Zizzi

Zizzi is a chain so you do know what you are getting from one city to the next. The Cardiff branch (St Mary’s) appears small from the outside but is tardis like and spacious with high ceilings and contemporary décor.
We went in firstly as a larger group which the restaurant coped very well with. Our larger table (30+) were broken up into smaller tables for ordering so this made bills easier to work out and staff realising we were there for work, ensured they were able to provide multiple receipts.
Food is good — the spicy sausage pasta was lovely with a real kick to it. Special menu’s are available for different dietary requirements (I found them confusing at first so probably better to read side by side with the normal menu as the special menu is icons, rather then descriptions). I was able to get gf pasta — my first trip, the pasta was cooked well but less so on the return trip, where I was underwhelmed by my pasta and also sauce.
Portions are generous — food is ok (better at other times but depends on what you order) but for a chain it is reasonable.

Nice place and good food.
Prices are affordable.
Go ahead !!

It was my anniversary and I wanted to try somewhere new and somewhere reasonably priced. I must admit I did this for a last minute booking as well so this restaurant saved me. Zizzi is on High Street and delivers a superb range of food at a great price delivered with excellent service from all the polite waiters and waitresses that work there.
I think that this should be considered a competitor for all the other Italian restaurants in town including ‘Bella Italia’. What I liked about this restaurant was the mood it had, it wasn’t too loud and it was spacious so you could have some time to talk to your partner without feeling that somebody else is listening in on your conversation. I also appreciated the last minute booking they took. I mentioned it was my anniversary and they decorated our table and even gave us a balloon on the back of my chair, which I couldn’t wait to suck the helium out of. As far as the food goes, it tasted absolutely wonderful! It’s definitely a memorable place in terms of the food and service.
If you’re thinking of going out for a nice cheap meal then visit Zizzi because it’s a fantastic restaurant that should receive a lot more credit than it gets.

This is a really lovely cosy restaurant and I love going here with my partner.
I always ask to sit at the back as it is nice and warm and has big cosy pillows to lean against.
Everything in this restaurant is perfect for a date from the table settings to the lighting.
The food here is pretty tasty too. It has a great selection of main meals to choose from all very cheaply priced.
A top tip for anybody fancying a treat at this gorgeous restaurant print a two for one voucher off online before you go… The food tastes so much better with one of these I promise! :-)

This is a restaurant that you can take your other half to and have a nice time. The high ceilings and smart contemporary but warm décor help smooth things along as you watch the chefs working their wood burning oven.
I’ve been here 3 times and the service has been good the atmosphere convivial and the food tasty.
If you can sit along the wall so you can people watch and guess which couples are on a first date.
The only problem is parking as St Mary Street in now a pedestrianised so in the day you may have to pay for parking.

We booked Zizzi for a works dinner and mainly just had problems with them.
First of all they had no record of the booking being taken. Luckily they were able to fit us in but on a busier night we might have all been turned away because they hadn’t written down the booking properly.
The food service was very slow, and when it arrived, some of the food was badly overcooked. Some of the salads looked more like side orders than main courses, and out of a group of sixteen people, two of us sent their meals back for being far, far, far too salty. We’re not normally complaining people, honest we’re not. Well, not that much.
It took so long to get a dessert menu that by that stage we just gave up, paid (when we finally got the bill) and left. We won’t be booking there again.
Maybe if I went to Zizzi’s just with my girlfriend for a quiet meal it would be a different story but I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for groups.

Anyone who has taken an even cursory wander through my reviews knows I don’t have a good relationship with chain restaurants. I find that all of them suffer from either a soulless, blank atmosphere that seems entirely utilitarian, designed to evoke as little emotion in the clientele as possible, or they are filled with so much tacky, vaguely ethnic rubbish that screams «LOCALE!» that you feel like you’re eating a meal in a cartoon.
Zizzi’s is a case of the former, but manages to wrangle back some points by making the food pretty excellent. One of the worst things about Italian food is also its saving grace; Italian food is hard to make unique. Pasta is just pasta, and there’s only so many things you can make a sauce out of. This means that most Italian food is good. Not great, but passable. Italian is hard to make a mess of, but that also means it’s incredibly hard to make fantastically. Zizzi’s don’t quite manage this on the scale of Lorenza’s, but they’re getting close and for that, I give them four stars.

A lovely cosy: small, tasty, and very cheap price for food wise Italian restaurant based in Albany Road. It looks like a five star restaurant, or at least it looks very classy for a restaurant in a local area.
A worthwhile treat! It is has lovely rich, posh and cheaply priced food makes this restaurant an all time must for tourists, for it is a bargain, the price is as for what you get for your meal. The pizzas are exceptionally good and are very large.
For three people for a two course meal each; it came to just around £30’s or just under or just over, my parents paid, but that makes me feel confident enough to come with a friend and to not spend too much on a nice Italian restaurant and it’s food.
I recommend it to all couples in love or families without young children. This is because the place has a very nice atmosphere and establishment and it would be a shame to waste it just because of your screaming or noisy child, wouldn’t it?
They also celebrate birthdays, hand you a small cake with a candle and let your family sing happy birthday to you.

I see restaurnats of this chain all around London, but I have never tried them. after seeing positive reviews on it I thought I should give it a go.
The starters were nice, the garlic bread with caramelized onions tasted just great, Clamaries weren’t as good though and were a very little of a portion.
The main course was fantastic, the pizza was very thin and had just that right amount of tomato sauce with plenty of cheese and toppings, pasta was cooked to perfection (just a little bit hard and not overcooked) and its sauce was very nice and spicy.
All in all I highly recommend this restaurnat.

I haven’t eaten at Zizzi for a while, because last time it all turned into a bit of a drama. After asking about the pasta sauce on a particular dish, I went ahead and ordered it — only to find that the answer I’d been given was completely wrong! When I caught our waiter’s attention and told him this, however, he was pretty decent and apologetic about it — but of course my dish had to be sent back and remade, which left me foodless while my companions wolfed away rather than let their meal go cold.
My food, once it was sorted, was very tasty, and my friends also enjoyed their meals, so I don’t want to rate this place too poorly on the basis of one error. It is also in a great building, with well-​designed décor, and the waiting staff are very pleasant (if a bit ill-​informed, in our case!).

I do like to keep on it’s toes and thought this would be a good place to make it sweat a little. Zizzi looks beautiful from the outside and very swish, the lovely and I went here the other weekend for an early dinner and was very surprised at the cost, it wasn’t bad at all. Very similar to the likes of Jamie’s (Oliver’s, not mine) restaurant.
Served by a very well mannered waiter I ordered the calamari, with salad. Absolutely delightful I may add. The spices and drizzle they added to the salad alone made my taste buds stand on end.
We decided to have a glass of wine afterwards and just had an amazingly relaxed drink within the confides of the beautiful décor.

We went here for a birthday and we had an abolsutely fantastic time. We were greeted by a friendly server who showed us to our table, whilst assuring us that it was no problem that we were still waiting for a couple of people.
They took our drink orders and then gave us a decent length of time before coming back to ask if we were ready to order food. I appreciate that — it shows that they’re paying attention to the fact that we were busy talking. And we didn’t feel rushed.
The food itself was just delicious and I’d definitely go back again for someone’s birthday. Having said that, it’s not the most adventurous place to go for a meal in general so I’d be more likely to choose somewhere new if you’re looking for interesting cuisine.

Nice food… Great pizzas. good décor, they have this really big oven that looks very nice. and wood stacked all around it…
I recommend it if you are looking for a Italian meal…

After watching a nice movie, I decided to take advantage of my unlimited card which entitles me to 50% discount on Zizzi’s pizzas. Of I went to find a quite glamorous and nice big open spaced restaurant, where you can see the cooks cooking, with a proper tradition wooden oven.
The place was full in a Friday night but not enough to keep us from having dinner there. Everything seemed fine, but it didn’t had that Italian taste/​look I was expecting, it just looked like a nice restaurant with no food affiliation of some sort. I only had to look at the menu to find that they do a multitude of pizzas, all looked really tasty and by the looks of the plates that were going from table to table it all looked great! So I opted for a Fiorentina pizza, the waiting period wasn’t bad and the food was really well presented, but for such a fancy restaurant my pizza didn’t look quite the deal, the spinach was frozen one, I would expect to have proper fresh spinach but well! It still tasted good.
Carrying on, I quite liked the service, although understandingly slow they were very nice.
All in all the food wasn’t bad, but far from proper Italian, it was more like a British restaurant trying to be Italian, nothing was original and the food wasn’t up the price that they charged for it.
Even with the 50% discount it was still expensive!
I was unlucky because later on that night I got stomach upsets, and all I ate was in Zizzi’s.
It will be a while until I return there

Converted from a former bank, but tastefully decorated and up to date décor. Very popular towards the end of the week — so you’ll need to book — nice selection of reasonably priced dishes — calazone is delicious.
Staff are attentive and frinedly and make a fuss of you if its an occasion such as a birthday or occasion.

Zizzi one of those pretend italian restaurants, which has all the décor, and all the personality but the food is an english version, not the real thing. I’m not saying the food is bad, cos it’s not, its just not authentic italian food.

Zizzi is a fantastic Italian Restaurant. It’s got glamour, grace and good food. The décor is swish and swanky, the menu is appetising and extensive and the quality of food, wine and service is second to none. I can heartily recomend the wild mushroom ravioli — it’s fabulous. The portion size is perfect and the pasta is exactl right. I’ve eaten here with friend a couple of times and we’ve all had to taste each others dishes because they have been so fab. As a chain, it’s one of the best.

Zizzi’s is my favourite Italian resuarant in Cardiff, the menu is reasonable and list all your normal italian meals with a few random dishes thrown in. They also sport a very good specials board that always contains at least one starter, one meat main, one veggie main and one desert. The wine list is great as they have a wine to suit every taste and budget.

Zizzi is a converted bank turned into a chain of Italian restaurants, but just because it’s a chain doesn’t mean that it’s not a fancy place to dine, Zizzi has a certain grace about it and the staff are very friendly. There is usually a table available since there is an upstairs and downstairs, it’s different but delicious and great for an after work meal or an evening dinner. I would definitely consider coming here again the spacious feel is relaxing and they do one hell of a good Pizza!