Zizzi

After climbing up the steps I need time to get my breath back and then it’s taking away again with a great view of the Scott’s monument and princes St.
Tucked away from the city rumblings it’s not too busy and you can always get a table at lunch by walking in from the street.
They always have an offer on and I always seem to forget about it so I could be saving myself a small fortune.
Zizzi’s is a chain, so it’s a simple menu. It’s one of the few chains I like. Any pizza or pasta dish or actually any dish I’ve ordered has been good and tasty. I like looking at the specials board to see if there is anything new on the board to try.
It’s handy to meet mates and grab a quick working lunch although we’ve had to chase to pay the bill when we need to leave!

I was really happy to stumble across this restaurant, hidden away behind the streets of the old town. A surprisingly nice venue, very centrally located in Edinburgh, with views down towards Princes Street. There’s a small courtyard for some al fresco dining when the weather is appropriate.
I had crab linguine, which was excellent, washed down with a couple of Morettis. I’ll definitely dine there again.

like the sightseeing

Zizzi’s is one of those chains (a bit like pizza express or prezzo) that’s easy and familiar and nearly always has some sort of offer on. They have a few different restaurants in Edinburgh, but tonight for the first time I visited their Roxburgh Court restaurant, which opened last year.
It’s tucked away off the Royal Mile, down Mary King’s Close. I was surprised at the lack of signs for it on the Royal Mile, but I quite liked the way it was tucked away. Like I mentioned, these restaurants always have some sort of offer on, so in we went, armed with our ’50% off’ voucher.
The place was lovely inside, and staff were very friendly as we entered. The menu was much the same as any Zizzi’s restaurant, filled with pizzas, pastas, calzones, risottos and a few meat and fish dishes. We started with delicious mozarella garlic bread– this had got to be the BEST garlic bread ever. I big wooden platter, laden with melty, gooey, caramelised oniony, garlicky goodness! The portion is super huge so could do for 2 people (probably more, but hey, once you’ve tasted it you’ll not want to share too much!) We also got some delicious calamari with a lemony mayo.
The mains were great too, I was there with my family and we got a whole mixture of pizzas and pastas. They do lovely thin rustica pizzas and my mum had something called a spiedini which was a sort of hanging skewer with prawns, salmon, sea bream, pepper and courgettes. At the end of the meal my Gran told us it was ‘the best pasta she had ever eaten’ so they were doing something right! We finished off with some gelato to share, and it was lovely (if a little small.)
The restaurant has a lovely view out across Princes Street and the Balmoral and we saw some Edinburgh trams passing by. With it being a large chain you sort of know what to expect with Zizzi’s and it’s not maybe the most exciting place to eat. Saying that, they have some great offers and the food is tasty. I think this restaurant was nicer than other branches I have been to.