Zizzi - Newbury — Restaurant in England

Our first time coming to zizzi in Newbury as we are looking to move here, been to zizzi plenty of time in Birmingham and London. But it was our first experience in Newbury. The place was empty with only 3 tables occupied. They refused to seat us, 2 adults, one child and one baby. I'm not sure if this is usually the case but they said we can't get a table unless we've got a reservation. Since when did you need a reservation for zizzi? Never thought it was that kind of place ... It was empty. It was 12pm. I pointed out it was empty, are all the tables reserved ?? The lady said yes. So we left and went to pizza Express next to it, which was BUSY but we easily got a table and the service there was really great. We then went past zizzi on our way back to the car and it was still quite empty, with a few random people sitting there, and I really doubt they made reservations to be at zizzi. We are Asians and as much as I don't want to play the racial card, I think it was quite clear they didn't want us there because of our race. So yes, they were clearly racist. Maybe this particular zizzi required booking, but they could easily have accommodated us as it can't have been booked to the brim and it...

I would recommend Zizzi Newbury for families and groups but less so if you’re on a date or want an intimate setting. The restaurant is new so the ambiance was decent and kids menu was reasonably priced.

I am holding off on 5 stars because of issues I experienced with service delivery. When we arrived it took a while for us to be greeted, I had to flag someone down to eventually acknowledge us (if any of the servers who walked past us had just said “we’ll be with you in a moment”, it would have made a difference).

I also felt the food was a little slow. A few little things - our server forgot to bring us cutlery and my daughter never got her hot drink included on the menu, so again, I had to constantly flag staff down. I’d recommend they implement a simple checking system where servers eye over the table prior to and after bringing food eg, does the table have cutlery, are more drinks needed? Don’t just dump the plate and leave.

Overall, it was a pleasant venue to eat at despite a few hiccups and I’d still go back. I appreciate it’s a new establishment with a new team so they’re likely still finding their feet. Wish Zizzi newbury all the...

Noisy and busy. The waitress was very pleasent and the cuttlery was good quality, with sharp knives.

The dish of pork meatballs was one of the worst meals I have been served in a restaurant. A pasta in an almost dry tomato sauce, crunchy on the top. The middle was a disk of melted cheese of a rubbwry texture under which were the pork balls. These were dense and without juice much like a sausage cooked slow and long.

The bruschetta was halved baby plum tonatoes with a generic balsamic dressing and a single basil leaf atop a chewy bread that was near impossible to cut.

The nibbles arrived with the starter, one starter arrived with three of the mains, one main arriving as the others were fin8shing off.

The pizza was the best they had to offer, being edible. My bottle of Peroni was good.

This is bland stidge on a road to obesity,...