Zizzi

Last Saturday we were strolling around Into in Uxbridge and were fancying some Italian.
We’ve been to other branches of Zizzi in the past and we do like it quite a lot.
I know most foodies might turn up their noses at the notion of going to Zizzi for a fix of Italian. Yes, I know it’s a chain. Yes, I know you could get better.
But ultimately, it’s flavours that count and Zizzi has never failed to deliver.
We ordered a large Zizzi antipasti to share and a portion of their calamari. The selection of cured meat and their dough sticks were spot-​on, and the buffalo mozzarella quite literally melted in my mouth. The Calamari were a teeny tiny bit cold (didn’t nuke those ones thoroughly, hey? You cheeky chain-​restaurant people?) but still tasty.
Every single time we go to Zizzi I tell myself ’ this time I am totally going to have pizza’, but then I always cave in and get pasta. Nothing leaves me satisfied like a good sized portion of pasta packed with flavours, and my treat of choice is often their Linguine Arrabbiata — with ‘nduja and mascarpone.
For those who don’t know, ‘nduja is a quite hot spreadable sausage from Calabria that makes for an excellent pasta-​sauce. It’s really quite hot, but the tablespoon of mascarpone on top of it soothes the tongue and it’s a feast for the palate. The linguine (and this was the first time ever) were slightly overcooked for my taste as I do prefer my pasta ‘al dente’, however I did forget to mention it when ordering so hey. My fault I guess.
Of course I couldn’t help but feeling a little bit jealous of my other half’s rustica pizza which looked (and — as he repeated over and over — tasted) delicious.
Finished all off with a good sized serving of their tiramisù, which we shared. That was probably the thickest layer of mascarpone I’ve ever seen on a dessert and sweet baby jesus was it tasty.
The place is nice, wooden décor galore, floor included (which can get a bit noisy with many people walking and kids running around). All in all, another pleasant experience.

#Yelp #Yelp365 40 — I wish I could give this place higher rating but I debated even to a two. We planned to have a group of 20 for a work dinner. We selected our food the day before, and when we arrived, no one checked to see who was sitting where. It seemed the pre work was not going to pay off. The main course took 70 minutes to bring out, and since we arrived early, they asked i we wanted our food brought up. Apparently, they held off to make the food ready for the original time, despite arriving early.
The wine was okay, I found it to have a bite for a sweeter wine. The staff seemed a bit scattered. Overall ambiance was cool décor, smokey from the food cooking downstairs. I imagine for smaller parties this would be an enjoyable place to frequent.