Zappy Pizza — Restaurant in Montreal

Ambiance & Context: This place seems like it used to have a lot of charm and energy; It's called "Zappy's" and their mascot is a kangaroo. A small collection of children's drawings, hockey memorabilia and photos decorate the service entryway, drawing attention to the odd cobwebs and dust clinging a giant, mostly empty gumball machine. I've been here at least two dozen times, and they're a godsend whenever the power goes out in the sector. This diner sits across from the local hospital, and a lot of their clients are hospital cafeteria refugees looking to eat something that hasn't been sitting under a fluorescent light and saran wrap for a week. They also seem to keep up with the locals, knowing whose apartment burnt down, whose pet's gone missing, and so on. This is in spite of their lacking online presence, they have a real old-school community connection I don't recognize in many other establishments here. The restaurant is staffed with a mix of veteran waitresses (husky voiced, gum-in-cheek, no smiles but friendly voices and great service), and a churn of busboys you never see twice. The place seemed to pride itself on its pizza at one point, which I've never seen ordered or anyone carrying for delivery. Most of the people here are here for the cheap early-bird breakfasts and small white cups of "bleh" coffee. Cuisine: Yeah so, the food's a bit bland, but still good? It's a weird thing to assess. It's "just like you'd expect" from a tired diner there to relieve hospital visitors. They basically serve the standard diner menu, with no variation. You have your baked pastas (the slippery lasagna doesn't have ricotta and the cannelloni is tiny so don't do it), your "I think they price it this expensive so they don't have to stock/prep it" steak and seafood menu, the pizza, your casse-croûte &fries dishes, and I tend toward their chewy tortellini rosée. Their Greek-style dishes are a bit dry and boring. You won't take more than a bite out of those potato wedges, or do more than toss your unseasoned yellow rice into your weird Quebecois take on Greek salad (cheap Kalamata? green peppers? stop). You eat your feta and brochette and there you go. The portions are also not huge, spread thin over heavy white plates. Abundant portions are something people tend to expect from diner platters, but I don't recall ever once getting a take-away bag. The onion soup is bleh. The breakfasts are passable. Every dish has the cold cling of condensation, being pulled out of the sanitizer and having glossy oil-fried eggs slapped onto them with unenthusiastically fried ham, a ration of bacon, uninvited lettuce and wilting continental fruit. The thing is there's a diner in the neighborhood called Nouveau Verdun, and they manage to pull off a menu over twice the size, a bona-fide bar, late-night service, a familiar and friendly manager, delicious cakes, and great cozy ambience. As someone who isn't just in the neighborhood for the hospital, I actually make the trek up to Verdun to go there instead of Zappy's. Their Chinese is actually good, their wonton soup and Singapore noodles are better than Restaurant Beijing these days (in Chinatown), but avoid the peanut-butter dumplings. Their Greek is also very decent, and we've never once had a problem with delivery. To give you an idea: Green Spot (St Henri) is easily head and shoulders over Nouveau Verdun (their poutine game is too strong), but Nouveau Verdun is easily waist-up over Zappy's.. Another diner that's a community favorite is Woodland Pizza, which seems to actively serve their pizza. They're out for renovations, which strikes me as odd because their booths and ambiance was a lot more well-kept and modern. I guess Zappy's can't ever take a break and update or improve because of its non-stop hospital clientèle. TL:DR; I wish I could drag a defibrillator out from the hospital and zap...

I absolutely love Zappy's but oh my god does it ever need some TLC. The employees are awesome, they're fast, friendly and professional. The service is impeccable. The food is consistent and a decent quality for the price - I personally love the breakfast menu, and the pizzas are some of the best in the neighborhood. I just wished they did more for the restaurant itself. The banquettes are hanging on by a thread, the floors are so dirty that no amount of mopping would help, weird smells are coming out of the plant pots, and the cutlery/glassware always look dirty (it ain't though, it's just really old). With all the new cool restaurants opening up in the neighborhood, I really wished management would put in a bit more effort when it comes to how the place looks/feels to the customers. It doesn't need to be fancy, but right now it straight up looks like the owners don't care... and that's sad. Zappy's is truly a hidden gem and I recommend to anyone that's looking for an affordable and delicious meal, it's just in desperate need of a little glow up. Hopefully it'll get the renovation it...

We were given a dirty table and had to stand around for a few moments before the hostess came over to clean it instead of cleaning it and THEN bringing us to the table. Gross, but okay. Then we noticed we didn't get any knives with our cutlery and grabbed some from another table. I know its not a huge deal but its still annoying.

The waitress came and took our order. Despite how clear I was with our order she got many things wrong. The most annoying error was they put onions in my wife's food after saying NO ONIONS. They took it back and apologized and brought her a "new" one in a few moments. My wife could still taste onion. They obviously just picked out the onions and heated it up on the grill for a few seconds to make it look like they gave us a new plate.

News flash Fellas, when you cook onions in food you can still TASTE the onion after you pick them out. Very unprofessional. I only give two stars because the waitress was very nice....