Zizzi, Queensferry Street 06/01/2011, ££

For our first lunch of the new year we visited the Queensferry Street branch of the Italian chain restaurant Zizzi which has 8 branches in Scotland, 3 of which are in Edinburgh. This one particularly attracts workers on their lunch break and people who have perhaps been shopping on Prince's Street. Apparently they are "passionate about food" and pride themselves on what "comes in and out of our kitchens". Mrs Fish likes the stripy aprons the staff wear, quite "dungarees like". We started here as they have a 50% off main courses deal until 16th January, and it being the first week back at work after Christmas a little treat was needed.

Mrs Fish had: Chitarra Alla Pescatora £11.95 + Appletiser £2.10

Chitarra alla Pescatora

Mrs Fish: I opted for the Thundercats themed spaghetti dish - Cheetara Pescatora, or was it Chitarra alla Pescatora? Chitarra aparently means guitar in Italian and the shape of the cutter resembles the neck of guitar with strings through which you press the pasta. This produces (according to my luncheon) a thick rough spaghetti which holds on really well to sauce - in this case white wine, tomato and chilli with seafood.

The seafood consisted of king prawns (plump and juicy), squid and mussels (which were just right to begin with, but got a little rubbery as they continued to cook in the heat of the sauce). Speaking of which, the heat of the sauce was just right - both in terms of temperature and in terms of chilli. Plenty of pasta, plenty of sauce, plenty of seafood. Another customer had plenty of pizza, but for some reason this was a complaint! With only a knife and fork I pondered spoon etiquette, and managed not to slurp (I think - but you can ask Miss Twin).

Miss Twin had: Seabass Al Vino £13.25 + Sprite £2.10

Seabass Al Vino

Discount voucher in hand I skimmed over the pasta and pizza options and headed for the pricier meat and fish options and went for the Seabass which was cooked in wine, garlic, parsley and baby plum tomatoes and served with a lemon wedge and herbed potatoes. I do like a nice piece of fish, but unless its battered or sold as a 'finger' it doesn't tend to be too cheap.

The fish was tasty with a simple, inoffensive sauce and accompaniments. The real star was the potatoes which had a nice crunch and tasty topping. I could have eaten many of them. In fact I probably could have eaten the whole dish again as it wasn't the most filling. A nice light lunch all the same, and no Mrs Twin did not slurp.

Entered Restuarant at 13:00

Ordered at 13:05

Food arrived at 13:20

Finished at 13:35

Received bill and paid at 13:45 (couple of extra minutes while they worked out how to properly apply the 50% off voucher to the bill).

Good service and reasonable value for money (especially if you can get a deal). If we had been paying full price we might have been more likely to stick to old favourites.