Noorish finally open!

Noorish had a stall at last years Southsea Food Festival, and since then I have been keenly keeping an eye out for it's opening which was yesterday (29th March 2011), and due to unforeseen personal circumstances they had to delay the opening.

If you like the idea of making your own curry dishes then this place is for you.  They have created different spice blends for you to take home and add your own ingredients to.  Also recipe cards will be available to follow along for those of us (me included), who are less experimental with Indian food.  The boutique store also offers pre-cooked food using the unique spice blends such as samosas, spicy wraps, potato patties and chickpea salad.

They are easy to find and are located off Marmion Road opposite Waitrose (down the side street which is Winton Place)

www.noorish.co.uk
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Zizzi - GWQ

Chain restaurants!  Love them or loath them, they are convenient, and at GWQ there is not much else to be found.  I recently read a review in a respected food magazine on chain restaurants where Zizzi came quite high as one of the better ones, so I thought I would give it a try.  It was heaving in there - people must love the place.  I had not booked and it was a Friday night.  The only table left was one that had been brought in from outside, crammed in to accommodate more customers. 

Anyway, I will keep this one brief.  The food although appealing to the taste buds from the menu description - and well presented was bland!  Gorgonzola gnocchi starter with barely a taste of any cheese and a lemon chicken breast for mains which barely kissed any lemon (although to look a the picture below you would never know).  £42.50 for 1 calamari, 1 portion of olives, 1 gnocchi, 2 lemon chickens and 2 soft drinks.  I wished I had gone elsewhere.

I don't want to give all chain restaurants a bad name, as some are quite good, but there is always the dreaded fear of wasting your money on bland food for the mass British public who seem to have inactive taste buds!  I'm sure the Italians would not say this was authentically Italian.