Rik L.

Review of Oregano

01 Nov 07, 10:37

Good Italian food, just needs better presentation

Oregano is a little Italian restaurant, tucked away down a little side street from the busy Upper Street. I'd heard of a lot of good things about this place, how it was the best Italian in Angel - it's not quite that good, but it is a rather nice place to eat.

The restaurant is quite small, but there's quite a bit of space between tables, which doesn't make you feel claustrophobic. The food was rather good, I had garlic bread starter - on the dry side though, bit like a pizza base with some herbs sprinkled on it - and a creamy sausage and broccoli pasta main course, which was delicious, the sausage was tasty and the pasta was cooked to perfection.

I feel that the place could do with a bit more work on it's presentation. The tables are covered in this strange wipe-down plastic material which makes you think you're at a greasy spoon cafe and the menus are a bit unprofessional in a laminated-plasticky way. It does have a lot of potential to be a great Italian though, and I would recommend going, if only for the food.

1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.

Review of Piada

21 Jun 07, 20:52

Good lunch

Sandwiches for lunch? Go Italian and turn that boring bread into an authentic flat bread and your boring sliced ham into delicious sausage!

Piada doesn't quite look like a lunch time takeaway from the outside - or the inside for that matter - it's very restauranty, with it's walnut coloured furniture and comfy seats. This isn't exactly your local caff.

The choice isn't amazing here, it's basically flat bread or nothing, and if you're not a cheese fan then there's about two things to have. That's not to say what I had wasn't nice though, it was good. I had the sausage and spicy greens flat bread. I don't quite know why the spicy greens was just spinach and olive oil though.

Piada is pretty expensive, with flat breads at about £4, so don't go here for a cheap lunch. The service is somewhat speedy, so luckily you won't spend all lunch waiting for food.

1 out of 1 person found this review helpful.

Review of Zizzi

17 May 07, 19:31

Nicely surprised

It was my leaving do and I didn't really have any plans apart from go to the pub and then maybe get some food later. Secretly, I wanted a curry or something spicy, but I got dragged into going for an Italian by a workmate who recommended it. Yeah go on then, I said, why not? Luckily, for me, and the rest of my workmates, the place was rather good. For the price, you get very tasty food in generous portions. The place looks really nice too, maybe a bit too generic-posh-restaurant, but it does kinda work. The staff are helpful, nice and pretty quick. I have been back a few times since.

One of the downsides is how hot it can get in there. I went there one summer evening and it was roasting hot. Literally sweat dripping down my face. It's not going to impress the ladies desperately trying to eat spaghetti and wipe your face from sweat at the same time. Hopefully they'll have air-conditioning soon! Anyway, it's a rather nice place to eat tasty Italian food without forking out loads of money.

Oh, and if you're wondering, yes, this is the place where a guy went mental and cut his penis off. But don't let that put you off!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.