Zio Peppe — Restaurant in Tucson

The first red flag of this restaurant is their insistence on using the term "gastronomy" so much so they painted it on the side of their building. The second being the blue sugar rim on their featured house cocktail. Lastly, when the only delicious food item on the menu isn't made in house (shout out to Juan Almanza of El Taco Rustico) that should be the final straw that this restaurant isn't worth dining at.

Zio Peppe is a ghost of its former self and it seems the descent has been steady and drawn out. We dined there on a Thursday evening some weeks back and I am still baffled by the experience we had.

Looking at the menu it shows a lot of promise. Who wouldn't be excited to try Sonoran cuisine fused with Italian classics? We ran the gambit and tried something from each section. The elote arancini's crust was a mile thick and the contents held therein were cold and under seasoned. The caesar salad was wet and overdressed, while again also being under seasoned. The birria pizza hit the table before the ravioli Soronese...and that was interesting to say the least. The birria itself was perfect and easily the most delicious item on the menu (again, not made in house, they source it from El Taco Rustico) and it tastes like a tio made it for the family get together, very comforting, fatty and well seasoned. The pizza crust has entirely too much whole wheat flour, so the sugars caramelize too quickly, leaving the bottom of the crust burned while the rest of the dough is raw. This amount of whole wheat is so off balance that it interferes with the overall flavor profile of the pizza. Then the most diabolical dish I've ever been served hit the table. The ravioli Soronese. Looking at the ravioli you can tell in an instant that they had been frozen and for entirely too long, the skin of the pasta was was grey and entirely too tough for ravioli. In addition, they tried to cover this up with entirely too much red pasta sauce (I refuse to call it marinara because it tasted exactly like out of the can chunky tomatoes), there wasn't a green chili in sight and I shudder to remember the beef chorizo perched atop all of this like a freshly opened can of cat food. We did not touch it beyond a single bite.

Outside of the birria, our server was lovely. She was kind and doubling as the bartender for the night. I will emphasize I do not blame her for how bad the cocktails are. That responsibility lies with the bar manager...seriously, that blue sugar rim has got to go and the limoncello margarita needs serious re-calibration. The icing on the cake for the evening was another server (who we had no contact with outside of the end of our meal) that decided it would be a good idea to call me a hipster not once, not twice, but three times because I was wearing a Fernet Branca shirt. When he asked where I got it, I said I was a bartender and it was free at an event, but he interrupted me saying "[I] probably got it walking around Brooklyn because [I] was a hipster like that." Truly a bizarre interaction.

If this restaurant can turn it around and start putting out food and drinks that sound as awesome as they do on their menu, I will gladly give them another shot. As it stands, they need to leave 2006 behind and start operating in the present day. There really isn't an excuse for a lot of this.

Photo of the shirt...

I was in the area, googled Pizza....Zio was relatively close and they had pretty good reviews. I was alone, and I was hungry. One person, that appeared to be the person that greeted customers, and take your order, seated me, gave me menus, took and delivered my drink order. One other couple with a child were the only other customers in the store. He came back to my table, I selected the pizza that sounded good, he took my order and disappeared [although he was probably 8 feet behind me, stationed at the checkout counter].

One nearby table had ordered before I came in, and in the view to my left, I saw their order put on the counter. One dish was obviously a pizza [it had the spatula 'shovel' sticking out of the side]. Another waitress/server saw the dishes were ready on the counter, took the dishes to their table and they began eating. At that time I noticed another dish on the counter [again - obviously a pizza because it had the spatula 'shovel' sticking out of the side].

Another couple, who were most certainly very frequent guests, came in, and were escorted to their regular table. The entire staff 'gushed' over the couple, while I waited, and waited some more....I did not look at my watch, but it was most certainly 4 to 5 minutes later after my seeing my order, that same waitress/server went to the counter, picked up my pizza, brought it to my table, and said "the pan is hot", and left.

The couple with child had already finished their meal, and were leaving. So again, only two tables were occupied, myself, and the regulars. There must have been, in total, 5 or 6 employees milling around.

I ate what I wanted, drank all my water, drank all my beer, finished, and stood up. One of the employees asked if I wanted a to go box, I said yes, and instead of putting the pizza into my box, he just gave me a box. Now, under no circumstances, am I too good, or too lazy to box my own pizza, but that is a 'normal' function of the wait staff in restaurants [all over the country, as I travel for work], that I have frequented in the past.

I went to the greeter, he asked how was my meal, and I replied that "I am totally disappointed, in that not one single person checked in on me during my presence, no one asked if the pizza is good, or if I wanted another water, another beer, a desert......no one--nothing.

I am perhaps not the biggest tipper on the planet, but I always am very generous, and NEVER under 20/30%. I left a 10% tip for the first time in, probably, 25 - 30 years.

I am glad Zio has regulars, and I am happy other diners have left good reviews......my review shall...

I am always on the lookout for unique places to dine. Seeing that they were fusing Italian with Sonoran Mexican intrigued me immediately. I convinced my family to visit for my birthday dinner while I visited from Utah.

The ambiance is nice and a bit more fancy than what I was expecting. The servers were attentive and pleasant.

The limoncello margarita had zero indication of being any different than a regular margarita. The Moonsoon was good, and I would recommend it.

The food was very hit or miss. The eloté arancini was saucy and flavorful, but one ball is enough before it's a bit overwhelming.

The fried calamari with chicharron was cooked well, and the salsa made it better; however, it could really use some acid from either fresh lime/lemon or sauce. The tiny triangles of orange was just not enough to cut through all the fried foods.

The bread with oil and grated garlic is delightful and would be an easy recommend. It is nicely charred, soft, and has plenty of flavor without the salt pile they provide.

The main courses were all 50/50. The shrimp linguine was good after adding some extra parmesean as it lacked salt, but it was not liked by everyone else in my party.

The ravioli Sonerense had four times more tomato sauce than it needed, and apart from the chorizo I wasn't sure what made it Mexican in flavor. If that was all I ordered, I would have left very hungry too. The same goes with the buccatini others tried. For $20+ per entrée, it's a steep price to pay for appetizer sized mains.

The birria pizza was tasty and unique, but honestly you don't need to make it into a pizza when the birria overshadowed the dough along with the consomé. Their pizza dough is good enough to eat on its own (we also had a pepperoni pizza for the kids, and it was way too salty for all of them) and was completely lost to the flavor uppercut that is birria. The trend here is their bread dough is actually the best product they produce in our opinion.

The taco canoli was oily, and with the light flavor it promised, it wasn't good with such heavy oil flavor. The tiramisu cake was dry with strong notes of alcohol which I personally dislike in desserts.

Overall, we had eight people visit, and none of us would come back. We appreciate the attempt and adventurous nature of what they tried to do, but there were too many misses to recommend and prices too high for the plethora of other restaurants in...