Zia Lucia, Holloway
If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my Instagram Story on Tuesday evening where Stew and I headed to Holloway after work for dinner and drinks. We visited newly opened, Italian pizza restaurant, Zia Lucia on Holloway Road. Located about half way between Highbury & Islington and Holloway Road stations, in North London, Zia Lucia serves up a range of Italian appetizers, small plates, salads and of course pizza!
All of the pizzas are lovingly made by hand and fired in a huge wood-fired oven. Not only that but the dough for each pizza base is slowly fermented for 48 hours prior to baking. The pizza menu is small but well crafted. You can choose from 4 bases - vegetable charcoal, wholemeal, gluten free or traditional.
We opted for 2 pizzas, plus a salad to share, whilst Stew chose the Menabrea beer and I chose an Aperol spritz. I couldn't resist choosing the vegetable charcoal pizza base. I was so intrigued to see what it looked like, and it didn't disappoint. Dark black in colour and packed full of flavour, this wonderfully dramatic looking pizza tasted incredible. Out of this and the traditional base that we chose for our second pizza, we both agreed that we preferred the vegetable one. That's not to say the traditional wasn't really good too!
To compliment the vegetable base we chose a vegetarian pizza - La Vegana. This consisted of a butternut squash cream, fresh tomatoes, asparagus and sun dried tomatoes. We didn't realise that this was actually a vegan option. Not that that would've mattered but we were given the option of adding a tomato and mozzarella base which we whole heartedly loved. The butternut squash cream was also delicious and very unique. I don't think either of us had ever had butternut squash on a pizza before - creamed or whole!
For our second pizza we chose the Mariona - tomato mozzarella, gorgonzola and speck. If, like us, you hadn't heard of speck before, it's a type of fatty ham. Stew added a few drops of chilli oil to this one which gave it a fantastic kick and offset the speck perfectly.
There are also so many delicious appetizers and salads to choose from. After much debate we eventually decided upon the Buffalo mozzarella, avocado, tomatoes, anchovies and rocket. Lots of mozzarella all round, but when eating Italian you can't not have mozzarella!!
This salad was the perfect accompaniment to our pizzas, adding a refreshing, crisp edge. To be honest both this and a pizza each was too much food for both of us. But we did manage to finish it! There was no way I could leave any of the charcoal pizza behind!!
In total our bill came to £36 (excluding service charge) for 2 pizzas, 1 large salad, 1 beer and 1 spritz. So if you find yourself in North London, near Highbury & Islington, I highly recommend popping by. Although I would suggest booking a table. Although Zia Lucia is new it was very busy for a Tuesday night. It has some lovely seating outside too, which is perfect for a summers evening.