Restaurants can be rather boring, in terms of their interior design.
It is not simply a question of colour, but the interior lay out.
A mixture of fabrics, wood, metal and glass. Some restaurants tend to resemble a furniture shop, from the desire to put as many tables and chairs into the room as possible.
The poor customer ending up having to fight their way to a table. So close are the tables put together, that one feels it almost necessary, to join in the conversation with the people next to you, on the grounds it would be churlish, not to do so.
One of the most attractive aspects of Zizzi’s in Salisbury is its size and floor design.
Before you even talk to a member of staff the atmosphere, colour scheme and layout embraces you in a friendly and happy way.
It demands of you to go on and enjoy, have fun, we are glad you are with us, ‘now how can we help you?' High expectations and we had hardly had a chance to say hello to Paula, who was going to be looking after us that night.
Everyone appeared pleased to greet all their customers.
We have not as yet even seen a menu and what a menu! I have never come across one so determined to cater for even the most fastidious of dinners.
A number of my friends have food allergies. Vegan, Coeliac or searching for gluten-free.
The most difficult being Coeliac. At Zizzi they would receive a warm welcome. If the staff were uncertain, they have more than 24 Vegan or Gluten Free dishes to chose from.
Plus a comprehensive food index in a ring binding that would bring comfort to most of my, ‘difficult’ friends.
At Zizzi they set out to cater for all dietary requirements. An increasing need in the 21st century. On the main menu was to be found a QR that a customer could scan, this would answer, most food allergy questions, a simple but great idea.
We chose to eat from the Main Menu. Had we been in a hurry we might have chosen from a small menu of 30 selected dishes called Taste of Zizzi 3 Courses for £23.95p
There is also an additional menu called, Special Guests, comprising a choice of 2 Starter 2 Main course a single Dessert plus a Mocktail! This costs £41.40 Expensive but looks a lot of fun
Starters
Our choice of starters, from the main menu contains 14 Starters priced from £5.95 to £14.95. in addition to three Sharing Boards for two people all priced at £16.95.
I suspect that the portion size at Zizzi’, being generous, these would satisfy a table of four.
Di chose the King Prawn Spiedini (£8.25) which looked and tasted fabulous. This scored 10!
The first time any Starters in Salisbury has been awarded the highest score, well done Zizzi. I ordered Bruschetta, (£6.95) one of my favourite simple starters.
This comprised red and orange baby plum tomatoes, with red onion and fresh basil, on freshly baked pizza dough, drizzled with sticky balsamic.
This was amazingly refreshing on the palate, delicious. I scored it 9, which now seems a bit mean of me!
Main Couse
There is a very large selection of main courses from, salads, meat, fish and risotto, pizza and pasta. 39 dishes to chose from.
So if this is your first visit, give yourself extra time to check out the menu or first go online.
I chose the Signature Beef and Chianti Ragu. (£14.50] Fresh egg pappardelle, ribbons of pasta, in a beef, red wine and a slow-roasted tomato sauce.
Topped with crispy sage and reserva cheese. It was lovely, but I would have enjoyed more crispy sage.
Di selected the Herb-Rolled Pork Belly {£17.05) Porchetta pork belly with crispy crackling and hot Roquito honey. served with Tuscan style new potatoes, green beans and spinach.
These both scored 8.5.
Desserts
There is a choice of 13 Desserts, Sundaes and Gelato. Priced from £5.25 to £7.75.
We both chose the Salted Caramel Chocolate Brownie (£6.95) we scored it 7.
Wines and Cocktails
There is a choice of 12 cocktails and three mocktails. Priced between £8.95 to £10.50 and three mocktails £2.95 to £3.95.
The short wine list of six white and red and three Rose and three fizz and bubbles was well selected.
We tried the Pinot Noir £7.95 for 175ml, the Pinot Grigio £6.95 175ml, and the Malbec £9.25 for 250ml.
Wine by the bottle ranged from £19.50 to £28.50. All bar three wines were Italian and priced extremely competitively. Di wished me to stress that the mint tea used fresh leaves!
Our overall score was 8.5 it would have been higher if our table debris had be cleared back more promptly.
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