Zizzi - Lincoln — Restaurant in Lincoln

I came here with my wife this evening— a Tuesday— it was almost completely empty save a few others. We waited to gain the attentions of the staff for a while before eventually being seated. When we tried to use the QR code to order, it stated we had an outstanding bill (which clearly belonged to the persons who dined there prior to us). We had to move tables and I approached the staff to let them know this and our new table number. They said they’d programme it into the system— they did not. The webpage would not recognise our table because of this. After refreshing about fifty times, my wife finally gave in and approached the staff again and they stated they had forgotten to programme it. When we eventually managed to log in and have our table recognised, the website would not let us send our food to the kitchen without a reoccurring error code. Again, we approached the staff who said they would take our order manually. We waited a good 15 minutes before they had stopped chatting and giggling between them to take our order. We ordered and requested our starters to be brought out with our mains. Waiter assured us he’d take care of it. After waiting over 30 minutes, we received our starters WITHOUT the main course. After that, we waited an additional 30 minutes for our main courses which were damp at the top, too burnt and hard at the crust and generally unappetising. They were also cold. The waiter went to the two other tables with people on them and asked if it was their order before asking us if it was ours. After finishing these, we tried our hardest to gain the attentions of the waiters (at this point, it was just us, a couple and a lady with her daughter who remained in the restaurant). To no real avail until a few minutes of waiting at the till. We ordered dessert (which again took forever to arrive). My wife’s ice cream was melted and the dough of this strange caramel calzone was rock hard and dry to the touch. My supposedly honeycomb cheesecake tasted like urinal cake and honey mustard salad dressing (that sounds strangely specific because it’s accurate). The waiter then (after we waited at the till and additional ten minutes) gave us our bill which completely missed out the 3-course deal we’d previously selected and was £10 more than what it was supposed to be. I pointed this out and he seemed feckless about the whole order, said he’d sort it out and went off to talk to a colleague for a while. Took a good five minutes before he returned and stared at us while we were selecting the tip. He then tried to guilt trip us into tipping higher (he didn’t explicitly say it, but he was telling us how it would help the staff) the whole experience was ridiculous and I will never be eating...

The restaurant was clean, and the staff were attentive and polite. The food is nice but it’s way too expensive for what you get when there aren’t any deals on. I left feeling still hungry.

We visited on Saturday 15th and they had a good valentines deal on which was a 3 course meal for £27.

For my starter I got a chicken spiedini - which is literally just one chicken skewer. It’s a decent starter but it isn’t worth £8.45 that’s just daylight robbery. I can go to Wetherspoons and get a full meal and a drink for that price! It’s also very contradicting on your menu as well. How is one single chicken skewer nearly £10 but I can get a garlic bread or a bowl of meatballs which is 10x more portion sized for £7.25/95p? It makes no sense. It needs to be two skewers for that price or It should only be about £4/5. it’s just greediness from the business.

The main I got was the roasted mushroom risotto, which on the original menu was £14.95. The portion size was absolutely tiny. I’d finished it in 6-7 mouthfuls after receiving it after 5 minutes, whilst my partner was still eating his main for another 10 / 15 mins . It was literally the size of what a starter should be when you visit other restaurants. I couldn’t believe it, if I hadn’t of been on the set menu where the value was decent, I would have got up and left without paying for it the second I saw it. It tasted really nice but the portion sizing is honestly diabolical and shameful.

Same with the honeycomb dessert - very tasty but again £7.45 for a 3-4 spoonful dessert is diabolical. Should be £5 at the very max. The drinks were the only thing I thought were worth the money.

The business really needs to rethink their pricing because it’s so stupid and daylight robbery. The stars are for the staff because they were attentive and polite. The food was nice however we will probably never visit any other venues again due to pricing without the deals. The only reason this review does have the stars it has is because of the staff and the valentines deal was worth the quality and quantity. If the deal hadn’t been on the rating would be a lot lower due to how much it would have actually cost. I calculated it and if I hadn’t of had the deal everything I got would have been about £40 which was not worth it considering the portion sizes. Pure greed from the higher ups of the business and I bet the staff are only paid minimum wage!...

Oh dear, oh dear, what the heck went wrong here Zizzi.

We were starving after a long journey and just wanted a feed before returning to the hotel as I am disbetic. We arrived about 7.40pm and the place wasn't even half full. We were quickly seated by a pleasant young lady and order 1 starter and two mains. By 8.20 nothing had appeared and I asked the young lady and she said she would check. She came back and said the starter was nearly ready and she had asked them to start and expedite the mains! I said it would have been polite to have told us about the delay upon arrival and she said she wasn't aware of it and had only just discovered there were only two kitchen staff! Our spent drinks were on the house by way of apology! 15 minutes later, still no sign of the nearly ready started and we needed drinks to go with our meal but we decided to leave and go to MacDonalds! Out of politeness we told a member of staff we were leaving and she asked if we were aware that the drinks we had originally purchased were free by way of apology whilst we waited for our meal. I said yes but that was no advantage as we would need to buy more drinks for our meal, which is what we needed and 50 mins for 1 simple starter was too long. I said I would complain and her response was that she didn't blame me! I can't recall ever having walked out of a restaurant in my life before I have been fed. So sorry I can't comment on the quality of fund. Staff were civil, atmosphere for us was tense and we were aware of others in the same boat! The lesson is...if you have extended delays for producing meals due to staff shortages or busy periods, tell your clients BEFORE they sit down. In that way we can make an informed decision and when someone does complain, follow through with...