How calm staff and great food saved the day for KATHERINE MACALISTER

I haven’t always been kind, it must be said, when writing about chain restaurants on George Street.

I prefer to champion the independents’ corner and stand up for the locals trying to make a go of it.

But neither am I one to turn down a life raft when offered and Zizzi was exactly that. And having saved my life I will be forever grateful, meaning the Italian has gone up in my estimations ten-fold.

To set the scene, it was half-term and my sister was in town with her three kids, one of whom is a baby. Taking seven children out for lunch was foolhardy perhaps, but we were en route to the ‘dinosaur’ museum and desperately needed a pitstop. All you parents out there will know this is crucial, because if you don’t stop and eat, the wheels will fall off – although if you do the wheels will probably fall off anyway.

And before you start sending in advice about taking sandwiches, it was cold, wet and leaving it until after lunch would have meant dark as well. In short, we were committed and so the search began for a suitable venue. Being brilliant at technology (not) the panic began on the park-and-ride bus into Oxford. Traipsing around Oxford on arrival as if we were doing the conga was not an option, so on browsing Italians (best kid food is pizza or pasta, it’s a no-brainer) I managed to ring Zizzi and book a table before we even got off the bus. Mum rocks.

The staff looked remarkably unalarmed as we arrived, and kept arriving, until all the toddlers, pushchairs and paraphanalia was in, and led us to a long table nearest the open-plan kitchen.

The restaurant is decorated in a funky way that had the kids enthralled, lots of colourful lights and plates, chrome, glass and mezzanine levels to impress, as well as live cooking on tap, and not only were all the high chairs in place, but the kids menus came complete with colouring pens and puzzles to keep them amused for hours.

Zizzi was forewarned and forearmed.

And so began one of the most potentially disastrous, but ultimately calm meals I’ve ever attempted with that many children. We even enjoyed ourselves (who’d have thought!), managed a glass of wine (vital), had a conversation and all ate the three courses before bailing and disappearing off to the Natural History Museum to terrorise them instead.

The bambini menus helped hugely, basically offering dough sticks, pizza or pasta and then ice cream, which we ordered as fast as possible, time being absolutely of the essence. But the food was perfect. The dough sticks are always a winner, followed remarkably swiftly by some really tasty pizzas and pastas that had the kids clapping their hands in glee. The ice creams came with two scoops, the flavours of which they could choose which caused great excitement, and the portions were really generous for £6.50 a head.

We, the mums, accompanied them with the £11.25 Mezzo e Mezzo pizza (half with mozzarella, little slices of creamy new potatoes, cheese, red onion and thyme. The other, roasted peppers, fresh chilli, mushrooms and rocket) which come in a tasty rectangle of flavour and was certainly enough to share. I’m not sure the potato worked though. It needed more sauce to stop the par-boiled potato slices sticking to the top of your mouth, and I didn’t see the point or the attraction, but the rest was nice. The Polpette Spinaci Linguine (pasta with buttery courgette strips, crispy balls of spinach and ricotta, finished with a pinch of chilli) was more of a success (£8.95), but to be honest, getting to the end of the meal without a hitch meant we would have happily eaten cardboard if required.

Put it this way, I know have Zizzi’s phone number indelibly imprinted on my brain for future emergencies, but apart from being the perfect fullback plan, it was the cheerful professionalism which impressed us. Service with a smile. And yes we did leave a big tip, a small price to pay for sanity under the circumstances.

Zizzi is at 59 George Street, Oxford. OX1 2BE. Call 01865 202993.