Zizzi - Birmingham Mailbox — Restaurant in Birmingham

On the 29th of March 2025, I took myself and my daughter to Zizzi as an alternative because my preferred choice of restaurant was fully booked until a later hour which was not going to work for me or my daughter.

I had a wonderful waitress named Indiana who was friendly, helpful, and polite. Initally the service was going great, where I had recieved my starters drinks and my daughter's main dish all in a fashionable amlunt of time.

However, I began to see time pass me as my main meal had not arrived. Indiana had approached me and asked if I had received my main meal and I had explained that I had not. At this point my daughter needed the toilet so I had to take her to the bathroom. Whilst on my way to the bathroom and unknowing to the manager and other staff, I had seen the chef plating up my food and placing underneath the hot light which was ready to be brought to my table.

I was in the bathroom between 5-7 minutes max and when I had come out I had Indiana along with another male staff member approach me apologising for my food taking so long to come to me and that they had spoken to the manager to try and knock the food off my bill. I mean god bless them.for trying they were absolutely lovely.

It was said to me that they knock food off the bill quite frequently when customers receive their food in a later time frame than when originally ordered and the 2 members of staff who had kindly argued for me and plead my case for me were unhappy with the managers decision as the manager refused to take the food off my bill.

The manager approached me with this fake type of happy energy and pretended to be apologetic about the situation and said I was in the bathroom when my food was brought out and that there was nothing she could do about it, even though i had waited over 35 minutes for my food which is hmjust absolutely unacceptable. Nevertheless, I just brushed it off as I didn't want to cause scene or fuss about in that particular setting as I did not like the managers energy, nor the way she had handled the situation as I found her to be unbothered and disingenuous about my long wait to recieve my food.

The manager asked me if there was anything she could do for me and when I asked if she could do something for me, she did not personally helped me as she walked off and did not re-attend my table, but instead made one of the other staff members attend my table which due to the poor service at this point I just wanted my bill to leave as my daughter was becoming restless, furthermore, I was unhappy with the insufficient service.

What should have been a nice meal for me and my daughter turned about to be mediocre and it would not be a place I would recommend or advise my friends or family or strangers to attend as the manager's complacency and unbothered mannerisms are off-putting to make you want to spend your money in such an...

I recently visited Zizzi at The Mailbox and unfortunately, the experience left me quite disappointed. From the moment we walked in, the atmosphere seemed promising, with a cozy and inviting vibe. However, that initial warmth quickly faded when we were met with a lack of enthusiasm from the staff. The waitress seemed disinterested and almost seemed like she couldn't be bothered to take our order when we tried to use the QR code to order. It was frustrating because it felt like we had to put in so much effort just to get her attention.

We were hoping that the food would make up for the poor service, but that too was a letdown. We started with the calamari, which was incredibly plain. It lacked any real flavor or seasoning—just a basic, bland offering. It definitely needed more "oomph" to make it memorable.

As for the main course, the Slow Cooked Beef and Ragu was supposed to be rich and flavorful, but unfortunately, it missed the mark entirely. The beef didn’t have any of the deep, tender flavors you’d expect from a slow-cooked dish. In fact, I could barely taste the beef at all, which was a huge disappointment. The sauce was fine, but it couldn’t make up for the lack of flavor in the meat itself.

Additionally, the food took a long time to arrive, which only added to the frustration. It's hard to enjoy a meal when you're already feeling impatient due to the slow service. Overall, the experience didn't live up to the expectations set by the nice atmosphere when we first walked in. I really wanted to enjoy my meal, but between the inattentive service and underwhelming food, it was hard to walk away feeling satisfied.

It was my first time at a Zizzi restaurant but always heard that the food was good but it does not live up to an authentic taste of Italian food.

Staff needs to be more trained in terms of customer service. There was no point of the experience where they asked if everything was okay.

We asked to have the desserts served but it didnt come until another waitress attended to us. When the desserts came, they gave us the wrong dessert - instead of honeycomb cheesecake, they gave the lemon and blueberry cheesecake.

Another display of lack of training, especially due to the lack of staff.

Never coming back to this branch. Waste of time. Waste of money.

Glasses and cutlery were not...

Starting with the positives, it goes without saying that (1) the location of this restaurant is remarkable, as it is easy to reach and provides a (limited) view over the canal. (2) The decoration is modern and more or less comfortable. Also, (3) the cucumber slice in my canned cucumber-flavored sparkling water seemed freshly cut.

Now, I do not want to cavil about the number of aspects, both major and minor, which seemed to disturb me during my dining experience. Hence, for the sake of brevity, I will only present the most notable ones: The number of employees is too low, particularly during busy evenings. The minuscule number of waiters hectically rushing to and fro unfortunately alienated me as a customer. Observing the staff running a never-ending marathon made me feel slightly dizzy. Concomitant with the low number of waiters, I presume this affects employees in the kitchen as well, service quality suffered severely. And oh boy, how poor it was! It took quite a while until the food arrived and it took around the same amount of time until the waiter's attention was caught to finally request the bill. When entering the restaurant, the decor and the amount of occupied tables led me to believe that the food must be of at least mediocre quality. The prices further enhanced my impression. However, I have allowed myself to be deceived. Euphemistically formulated, I have been to better Italian restaurants. Far better ones. In fact, the fake Italian takeaways on Just-Eat produce better pasta than this place. The sauce was bland and watery, the strozzapreti were post-al dente, being softer than my pillow, and the beef/venison mix was chewy with which they luckily were rather parsimonious anyway.

Overall, my experience started well when entering the restaurant, but deteriorated from minute to minute to an alarming low the longer I lingered at this place. Much to my regret I would like to advise you guys to steer clear of this establishment, there are better Italian...