Pants and Zeffirellis, Dickson

Simple Man and I had the first real fight of our relationship over food. It started simply enough. It was Summer and Simple Man had been dwelling all day over an issue very dear to his heart - pants and more specifically why he has to wear them. Evening having approached, he made his proclamation. "I am never wearing pants again," he announced. And so we went for some time, pantless.

The snare came one night when I wanted to go out for dinner, pantless. There is something about shorts that prevents all but the most brave from dining in particular venues. There are certain restaurants for pants and there are certain restaurants for the pantless. We went to one that did not require pants and had a terrible time. Simple Man would not repent, I was traumatised I'd wasted an evening on bad pasta and bam - our first real fight. We didnt really get over it until the first whiff of Canberra winter when the sensibility of pants became suddenly apparent to Simple Man.

The weather having been extremely hot in Canberra lately, the Simple Man, now unsurprisingly, refused, again, to wear pants. Simple Man chose the restaurant.

Zeffirellis is not only the kind of place you can go pantless, it also fits another of Simple Man's favourite categories - it serves "Big Food" (Big Food generally referring to some piece of large meat accompanied - almost invariably - by chips).

The evening did not start well. The two of us were hungry (truth be known we'd already tried two other restaurants that were closed or full) and neither of us are particularly nice when we're hungry. The waitresses, all as the Simple Man pointed out looking almost identical, seemed to be doing their best to ignore us.

Simple Man's food came out first (thankfully, he can get nasty when his blood sugar levels drop). It fit the criteria of Big Food - steak and mushroom sauce with chips (no vegies - he was told it was one or the other). According to Simple Man it went down a treat. I ordered the Quatro Gusti pizza, which included quarters each of Capriciossa, Magherita, Mushroom and Tropical (for Simple Man). It seemed the ideal choice for the indecisive me. Generally, the pizza seemed to taste of salt and not a lot else.

Unltimately, I left feeling full but unsatisfied. The tables around us had not been cleaned. The wait was disappointing. These things could have been overlooked had it been busier, but they were far from capacity. Even Simple Man, who quite enjoyed his Big Food and who is not a fussy man, agreed that the service and cleanliness were disappointing.

Zeffirellis
5 Wooley Street
Dickson
Ph: (02) 6262 5500
http://www.zeffs.com/

Service: average
Crowd: lots of thongs - I also saw boardshorts
Money: $
($ = mains 15 and under; $$ = mains 25 and under, $$$ = mains over 25)