Mazi — Restaurant in London

Just returned from a Saturday night meal at Mazi.... and feel so angry and appalled at what happened there tonight that I feel compelled to write a review straight away to warn others of the experience there.

I was advised when I booked that we could have the table for 2 hours - this is quite standard practice and I fully understand. Two hours should be enough time to enjoy a nice meal with friends - but tonight it was not and the way the situation was dealt with was nothing short of rude and awful.

We arrived at 7.25pm, and our two friends ten minutes later. We ordered ten minutes after that - around 7.50pm. It was explained that dishes would come as they were ready and we received our small plates quite quickly. The mains however took much longer to come - of course we understand that slow cooked lamb means slow cooked lamb, but within 2 minutes (literally - this is no exaggeration) of the dish arriving at the table the waiter came over to ask if we wanted to order dessert as we had to give the table back by 9.30pm! What kind of restaurant asks you to order dessert before you have even started eating your main course?! The way he said it to us was extremely rude - I actually said can we just finish our main courses before we think about dessert, his reply was something along the lines of "well we did tell you it was only two hours". I understand a policy is a policy but why not build some sort of buffer into your seating times, rather than rush customers who are still eating? We had just started a second bottle of wine at this point too. No sooner had we finished eating than the plates were cleared and the bill literally shoved at us! No request if we wanted dessert or coffees or even any way of apologising or saying they were sorry to rush us. We all had full glasses of wine and actually I think we would like to have ordered dessert but weren't even given another option to. We asked to have the service charge removed from the bill as quite frankly we were all just appalled at the way we had been treated - conveyor belt doesn't even cover it - and again the guy was pretty blunt with us, saying we were told it was two hours when we had booked. I then said that's fine but when the food takes an hour and a half to come it's hardly our fault - he said nothing and just brought the card machine! The food was actually lovely but I would not only never go back to Mazi again but recommend anyone wanting a pleasant, relaxing, enjoyable dining experience where you can actually enjoy your food at your own leisure avoid it like the plague too. Such a shame - this could have been a brilliant evening, but we ended up having to finish our night at the pub next door as we had been forcibly removed from the restaurant we had hoped to spend the evening in. We have eaten at some of the best restaurants in London (Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Waring, Heston etc) and never ever been treated like this before. The food might be good but it's not mind blowing, and it certainly isn't worth being treated like this over! Avoid,...

My recent experience at Mazi, for lunch, left a great deal to be desired. Food is tasty, well executed and presented elegantly. Tempura batter in the feta could have been lighter and had more crunch. Greek salad was tasty, but diced up a little to fine, (only a personal preference) Smoked Eggplant was well done, but could have a little more seasoning. Crispy Calamari could have been crisper. Grilled octopus was delicious. Strawberry sorbet was very refreshing. Sadly though, the expertise in the kitchen does not transpose into the service side of Mazi. We had requested an out side table, given an inside on and told if there was any change in bookings we would be shifted. Spare tables prevailed in the outside courtyard and we were not offered the option to move. Just pushed up close to other diners in an empty dining room. Service at table was unprofessional abrupt and rude. The service person paced up and down past our table, wanting to take our order. There was no suggestion or advice when selecting the wine. Clearing of the empty plates, was carried out without grace, or an excuse me as she reached past our guests. A request to share a dessert where we needed more spoons was addressed by carrying the extra spoons in her hand rather than serving from a plate/salver. As we were leaving, we were saying our final good byes and the service person moved between us without an "excuse me" so that she could start clearing the table. We had requested the music to be turned down a little and was an inappropriate selection. No change in volume occured, until they turned it off, an indication that lunch service had finished. Payment, there was a service charge of 25 pounds. Considering the quality of service, I should not have been charged this. Sadly, not the lunch experience that we had wanted as we were friends catching up after a long time away. Finally, the curtain, which was pulled aside to allow access to the courtyard, needs to be addressed as it seems to be coming away from the wall and may injury someone if it falls. Plenty of room for...

overall, myself & my friends experienced a super unpleasent night from the very beging. we had to wait for several minutes in front of the door because the person in charge was on the phone. the indoor area is super small with a lot of tables. my friend is tall so siiting comfortable was completely impossible for him. the restaurant was very loud with people. the ambiance was bad with no music. when the menu came, I received a menue with pencil notes of the day ingridients availability. the waitor gave me that by mistake. when we started our orders, we had to repeat ourselves many times. it was 4 of us, 2 drinks came ages before the other two. we ordered 2 different red wines, they never offered us to taste it before serving and they were both exactly the same eventhough we ordered 2 different ones on the menu. we ended up not drinking mich because the wine wasnt good at all. when we tld the waitor, he ignored us. we ordered few small dishes, they were ALL super salty. again when we told them to change it, the waitor said I take it off from your bill and dodnt change it!!!! the feta sallad, carpaccio, tartar, calamari, aubergine jar were all SUPER salty. to the point that we could all only taste a bite. THE WORST part of the night wad 10:30 onwards. I had to even mention to the waitor that I have never experienced this kuch stress during a Saturday night out with friends when it must be the most relaxing enjoybale time of tje week. because, they were keep asking us to clean the ta le and mentiniong they are closing many many times. they were closing at 12, but, they made everyone leave by 11:30 started cleaning and counting bills in front of remaing customers from 11:15!!! to summerise, I experieced the worst service in the restaurants so far! if I was experiencing one or two of what I mentioned, I wouldnt call it a bad night. but, getting charged for a high value and not recieving a good service, food, drink and ambiance is not forgivable. I hope no one will experince what I did...