it seems like an eternity ago now, our gals date at zizzi in the first week of the new year, but parts of it still haunt me weeks later. ominous, no? it was the first time i dared eat-out while on my new vegan diet, and so had scoured the menu days in advance to make sure there was plenty of choice. zizzi are known to have quite an extensive vegan (and other) menu, and i really did pore over my options. i'd even decided what i was planning to order - until the time came to order, and a voucher code was waved in front of my nose and all my pre-chosen options went flying out the window.
the deal we were faced with was three courses for £15.95 - an absolute steal, and an offer the restaurant would honour on vegetarian and vegan options too. options that weren't on my original menu, so i did a bit of an order-under-pressure sitch, and went with what i knew. problem being, i didn't really "know" anything, did i. as it turns out, i ordered three courses of dough, because you can't go wrong with dough - can you? first up was the non-dairy garlic bread. just like your regular garlic bread, but with olive oil instead of butter, and with whole cloves of roasted garlic for good measure. it was actually delicious, to be fair - that's not where my problem was.
no, the problem came in the form of my vegan margarita pizza. ok so for a start, obviously it wasn't going to have mozzarella on it, but.. why on earth didn't i choose a pizza with actual toppings on it, to hide the god-awful plastic-tasting crap that counts as vegan cheese? what is wrong with me?! that decision, and then the decision to actually eat most of it, is what still haunts me. the gals found it hilarious - that look on my face as i tried to swallow piece after congealed piece, so much so that they basically all "wanted a go" of trying it - all with the same, horrid results. so, here's a tip: don't ever order the vegan mozzarella unless you really, truly, hand on heart love the texture and taste of melted plastic. in hindsight, there's one called arcobaleno that sounds incredible, which means "rainbow" in italian. already that would have been a better choice.
the third and final course of dough came in the form of the dessert calzone. fresh fruit and hazelnut spread inside a sweet dough, topped with powdered sugar and coconut ice cream. there is nothing about that combination that remotely sounds vegan, and yet - it was. it was easily the best thing i'd eaten all week, and i was so glad to have finished my meal on a high - especially after the margarita disaster. after three courses of pizza, i was full. very, very full. that plastic pizza will stay with me for some time, though...
there are actually a load of really tasty-sounding options on the menu, and should i go back (i will, because i need to rectify the pizza-mistake), i'll be sampling something other than dough. the lentil ragu sounds delicious, and the vegan bruschetta is a different kind of dough, so i suppose that's allowed too.
have you tried the vegan menu at zizzi? what's been your fave dish?
