Gigi — Restaurant in Ghent

We were regular customers of this restaurant, so I chose it specifically to celebrate my birthday with my family. But we will never go back to this restaurant and will advise everyone not to go there. And here's why:

I booked a table in the common room in advance, and received confirmation that my reservation was accepted. When we arrived, there were a lot of empty tables, including the one I booked. They didn't want to seat us at them, they wanted to send us to a distant dark room with small coffee tables, which was not at all suitable for us. The waiter was not friendly and constantly chewed gum. After 10 minutes of sorting things out, they finally seated us at a table for 4 people, although there were 5 of us and it was not very comfortable. After we made our order, we waited for cocktails for about 30 minutes. At that time other guests (Belgians) arrived, they were seated at the table that I had booked and they were served within 5 minutes, their orders were brought to them very quickly. First they brought us cocktails, one of which was spilled and the glass was dirty because of it, the other two cocktails were mixed up. And then we had to wait another 30 minutes until other visitors who spoke Dutch were served and our pizza was brought to us. We got the impression that they didn’t treat us so well because we spoke English, not Dutch, although we are locals... We specifically ordered a pizza that we always take and love - it’s GiGi pizza. But that evening it was just awful, because it had very few ingredients and it had very spicy salami, and we were not warned about it. The pizza wasn’t even cut! The waiter just took a dull knife and told us to figure it out ourselves. None of the guests could eat it, and we asked to remove it from the table and the bill. But the waiter (who continued to chew gum and answer coldly all evening) simply brought two bottles of cold water and counted the pizza for us, which we simply could not eat! We paid 200 euros for this spoiled pleasure and none of the staff even apologized for ruining my birthday! I sincerely do not advise anyone to celebrate important events there, so as not to risk ruining...

Would have loved to be able to rate the food….sadly I couldn’t, and the manager blamed me for it! I was hoping to dine here with my family after a day trip to Ghent. Upon first impressions, the restaurant is lovely - decor is great, menu looks wonderful, and the wait staff were so attentive. We ordered just one course as we were with a toddler and we had to journey back to Brussels. Our drinks were served, and we waited. No draft beer was on offer as there was an issue with the pump. After an hour, I politely inquired with our lovely waitress how long our food would be - I told her that if the kitchen had started preparing it, we would get it to go, otherwise, we would pay for our drinks and leave. The waitress checked, and upon her return apologized and said the food hadn’t been started by the kitchen and we would be waiting a while longer. Fine, good to know, I paid our drinks and she apologized. I want to be clear, she was really lovely and understanding, she had obviously dealt with this a lot. The next part was really unexpected; after receiving my payment, the manager came over to say they really didn’t normally let a party just pay for drinks, and that if we had time pressure, it was our fault and we should have told the kitchen. I pleasantly told the manager that I had indeed said that I would take the food and have it as take-out if the food was in preparation stage. He repeatedly said that food would be wasted despite me having checked that wasn’t the case. I have never experienced such terrible, accusatory and humiliating service - all without actually having tasted the food! The place seems great, the waitress was lovely - but the management is rude beyond anything I have ever experienced and I regret ever having set foot in the place. What a waste of time to feel bad and hungry...

One of the worst dining experience I’ve had in a long time.

I’m Italian and this place is a disgrace to Italian culinary culture.

The restaurant charges over 20€ for a pizza, you would expect service and the experience to justify the price.

Staff is incompetent and rude.

No olives or bread was served as welcome sides and we ordered a focaccia bread which took 30 min to arrive, meanwhile our table had been completely abandoned by the staff.

After inquiring about the status of our orders, the waiter came to our table and told us to “Bro, chill out because we were too stressed and should enjoy life more” … lol the audacity..

One hour later, 0 concern from the staff, our table was still left completely unattended. No gesture to remedy the wait and attitude of the staff showed a total lack of hospitality professionalism.

Can’t even review the food because our order never came… as we stood up to leave the manager straight up lied to our face saying the kitchen lost our order.. it was frankly very difficult to believe, also seems like this has been happening a lot from other reviews.

Whoever owns this place isn’t fit to run a restaurant.

Ps: one of the waiters told us he could cover the water and focaccia. As you can see in the accusations below the staff is arrogant, has clear attitude and internal communication issues that require heavy training.. and a clear change...