We had a poll last week asking our readers and followers on social media to vote for which cuisine type to blog about next and the winner of the poll was Italian cuisine. We have decided to write a review of a small Italian eatery in Al Barsha called Pizza Pazza. It is a small eatery located on a busy street in Barsha that is filled with nice eateries like Moulay Yousef (Moroccan) JJ Chicken (sandwiches and such), Just Falafel (Self-explatory), Abu Shagra (Egyptian restaurant) and more.
The restaurant is in the corner and is quite small, doubt it can accommodate more than 20-25 customers at once as you can see from the pictures. It is not usually full anyway as perhaps diners prefer to order home delivery instead of eating at the place itself. It has a big pizza oven and an open plan kitchen (in addition to a smaller hidden one in the back).
Pizza Pazza’s interiors and decor
After a few visits to Pizza Pazza, it did not take a genius to realise that despite its size, this small place has a good variety of options on the menu and and the dishes being served by that modest looking open kitchen are actually impressive. They have the usual Italian fare, insalatas, anti-pastas, pizzas (Really good pizzas), lasagne dishes and pasta. Our favourites are the seafood lasagne and the pepperoni pizza, credit to PP you cannot go wrong with any of the pasta and pizza options though. The menu’s price range is acceptable and is good considering the portion sizes.
The restaurant is less than impressive when it comes to the level of service. Even when there are hardly any other diners the waiters tend to be slow to react to even the most basic requests. It could be a language barrier (Still not an excuse). This was noticeable on Faja3’s most recent visit this Raamdan for iftar they had a big sign on the entrance saying they have a daily “buffet” with names of dishes listed next to the corresponding days. Upon entering the restaurant there was no sign of any buffets despite the waitress insisting that it is available, turned out eventually that the “buffet” is a 3-copurse set-menu that changes daily. Basic requests to change the channel on the muted TV to a local UAE channel to know the iftar time, cutlery and minor amendments to the order were reacted to sluggishly (Or not responded to at all, like our repetitive requests for the channel to be changed).
We opted to have the “buffet iftar” (set-menu) accompanied with a pepperoni pizza on the day and it certainly did not disappoint. You get soup, a salad to share and some pickles, and a main course. Beyond the service failings, if you are patient enough with the minor blemishes by the staff then you will get good value for your money with the portion sizes and the quality on offer.
Main course and pepperoni pizza
Soup
Verdict:
Service: The main downside here for an otherwise decent restaurant. 2/5
Ambience: Small, slightly cozy and the open adds a nice feel. Nothing extra ordinary though 3/5
Food quality: Quite good, simply put! It’s the main strength of Pizza Pazza and is probably the main reason why we would visit again 🙂 4/5
Value for money: Despite the less than satisfactory service you still get decent value for your dirhams 3.5/5
Overall rating: 3.5/5
The pics posted on this post were taken on our most recent visit to Pizza Pazza this Ramadan. For more mouth watering food shots and to see what we have been up to check out our social media pages: Facebook | twitter | pinterest. You may also find one half of us now on Instagram under the username of omardxb
#faja3! 