Za Za Nasty

If you are looking for a lovely little Italian restaurant with good pizza and that adorable little "wood burning oven" atmosphere do not go to Zza's. A small building with red brick walls on the outside and hideous green decor on the inside, I have actually been dying to try out this seemingly hole in the wall Italian place. Usually "hole in the wall" conjures images of so-so decorating and hard to find parking but excellent food. Not so with this place. This was indeed just a hole in a wall that I should have ignored.

We wouldn't have even ever ventured into this place except that sometimes, God forgive me, pregnancy makes me tired. And on such days, cooking seems entirely impossible. It was one of those days and I was absolutely going nuts over the idea of sushi. I wanted sushi SO bad, but at the last minute decided to go get a pizza with Beau to save some money. The thing was, we could hardly afford to go out at all and in the back of my mind I was feeling very guilty for not cooking. But we drove around the corner and ventured into the small place called Zza's.

What I instantly noticed was the lights were so dim you could hardly see anything at all. After a quick scan at the menu I noticed how pricey it was and hoped at least the portions would be sufficient enough to make it worth while. Unfortunately, the $3 drinks were teeny tiny, the free bread that is so popular to serve at Italian places tasted burnt on top and the pizza that we ordered was lukewarm and was the size of one of those frozen pizzas you buy at the grocery store for 99 cents. Those frozen pizzas taste better than what we ate. I was sorely disappointing and feeling even worse for making us go out in the first place. Not only had I failed to create yummy food at home but I also spent our money on what I was sure was not going to be enough to keep poor Beau satisfied. And now we had $20 less for our groceries! Ugh... So if you are in Oakland and you want good food, do stay far away from Zza's. With all of the amazing places to eat, I am surprised they are even open for business. They should be ashamed.

I give it 1 star for the very smiley service and the crayons that Beau had such a good time doodling with all over the paper tablecloth.