During a recent visit from my best friend from university, we ventured to Soho for a nice leisurely lunch, needing to sit down after a busy morning and to catch-up properly.
We wandered past the main area just off oxford street, me knowing that there were other restaurants I used to pass on the bus coming down to Tottenham Court Road. We weren’t really sure what food we wanted and so did the typical thing of checking out the menus for each place in that area before settling on Zizzi – they just had so many options and different types of food.
We got there about 2, so just after lunchtime and it was reasonably busy. A lovely waiter behind the bar let us know someone would be with us shortly – you could tell they were still busy sorting the restaurant out after the lunchtime rush. He then asked us if we’d like a booth and said we could pick one of the ones just inside the entrance and someone would be over to give us menus.
We chose the booth on the back wall so we didn’t feel too exhibited in the restaurant window. There were only two booths in this area next to the bar which made us feel a little segregated and like we had our own little corner which was fab!
We got delivered the menus, including the Christmas menu, and sat pondering on the options. So many! And so many different decisions to make first – 2courses? Starters or desserts? Christmas menu? Drinks?
We settled on a bottle of white and the option to choose a main from from the main menu rather than the Christmas menu so we could decide on dessert from the full list after our meal.
As usual I was completely torn between a few options and finally chose the Duck and Pomegranate Salad. My friend, Char, decided on the Pollo Prosciutto.
The wine was delivered to our table and we were asked if we wanted to taste it first. Char had a sip and the waitress then poured our glasses.
The wine we picked was the cheapest white – if I have a white wine it has to be fruity and not dry, this looked perfect on the menu – it was delicious. Easy drinking and fruity, I have to say it could have even gone down a little too well.
Our mains didn’t take too long, but long enough to have a chat and to know the food is obviously all done fresh.
This is how my salad turned up…
The presentation of a Zizzi’s salad is just beautiful. They make them look so enticing and really do make the effort to ensure the different ingredients to the salad are spread throughout the dish – unlike other places I’ve been to where I’ve had to do this myself.
The whole dish tasted divine. The duck was tender and tasty, paired with the pomegranate seeds it was delicious – such a good pairing I have never tried before. Everything was just the right texture, the long stem broccoli not too hard but not mushy, thin slices of soft butternut squash, the beetroot to compliment.
Char did have a bit of food envy, especially with the dough sticks so we shared those. It’s normally me who suffers from food envy!
I truly enjoyed my main! I think it could have been one of my favorite meals out, the best in a long time!
Char’s Pollo Prosciutto came out presented with potatoes and green beans.
Apologies this photo is a tad blurry.
Char appeared to really enjoy her meal too, she said it was delicious. It did look really tasty! Char did clear her plate so it must have been good.
Upon finishing we sat and waited for our table to be cleared. We were then offered the desserts menu and also took a look at the cocktail menu – it was hiding on the table…they do have cocktails so if this is something you’d prefer ask if you can’t spot the menu at first.
It did take a while to decide desserts, but the waiter seemed very patient. I asked for his recommendation too, but I was a little too full for his favorite dessert which was the Chocolate and Banana Calzone – Char already had her eye on this beauty! I ordered the Popping Pomegranate Sundae and we both ordered a Berry Bella cocktail too.
The Berry Bella – Fruity and thirst quenching
We were informed by our waiter that desserts might take a little longer due to the calzone being freshly baked, but this was fine, we were in no rush and it didn’t really take that long anyway. We sat sipping our cocktails awaiting our desserts and letting our mains go down a little.
Then this arrived at my table…
Just Wow! The popping candy and dried raspberry came in one small dish and a shot of prosecco in another. I carefully poured both over my sorbet and it just looked amazing. It tasted so good! The mixture of the popping candy and smooth sorbet was fab, the prosecco added a little something extra – I always have enjoyed a sorbet/ice cream with liquid, jus like espresso with ice-cream, but this was out of this world. I even might try to recreate this at home!
Char’s Calzone wasn’t very photogenic :P But when it was cut in half it did look good, the melting chocolate oozing out. Char really did enjoy her dessert too!
We slowly finished up and paid our waiter before heading off to browse the Christmas lights in Covent Garden.
Our lunch was amazing! We were extremely pleased with our decision on restaurant, food and drink. We finished up nice and full, very satisfied and pleased we could relax somewhere lovely for our catch-up! We both enjoyed everything about our lunch and would highly recommend this to others. We will definitely be returning!
If you go I hope you enjoy as much as we did!
Chloe xx
