Trattoria ZaZa - Florence, Italy
Last Visit: Nov 2007
OVERALL
The Mercato Centrale area in Florence is not exactly known to be a local hangout type of place, neither are the restaurants around it; however, there are places that are shared by Italian and tourists and there are those that are LOADED with tourists. ZaZa is the latter, but among the tourist hotspots we went to this is the BEST one of all, led by its excellent ambience and simple yet good Tuscan food. It's too bad that my pictures were wiped from the camera memory (LONG story there....)
FOOD People come the Tuscany for food and Mr. MC is no exception. ZaZA offers solid but not the best food in Florence. We started with some classic Tuscan appetizers like crostinis, following primi of ribolita and other things. I must admit that I don't really like the super-thick soups there but everyelse was fine. As usual, the pastas are always excellent, balanced in flavor and pastas themselves have great texture.
I had a very strange secondi - Tuscan fried chicken. It was highly recommended by the waitress. Strange, it tastes just like Chinese friend chicken nuggest. Others had secondi like grilled beef or pork and they were pretty good, although not spectacular
One thing about this and other Italian trattorias that we went to is that wines are GREAT and priced very reasonable. The house wine the waitress recommended was not great, but at 15 euro you really can't go wrong. Just like the travel guides said, the desserts were uninspiring. I don't even remember what kind of cake we got but it was so-so, kind of like stuff we get in North Beach of SF.
SERVICE
ZaZa is so popular among tourists that it actually had a hostess who's Japanese! But we are obviously not japanese, so we got an italian waitress who spoke good English. The service was friendly, but it was kind of hard to find her, and just in general there's an efficiency issue with most wait staff in Italy. Dishes appear when they feel like it although they do generally follow the antipasti-primi-secondi order religiously.
AMBIENCE
If I were to guess why ZaZa became so popular, it must be the ambience. It was a party place packed by tourists. In fact, every single person I spoke was from the US. The place was decorated nicely, with wine bottles and ham on the wall (definitely do not want to be there in an earthquake!) and guest and staff alike were relaxed and pleasant.
VALUE
We had five dinners in Florence and I would say this place offers the best value. Not only food is good and quantity reasonable, the location is also unbeatable. In the summer you can even sit outside (that is if you get there at 6pm or make reservation first) and enjoy the view of the least "pretentious" square in Florence. It's a nice stop after an exhausting Mercato Lorenze shopping extravaganza.
BOTTOMLINE
Ok, admit that you are a tourist, and check out those tourist places. At least this is not Il Latini - the people here look "real", food is delicious and prices are right. If you can overlook its tourist appeal, you'll enjoy the experience here.
BTW
We left the restaurant at 9pm and there's a HUGE line outside. Considering it's the slowest season and it was cold outside, this place is HOT. Show up early (6pm) or make reservation. Also, tables inside are PACKED tight, so don't bring any unnecessary bags or your shopping trophies in there - leave them at hotel!
