So there is another new restaurant in the Lower Keys. Located at the Sugarloaf Lodge, this new Italian restaurant has recently opened up. It is great because this area is in need of more restaurants and especially a pizza place for a quick dinner. I stopped in the other night to do just that. Since I had not been there before my sister and I decided to stop in and check the place out and get a pizza to go. The interior has certainly undergone some drastic changes from when Mary Goode ran the restaurant. It went from medieval style decor to brightly painted interiors with a modern look. But it is very noisy. Yes, there were several people dining in the vast dining room, but they were far from shouting yet it was still difficult to hear the guy when he was taking our order. I was glad not to be eating on property just for this reason, although it looked lovely and smelled good and the staff all seemed very friendly and very Italian which gave me high hopes for the food quality.
Zaza serves salads, antipastas, brushetta, pastas, risotto, meats, calzones, neapolitan specialty foods, and pizza. My plan was to get a large pizza with sausage, pepperoni, and half mushrooms. However, we soon learned that they only made personal pizzas. We were told that one would be enough to feed two people. But, we decided to get one per person so that everyone could have exactly when we wanted. So, I ended up getting Marghertita pizza (tomato sauce, mozzarella, permigiano reggiano cheese, fresh basil, evoo) with mushrooms, pepperoni and sausage for my husband. My sister got a Marghertita pizza with olives and spinach, and I got the La Domiziana pizza (meat sauce, smoked mozzarella, eggplant parmigiana, basil, evoo, parmgianno cheese). Good thing we each got a pizza too because as it turned out there was no way that my sister and I would have been satisfied with one of those pizzas alone.
I had grabbed $40 before I left the house which I thought would be sufficient to get a pizza. Apparently not though. It came to a whopping $60! I was flabbergasted. I was also hoping the pizza was worth it when we got home. The pizzas were tasty. However, I could have made the same quality pizza at my own house for a hell of a lot less money. With personal pizzas ranging anywhere from $12 to $21 plus more for different toppings, I don’t think they are gonna make it, even if they are using quality ingredients. I think that they will have to come down on their pizza prices significantly if they intend on staying in business.
I may try this place again and get something other than pizza to try some other menu items, but I think it will be to go again because of the noise. They could really use some sound dampening tiles that would actually fit right in with the decor.
For more information about things to do and see in our island city, go to our Key West Web Site. You can also visit our Key West Events Calendar to see upcoming special events.
And for more restaurant reviews check out our restaurant review section of this blog as well as our restaurant reviews at www.gotothekeys.com.
