Italian Restaurant Zizzi 73-75 The Strand London WC2R 0DE
Inside Zizzi
The tables
We have been to Zizzi a few times but it has been a while since we were last there. Back for a review now! Zizzi is an Italian chain, with a restaurant located on The Strand. We do not see much of it from the street but it is quite big. Everything is located in the basement and from upstairs we have a good overview of the whole dining area and the kitchen, huge woodstone oven included. It is nicely decorated for a basic chain restaurant.
We ordered a pizza Fiorentina (Spinach, buffalo milk ricotta, egg, tomato, mozzarella, finished with garlic oil, grated nutmeg and grana panado cheese – £7.95) and a pizza Trentino (Smoked mountain ham, buffalo milk mozzarella, santos tomatoes, rocket and grana padano cheese – £9.50). Both with their new rustica pizza option (£1.95 more per pizza) described as “Bigger, thinner and crispier bases, which means more room for your favourite topping!”. We ordered a large bottle of Peroni beer (£5.95) too.
Zizzi does not have the best pizzas in London by any stretch of the imagination, but it does very well for a chain. The Fiorentina pizza was pretty good. The rustica option (rectangular pizza with a thin base) is a good addition to their menu, and the thinner crispier (without being hard) base is an improvement on their usual style. In the case of the Fiorentina pizza, that means enough room for 2 eggs. They were perfectly cooked, still liquid inside. An interesting change to the topping since the last time I took this pizza is the addition of buffalo ricotta – which has a sort of whipped cream-like texture. I have not quite decided yet if I like that or not, but it certainly makes the pizza that bit more interesting. The Trentino pizza was nice, with excellent ham and buffalo mozzarella. It is a little like a copy of my favourite Buffalo pizza at Pizzeria Rustica in Richmond – well below Rustica’s standard, while still being good. The beer was perfectly cold. Not that common in London.
Cold Peroni beer
Pizza Fiorentina
Details of the pizza Fiorentina
Pizza Trentino
Details of the pizza Trentino
The pizzas were served on a nice wooden tray
Cost and conclusion: it was £27.30 service charge not included. At Zizzi all tips and gratuities are discretionary. I really like that policy. Since the service was good, they got a tip of course. Overall, a decent meal and a good safe option on the high street especially compared to the Fire and Stone not far away. We will be back, especially since the office is only two minutes walk away.
Pizzeria San Cezari 4 Place de la Tour 06530 Saint Cézaire sur Siagne France
The village of Saint Cézaire sur Siagne
The village
Beautiful panoramic view from the village
Henri watching the landscape from the village
Henri in the Siagne river
Pizzeria San Cezari
Saint Cézaire sur Siagne is a nice old village of the Alpes Maritimes perched on a mountain above the Siagne river. From its panoramic point of view you can see the sea and even cities like Frejus or the bay of Saint Tropez on a clear day. It is really in the countryside whilst still being only 45 minutes drive from Nice airport, 30 minutes from Cannes or Antibes, 25 minutes from Mougins and Sophia Antipolis… the Saint Cézaire area is full of olive trees and the village is well known for its award winning olive oil. It is also know for the remains of fortification of its 14th-century castle and its very interesting caves. The river Siagne is extremely nice with cristal clear water. It is quite physical to get there from the village. It takes about 30 minutes to go down but about 1 hour to come back. It climbs steeply. The village is at 500 metres high. I know it quite well having lived in the area for several years when I worked for a startup company located in Mougins.
The pizzeria San Cezari is the main restaurant of the village. It is just in front of the church, behind the place du village. It has well priced set menus as most restaurants do in France but we decided to take pizzas today. We ordered two pizzas, one Cannibale made of minced meat and cheese (11 euros) and a Calzonne 4 fromages (13 euros). We also had one salad (3.50 euros), a glass of wine (1,90 euros) and a 50cl sparkling water (3,10 euros).
The two pizzas were good, but nothing outstanding. The base was good but the topping, especially the minced meat, could have had more taste. They were quite large pizzas so do not take a starter unless you are very hungry! The chilli oil was fairly hot. You can see all the chilli in the bottle in a photo below. What I like there is the knife. I wonder why more pizzerias don’t adopt them because they are really efficient.
Excellent knife for cutting pizzas
Pizza Calzone
Pizza Cannibale
Chilli oil
Cost and conclusion: it was 32,50 euros service charge included. Not cheap but then it seems everything has become expensive in France in the last years. That said, it was a pretty decent lunch, the service friendly and the location is nice
If you visit Saint Cézaire sur Siagne on Saturday, there is a market in the morning. Below are some photos of it.
La place du village
The Saturday market. Here some hats for sale...
Paella, cheese, wine, olive oil etc can be found at the market
Herbes de Provence
The florist
Franco Manca Pizzeria 4 Market Row, Electric Lane, Brixton SW9 8LD London Open from Monday to Saturday 12-5
A revisit to Franco Manca was needed to compare it again to Pizzeria Rustica, since we have been to the latter recently. At our last visit we learnt to come there for about 11:40 to secure our seats (you cannot book) and indeed the restaurant got quickly full by 12 with a queue already starting to be long at 12:20, creating some congestion to that end of the market.
We sat on the opposite side of the fishmonger to avoid the fish smell (read the previous review here) and it was better indeed but unfortunately it was quite windy and we were even feeling cold. They must have read our thoughts as they put the heater above us on
We ordered their pizza #1 (Tomato, mozzarella, basil) and their pizza special of the day which was like the Bianca we had last time but without the ham, and with aubergines instead. Last time we ate here we were quite impressed by the quality of the organic sourdough. This time it was not really the case. The base was not very moist on the inside and not crispy on the outside either. It was not bad but it was average. We were a little disappointed by that, since it is their only selling point for us. To be fair, it is still great to have organic food that cheap: organic tomatoes from Italy, organic cheese from Somerset, organic oil from Spain and Italy, organic sourdough etc and even a homemade organic lemonade (£2.80) which was ok (served cold and not too sweet), and certainly better than the Hepworth organic beer I had last time (it has been replaced by another beer by the way).
Organic lemonade
Pizza #1
Pizza "Special"
Overview of the two pizzas
Cost and conclusion: for about £14 in all for two people it is still a great value for money. The only problem for us is we had better value for money last time when the pizzas were better, even fantastic! The service was still friendly. My preference for pizzas in London still goes to Rustica in Richmond. We have been there about 10 times and they consistently have excellent pizzas. Recommended if you are in Brixton but I would not do the trip just for the pizzas.
Pizzeria Rustica 32 The Quadrant, Richmond, Surrey London TW9 1DN
Reviewed on Tuesday 16 June 2009
Pizzeria Rustica
Rustica upstairs
We have tried many pizzerias in London and I have to say the best pizzas are made at Rustica, followed closely by Franco Manca. That is based on the pizzas only. If I count the surrounding, Rustica wins by a huge margin. The location first: let’s not be cruel by comparing Richmond to Brixton market. Second, the design of the restaurant is also a lot better. Rustica is a charming relaxing restaurant while Franco Manca is more canteen-like and within a market, next to a fish stall. Just as well because Richmond costs about double even if still being reasonably priced.
We did not take any starters since their pizzas are quite large and we ordered two pizzas, a capricciosa (£9.90) and a buffalo (£9.95), with two Moretti beers (£6.50). The beers could have been colder for my liking. The capricciosa was very good, with a nice crispy base, and the right amount of toppings. The usual good experience. The buffalo was excellent, as usual, should I say! I love the buffalo mozzarella. One distinctive feature of the buffalo pizza is that the toppings (parma ham, tomato bruschetta and mozarella) are added fresh on a cooked pizza base so the base stays crispy. The chilli oil was very lightly spicy and it poured incredibly slowly – a lot of work to get enough on your pizza. I prefer when it is very spicy (hot) like they often do in France.
Inside Rustica
Pizza Capricciosa
Pizza Buffalo & the chilli oil
The desserts were a homemade carrot cake and a Baileys cheesecake. The carrot cake was very good. Nice and chunky, and not over-sweet as is often the case. That includes for the icing/topping, which was just sweet enough to match the cake nicely. The Baileys cheesecake was great. Not too sweet either and the right amount of Baileys. A little complaint here: the tables are so close together that it can be hard to have a decent conversation if you happen to have loud/talkative neighbours. Also, if it just happens (as it did) that you have a neighbour who orders something smelly like fish at the time you are up to dessert, then the proximity of the smell is a bit off-putting.
Homemade carrot cake
Baileys cheesecake
Overview of the two desserts
Cost and conclusion: it was £36 and it is up to you to leave the gratuity or not and how much. I like that! It is just very rude to automatically add an “optional” 12.5% service charge to the bill and to assume the service was worth it. Here the service was excellent, with a very friendly italian staff so they deserved a good tip You can read previous reviews of Rustica here (22 March 2009) and here (2 May 2009).
Pizzeria Rustica is located next to Richmond train station, but it is also only 15 minutes walk from Richmond Park which is the largest open space in London covering almost 1000 hectares. It is home to around 650 free roaming deer so if you are into photography and wildlife, it is a good spot to visit. Below is a photo of a deer I took there.
A deer hiding in the bush at Richmond Park
Pizza Metro Traditional Neapolitan Restaurant 64 Battersea Rise London SW11 1EQ
Reviewed on Tuesday 2 June 2009
Pizza Metro
Pizza Metro is apparently the first restaurant in London to cook their metre long pizzas in a wood burning oven. That was in 1993. We did not order a metre pizza even if it would have been fun taking a photo of it. For a half metre rectangular pizza the price is the same as two round pizzas so we prefered the classical rounded way. We saw some tables getting a metre pizza and it is quite impressive because it is put on a raised baking tray that is at eye level. Not too convenient for chatting across the table but fun to watch! The atmosphere is very Italian with a map of Italy, giant bottles of wine next to the windows, frypans attached to the walls. Several customers were also Italians. A good sign
We ordered two pizzas: the Ripieno which is a kind of calzone pizza with ricotta, parmesan, ham, basil, Napoli salame, tomatoes, and mozzarella (£9.95) and the Diego’s with mozzarella, buffalo ricotta, Napoli salame, rocket, basil, olive oil and parmesan (£9.95). We had a bottle of red wine Angelo Rosso Sicilia 2007 (£16). The Diego’s had an extremely thin base that was nicely crispy on the edges. I really enjoy thin base pizzas. The toppings were excellent too and the creamy buffalo ricotta was a great touch to the pizza. I was a little surprised my pizza was precut but it was fine. I guess it is easier when kids eat at the restaurant. The Ripieno (not precut of course) was good, and very hot due to the folding design of that pizza. The tomato sauce used in the pizzas had a good “real tomato” taste. The pizza base had a nice flavour, and the mix of ingredients in the pizza was well balanced (nothing nasty, like too salty ham, for example). It was just a little ‘different’ with the buffalo ricotta. I liked that there was also mozarella as I find just ricotta in a calzone to be a bit bland. The pizza base could have been a bit crispier, but it wasn’t soggy either. The spicy oil could also have been spicier. As desserts we had a chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and a vanilla panna cotta. The waiter came with a plate of desserts and these were the ones we chose. The chocolate cake was nice, not too sweet at all, and moist in the centre, crispy on the outside. The vanilla panna cotta was great: light enough, not too sweet and with some crumbles on top that were a good addition.
Entertaining design
At the right in the back there is the food burning oven
Huge bottles by the windows
Pizza Ripieno
Pizza Diego's
The two pizzas
The chilli oil!
Detailed view of the pizza Ripieno
Detailed view of the pizza Diego's
Vanilla panna cotta
Chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream
Cost and conclusion: the total bill was £53.89. It already included the service charge, something I dislike since it should be up to the client to decide on. That said, the service was excellent (friendly and paying attention) so they deserved it. The bill was a little on the expensive side but at least the lunch was good. While we found the pizzas better than at Buona Sera located 5 minutes walk away we still prefer the pizzas at Franco Manca (in Brixton) and at Rustica (in Richmond).
