A beautiful location

I love Cheltenham, this is a known fact among my friends. Particularly those who I grew up with in Surrey, who are always asking me when I'm moving home (never). And places like Zizzi in Cheltenham are one of the many reasons I love it here. The buildings are just beautiful (not to mention it was voted #1 place to bring up a family recently). Now I know I'm extremely fortunate to have found myself a job in the film industry outside of London, but I am so very glad that I get to stay in such a beautiful town.

Zizzi is one of a few restaurants set in an old church, but they have done it the most justice I have seen. They have kept most of the original features, and the kitchen is where the altar would have been - up high so everyone in the restaurant can see it. 

They have an upstairs which overlooks the 'church, which has a piano, and on this occasion there was someone up there playing.

As it is a church, it is very large and open, but luckily it was busy that evening creating a perfect Friday night atmosphere. The only qualm I would have is that there are a lot of tables, much like in any restaurant, so people are quite packed in. 

D and I went for dinner with another couple, big easy and B. Big easy rocked up a little late, having been looking after clients at the literature festival, so had been drinking throughout the afternoon. This made for an entertaining evening. 

We decided to be greedy, and go for three courses! I started off with Risotto balls, which I have had in a different Zizzi before, and it was my first experience of enjoying rice (although a tad different to generic rice). The ones on this occasion were good, but a little bland and dry? Not as tasteful as I remember. I enjoyed the crisp crunch on the outside, and there was plenty of filling, it just could have done with a little more seasoning. My favorite part was the tomato dip that came alongside it, it was fresh and zingy, although it came in a little plastic pot which looked like a takeaway sauce! 

For main course, D and I ummed and ahhed because deep down we both wanted the same thing, and thought we should try something different, but we both ended up going for the same, which was the right choice! We went for a Pizza Piccante, which is basically all the meats and a little spice, along with some extra cheese. The base was perfectly crunchy round the outside and soft in the middle and the toppings were a plenty. Parts of the crust were a little too thick, but other than that it was scrumptious. It did look rather funny at the end when we both had a pile of jalapeño peppers on our plates, as neither of us deal with spice well! 

As it was treat night, it was time for a dessert. D and I shared a melt in the middle pudding with pistachio ice cream (which I requested instead of vanilla). He told me he didn't want it because it tasted like almonds, but he was thinking of amaretto I think. It was great, I'm a firm believer that chocolate puddings should be hot, and this delivered exactly what I wanted. The best thing about a pudding like this is its size, after a big meal I just want a taste of something sweet to finish it off, nothing too big, this was just right. Spongy, moist pudding with a delectable middle which oozed out as soon as the spoon went in. 

All in all a fantastic evening, which ended in good old 'retreat' for some after dinner drinks.

7/10.

Have a great day,

Paigey x