A review of Blue Zucchini, Tetbury
Traditionally, when there is an American word for something and an English word for something, at least one of those words is a little bit logical. Not so the fancy-pants courgette. In English we have to say it with a french pronunciation. And in the American ‘Zucchini’ – what is with all those queued up consonants, even after forgiving that exotic ‘Z’? Is it trying to make up for the fact that it is just a watery green thing, albeit one that scrubs up well when a good chef comes along?
So it’s hard to know if the cafe, ‘Blue Zucchini’ in Tetbury is trying to tell us that it’s salt of the earth, a bit posh, or American by its chosen name. Given the addition of the word ‘blue’, I’m going for ‘Arty’. I’m all good with that.
Indeed within the walls of Blue Zucchini you will find fun magazine wallpapered cavern along with lanterns, parasols and slightly too loud music. And the food is good, very good.
It delivers favourites such as heuvos rancheros in such a way that you just can’t stop eating. It was the discovery of cheese in the middle of my flatbread, having already enjoyed fried eggs, kidney beans and fresh salsa. If I’d known there was cheese I’d have skipped the avocado.
Its cakes were not on the menu. (What were they thinking?) but they featured in the display case at the entrance. They were generously pre-cut, dripping with icing, and embedded with tea lights. This made them impossible to ignore. Even seeing that the cake was precut did not prepare us for the delivery of the enormous, gut-busting wedge of Guinness cake that we were confronted with.
Cake is the best vehicle for Guinness – none of that hard-to-drink-liquid that comes in a pint glass and gives you a headache the following day. My husband and I both looked at the arrival. We hesitated. We dived in with two forks and battled for minutes. But we weren’t up to the task, and staggered away leaving small towers of cake and icing still on the plate, and subsequently avoiding all food smells in Tetbury. It was worth it. I will fight there again one day.
Enjoyed reading my review. Why not ‘buy me a coffee’ on https://bmc.link/alexmorrall (No prizes for guessing where I’ll spend it!)