Zizzi in Leicester

I know I am way behind on this, but I finally got around to visiting Zizzi in Leicester to try out their new vegan pizza.

Earlier this year, Zizzi announced they would offer pizzas made with their own, rice-based vegan cheese. This is huge for a chain, and the first in the UK to do their own vegan cheese (Pizza Express will put vegan cheese on their pizzas if you bring it in yourself). I have to admit, I was excited but also slightly reluctant to try it, especially after all the rave reviews from fellow vegans. If you don’t know already, I am a huge vegan cheese sceptic. It generally just doesn’t do it for me. So with this in mind, we headed to the Zizzi at the High Cross on a sunny Saturday evening.

At Zizzi we were promptly seated by the window, which is perfect for people watching (seriously, this is prime real estate), and offered menus. The menu clearly lists vegan and vegetarian items which is really promising to see. However, they do suggest asking for the allergen menu if you want to see the full vegan range – which is what I did. I was really impressed by the number of vegan items on the menu!

We started our meal with a bottle of rose and large green olives. Good news for wine lovers like me – all the wines on the menu are vegan apart from one, which is clearly stated on the drinks menu. Hurrah! The olives were delicious. I love these kinds of olives – big, green, juicy and not at all bitter.

For the main I ordered a vegan pizza with mushrooms, olives and artichokes. What came out was beautiful, and looked exactly like a real cheese pizza. 10/10 for presentation.

I tried a bite of the cheese first to see what it tasted like, and honestly, it was very mild in flavor. But then again, so is mozzarella. Combined with the veggies, crispy pizza base and tomato sauce, it wasn’t too bad. The only thing that put me off was the texture. It’s more like a creamy sauce than melty cheese. It has a sort of gelatinous, viscous-y feel to it. Also, there was way too much of it. I would have been happy with about half the amount that was on my pizza.

Final thoughts? It was good but not great. I actually like pizzas without cheese, so if I go again that’s probably what I would order instead of the vegan cheese. Or maybe pasta. I do like a good bowl of spaghetti.

Have you tried the pizza from Zizzi? What did you think?