Zizzi - Manchester Piccadilly — Restaurant in Manchester

Coming from a waiter myself. Me and my friend came to have a nice evening meal, we made a booking and we were sat in the MIDDLE of the restaurant. We looked at the menu decided what we wanted and went to order on the website. … table not open?? We tried multiple times and waited and waited and waited evidently looking for someone to come tend to us. If people are looking around I’d be straight over to check. Anyway we got someone’s attention finally and I said we had been waiting 22 minutes to order. The guy replied with oh right well il open your table. No “I'm so sorry” or basic waitering skills. After ordering I go to eat my starter and yum a nice crusty fork with dried food on it. My friends starter didn’t come with the dip and again had to ask for someone to come over. Once finished we had our plates still left on our table with our mains coming as soon as we finished the last bite. Was very arkward to put the plates on a table full of empty ones. Next disappointment was my friends pizza that was dribbled with toppings in the centre of the pizza. The people next to us had the same pizza and it was humorous that it was the same pizza. My pasta was nice. At this point it was like we were serving our selfs. My friend might as well had jumped in the kitchen and made her pizza and I might as well jumped in the pot wash and cleaned my own plates and cutlery. We then waited AGIN for someone to clear our plates. The people next to us who came in later got check ups and attended too so quickly. Whilst we were still sat in the middle waiting for some basic service. At this point me and my friend were laughing and joking about the whole meal experience. That was the only positive. We then went to order dessert and didn’t work online so AGAIN had to grab someone. My cheesecake had this weird gelatinous nutty like film on the fruit part of the cheesecake that I can only describe as the texture of a scrub daddy. After we finished our dessert another 20 minutes - 30 minutes wait for someone to come scan this code I had. At this point me and my friend were cracking up about how oblivious everyone was to our presence. Finally someone came over to take our payment. To put the tip screen in front of me was quite Humorous to be honest. Finally we left. We still said thank you as we left but again didn’t really get acknowledged. A laughable yet very...

We picked zizis because you usually know what you’re going to get, decent food etc. The exception to that is the Manchester Piccadilly Zizis. The waitress was miserable as soon as we entered and she sat us down. We ordered drinks and those drinks proceeded to sit on the bar for about 15 minutes and would have done for longer had we not have flagged someone down and asked them (the place wasn’t busy and three waiters had walked past them numerous times, one even moved them out the way to place his dirty glasses down). When taking our food orders we stated to the waitress we wernt sure if we were doing the festive menu so we only ordered starters and mains both of which were on the main menu and the festive menu, she said this was okay. The food came in good time, the mozerella bomb was decent however the chorizo carbonara was awful, no taste, luke warm and unappealing- did not eat it. After the mains we decided not to opt for dessert and to ask for the bill. To our shock we were told no we could not do this as the waitress had already put through on her tablet that we were doing the festive menu therefore we had already been charged and they could not change it?? What? I questioned this, asking so I have to order a dessert that I do not want and did not ask for prior? The answer was yes and apparently there was nothing they could do we had to either pay the money for the three course festive menu even though we only ate two or we had to order a dessert we did not want. This was absolutely ridiculous and the waitress and manager were rude and unhelpful. How can they expect you to pay for something you have not eaten or ordered? I do not like making a scene in a restaurant so after realising I wasn’t getting anywhere with the staff we just ordered the desserts which we did not want and barely ate. I think this was disgusting service from the staff, and their fault completely. If someone does not order the three courses then why put them through on the system then tell customers they have to order three courses? Will not be returning to Zizis after this experience and hope this does not happen to anyone else as it just ruined...

Saturday early evening visit and after being seated and given menus, the drink order was taken and we we were asked if we were ready to order. We'd hardly had chance to look at the menu at this point. I always thought that Italian food was a social event, and not something to be rushed?

The food was okay, I've had better Italian food and was a little put off by the seeming continual use of the "spicy", especially as I don't like spicy food, hence Italian being chosen. But the experience that really wasn't pleasant was the way a customer who was sat at the other end of the long table we were at, was spoken to after raising a complaint.

It might be worth adding here, I work in a complaints team so this is an area I am familiar with. The manageress (I believe) was dismissive, and quite frankly in my opinion, rude. A customer said the meal they got wasn't what they expected, and the response was "nothing I can do, I can feed it back to head office, we serve it how we're told to..." The list of excuses and bite back went on. What ever happened to the basics of customer service? BTW The menu does not mention the meatballs being "deconstructed" as was suggested in response, in fact it states, and I quote....

"Oven-baked pork & wild garlic meatballs with smoky mozzarella and spinach, in a slow-roasted tomato sauce, spiced with chilli flakes."

So I totally understand why the customer was complaining, what was presented to them was not what they'd expected when ordering.

The manageress then proceeded to almost strop around the place, telling the other staff and a table sat behind us about the issue, and really not handling the complaint well at all.

There were two or three very friendly staff members on duty that night, but I can honestly say witnessing this encounter I feel for the other team members working that evening.

Send your staff on some basic complaint/objection handling training as some...