Sazio — Restaurant in Hawke's Bay

An example of poor customer service.Went there yesterday to dine in,restaurant was jam packed busy..understandable;considering the amazing food reviews and we went there for those reasons.When we went there,we were third in queue for someone to welcome us.The lady spoke to first two people,one was a couple asked them to wait and the other was a group of 4 took their contact details and asked them to come back as the place was busy.Then it was our turn,there was no acknowledgement of the fact we were there and she went to take orders from other tables,we understand that the place was busy and other customers were required to be served first as they would be waiting for orders to be placed.After a wait of about 10 mins she came and answered us"We are busy and we normally don't take 2 people,may be you want to try your luck after 8:30,the kitchen closes at 9:00 pm"What it meant was she was interested in serving bigger groups of people (which wasn't mentioned on the website or even when we rang them to check for reservation)and she declined to take our contact details;which she did with other people right in ahead of us.We felt treated "differently" and there were no apologies that they couldn't serve us.We visit Napier frequently and always visit Alessandro's pizza and pasta place..known for their great service and excellent food and this experience just proved to stick to the place you know!!People visit places like these to experience good hospitality and experiences like these ruin it!!I would never recommend this place to anyone solely for the way they treated;even if the food is good it is the service and customer service experience...

Not a "bad" experience but it was the first and probably the last time. I got 5 tortellinis stuffed with kumara for 29 $. It was supposed to be a main course but I got the impression I have eaten a starter. Even if I haven't eaten a lot, I had an uncomfortable night. I imagine this was due to the foccacia which wasn't fully cooked. The manager should have had a bad day, she hasn't been able to hide her anxiety, so we felt pretty bad when it was about interacting with her. I can't say I would recommend or not the restaurant, maybe it was just a bad day, everything could be fine tomorrow! Just a little recommendation, if you plan to book, ask the person on the phone if there is a time you are supposed to leave. At 8pm we have been asked to leave because another group of people was waiting for the table, considering it was a birthday party this is not something we expected. We would have chosen another restaurant if we knew our time was limited. Considering we spent almost 1500 $ this night I believe that wasn't a very appropriate request but anyway...business...

I was really looking forward to trying this place as it was suggested as an option by one of our team members. So I made a booking for our end of year staff/christmas dinner, as none of our team had been here before.

We were looked after most of the evening by a cold staff member. Questions we had asked about food and the drinks menu/reccomdations felt like an inconvenience. His service was rude, replies snarky and we felt unwelcome to the point we all honestly wanted to just leave and have pizza at bambina next door instead (had we not made a booking). Our whole table felt the same about the service we recieved from this particular gentleman with longer hair.

Coming from the hospitality sector ourselves, the service from this particular gentleman was dissapointing & a big let down for our evening.

We ordered almost everything on entrees, mains and sides menu everything was absolutely divine- the chefs are very talented.

Desserts on the other hand was a little underwhelming (particularly the...