Zizzi - Birmingham Brindley Place — Restaurant in Birmingham

Where to start with this review.

As soon as we walked in, we saw the manager dealing with another table to the right of the welcome desk. So we waited patiently; two floor staff came to the bar to collect drinks and actively avoided making eye contact with us. We weren't expecting them to seat us, but an acknowledgement that we existed would have been reassuring, or a simple "someone will be with you shortly". We were shown to our seats and left alone for 20 mins. We could see the restaurant was busy, but 20 mins was excessive even for a drinks order to be taken, but nothing at all and we sat out of a direct path for staff to walk, again staff actively avoiding eye contact. So rather than wait, we tried to order using the QR code and website. I entered the location and then the table number - "table does not exist". I left the table to ask the staff at the bar if this was normal; they unblocked the table. After adding the children's choices to the website (the side options differ from what were printed in the menu) and entering the adult main courses, a handful were missing from the website with no explanation. Again I had to leave the table to speak to a staff member; this time, it was the manager. I explained that the items were missing from the menu and that we had not seen a member of their own volition since being seated and said about the staff at the bar avoiding eye contact to be told, "it's not their job to seat you" I responded with general acknowledgement and being friendly to customers is everyone's job in a restaurant, but that seemed to fell on deaf ears. The manager ordered and collected drinks manually for our table and tried to open the missing item on the computers so they could make this again. But after a few more mins of refreshing the website with no appearance of the phantom pork belly on the website, I ordered a calzone instead.

Children ordered from the fixed three-course menu, and their starters arrived pretty quickly, the adult starters didn't arrive until after the children had finished, and our five-year-olds aren't very quick at eating. Again we unsuccessfully tried to flag a staff member down to ask about our starters. Once the adults had finished their starters, the mains were fairly quick to follow (all together). The children enjoyed the pasta combinations, two ordered the pesto penne, and the other had the Pomodoro with penne (the printed menu said spaghetti). The goat's cheese pizza looked massive a d tasted good; the calzone was tasty when eating the meatballs, peppers, and cheese. However, the large quantity of unseasoned chicken breast was bland and, when eaten in combination with the rest of the fillings passed it blandness on to the other ingredients. I ended up picking the chicken out. I had planned to season the chicken myself, but there were no cruetes on the table, and we've had much success trying to get the staff's attention. The children's desserts were basic, and the children ate them well. The adults had a toffee cheesecake and some sort of brownie sundae in a metal martini glass, and both were tasty. By this time, the restaurant had quietened down. I could ask for the bill without too much effort. There was a slight issue with the bill as I added the drinks the manager ordered and brought to the table, and so did she, but this was easily rectified straight away and was brought back with the payment terminal.

The food was pretty good, but the service was shockingly bad. Four members of staff to run a busy service is not possible. They were covering at least 30 tables with a couple of large tables. My wife and I have worked in hospitality and restaurants previously, myself I have over 20 years of experience as a chef. I have been in front of the house while customers were around and smiled and interacted with customers, even helping with things beyond what would be considered "not my job", and to say such things to a customer is...

Booked for 7:30 for my partners birthday, 7:50 we were still queuing out the door. People in the queue were using the web reservation system to book last minute and overtake people who had booked in advance. Very cramped, very little staff for the demand in the restaurant. A table of five pushed in front of a whole queue of about 20 people and the host just gave them a table. Appalling. When we finally got sat down, we were seated on a table where no cutlery had been set or anything. This meal was supposed to be special but luckily myself and my partner can see the brighter side so we just laughed, some of the staff seemed pleasant but some just seemed like basic service was an inconvenience. I understand it’s busy, I’ve worked in the very same industry for years but rolling eyes and funny looks at customers around the restaurant isn’t acceptable. We both ordered pasta and it was so dry there was no sauce, the meat was burnt to a crisp. In the bathrooms other women were talking about how poor the service was tonight- obviously management were not prepared for it but no gestures of goodwill or even a basic apology was offered to those questioning what had happened tonight. For the price we paid for what we had, the food was not a good standard and made a mockery over what we had planned to be a celebratory evening. The highlights were the cocktails and the lad working who was smiley and pleasant despite being under intense pressure. I do really like Zizzi as a company and we go often which is why we chose to go tonight. But tonight was an absolute shambles, perhaps management could thank their staff and give them more incentives to work there and offer more organisation rather than them be stranded in...

We are regular customers and have visited Harborne and Mail Box Zizzis to dine and we always had great service and food. However, we went to Brindley Place Zizzi yesterday and this completely spoiled our evening and our perception of Zizzi.

Firstly, our waiter was surly and unresponsive, he didn't bother to ask whether our main was ok and when I raised my hand to request service he went straight to the till to produce our bill. How did he know that I wasn't requesting service to order desert or coffees? In this instance, we did want our bill. However, we had a discount voucher which needed to be deducted from the bill. I explained this to the waiter who gave us a dirty look and screwed up the incorrect bill with no apology. He returned with the revised bill carelessly put it on the table and strode off without looking at us.

Secondly, we were disappointed with the food, I ordered Calzone and found it was all pizza base and barely any filling. My partner ordered rissotto and specifically requested no chilli as she didn't like spice. However, her dish was completely spoiled as they had loaded it with pepper so, she was unable to finish.

Lastly, I called the manager at Zizzi at Brindley Place, who promised to call me back today and I've yet to receive any call back.

Overall, this experience ruined our evening and from always enjoying the Zizzi experience we are now advising our family and friends not to go there.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding this...