For my brother’s birthday, my family and I decided to have an early celebration by trying out a restaurant that we had never gone to before. As my brother wanted to have Italian, we decided to try Zizzis, a fairly large restaurant on Regent Street with windows facing onto Parker’s piece. To make sure that we would not have the embarrassment of being told that there was no room, we booked beforehand.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a wave of noise. The restaurant was packed to the brim, with at least three other groups waiting to be seated before us. After twenty minutes of walking in the cold, this revelation was not very welcome, but we waited patiently. After a further ten minutes we were finally taken to our table, right next to the windows looking over Parkers Piece, although by this time in the evening I could only see the black spot where the grass was, silhouetted by the light coming from the surrounding houses. Aside from the fact that every table was taken, there was a good feeling of ambience in the restaurant, with lots of chatter that didn’t drown out conversation, just took the place of background music which some restaurants play during meals. The one issue I could find was that due to a shortage of cutlery, the whole table was missing forks, and this was not helped by a waiter later saying that they were running out of knives as well.

Apart from the lack of cutlery supplies and the slightly slow service due to there being only five or six waiters for over a hundred people, there was very little to complain about. The menu was mainly comprised of pasta and pizza, which was to be expected in an Italian restaurant, there was an amazing choice of starters and deserts as well, along with other Italian dishes such as a fish stew and a very succulent looking cut of beef. As I wasn’t paying, I had a full three course meal, calamari to start, which was some of the best I’ve ever had, even if it was a bit stringy. Then I had a Calzone, which is quite simply a pizza folded in on itself, resembling a huge Cornish Pasty, but was so much better, not at all dry and very tasty. To finish I had an Apple crumble, which although was suspiciously burnt on the bottom was absolutely delicious, but unfortunately my gluttony had got the better of me, and I could not finish it at all, and had to admit defeat.

In conclusion, if you are celebrating something, such as a birthday or end of exams, and are not in a hurry or mind having a particularly busy restaurant, then this is a fantastic place, although it’s location means that unless you have the afternoon off, it is not recommended to go to for lunch during college time.