Zerodegrees - Blackheath

Fantastic food, wine and service.

I have an issue with Zero Degrees (yes, it's going to be one of those days). I am not 100% sure about these fusion menu pizzas: sweet sauces on pizza dough for mains. There are many successful fusion restaurants in the world, but they fuse the menu, not the dishes. For your information: Peking duck in plum sauce belongs on pancakes, not pizzas. I'm so glad to get that off my chest. I was persuaded to give it another chance the other day. After all it's headline is microbrewery which is actually quite fun. So I went in muttering, “Peking duck pizza- huh?” just quietly enough that the staff wouldn't spit in my food. Zero does in fact have very friendly staff, they who attentively found a spot away from the children who were there early evening and managed to stop me wandering into a beer VAT on the way to the toilet. Nice toilets, by the way. Got Dyson hand driers. No I don't have a picture. Taking a camera to the toilet is odd. Back at the menus, I advised everyone not to order sweet pizza. They rolled their eyes, and made noises about the peri peri and Thai chicken pizzas. I made scathing noises back. I've said how I feel and I don't want to talk about anymore. In the end a Carne Asana pizza was settled upon. I had a simple mozzarella and tomato gnocchi. The kitchen must have choked on their over-worked pizzas. Ha! I let then put on black pepper and discovered that there was quite a depth of favour in the sauce. In a good way. It was an extremely rewarding eat. Then I tasted the Carne Asada. That was good. It was unusual enough for me to retract my scathing noises: wood smoked rump streak, chillies, smoked cheeses, coriander, red onion, avocado salsa… Ok, I have got to say, it was a master piece of a pizza. A touch of heat from chillies, cold from the coriander and flavour, just pure flavour from the rest. Bring on the rice-pudding pizza, Zero Degrees pizzas are fabulous. They really know how to differentiate. And so to the micro-brewery. I liked my beer. Now I'm going to have to cater for the beer-geeks and admit I am not a regular beer taster. But the wheat beer hit the mark, suitably complicated with a mild astringency and a golden glow.. Or was that me glowing after the beer? I couldn't take iPhone pictures of the beer in this light, so you're just going to close your eyes and imagine. (but somehow keep reading). I do find Zero on the dark and loud side, an effect that it exacerbated by the stainless steel interior. Zero was summed up by the last cocktail on the table. A basil grande, which I believe is unique to Zero? Now, ‘the Apprentice’ and the broadsheets assure me that strawberry and basil, the theme of this drink, this is a dynamic combination. I just didn't believe them until this cocktail, which was rewardingly sweet and refreshing. Yep be assured, next Wimbledon I'll be stocking up on the pesto. 29/31 MONTPELIER VALE BLACKHEATH LONDON. SE3 0TJ

After waiting over 10 minutes for a member of staff to come to our table, we were told that there were no mussels or parma ham, the two very things we'd come in to sample, having heard rave reviews from friends. There were about 15 people eating, so they shouldnt have run out of these ingredients and shouldnt have taken 10 minutes to get to us, only to tell us that the two most popular items weren't available. Most places tell you what's not available as soon as you arrive. We left straight away and the staff didnt seem bothered at all. Poor show.

Pooooooor service. I know this is based on only one incident, but I still value customer service when I go out, and our server clearly had no idea what customer service meant. I ordered a pizza that had 4 main ingredients…zucchini, eggplant, mixed peppers, and sundried tomatoes. It came to me with no peppers at all. Considering they charge you 1.50 to add an ingredient, I felt a bit ripped off having one of mine missing. I waited for a server to come by so I could say something, but nobody did. Pretty soon I figured, whatever, I’ll just eat it. And it was very nice. When they finally came to clear away the plates, I said to the guy, ‘Just thought you should know that my pizza was missing one of the main ingredients’. The dude looked at me with a ‘Yeah, so what?’ face, didn't say anything back, and just stared at me. So I said ‘Well, I just thought you should know'. He responded ‘Okay’. At this point I think I laughed, because I was a bit shocked by his response, or lack there of. I’m not someone looking for anything other than perhaps a simple apology. A small thing like that can go a long way. However, he then says to me, in a rather condescending voice ‘You want some peppers now?’ Now who in the world would want a bowl of peppers after eating their meal??? Clearly that is not what I wanted. What a patronizing way to respond to a customer. I said ‘uh, no thanks’ and he just walked away. So if you decide to go, I hope you don’t get the tall goofy looking South African server. The place is a bit too try hard in the décor. It is more like trying to eat in the middle of a noisy dance club. But the pizza was nice.