Zizzi - Bow Street (Covent Garden) — Restaurant in London

Didn't book, just a walk-in. My wife and I had a rare night out in London's West End and ended the evening with a meal. We chose Zizzi because we visit their Bexleyheath site often and are familiar with their menu and enjoy the food. Not on this occasion. We were seated without any issues. I had what could only be described as an isle seat as my wife was seated opposite me on the cushioned bench style seats. How often was my chair nudged or knocked as staff, no less walked past me? The first time, I was hit as one of the team walked past carrying empty bottles casually in one hand with a bar tray in the other. He did apologise. Apology accepted. There after, a steady flow of knocks and nudges continued. I even moved my coat and put it on the bench to allow for more room. It didn't make a difference. Our order was taken for drinks, no problem there and soon it arrived delivered by someone who should've used some deodorant. Shortly afterwards our food order was taken. One large calamari starter to share, (5p short of £15). One pepperoni, ham, and mushroom rustic pizza and one prawn pasta. Calamari is my favourite. Unfortunately, this portion had no flavour. It came with one small pot of tartar sauce, the same size as if it were a small portion and one piece of dried out lime wedge. Okay, I'll live with that as calamari is what I like. Pasta was nice as usual. But I needed parmigiano, so we asked for some. A waiter with his shirt hanging out, untucked, promptly came around, leaned over me, grated some cheese onto my wife's pasta, and added his shirt to my pizza! I had to hold his shirt back off my pizza as he continued to grate. He seemed to notice but didn't apologise. As we were eating, I had to double-check my pizza as I couldn't taste any pepperoni. It was there, but after one slice of pizza, I counted only 8 small slices of pepperoni, so I probably had only 10 or so bits at the most. We checked online to pay our bill and realised that they automatically add 10% service charge , and if you pay online, you can't remove it. I checked the menu and couldn't find anything that said it's even added. We promptly asked for the bill, and low and behold, the service charge was on there as an option. I asked the waitress to round up my bill without the service charge to the nearest pound. She said she had to charge what was on the bill with the service charge. I literally had to tell her that I didn't want to leave a tip! She had to fiddle about with her e-pad and give us a new total. And that was that. Anyone reading this that thinks I am stingy, they are wrong. I would happily add a service, but not once did any of the plentiful staff and management on duty do a checkback or ask at any point how our meal or visit was. Anyone in the industry will know what I'm talking about and how important it is. A cheerful last ditch thank you as we were leaving was the highlight of hospitality shown. Finally, the toilets are still a mess, as reviews suggest. No...

We have been to many Zizzi restaurants over the years but have to say this was the worst experience ever. We arrived at 4.45pm after a wonderful time at the theatre. Sitting at the table with two children for 30 minutes with no one coming to take a drink order. We tried the speedy service on our phones which did not recognise the table number. By this point we we starting to feel a bit hungry and thirsty.

Oh and forget to mention. You may be sitting right next to people you do not know and get constantly nocked by a waitress as they try and squeeze between tables.

Anyway at this point we called out to a manager and asked if someone could take our order. Another 15 minutes went by and someone came over looking very uninterested in what we were ordering and staring off into the obis.

The starters came. Lovely apart from when they bought the calamari. The waiter just slammed it down and walked off. No politeness at all.

The mains were then bought but they would not clear our table of the starters so the table was full of plates and my pizza was half hanging off the table which then kept getting nocked by the waitress.

We finished our mains and did not complain as we were very hungry and really did not want to make a scene in from of our girls as this was there first time in London.

So after all that I thought getting the bill should be straightforward but no. Had to ask two people for the bill and wait another 10 minutes for it to arrive. Looking at the bill the put a 10% good service charge which I thought why as we did not have a good service and I am sure they new it. I had to get hold of a manager again after waiting 20 minutes to pay. They had the cheek to add the service charge to the card reader which I was under the impression it was optional. Paid and left feeling like this experience spoilt our time in London.

We had wished we had gone to any other restaurant apart from this one.

Zizzi in our local town is amazing but this one in covent garden is the worst for service. Food is good though.

I would never recommend this...

We went to the Zizzi’s in covent garden yesterday as a family of 4 and it was absolutely ridiculous. The customer service was by far the worst ive ever come accross. We eat out as a family atleast once a week and ive never come across anything like it. From when we sat down it took them around 15 minutes to come and take our order. Just as we started ordering, my 4 year old decided to change his mind so i asked the waitress if she could ‘come back in a minute or two.’ After waiting a further 5-10 minutes, i literally had to call her out to come back to us.

The kitchen staff were not bad at all, the food came to us quite quick and that was the only positive thing to the whole experience.

We then wanted to ask for ketchup for the kids but it took over 15 minutes for us to manage to get a waitress to attend to us. Finally when it was time to ask for the bill, again we sat there waiting for someone to realise we are done and want the bill for over 20 minutes. A few times we raised our hands, so that they can come over but they were just extremely unbothered. One waitress did the 1 minute kind of hand gesture when she realised we needed someone and guess what? She didnt come back to us and passed us atleast 10 times.

I am not the one to complain and I understand that restaurants can get busy but this was not the case. The staff were deliberately avoiding eye contact, not attending when you raise your hand and just behaving unbothered in general. We ended the evening in a bad mood, and felt like we were paying for a evening that we were incredibly unhappy about.

I will never ever be going...