Zizzi - Earl's Court — Restaurant in London

Unfortunately, Zizzi in Earls Court left a lot to be desired. To start, one member of our party mentioned a mild nut allergy and the server we had refused to bring the pasta crisps, citing that the manager wouldn’t allow an “allergen item” to be served to the table. I understand the safety of patrons dining but the guest who had the mild nut allergy was okay with the server bringing the pasta crisps and wasn’t going to eat them anyways but was made to feel like she was being ostracized by this over the top reaction. The server did end up bringing the pasta crisps in a small cup after hearing us talk about how ridiculous it was and questioning how we are going to order food if she can deny any dish due to “allergens present”.

Once we received our drinks, the wine glasses and water pitcher had hard water stains all over them and were cloudy and not appealing. The server then had trouble understanding when another member of the group asked for plain chicken in the dish, saying that they can’t do that. She then doubled back and pointed out the exact same meal that we were literally just looking at and said they can do that one with no sauce as if it was a brand new concept that she was offering. It was weird. She also had to come back after orders were placed to inform us that there were no more potatoes as a side dish and to choose something else. The food itself was not anything resembling Italian dishes once it came and I actually forgot we were supposed to be at an Italian restaurant. It was edible, but not better than anything you could find from food trucks and other little stops around the city. The server then didn’t take the free meal off of the check (birthday code) and was going to charge us full price until we reviewed the check. She then had to physically take the phone that belonged to our friend with the code to her cash register to input it which was also super weird. Overall not a pleasant experience at all and it was way overpriced seeing as it was THE most expensive meal of the entire week. I don’t suspect that going back another day or getting another server would raise the score either.

Basically- find an authentic Italian restaurant (or any other...

If you do go here you need a reservation as they will not let you in otherwise and the staff is a bit rude about it. It took about 15 minutes to place our order which is a fair amount of time but we got our appetizers 10 minutes before we got our drinks, we got charged full price for our bread even tho it was supposed to only be £1 extra as stated in the menu. It then took well over an hour to get our entrees while we watched guests seated well after us get their entrees so I can only guess our server forgot to put our order in. During that time the server never once checked on us. They were a bit busy and they kept stacking dirty dishes on other tables already piled high. Watched them be incredibly rude to other guests walking in. Thankfully we didn’t get the other server as she was even worse than ours. Yelling at guests, cutting them off mid-sentence and loudly trash talking our server to the incredibly unhelpful bartender who felt she was better off just standing behind the bar with her arms crossed instead of helping either server. Hands down some of the worst service I’ve seen in a long time. I served for over 20 years and if we had been in the states our server would have gotten maybe $1 tip. The food was decent but our drinks had nearly zero alcohol in them as they were listed as having high abv (no way) but yet felt nothing. Do not recommend. Better places that are just a...

Nice menu, average quality and the most ridiculously slow service ever!

If you're looking for pretty generic but reasonable quality Italian food, then Zizzi is usually a good choice. Not outrageous prices for London either. The Earls Court restaurant really isn't a great example of the chain though. Food was ok. Starter well presented and dessert was actually very good. Two major issues though. Firstly both starter and main were missing ingredients! The antipasti should have had a wide selection of Italian meats but was actually just two on the plate. The calzone also ended up being mostly just cheese and a few meatballs. I've had both of these in other Zizzi restaurants and they were fine so it really was just this one. Second, and by far the more important, issue though was the ridiculous delays. 10 minutes stood at the door waiting to sit at one of the 8 free tables. Then another 10 minutes before ordering... Then 45 minutes before starter arrived. From the ridiculous to the even more ridiculous the main literally came before I'd finished the starter!

Obviously an issue of insufficient front of house and kitchen staff but the delay wouldn't have been as annoying if the manager had apologised, explained or at least managed expectations.

Pretty average food, that total took nearly 2 hours! Lots of room for...