Zu's - Green Street — Restaurant in London

Dear readers,

I’m not sure if this review will be overlooked like many other 1-star reviews, especially given the suspiciously high number of overly positive ones. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to highlight the core issues with this restaurant.

To begin with, the way this restaurant handles criticism—particularly on its Google reviews—is highly unprofessional. Their responses to negative feedback are consistently defensive, dismissive, and argumentative. Rather than accepting responsibility or showing any willingness to improve, they double down and deflect blame. This pattern is evident across multiple 1-star reviews, not just mine.

The management culture seems deeply flawed. Genuine complaints are rarely addressed with care or accountability. Instead, customers are met with hostility and rudeness—an unfortunate but consistent experience, especially when concerns are raised about food quality, hygiene, or service standards.

I had been a loyal customer for over 2.5 years, regularly spending around £150 a month. Despite this, I was treated disrespectfully over a manageable issue that should have been handled internally by the staff. Rather than resolving it with professionalism and empathy, they projected the issue onto me, refused to acknowledge their fault, and reacted with condescension when I raised legitimate concerns about food portions and quality.

Restaurants are expected to maintain consistent serving standards. Unfortunately, this place does not. Different staff prepare meals with varying portion sizes, with no apparent adherence to standard weight or quantity guidelines. When such inconsistencies are pointed out, the response is not to fix the problem—but to belittle the customer for raising it.

They also make repeated claims about charging for salads and sauces, but these charges are not clearly communicated anywhere. Worse yet, the ingredients used—such as olives—are visibly stale and of poor quality, suggesting cost-cutting at the expense of customer experience.

Their approach to handling food complaints is even more disappointing. If there is a problem, the only resolution offered is to return the item—otherwise, no replacement or compensation is provided. This policy isn’t stated anywhere, and again reflects a lack of transparency and customer respect.

It’s clear that this establishment is not interested in building lasting customer relationships. They seem content with short-term gains, avoiding accountability by dismissing concerns and using cultural deflection tactics to avoid taking responsibility.

While some staff members have been polite and helpful, the core issue lies with the management. They behave as though customers are beneath them—refusing to listen, improve, or even apologize when they are clearly at fault.

This restaurant urgently needs proper training in customer service, conflict resolution, and hospitality management. Until then, I strongly advise others to think twice...

This place is actually a good restaurant with food that's very tasty if you're lucky enough to get the food you order. I have lost count of the numerous number of times I have been turned away at lunch time because what I want (lamb shawarma) is not available. Not that they don't have it but they choose not to offer it unless you're part of a special group of regulars or you work in the police station across the road as they clearly focus to cater for them. If you do by miracle get the order in make sure you take plenty of snacks and lots of patience as everything on the menu will take a minimum of 45mins to 90 minutes which I promise you is no exaggeration. I just hope you have a group of friends that are well equipped with banter to endure the long hard wait filled with pure hatred from the staff who hoped you got the message and went elsewhere instead of messing with the "Feng Shui" of the place and making them work outside of their routine of orders. I have even been told by the restaurant to come back for lunch at 3pm when I've gone in at 1pm it took me a while to work out if it was a joke as the workers tend to have an unfamiliar sense of humour. Example you ask for something from the menu which is how business is usually conducted in normal establishments however this place is anything but normal they will tell you what you will have and what is good for you as they know best on items that don't sell and you appear to be the perfect candidate to consume unsold goods. Going in disguise will not save you, changing accent will not fool them. Being accepted in their secret circle where they accept your order without turbulence requires an initiation ceremony which my friends have yet to experience after over 6 years of regularly going and on the odd occasion being allowed to eat what they ask for. I wish you better luck and hope you learn your lesson after your first bad experience and realise that there's more to life then waiting for food with the hope of getting it with a delay that's less than the length of a football game. My only advise take a monopoly board with you, you'll thank me for it....

UPDATE Visited this place yesterday (11.9.16). Gone down the pan - I wonder if there's been another change in management? In a nutshell, waiter had a poor understanding of the concept of waiting in a restaurant, says it all when he says he doesn't know what's in the dishes on the menu. Subsequently messed up the order and was short changed on the the dishes we ordered and it took forever to arrive. Additionally the food tatsed non-descript and bland (reason enough to forget this place). You know when a joint is a flop when the management voluntarily apologise for the poor quality. I wouldn't leave a scathing poor review if werent for the fact that almost every table being waited on was experiencing similar problems. I don't blame the employees here, squarely the management for not being on top of things. Won't be returning again, there's just too many alternatives in the local area.

Used to be a go to spot for all the hip kids back when it first opened, with authentic tasting Mediterranean arabesque style dishes. Since the change in management its fizzled into a non descript asian-ified clone of typical 'grill' restaurants. Food still tastes OK, lacks the cool vibe it...