weeks ago, I went out for dinner for a long overdue catch up with two of my good friends. After much deliberation we settled on Zizzi in Covent Garden due to its vague equidistance between all three of us, the fact that they had some good offers on and crucially, the fact that I remembered them having a good gluten free menu.

Things got off to a great start as I met one of my friends, we’ll call her Stella, and we pitched up for our 7pm reservation a little early. We were given a table in the basement section, which was a bit of a shame as the street level portion of the restaurant has gorgeous big windows with views of Covent Garden – but never mind, I was there for the company and not the views. We settled in to our table and the wait for our other friend, and amused ourselves with a free glass of Prosecco, thanks to an offer on my O2 Priority Moments app. Stella ordered some free olives courtesy of a different deal, and we were beginning to feel rather pleased with ourselves.

We then got onto consulting the menu. Stella had another offer which was for 3 courses for £15, but restricted to just a few dishes. Whilst I awaited the special Gluten Free Menu, I looked through the list of dishes on the special offer and tried to second guess which would be suitable to me. The choice of starter was either bread or garlic bread, so that was obvious – neither – and then onto main courses. Most pizzas were included in the deal, and I remembered that Zizzi had a gluten free pizza base. It was at this moment that the gluten free menu arrived, and I discovered to my dismay that they no longer do gluten free pizza bases. There was no note as to why the gluten free bases had been discontinued, but whatever the reason, they had been stopped. They were no more. Woe was me.

I tried to cross reference the frankly minimal gluten free menu with the special offer. It transpired that basically my only choice was pasta and tomato sauce with a bit of cheese, which I’m sure was very nice but I decided probably wasn’t worth the £15 deal, especially as I couldn’t have the starter anyway. I figured I was lucky to have the option of some safe dishes in the first place, as it’s more than I get in other places, and settled for a tasty sounding pasta dish with chicken.

Sadly, things took a turn for the worse as a little while after placing my order, the waitress returned and informed me that due to a cross contamination issue, all their gluten free pasta had had to be discarded. So pasta was off the menu. This left risotto or salad. It was pretty late by this point, due to the slightly late arrival of my other friend and some slow service, so a salad just wasn’t going to cut it. I resigned myself to a risotto, and luckily there was more than just the standard mushroom risotto on the menu – chicken and mushroom! It was also more expensive than the pasta.

When the food arrived I have to say it was nothing special. I’m a little biased because risotto is something that I tend to make myself as a quick-and-easy-cop-out-dinner when I’ve had a long day, or with some veg in as a cheap and filling pre-payday eat. So I objected to having to pay more for something I wanted less, and I was not offered the difference as a compensation which was especially annoying as I did not have a choice in the matter. There was literally nothing else I could have chosen at the same or similar price point. I was also well and truly out of the running for the 3 courses for £15 offer, with no eligible starters or main courses included!

The saving grace was definitely the pudding. At this point I thought I’d be lucky to escape with an ice cream or possibly even a fruit salad if I was lucky, but they had a chocolate melt on the menu. Obviously I ordered it, and it was delicious: a perfectly cooked fondant with a melting centre – yum.            

So over all I left feeling disappointed and a little railroaded into a meal which I didn’t actually want (or enjoy) that much in the end. Still, they did give us three glasses of free Prosecco instead of the two contained within the offer I had, and they were very apologetic about the pasta issue. There was no use complaining really, as the staff couldn't do anything about the limited menu or the pasta situation (and also we're British, and we don't do that sort of thing). Also, that chocolate pudding was delightful. Those are the only reasons I’m giving them any marks at all, otherwise it would have been nil, sadly.

Has anyone else eaten in a Zizzi recently? Any good/bad/ugly experiences?

-Rachel