Zazu Dining & Bar — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Went here for dinner for the first time with 2 of my best friends for his birthday yesterday. We got a table pretty quickly as we booked in advance but the waiting time for our food was absolutely horrendous. We placed an order for 2 drinks, 2 medium wagyu steaks and 1 medium rare wagyu, oysters and fries on the side. Our oysters came out first with the drinks and we had to wait for 1.5 hours for our steaks to come out and they were all medium rare and the pieces of steaks were so cheap and thin. Before our steaks came out we had asked to cancel our order so we could leave but one of the female staff said to us to stay because the steaks are just coming out very soon. We were starving and were starting to get extremely impatient as we waited for so long. We checked online if there was any restaurants still open nearby by they were closing soon as it got close to 9pm. Now that I think about it, we should’ve left way earlier than that. Was such a big waste of time and a big let down because the steaks were not even good and we had to pay for it when we chose to cancel it but the female staff wouldn’t let us.

When the steaks came out, we told them to recook the steaks for us as they were medium rare when we asked for medium and it still came out slightly better but we had already lost our appetite. We could not finish any of our food. Only thing we finished were the oysters and drinks.

While we were waiting for our food we noticed we weren’t the only ones waiting. Many tables in the restaurant were waiting for over an hour as well. One of the couple near us mentioned that they’ve been a regular at Zazu and that the food is really great and last night was the first time they were disappointed so they ended up cancelling their order and left. It was our first time experience here at Zazu and I must say I was deeply disappointed by everything. The entire store looked like a mess, the staff were bringing out wrong orders to the wrong tables and they were coping with a lot of impatient customers including us.

At the end when we decided to pay, we got some discounts as it was such a big letdown for us for our first time experience for a birthday dinner so that was nice. Would I come back to try again? Maybe one day but definitely not anytime soon.

Edit: decided to give this restaurant another try today (5 days later) and now I must say it did not disappoint me this time. Came here with my partner for the Super Tuesday 3 course promo and we were both very impressed. Decided to book an early time and food came out within 30 minutes. Staff on shift were different this time and they were absolutely fantastic. I honestly don’t know what happened the first time I went but I am so glad...

I am an Asian customer, and this is my second visit. I came back cause the food left such a strong and lasting impression from my first visit. During my first time here, I was seated upstairs, even though there were plenty of open tables on the first floor. I also noticed that most of the surrounding tables upstairs were occupied by other Asian guests, which made me a little suspicious. On my second visit, I was seated on the first floor, but at a table tucked away in the farthest corner by the window. Again, the tables around me were mostly filled with Asian guests. The food and atmosphere were both so good that they stayed on my mind for a long time, and I really want to believe that the seating arrangement was just a coincidence and my concerns are merely a misunderstanding. However, I don’t think there will be a third visit

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Thank you for your response. However, I feel the need to clarify a few points, as your reply unfortunately seems to have misunderstood the concern I raised.

The issue was never about being seated near other ASIAN guests — I am ASIAN myself, and I take NO ISSUE with that. Rather, my concern was that, during both of my visits, I was consistently seated in LESS DESIRABLE areas of the restaurant, and coincidentally, these areas were almost exclusively occupied by other ASIAN GUESTS as well. This PATTERN naturally raised some concerns regarding how seating arrangements are handled, whether consciously or unconsciously.

While I understand that your reservation system (SEVEN ROOMS) automates table assignments, it is common knowledge that restaurant staff can manually adjust seating if needed. Automated systems do not absolve a venue from responsibility over guest experience, especially when patterns like this are noticed repeatedly by customers.

As for my 2-star rating — while I did mention that the food and atmosphere were good, a dining experience encompasses more than just the food. The overall feeling of being treated fairly and equally as a guest plays a significant role. I rated the experience accordingly based on the entirety of my visits, not just isolated aspects.

I hope you can appreciate that my feedback was honest and made in good faith, reflecting the experience from a customer’s perspective. Rather than focusing on the star rating itself, I encourage your team to consider the underlying concerns raised, which ultimately, if addressed, would benefit your restaurant in...

The food was nice enough so long as you have all night to eat. This was the second time dining at Zazu - the service was slow the first time but we thought we'd give them a second chance.

We had a 6:45 PM reservation for 4 people, and after a leisurely 2 hours and 45 minutes for 3 courses, we finally rolled out at 9:30 PM—full but tired.

We ordered cold entrees (oysters and beef carpaccio) which took 45 minutes to arrive. Our mains were equally tardy, with three barramundi dishes and a roast chicken all served with some variation of a puree (likely pre-prepared) and some vegetables, showing up at 8:20 PM (50 minutes after the entrees were served).

We then waited another hour for dessert to be served (crème brulee and chocolate tarts). We assumed these would also be somewhat pre-prepared, especially as the crème brulee is served cold except for the toffee on top but they didn't come out until 9:20pm. Our parking had lapsed by then so we had accepted the fact that we would now have to pay for parking too.

We could see one of the waiters was doing is best (or looking like he was trying to anyway...) but there was no communication throughout the evening of why there was such a delay or how long the wait on meals would, we also had to try and catch someone, anyone to ask for more water but attentiveness was few and far between.

The table next to us was there for just over 2 hours, they finished their bottle of wine and only got served their entrees in that time - again cold entrees (one serve of oysters and one burrata). They ended up leaving before their mains were served.

Between mains and dessert the waiter brought a round of Prosecco for our whole section - a nice gesture sure, but 3 out of the 4 of us on our table weren't intending on drinking that night.

While the food was nice enough it simply doesn't make up for the poor service and it certainly wasn't amazing for the prices (thank goodness we went on cheaper Tuesday). The service was truly one of the poorest and slowest we have ever experienced anywhere in the world. I'm sorry to say we...