Zaza — Restaurant in England

Review on VEGAN OPTIONS at Zaza, Amersham:

This restaurant is very beautiful! There is a fake olive tree that looks so realistic. There are also beautiful paintings of birds hung on the walls.

This is our personal experience here as vegans. (Note: We have come once before many years ago, when they served pizzas. It was really good then).

When we arrived, they led us to a table and gave us the non-vegan menus. We then asked for a vegan menu which they promptly gave us. The menu didn't look like the other non-vegan menus. It was simply a white piece of paper with black font: nothing special. Not very well presented for a fine dining experience and premium prices. Plus, the options were very limited. Although had they tasted good, perhaps this review would be very different. (I'm not sure if they gave us the vegan menu at this point, or at a later time. I am still horrified and I am struggling to recall the order of events).

We chose olives as starters. They were very sour, but weren't the worst we ever had. Next we had bruschetta and rustic bread. The bruschetta bread was soaked with oil and seasoning, bitter rocket lettuce, and the tomatoes were bitter due to the fact that they were salad tomatoes. As for the rustic bread, it wasn't the nicest. (In comparison—that morning, we had had breakfast at Griffins and they served us lovely bread with our delicious cooked breakfast). These starters need improving...

For our main meal, we all had pasta dishes. The vegan menu had very limited options. We chose different pasta types and asked for extra vegetables. When they served the meal, I couldn't believe what I saw. My spaghetti looked like it was plopped into the bowl (I wouldn't be surprised if it was...). There were also small spillings of sauce around the pasta in the white bowl. When I tasted the dish, it was bland. They once again used salad tomatoes and probably tomato passata. There were also green peas as vegetables! Another family member received the smallest pieces of courgette, that could barely be seen. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Had I and my family remained home, I could have cooked the same exact dish and it would have been delicious, and certainly wouldn't have used basic green peas! (I have no offence towards green peas. Usually green peas are used for breakfasts, and certainly should not be used for fine dining and premium prices).

When it comes to service from the manager and waiters/waitresses, it was not bad. There was a heaviness from the staff that I could feel. There was only two of them that were friendly. I believe it was the manager, who after our starters gave us new forks and knives and he put it directly onto the table!! No new napkins. We had to ask for them. The atmosphere from the people made it even harder to enjoy this experience which should have been a delight, especially since it was for a family member's birthday. I love this family member and I feel so disppointed in Zaza for making it a horrible meal for all of us.

In conclusion, Zaza at the moment does not provide food suitable for people, never mind VEGANs. They could learn from Pizza Express who have so digently added vegan options. Sadly, I don't have any photos to share what I saw, because at the time I was so disgusted. I'm grateful for the experience, but I certainly wouldn't invite any other vegans here, or friends. I certainly don't want to come again. Please become better and don't mess up people's special occasions. People pay premium to come and visit you. They expect what your brand message is and the quality spoken of on the Zaza website. Please care more. I really hope changes can be made. There is still hope for you to change your ways and treat people with respect. Please improve for you, your name, your staff, and the way people are trusting you to make the most lovely meals for their different occasions.

From a costumer who is very disappointed and feels hurt because the dinner was for a dear...

We've been there before and it's been absolutely fabulous. This time, it was for a birthday and we had 4 starters for the heck of it. All great. For mains, we had the seafood pasta - very good...

... but then there was the mushroom and chicken risotto...not great at all...

It was probably the most bland, tasteless risotto I've ever tasted in life (and I'm really not exaggerating here) - if someone had told me they made it with tap water instead of stock and wine, I would have believed them 100%.

The risotto itself had literally zero taste - I took a few scoops, mixed it with a bit of "sauce" at the bottom of plate - nothing. I then tried the chicken on its own to see if it had seasoning - nothing - it tasted as if it was steamed. Then tried the mushrooms on their own, as you would expect the flavour to have seeped in during the cooking process - nothing - like chewing old gum...

I had my wife and kids try as well because I genuinely thought there was something wrong with my taste buds - nope - they agreed it was absolutely tasteless - like eating steamed rice. I poured tons of salt and pepper on it, and then asked the waitress for some garlic which I loaded on top just to get some taste out of it.

It is a real shame because during the previous visits, the food was amazing. Even this time around, the starters and main seafood fish was great... Unfortunately the risotto completely spoiled it.

I will add though that the service was great, atmosphere was great as usual. Parking was a bit of a hassle but given its location, its expected. Can't fault them for that.

I will go again to give it another try, but I doubt I'll have the...

This was my first visit to zaza despite it only being 5 minutes from where I live ?

The tree in the middle.of the restaurant was very stunning and a entry feature .

The purpose was for my daughters birthday and there were 4 of us.

We were sat at a small table for 4 despite tables for 6 later being offered to parties of 2 or 3 which was a bit confusing ?

Anyway , we made do with the table which was suffice and i personally started with a bruschetta which was covered with tomatoes and delicious.

I ordered the Rib Eye for the main and was served a steak which was as thin as a gammon steal and totally without flavour.

I was going to take one for the team and say nowt so not to affect the birthday mood but they only came over and asked ' how was my food ?'

You see as they asked I now felt obliged ! I have never seen a rib eye cut with a laser beam before and a steak totally without flavour was a first for me !

The steak was taken away and within 5 minutes a new steak was provided.

This one was only marginally thicker than the one before but what it lacked in size it made up for in flavour . Much tastier and nearly worth the £26 pounds price tag !

I was not keen on the fries which resemble mini potatoe chisptick crisp although they were tasty enough.

The afters consisted of ice cream for me ! Top quality gelato indeed.

Overall great friendly service , good food but portions old be a bit bigger for the prices charged.

I...