Cafe Zi-zi Pancake Bar, Leichhardt Sydney

We had a car, willing stomachs and money to burn. All we had to do was decide on a restaurant.

No mean feat for Pie and I. One of us has 'You Choose, I Agree!' stamped to her forehead and the other needs to stroke the menu for two hours before talking to the waiter. No prizes for guessing who's who.

Fifty food blogs of research later, we are at Leichhardt in search of some good ol' Italian pizza. That was the plan at least, until I stumbled upon (what I thought at the time was) a Dessert Pizza Bar.

Dessert pizza is the bomb. A superstar foodstuff
I texted the Pie, who was driving to Leichhardt
OMG STRUCK GOLD FOUND DESSERT PIZZA
come to cafe ziziiii

We exclaimed ourselves silly over the options (pancakes and crepes served with poppyseed & chocolate! nutella & icecream! apricot jam! rum, walnuts & chocolate!). Then the Pie looks up at me and muses... 'but these are all pancakes. where's the pizza?' ..and that was when I realised that there WAS no dessert pizza. It was a lie. We were in a Pancake Bar.

But it was all good. Everyone like pancakes, especially when there's a whole page of interesting variations on offer. Cafe Zizi is a cosy cafe - cosy enough that the owners, Joe and Anna, make the time to amble over and exchange friendly hello & how do you do's :). We go with the blueberry pancakes and classic bolognese (spaghetti?) crepes:


Crepes in Classic Bolognese sauce with parmesan ($11.90)

The bolognese crepes are done hungarian style (apparently also french, according to ze resident francophile) and are pleasantly squidgy and moist. It's interesting because each bite reminds you a bit of spaghetti bol, but the texture is a whole different kettle of fish. kinda like congee and rice


Blueberries in Sauce with Icecream ($9.90)

Our blueberry pancakes are slightly burnt, but the berries are plump and juicy and do double time to make up for it. The Pie declares that they taste like tea leaves, but this might just be a side-effect of her selling Easy Ways for three years.

Don't come with preconceptions about your pancakes. These Hungarian pancakes will force you to think again. They are smaller, flatter, and quite solid, mealy creatures. Nothing like the variety you get at Pancakes on the Rocks. They go down well with the tea leaf blueberry sauce (and a strong brew of coffee, I'd imagine).

Cafe Zizi - 14 Norton St Leichhardt, Sydney / (02) 9569 2111
Open Tues-Fri 11:30am-11pm; Sat 9am-11pm; Sun 9am-4pm


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