YOU have to ask the question, “does Durham actually need any more Italian restaurants?”.

There are a number of Italians in the city, from the hugely popular Spaghettata to the (relatively) recently-opened chain ASK in the city’s new Walkergate complex.

In fact there are little other than Italian restaurants in the historic city centre.

But Durham’s seemingly unending love of Italian food continues as Zizzi opens its first restaurant in the cathedral city.

When we arrived on a Thursday night the restaurant was buzzing. We entered via a small bar where a couple were enjoying an aperitif, and we were ushered through to our table.

Like most Zizzis, the kitchen is on display right in the centre of the first (ground) floor of the restaurant.

This makes for a buzzy atmosphere, interspersed with the odd loud holler of “service”.

There is a lower floor, which has views down to the River Wear, which when I ventured down was twinkling with lights in an agreeable atmospheric way.

We ate on the ground floor however, with a view of the students and tourists traipsing up and down Saddler Street to and from the cathedral and university colleges to the city centre.

Ideal for my husband and I as we could talk about the odd person who caught our eye.

Zizzi is an upmarket pizza restaurant chain. And it does food agreeably well.

My husband and I have recently been watching “Two Greedy Italians” on BBC, which had filled us with an impatient desire to eat some good Italian food and happily Zizzi’s delivered.

As we decided what to order we enjoyed a sparkling glass of the house Prosecco, Veneto, £4, which was crisp and pleasantly drinkable, and a plate of Goddess Olives, which was a little like eating spring, fresh and juicy.

For our first course we shared Antipasto Sicliano, £6.10, an agreeable medley of roasted peppers, aubergines, artichokes, olives, tomatoes and Fior di Latte mozzarella. All of this was perfectly acceptable, not outstanding, but for the price bracket very pleasant.

There was a pause while I moved onto a very nice Chianti Cecchi, from Tuscany, £6.10 for a large glass, which was light and fruity and complimented the food nicely.

The Prosecco was enough for my husband who moved on to apple juice, which was freshly pressed (if not on the premises at least freshly pressed somewhere and transported well). For our main courses we decided to see what Zizzi’s brought to pizza.

My husband decided on a “Rustica” pizza from the menu. This was billed as “Exceptional pizza. Bigger, thinner, crispier and loaded with even more toppings”. He chose the Terentino at £11.70, which was baked buffalo mozzarella, plum tomatoes and Grana Padana with fresh rocket and cured speck added as the finale.

My pizza was a Calazone Clarissa, aubergine, peppers, olives, pine nuts, rocket, tomato and mozzarella, Granda Padana and goat’s cheese, £9.10.

My husband declared his pizza to be “simple, but done as well as you can do a pizza,” and was delighted with the result. The base was thin but not overly-crispy as is often a problem. The ingredients did not overpower and complimented each other perfectly. I tried some and was a little envious.

My husband was, however, in turn envious of my pizza. It was packed with flavours, which I thought fought each other a little too much, but which he insisted were spectacular together.

Next time we will I suspect order each other’s meals.

Our appetites had been agreeable stimulated by “The Greedy Italians”, and so we decided to order a dessert each.

After a fair bit of pontification I decided on the Torta Amaretti, mascarpone cheesecake and amaretto liqueur served with a fruit compote and fresh mint, £4.95, ignoring the waiter’s recommendation of the Torta Zizzi, an almond plum and fig tart topped with pistachios.

My husband chose, predictably, the Chocolate Melt, a rich chocolate dessert with a soft, melting centre served with ice cream, £5.25.

To be honest, and unusually, the deserts weren’t that great. My cheesecake was a bit too bland, making me wish I’d tried the Torta Zizzi and my husband found the chocolate melt a little overpowering. They can’t have been that bad though as we both polished them off. Or perhaps that was our inner “greedy Italian” at work.

Either way, we both thoroughly enjoyed our meal and agreed we would definitely return. Along with Spaghettata, Zizzi is one of the restaurants we will now visit in Durham.

The good thing about Zizzi is you can stop in for a quick pizza or, like we did, enjoy a leisurely meal, and equally enjoy both.

Because of the buzzing atmosphere, nice neutral decor and friendly service you want to return, and that is exactly what we’ll do.

INFORMATIONAddress: 43 to 44 Saddler Street, Durham , County Durham, DH1 3NU, 0191 386 3999.

Open: Monday to Saturday: midday to 11pm, Sunday: midday to 10.30pm

First impressions: Bustling but we were welcomed and shown to our table quite promptly.

Style, design and furnishings: Modern but homely, neutral with a few decorative flourishes including illustrations by Lizzie Mary-Cullen, who has paid homage to Durham Cathedral.

Cuisine: Italian

Service: Friendly, but not overbearing. It was very busy when we were there but there were no prolonged waits.

Value: Good – about what was expected.

Disabled facilities: There is a small step to get into the restaurant, which cannot be moved as it is a listed building. The ground floor is fully accessible with a disabled toilet.