Zizzi - Winchester

Staff we really accommodating as we were very late due to stand still traffic on the motorway. Annisa (Anne Isabelle) was amazing with us so patient and friendly, went above and beyond to find us a table we wanted, give us menu recommendations when we weren’t sure. Helped us with a receipt issue to enable us to use the vouchers we had. Really chatty and friendly and made the experience for us! Thank you

We booked Zizzi in Winchester for a table of 6 as we were visiting the Market. One of our party pulled out so 5 of us went. We explained this to the lady who we first saw upon arrival, she disappeared and came back, took us through and proceeded to put 5 people on a table for 4. My husband was awkwardly squeezed onto the end. I pointed out that there wouldn’t be enough room for all our plates during the meal and asked to be moved. She proceeded to tell me that they are trying to squeeze as many people in as they can. I said I wasn’t happy with this and again asked to be moved to the laid 6 person table next to us or at least a 5 person table. She came back with ? the Manager who said, begrudgingly, he’d move us to the table for 6, and he reiterated they’re trying to squeeze in as many as they can. He had no understanding of the fact that his staff would not be able to get all the plates and glasses for 5 customers on a table for 4 !, and, frankly, didn’t seem to care. The first waitress who came over to sort out our drinks was lovely, sadly I didn’t get her name but she was very polite, helpful and friendly. She also took our food order and brought part of our starters out. The Manager brought some starters out, rushing so much that as he came down the stairs one of the rolls flew off the plate and landed by another customer he was oblivious to this luckily our original waitress saw it and got another roll sorted. When our mains came out our point was proven no way would the poor waitresses have got our 8 plates of food and 5 glasses on a 4 person table! I ordered another drink via a different waitress who served our mains, this never arrived, so we had to make sure we weren’t charged for it at the end. The food itself was very well presented and tasted very good, no complaints there at all. My opinion is that Management need to worry less about squeezing people in and worry more about the customers they can get in properly. I, personally, would not advise going here because if I’m spending my hard earned money I expect the Management Team to actually care about the customers. The only thing that saved them today was our first waitress who was fantastic. Management need to care more for their stressed out waiters and waitresses who were taking the brunt of complaints we were not the only ones with issues today. Too many people being squeezed in without having booked first causing the waiting staff to be stressed and rushed off their feet. As we were getting ready to leave they came to clear the table before we’d even got our coats on. Not a good experience.

We booked a table at a very busy time with the run up to Xmas . I thought as I sat down this could take while but complete opposite the service was brilliant and our meals were cooked to perfection one of the best lasagnas I’ve tasted with lovely garlic bread on the side .

Poor service, slow and careless. We went there for dinner whilst visiting the Christmas markets. As we walked in we were seated quick which was nice, but then seemingly forgotten about as we never saw that particular waiter again and didn’t get the chance to order a drink with him. 15 minutes went by and someone finally came over and asked if we’re ready to order food and we asked to order a drink first. We ordered our drinks and then waited another 15 minutes for them to arrive, in the meantime the waiter came back to take our food order. When the drinks arrived they were fine but they took way too long to arrive, and my beer glass was dirty but I just drank out the bottle. The starters arrived and mine was very nice, great food, except my partner was given the wrong starter instead of what she ordered. They corrected it but she only got to start eating when I’d finished my starter, or it would have gone cold. They seemed to forget about us again, never once came over to ask if everything was okay, and never gave us any cutlery either so we had to go find some ourselves from another table. It’s at that point you start to realise the service is slow and not good, and it’s not going to be a good experience. After we had both finished, no waiter came over to us to clear our table, ask how it was etc, nothing. Around 15 minutes after that our mains arrive still with dirty plates on our table, so they had to awkwardly put our food down and pick up the plates. Then even the table next to us spoke to us and said how they had been waiting ages for their food, and it was just such slow service since they’d arrived. They weren’t having a good time either. The mains were great, good food and tasty which was a relief to know that at least the chefs cared about their jobs as the waiters didn’t. Again not one person came back to check if our meal was okay or we needed anything. We were never again offered any more drinks apart from the start where we asked to order them. You couldn’t feel less welcome if you tried. 20 minutes had gone by and no one had cleared our plates still, it was just awful and so slow. It got to a point where I was trying to wave to the waiters to come over and that failed so I had to go up to one and ask them to clear our table and if we can have our desserts yet. Then she came over and took our plates away (after we literally had to ask her). Again didn’t ask at all how the food was, or if we needed any other drinks, despite our glasses being empty. Our desserts came and they were nice again, except my partners had a hair in it. So that was ruined. The whole experience which could have been lovely was just made awful by slow service and waiters/waitresses who don’t care about their jobs or customers and make no effort for the most simple customer service skills. The table next to us then were trying to pay their bill and found they had 2 extra random drinks on their bill which they hadn’t ordered and it seemed difficult for them to explain to the staff they they didn’t order those drinks and didn’t want to pay for them. Again, no one bothered to come over and ask how our desserts were, if everything was okay, if we would like a drink etc, you can just tell they couldn’t care less about you and were more interested in chatting to each other. Trying to get their attention was impossible. We sat there for 15 minutes after finishing our desserts with no attention or service from them, and so we just wanted to pay and leave. But again it was impossible to get the attention of the waitresses. So we started putting on our coats and getting ready etc to give them a hint, and then finally a girl came over and just said ‘have you paid yet?’ With not a care in the world that we STILL had dirty plates on the table not cleared etc. we quickly paid, said no to adding a tip which they clearly didn’t deserve, and left. It just puts a bad taste in your mouth. We picked Zizzi as we like it where we live, yet we’re completely let down by the staff who couldn’t care less about customers or serving and have no customer service skills whatsoever, and can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum to make people feel welcome and make them enjoy their time. An evening which was supposed to be so nice was just ruined by going to this restaurant, and had I seen the other reviews before hand I never would have gone to. Such a shame, just disappointing and won’t ever be going back or recommending.

Two of the dishes were very poor, little on no sauce with the carbanara and the beef in red wine sauce dish. Carbanara pasta was chewy as well. Definitely well below their usual standards.