ZaZa’s Cucina

What a great place for special occasions! I called in advance to let them know we were celebrating a special occasion, so they sat us in a private, secluded corner that was surrounded by candles, which was a really nice tough. Our waiter was super friendly and attentive. I was also impressed with the fresh pasta menu – we loved the mushroom tagliatelli and the special of the day, which was a squid ink spaghetti with shrimp and arrabbiata sauce. Will definitely return next time we are in town!

We had a fantastic meal at Zaza’s last night. We were with a large group, so to start we had their fried mozzarella, brussel sprouts, calamari and goat cheese special. All of the appetizers left us wanting more! For dinner the Quattro Formaggi Gnocci was excellent and as well, and somehow we saved room for the crème brûlée dessert. Highly recommend Zaza’s for either a casual or classy night out!

Horrible experience for graduation dinner. They took a wonderful restaurant and converted it into a cheap, packed dining hall, all while raising their prices. We sat on uncomfortable plastic foldable chairs along long portable tables. The lamb chops were bland and chewy and some of the appetizers tasted like frozen dinners. We ended up spending over $ 350 for a party of 4 for a very mediocre dinner. I understand that during events things can be different, but I think they went too far to increase the number of patrons they could «push» through there.

Great atmosphere, great service and pretty good food. Doesn’t get much better than that. I had the Bolognese, which was pretty good. My wife liked her duck breast. It was a cute little place.

The staff here are very well trained, amazing service. Despite some potential scheduling issues, they worked with me to make it work. I had my birthday dinner here and they took the cake to the fridge, lit it for us after we ate, and even cut it for us and served it for us.
The food was fabulous, and we all walked away with smiles on our faces. Thank you for the great people, atmosphere, and food!

I was really excited to try this restaurant because of recommendations from friends. I finally got to try it recently and had a really bad experience. I ate the duck breast, cooked medium, and had severe stomachache and vomiting about 5 hours after the dinner. I’ve had duck breast before as well as many different types of cuisine and have never ever vomited after a meal before. I didn’t eat anything out of the ordinary that day so am hard pressed to find another reason for the GI upset. :(

Came here to take our Nephew and friends for dinner. There was an error in our reservation that was our fault and they were extremely accommodating. The homemade pasta was fantastic. Not a single negative word among the 8 separate meals. The espresso over vanilla ice cream for dessert was a great way to close out a fine meal.

Came for Easter Brunch and was easily underwhelmed. Started with a Caesar salad that was so-​so. Also got the calamari which was well-​cooked, but shockingly came with tartar sauce out of a jar – unbelievable for a restaurant of this caliber. Got the short ribs hash which was well cooked and tender, and came on a bed of rosemary potatoes and topped with poached eggs. Partner got the lamb special which was confusing: I think it was supposed to be roasted but came swimming in a cloying red & yellow pepper sauce and a side of polenta that tasted stale. The rareness of the lamb and the sliminess of the red pepper sauce made for an unpleasant experience. Service was disappointing as well.

Great food and service. I like this place. Very nice people and solid Italian cuisine.
BTW: Unilocal is a terrible website and the people who run it are garbage. Hope this helps.

Used to be far better, but tonight our pasta dishes were gummy. I had the sausage and fennel and brocollini, and my wife went for the pumpkin ravioli. Mine was ok, but I could have done better at home. Her pasta was swimming in oil, probably the same oil from the bottle that the sundried tomatos used in the garnish came in, left an odd aftertaste. The choice was strange in any case: Normally you do those ravioli in butter with sage. The Malbec by the glass was fine, but the Chianti was unimpressive.
A shame but I’m not likely to return. Gola is in another league entirely…

My boyfriend and I went to ZaZa’s to celebrate his 22^nd birthday. The food was really good. The mini ciabatta rolls before our meals came with a delicious olive oil dip. We had some mussels for appetizer. It was very juicy and fresh. Then my boyfriend ordered the flat iron steak for entreé and I had the seafood stew. The portion is generous and the arraignment is beautiful. We then shared the espresso poured over vanilla gelato at the end. It was the BEST! I love espresso usually and the creamy vanilla gelato just added so much texture to the espresso. It was such a lovely treat! I wound recommend you to try it out!

Came for Valentine’s Day dinner with my boyfriend and had a great experience!
I would recommend getting mussels (appetizer) crab bisque and duck breast (entrée). Calamari was dry and lack flavor, and steak was just so so. For dessert, get tiramisu! I also had cheesecake, which was a bit too sweet for me.
Service was great — attentive and fast, definitely worth a generous tip. Price was very reasonable. Portion size is big. Nice ambience and décor. Would love to come back again to try the pasta here!

Get the seared scallops. You will not regret it! Over creamy mashed potatoes with peas and bacon. So so good. The sautéed brussel sprouts with bacon were also very good. Service was exceptional. Affogato was perfect, but also is hard to mess up affogato ;) highly recommend this place!!! Will come next time I’m in Ithaca.

Zaza’s is my absolute favorite Italian restaurant, which is a bold statement coming from an Italian herself.
The menu, which features food that is fresh and prepared with expertise, is quite extensive. The butternut squash risotto — just one of four risotto dishes — is out-​of-​this-​world. The rice is cooked perfectly and is covered in a delectable, creamy sauce. The addition of peas makes this entrée healthy, right? The pesto gnocchi — again, just one of many gnocchi offerings — is another one of my favorites. I personally prefer my gnocchi to be dense rather than light, and Zaza’s gnocchi delivers the perfect balance between the two. The service is equally impressive.
Do not be turned off by the exterior of this restaurant, which is extremely underwhelming and which actually makes the restaurant appear dumpy. The interior is nicely decorated and professional.

My boyfriend and I came here last night for a late dinner. The food was very good! The bread they give you to start is fine but the olive oil with the pesto and sundried tomato is fantastic. We cleaned the plate. We shared the calamari to start which was delicious. It came with two sauces: one was like a tartar sauce and the second was a traditional red sauce. The tartar sauce was my favorite of the two. For dinner, my boyfriend had the seafood misto with red sauce. I had the pasta with clams. Mine was a little too lemony for my taste and needed some salt but my boyfriend’s was delicious! I actually put some of his sauce on mine and that was really quite good. Also they are SUPER generous with the seafood here which I really appreciated. The ambiance here is really nice for a date or special occasion. Definitely recommend!

As an Italian I know pasta, I make it often. We had pasta Bolognese and Cavatelli & Sausage, both were superior!
My Italian grandmother would have enjoyed this, although she would have complained about something, but that’s normal Bobby! Seriously, right on time!

Four of us for dinner on a Monday night. In town for a conference at Cornell. Place was fairly quiet as one might expect this early in the week. I have been here a couple of times for dinner in the past and have found it to be very consistent as far as the quality of the food and service. Nothing bad… but nothing exceptional either. Prices are reasonable for the quality you get. The wine list is an issue though. Not saying that the wine is overpriced because I can’t really compare. The selection however seems to be way out of synch with the level of cuisine offered. Most reds are in the $ 50 to $ 80 range and several are well over $ 100. Almost nothing under $ 50 for an Italian red. Za Za needs to either bump up the cuisine or dumb down the wine a bit.

One of the «nicer» places in Ithaca. NYC priced, but quite good food as well. Great to take a date on (if you want to impress) or if you want to celebrate a short anniversary with a loved one :) Really good ambience and décor, quieter than most, but makes for a very romantic setting.

I usually only focus on the food, but when service was this poor, other Unilocal users have a right to know not to spend their money on this place, especially not for a special occasion. We came for a graduation and birthday joint dinner. The food was fine, there was nothing really special (the seafood stew was overcooked and tough), but the service was absolutely horrendous. We got to the restaurant 20 minutes early for our 7:00pm reservation, were seated around 7:00 and got our appetizers after 9:00pm. More than two hours for appetizers alone! By that time we were debating just going to Wegmans for a sandwich.
We asked to see the manager about five times (just got ignored the first few times) and finally got to speak to a guy twenty minutes later. He reluctantly took a couple bottles of wine off the tab, but our food was still missing. We sat and sat and sat and our wine just got warm with the passing hour. When the food came, it was fine but did not taste like it cost the obligatory $ 60 a person. All our stomachs had contracted so much by that point, eating the food made some people feel nauseated and unwell.
At the end of the meal, the bill came and they put an automatic 20% gratuity on the bill. They had already been alerted to how terrible their service was and had the nerve to do that. When my parents complained to the manager about the tip, they shoved a deposit contract in their face that said that the $ 60 per person meal did not include 18% gratuity, which they said can be applied in their discretion. So your discretion is to provide awful service, serve over priced food and then apply a 18% tip to service that the owner herself admitted was unacceptable? So they took 2% off down from 20% because even they had to abide by their «discretion.»
It’s lucky that most of ZaZa’s customers that night graduate and leave the campus because service like this will not get many return customers. It’s disappointing that a restaurant with years of experience could ruin such an otherwise joyful night and instead of apologizing for their misstep, shove a bad contract in its customer’s face and force an undeserved tip on service even the owner admitted was unacceptable. Not so unacceptable to not accept the tip.

This is one of my favorite restaurants to go in Ithaca. Their pasta and seafood menu items are always good. It is relatively pricey but it’s a good place to go when you want to treat yourself or go on a date.
The inside décor looks elegant unlike the exterior of the restaurant.
It has a quiet and elegant ambiance.

Higher end restaurant and prices, not true Italian but the US version of it plus good sea food. Great Service, ok ambience– I would suggest the pasta or seafood