IT WAS the words 'Let's just nip out for a quick bowl of pasta' that did it.
I was obviously tempting fate and attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of all my family at the same time.
Perhaps what I should have said was 'Let's just nip out for a long, languid evening with plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere and when our waiter has got a spare moment - because he's going to be very busy indeed - let's have a relatively quick bowl of pasta.'
Because it is all relative isn't it? I don't mean to be picky, but speed wasn't of the essence at Zizzi in Pepper Street the Thursday evening we visited.
It wasn't that the waiters and waitresses weren't trying their best - they were positively jogging between tables - I just mean the food didn't seem to be jogging with them.
But I'm getting the criticisms out of the way first, because this was a restaurant trying so hard to please we couldn't get cross. From the 'Hi guys' greeting at the door, to our lovely, although slightly flustered waiter, we could not fault the attitude of the staff.
Besides which, the longuers gave the four of us a chance to catch up with what we'd been doing all week. Or in the case of the nine-year-old, make some interesting points: 'If you call a green crayon 'coloured', are you being racist?' was one of the more memorable questions. I'm still giving it some thought.
Zizzis concentrates mainly on pizza and pasta with a few salads thrown in for - well, let's be honest - the boring dieters of this world.
'But I fancy a salad,' said husband, P, defensively when I shared my opinion with him. The insalata Trieste or crayfish mixed salad and snow peas with a Mandarin dressing (£7.60) did sound good.
Article
