Zizzi

Zizzi’s is the kind of place you know what you will get. It’s not going to be spectacular, write home about it kind of food, but it will usually be consistent. It’s the kind of place I would never go as a ‘destination’ dinner, but when grabbing a bite to eat before the cinema it’s a fairly reliable go to.
Maybe it’s just me but Zizzi’s seems to have fallen slightly out of favour, especially since more restaurants have opened up at Ocean Terminal. It feels like where you end up when you forgot to book Pizza Express.
In it’s defense it does offer a far more varied menu than Pizza Express, and there are a lot more pasta and meat dishes. We went for their garlic bread with with caramlised onions served on a rustic board. It’s was better than having dough balls, a dish whose popularity I never quite understand.
The meat calzone as a main course was a bit of a disappointment. It looked OK but the filling was lacking in any particular flavour; just a non-​distinct tomato-​y meaty thing. I have a feeling that a more traditional pizza may have been a better option.
I’ve always found the venue itself a bit of a mixed bag. You can get nice views out to the water if you sit at the back. However in general it’s in such an open space, it feels very much like you are eating in the food court of a shopping centre rather than a restaurant. Pizza Express upstairs manages to feel a lot warmer and intimate.
This is not going to be top of my list to come back to at Ocean Terminal, but they often have vouchers and promotions which make it a more attractive option.

It was my first negative experience with Zizzi. I visited the Leith branch for the first and the last time. The Team, who is normally absolutely lovely, was just miserable and incompetent on this occasion.
Firstly, two waitresses found it extremely challenging to serve six small tables. I worked in hospitality industry for years and I just know from my own experience, that even a slow waitress could handle it. I could not believe when I saw one of the girls working on that day (curly dark hair, ponytail), who was explaining the bill and charges to customers sitting next to me, just stopped that person half-​way through and went to a different table to respond to someone else’s queries. They were not the only confused ones, as me and my partner, seeing the whole situation, felt just uncomfortable.
Being a student, I use quite often the Monday-​Tuesday 40% NUS discount, which has never been questioned before. After giving my student card to the waitress and receiving a bill with 25% off on it, I asked her if the usual 40% offer was available on that day (Monday) — I’ve used it so many times at Zizzi before! She just looked at me, accompanied by another waitress, and said that there were different discounts on different days and she didn’t know which one was available at the moment. She disappeared for few minutes and came back saying, with a tone which me and my partner found simply arrogant, that I needed to give her some s– code which I have never heard about before, otherwise it would be impossible for her to offer us the 40% off option. I asked her for explanation on what sort of code it was, and she responded «It’s just a code with ‘s’ on it, I don’t know which one» and went away to serve another customer.
Myself, being totally confused and embarrassed with this situation, checked the Terms & Condition online and obviously could not find the possibly non-​existing code. The waitress came back saying that if I couldn’t find it, she would just give me that discount. The same discount, which 3 minutes earlier was «impossible to be applied». Honestly, I didn’t care about those 3 – 4 pounds. It wasn’t much difference; I would pay the full price if she asked me to. I felt extremely bad with the way this girl handled the situation, with her attitude and the way she was speaking to me — to her customer! She was simply arrogant and made me feel like I was the one to blame for the whole situation. It was just embarrassing.
Food was not as good as usually. Particularly salmon seem very oily and without flavour. However, arancinis were really yummy!
I will definitely visit Zizzi on numerous occasions in the future but there is no way I will ever come to the Ocean Terminal one again.

This is quite a quirky Zizzi. Why? Because you can get spectacular views across the Forth on a clear day. What’s more if the Scottish weather is particularly feeling nice, you can even sit outside and eat! Ta Dah! (although on this occasion the second bit we did not do!).
Right. Food. That all important thing we devour.
They have a menu from which you can choose 2 or 3 courses for £10.95 or £13.95 — which I think is pretty darn good.
I didn’t go with the deal option as I spotted my favourite, Arancini of course and a cheese dipping fondue on the main menu! We shared this between the three of us and was quite satisfactory for starters.
Main was ok. Seasoning or depth of flavour was missing for me. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t up there. I had the pappardelle pollo fungi — a tomato sauce with mushrooms and chicken.
We skipped desserts but had coffee. It wasn’t the best as I had to add sugar and my mum didn’t finish her (that’s saying something massive, without saying anything).

This is another regular of mine (we eat out a lot). I know it’s a chain and I know I’ve given it a 4 but out of the main high street ones you come across its good. You know you’re getting something decent and it doesn’t really deviate from that. The one at OT is great. There’s loads of tables (although on busier days/​nights he smallish kitchen struggles to keep up with demand so be prepared to wait) and spaces for those members of the buggy brigade. They’re great with kids and are prepared for them (balloons, crayons etc). We rocked up today a group of 14 of us with kids running around everywhere and I can’t tell you how accommodating they are. No evil looks or anything which tbh is quite a feat! They more or less cordoned off the whole mezzanine level for us which helped hugely. The menu is extensive, plenty of pizza/​pasta options, specials and meat/​fish dishes. Like I said the quality of the food is pretty good for your high street chain. Pizza bases are nice. Sauces actually have flavour and the specials change often. The prosecco is good in here if you like a bit of fizz. Price wise you’re looking at around £13 for an extremely large pizza and the pasta bowls are around the £9 mark. Would recommend if you’re in the shopping centre.

Zizzi is delicious and has a spectacular view. The wait has never been long and the servers pleasant. All the menu items have good flavor and fresh ingredients. No one waiter is assigned to wait on you so you have a variety of waiters which was different for us as Americans, but they manage to stay on top of things. In the short time we lived there, we frequented Zizzi probably a dozen times.

Always. Great atmosphere and view. Best baked Pizzas around.

Zizzi is a generic Italian restaurant chain. My friends and I have had good experiences in the one on the West End of town, so on a couple of occassions at Ocean Terminal we’ve popped into the one there. Both times the service was poor; once in particular I noticed my coke glass smelled a bit funky, like cat wee, so I gave it a miss and drank straight from the bottle. I wouldn’t eat here again and to be honest the rubbish service has put me off the Zizzi chain as a whole.

I’ve been there twice and consistently service was very poor and food not very good. There is another Zizzis in Edinburgh on fountainbridge and its on the other end of scale with excellent and very nice waitress and calzone that never failed me. So if you want good italian avoid zizzis in ocean terminal and go to fountainbridge branch instead!

I ate here on a recent visit to Edinburgh. I was staying at the nearby Holiday Inn and looking for a nice, cheap place to grab a bite to eat. This was a really nice branch of Zizzi. The layout is very spacious and it has an open feeling. The views are great, even though it was a drizzly, windy, typical UK weather, the views of the sea out of the window were really nice. The outside area looked like it would be really nice in summertime.
Service was very friendly and quick and our food arrived quickly, was piping hot and delicious. I would definitely eat here again if I was in the area.

I used to go here at lunchtime quite a lot as the service is really quick and the pizzas are pretty decent value and fill you up ’til well into the afternoon. If you can get a window seat on a clear day, the views across the Forth to Fife are spectacular. The staff are über efficient, sometimes getting a bit too carried away and asking you if the food is ok maybe four or five times in one meal! I was once even asked before I’d had a chance to put anything in my mouth. All in all a decent pizza/​pasta cgain restaurant and a good option for a cheapish meal before watching a film at the cinema upstairs.