Hey friends, hope you've all had a fun and restful weekend! I've spent mine in typical fashion, partaking in my favourite past time- eating delicious vegan food 😋

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This particular weekend, I visited popular restaurant chain, Zizzi, to see what their vegan range has to offer. Zizzi is a popular pizzeria in the UK, with 150 restaurants across the UK and Ireland.

I've eaten at Zizzi many times over the years, as a omni and as a vegetarian but this was to be my first visit since going vegan and I was curious to see what vegan dishes they had to offer.

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Well I need not have worried about having enough to eat, Zizzi have quite a varied and impressive vegan menu- with a great range of starters, mains and even desserts that aren't sorbet!

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So impressive is their array of vegan options, they have been won a Peta Vegan Food Award and quite justifiably so, I mean, they even state on the menu which wines aren't vegan- a super helpful addition that I haven't seen on any other main stream chain menu before.

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The atmosphere in Zizzi is laid back and friendly, and the decor is a mix of contemporary and rustic themes. It's the kind of restaurant you can go to at any time of day for a quick bite and never feel under-dressed. I'm not one for fancy or pretentious places so this style of eatery is just up my street- understated and casual but with a sense that you are still in a quality restaurant.

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But enough about that, on to the food! 😆

In most chain restaurants you're lucky to get two vegan dishes to choose from, so it took me a little longer to order than anticipated with the selection on offer here. In the end I decided to go for:

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VEGAN 'BEETBALL' POLPETTE: Pink beetroot 'beetballs', oven- baked in a pomodoro sauce with melted Mozzarisella (made with coconut oil), chilli threads and fresh oregano

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Well, what a treat this starter was! I wasn't expecting much to be honest, often non- vegan establishments don't make that much effort to create unique or interesting dishes for their vegan clientele, but here it is clear that a lot of effort and research has gone into creating their range. I mean, they even have their own coconut cheese, the Mozzarisella which they make themselves.

And equally creative and impressive are these little 'beetballs'. The texture was really good, firm but moist, just ike a real meatball! And the flavour was really great too, sometimes simple tomato based sauces can be a bit acidic or too sweet, but this one had just the right balance. Delicious! Having tried this I am really interested in creating my own 'beetballs' at home, so watch this space!

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Next I went for...

VEGAN ZUCCA PIZZA: Tomato, Mozzarisella, roasted butternut squash, caramelised balsamic onions & spinach.

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Look at all that cheese! They definitely weren't stingy with the old Mozarisella, to be honest, there was maybe a little too much cheese on it, something I never thought I would say, but the flavours of the other ingredients were a little drowned by it. And the flavours were great, I love caramelised onions and would have loved a little more of that and a little less cheese. Overall though, a really tasty pizza with an interesting blend of ingredients and a nice crispy base. Would definitely eat again!

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Finally.. and greedily, I ordered dessert! Well as I said before, it's not often an Italian restaurant offers vegan dessert options other than sorbet is it?

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STICKY CHOCOLATE & PRALINE TORTE: A dairy- free chocolate with a date, hazelnut. almond, cashew & walnut base. Served with crushed honeycomb & coconut gelato.

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Wow, well I think my eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach at this time but I was too excited to not try one of their desserts, and glad I was as it was delicious! I haven't had honeycomb in what seems like forever, understandably I assumed it wasn't vegan until only recently, so I was loving this dessert! The torte itself is very rich, but unlike dairy desserts didn't feel heavy as I was eating it, and the richness of the chocolate was nicely complimented by the light coconut sorbet. As full as I was, I ate the whole thing, so yeah, it was pretty good 😋

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All and all then an awesome experience trying out the great vegan menu at Zizzi. It's so great to see mainstream chain restaurants making such great steps to create inclusion for us vegans! It's amazing to go to a restaurant with non- vegans and to have so many options to choose from.

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