Zambri's — Restaurant in Victoria

Revised: (2.5 🌟) After posting the below review of our experience we were immediately contacted by a concerned GM who wished to make things right. Assured that this was not the intended experience, we were invited to return. Our second visit was in most of the positive ways, similar to the first. Good food. Well timed attention at the table to start. Overall the food was well thought out, though the italian menus take a familiarity with italian cuisine nomenclature. I was optimistic about improving the rating to 5 stars; however, our second visit had other significant issues. Our appetizers came promptly, as did the wine service and routine visits to the table, however, after an hour of Waiting and free bread, we learned that our main course had not been entered correctly and still had not been started. At this point the restaurant was packed and very busy. We looked around after the second hour and noticed that the entire area of the restaurant was filled with patrons who had arrived after us and were either finishing or being served. After significant patience we brought this to the attention of our server. We wete proved with complimentary desserts to our whole party. All in our taboe of 4 spent 350$ and 3 hours in thr restaurant. 1 and a half of those hours just waiting. It isnclear that the restaurant doesn't design this experience or intend it but an internal review of its operations and training may improve the delivery and timing aspects of its service in the mid to later portions of the dining experience. The interior of the restaurant is quite a loud environment, while the patio is quiter and a little more comfortable on the rars, it may suffer from lack of attention. Our characters at the table were appropriately dressed, generally quiet, patient and well mannered, as were the personalities of the servers.

Summary: I do recommend trying this restaurant, because the menu is i interesting and the food is worthy of a good overall review. But the service seems inconsistent at best, likely due to lack of experience or training and blind spots. A maitre-D would be an asset to improve timing.

Original Review: (1 🌟) We were a quiet, well dressed group with a reservation. Before we were finished, we were interrupted by the acting maitre-D and presented with an un-timely request to pay, and then asked to leave, so they could give the table to another group. We still had wine in our glasses, and we were considering another bottle. We had been there for 90 minutes, and were told there was a time limit on the table. We were not notified prior to this. Feeling sleighted, we asked to discuss this treatment with the maitre-D, who responded with (and i paraphrase): too bad, go. We were not loud or disruptive, and our whole table was shocked. If you GO, take as much time as you want or need, and dont let them bully you out like we did. Apparently a few hundred dollars isnt enough. Ive never been asked to leave a restaurant like this before. Horrible and...

TLDR: I've been twice and I can not recommend this restaurant at all. If you want great pasta and good service, go to Pagliachis or Il Covo. Both are well worth it. I'd honestly rather stand in line at Pags for an hour than go back to Zambir's. If you just want to drink some great wines, Zambi's is a good choice, but ask the server to have your wines poured straight away so they can breathe, otherwise you'll get a very nice, top notch wine poured straight from the bottle after a 20+ minute wait.

Full review:

Service was painfully slow and often awkward. Our initial drinks took over 30 minutes to arrive. Further drink orders took almost as long. All staff we dealt with were slow. Our main server did not stop by to bother us much, but then again she also took ages to serve us. Another server, possibly a manager or operator? stopped by all too frequently. A good server/host knows how to look at a table and judge its needs without interrupting needlessly. And a great server can meet those needs quickly and almost steathily. No such luck.

The food was decent, but only just. My pasta dish, the Orecchiette, was bland to the point of almost being flavourless. The sausage, made in-house, tasted like regular breakfast sausage. It had a bad mouth feel and gave me the same sort of indigestion as cheap breakfast sausages have in the past. I eat all sorts of sausage regularly so it wasn't me.

The wines were good, however they seemed to have poured directly from the bottle. Given Zambri's claims about its wines I was expecting decanted wines. It would have made more sense with how long we waited for the drinks. Aside from seeing our wines poured from the bottle right before serving, the wines had a faint astringent taste which is a hallmark of a wine straight from the bottle. Once the glass had been given a further 10+ minutes to breathe, the wine tasted much better. As I said, the wines were good, but Zambri's could have easily let them breathe before serving them. They didn't; they just poured it from the bottle and served them straight away AFTER a 30 minute wait.

The atmosphere is ok, but only ok. Situated right downtown, the location is noisy and sits across from the abandoned and defunct Cineplex theatre. Inside, the decor is fairly standard. It's clean and nice, but no special efforts seem to have been made.

This is the second time I have had a similar experience. The visits were around 1-2 years apart. Service, food and ambiance were all the same both times. Go to Il Covo or Pagliachis and...

Significantly Overpriced Please, don't waste your money here, particularly if you are taking a family

I took the family to this restaurant because we always seem to like Italian cuisine. I would say that, compared to other quality restaurants where we've dined, this one was a tad on the pretentious and overpriced side. It's is extremely important to note that a significant number of the meals on the menu come with few vegetables, if any. They do not come with starter salads, or anything that most people have become accustomed to at quality restaurants. All you get is a hunk of whatever meat you ordered, prepared in a decent (but not spectacular) way, presented in very prettily on oversized plates. There is no children's menu, nor will they prepare a smaller version of anything on the menu for children or seniors. By way of comparison, the previous evening we ate at The Olive Grove (about 10 minutes drive away) for about 30% less money, and got about double the food with a massive array of amazingly prepared vegetables.

Summary for Zambri's: Pros: Very pretty setting; looks good, so it will impress your friends; they do well at pretending to be authentic Italian; they are located a few blocks away from the hubbub around the waterfront, but close enough that you can walk to it, and enjoy a little window shopping along the way.

Cons: Expensive; Sub-par food; slightly stodgy service; really expensive; no vegetables to speak of; focaccia bread was served dry with no oil or butter or anything, except for a hand full of whole olives in a small bowl; exhorbitantly expensive; fills up by 6pm, so be sure to either make reservations, or arrive shortly after 5pm.

Price comparison: For my family, I am accustomed to spending roughly $100 for a respectable and authentic meal at a decent restaurant, plus tip. I expect to receive a full, round meal, that includes a separately ordered starter to share, then vegetables, starch (potatoes, rice, or something), and the meat or protein, plus a couple of simple beverages. At Zambri's, I paid $185 plus tip (I was kind and still tipped well, but I regret it now), and I received a slab of decent fish and 3 small potatoes. There were few (if any) "seasonal vegetables" to speak of on any of our plates, except my son who ordered the Tuna. The deserts were tasty but exceedingly small. The corn bread cake was tasty, but for $7 I expected a helluva lot more than what came. It was quite...