Restaurants

I is for: Italian & the Most INCREDIBLE Ice Cream {Zero Zero Restaurant Review}

Soft serve + olive oil + sea salt = genius

OK, so I was totally just going to save this place for “Z” week, but I simply cannot wait that long to share Zero Zero with you.

I drive by Zero Zero pretty much everyday on my way to work. It always catches my eye and I always wonder how it is or what kind of food they serve. I finally decided to look it up on Yelp, and I was blown away by the amount of positive reviews for this little Italian place. That was a couple months ago. I can’t believe it took me this long to check it out.

The perfect occasion arose tonight as I have been wanting to take my co-worker Tory out for dinner. Not only is she one of the people who suggested I start a food blog, but sadly, she’s also leaving San Francisco in a week to take a job with our affiliate in Boston. I’ve worked pretty closely with Tory over the last couple years, she being the main field producer at Giants home games. Inevitably, we end up talking about food A LOT, so it seemed fitting that her farewell dinner get featured on the blog.

As you might remember from one of my very first posts, I’m obsessed with brussels sprouts. Of course, not everyone feels the same way, so when I asked Tory how she felt about them, and her response was: “I LOVE brussels sprouts,” we just had to get the fried brussels sprouts on the Zero Zero menu. I thought these would be similar to the recipe I make all the time because it had Asian pears and pancetta. But this was better. The main difference (besides them being fried vs. roasted) was the pears were peeled, cubed and mixed in raw and cold. It was such a delicious contrast with the salty, warm sprouts and the crispy pancetta…I could seriously eat this every single week for the rest of my life and be extremely happy about it.

Onto the pizza, which was equally fantastic. I’m a sucker for thin crust, Italian-style pizza, and this was right up there with some of the stuff I had in Italy. Most of their pizzas are named after San Francisco streets, and we got the “Castro,” which was sopressata, house made sausage, mozzarella, tomato sauce, and basil. The house made sausage really made this pizza…when I go back, I will always get something that includes the sausage…it was that good.

And as I
alluded to in the title of this post…we had maybe the best ice cream of my life
for dessert. First of all, let me say that I adore soft serve ice cream. It
reminds me of childhood and going to “The Freeze” in Fort Benton, Montana
with my late Grandma Joyce. Of course, I like all types of ice cream…but there’s
something about soft serve that I especially love. 

At Zero Zero…they give you
the option to add a variety of toppings…but there’s only one you need to worry
about: Da Vero olive oil and sea salt. If you’ve never had olive oil and sea
salt on ice cream before…don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. I’m a huge fan
of sea salt in desserts…I think it highlights the sweetness in a delightful and
unexpected way. The olive oil makes the ice cream even smoother and creamier
than it already is, and somehow it all works together in the dreamiest of combinations.
Next time Tory comes back to visit…I can tell you we’ll definitely be making a
stop at Zero Zero. But until then, best of luck T-Cat! 😉

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  • Tory
    December 4, 2011 at 7:38 am

    Ice cream and salt sounds so weird but it was so good!! Thank you again for dinner an dessert.. I'll miss you and our time and at&t park.. maybe a giants/ red sox world series in 2012? 🙂

  • Randy
    December 5, 2011 at 7:55 am

    Have you tried Bi-Rite Creamery's "Sam's Sundae"? If not, I'll leave you with these words: Chocolate ice cream, bergamot olive oil, maldon sea salt

    • jaymeesire
      March 13, 2012 at 7:40 pm

      No…but that sounds amazing! I need to go.

  • Best Ice Cream
    December 9, 2011 at 2:55 am

    These delicious treats taste offers more fun and decadent than something else. These actually give a sophisticated experience. These Vanilla flavour ice cream are one of the most delicious ice creams on the market. Thanks a lot.

  • Amy
    May 5, 2012 at 3:25 pm

    Hey Jaymee, I just went to Zero Zero a few days ago and I loved it. I also could not get over the ice cream – it was to-die-for!