Zizzi's! (Take Three)

Food posts are back and they are back with a vengeance! I've got a few from the last few months when I went out to eat but was posting blog posts on 'the 12 days of eyemas'. I went to Zizzi's at the beginning of December when my mum came to visit me in Notts. We had a great day wandering around the Christmas market and doing a spot of shopping which ended with a delicious meal.

For starter we shared the aranchini balls and the calamari. The aranchini are risotto balls with mozzarella and peas breadcrumbed to make it crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It was served with a chunky tomato dip which was really tasty and went really well with both of the dishes. The balls were delicious and even thinking about this is making me want to eat my laptop screen. They had so much flavour and weren't too heavy considering it's essentially fried balls of creamy rice. I always go for calamari when it's on the menu and it has to be one of my favourite starters. I was very impressed with these beautiful rings of squid. They were crispy on the outside and really soft when I bit into it, not chewy at all. It was served with a garlic and basil aioli and that was really tasty and went well with both the aranchini balls and the calamari. Delicious! Good choices all round.

I wasn't really fancying a pasta dish so I went for chicken with parma ham and sage, tuscan potatoes and green beans in a white wine sauce. I liked this a lot but it didn't blow me away. The chicken had lots of flavour but the ham was a bit something or nothing. The green beans were cooked nicely and the sauce had a nice flavour but I'd have liked it to have been a bit thicker and creamier. I like the edges of the potatoes where they were really crispy but I'm really fussy when it comes to potatoes and I pretty much only like them if they're burnt to a crisp. So I liked the dish but I just didn't love it.

Zizzi's (Take Two)

It's happening! Back to Nottingham means back to eating out and I LOVE eating out (in fact as I'm writing this I'm going to Nando's tomorrow, YES!). Hopefully there will be more Nottingham related food outings but as the bank balance is low there may be few and far between so have your fingers crossed that I win the lottery or come into some cash! Without further ado let's get into it.

I plumped for a calzone with chicken, ham and spinach in a creamy mushroom sauce. I was totally won over by the sauce on the menu as I fancied something soft and creamy and I wasn't disappointed. It was hard to cut at first as the edges on the bottom were crispier than the rest of the dough but this dish was a dream. The chicken was so moist and cooked beautifully and went really nicely with the creamy sauce. It was the perfect size and unusually the ratio of dough to filling was on point, normally there's much more dough. The only problem I found with this was that there was a lot of cheese inside, and I'm not a big fan of cheese, and sometimes that flavour was a little overwhelming and wet due to the sauce. But overall it's the best calzone I've ever had, I loved it.

I still had a little room left when it got to dessert so I went for the chocolate melt, which is basically exactly what it sounds like. It was sickly but in a good way. The portion size was perfect for something that packed quite a chocolate punch and the ice cream was a nice, cooling touch. The middle melted which is what it was meant to do and I'd happily have it again. I also had a cheeky try of the vanilla pannacotta and that was delicious so I may need to go back and have the full size of that.

Zizzi's!

My family went through a phase a few years ago where Zizzi's was the place to go. We over did it a bit and stopped going for a while so now it was nice to go back and revisit to see what'd changed. Me and my mum went to the one in Meadowhall just before I came back to university and I love the way that they feel like outdoor restaurants but they're under 'the dome' of the centre. We went for a quick lunch so service was speedy but it wasn't so fast that it didn't feel leisurely.

For starter we shared the calamari and the garlic bread with mozzarella and balsamic onions. There was literally so much food to say that they were only two starters. That could have comfortably fed four people I think. The calamari was soft, not at all chewy and had a really tasty batter. The only problem I found was that some of the pieces were really over seasoned so you got a massive hit of salt or pepper. It came with a mayonnaise dip, as this dish normally does, which went really nicely with the squid and the garlic bread. This was literally the best garlic bread I've ever tasted. It was garlic-y but sweet from the onions and had a nice soft bread texture that was nice with the cheese. The portion size was huge but we kept it back for the main so there wasn't much that went to waste. I definitely want to recreate this at home, it would be delicious.

For main I went for the standard lasagne, as this is what I use to test how good a restaurant is. This one was a little bit different as instead of lots of cheese on top it came with breadcrumbs. They added a nice crunch but also a softness which was really nice. It came with so much creamy sauce which is my absolute dream yet there wasn't so much that there wasn't enough meat. The only thing was that there was some kind of crunchy vegetable in it which I didn't enjoy as I prefer everything to be soft when it comes to veg. The portion size was huge and after the starter me and my mum said that we could have shared a main, so at least we know for next time.