Sozo — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

Sozo seem to put so much effort into trying to make the interior of their restaurant look cool and snazzy, but it's safe to say they have failed. The customer service is not good, with people waiting a long time to be able to pay their bill.

You are welcomed to the smell of deep fat friers and a loud buzz of an electric fly killer right above the door. The waitress then yelled in our face "take a seat" and stormed up the restaurant. We were left waiting for almost half an hour, when the same waitress stormed up to us again and said "come with me". Reluctantly, she literally dropped the menus (which are on a filthy cardboard clipboard) and left, without asking us if we wanted drinks. A different waitress arrived (who was a little more respectable and polite than the previous waitress) and apologised (without reason) and began to take our orders.

When our meal arrived, the food's presentation was satisfactory at first, however certain aspects of the dishes (such as salad and fries) lacked lustre and looked as if it had been thrown at the plate. Some parts of the meals were missing, too, such as extra fries and sauces, which left us waiting forever for them to turn finally turn up (about 7 minutes later) with the rest of our meals. To be fair, the meals were rather nice, however some of it was cold as we were left waiting for a while.

We didn't have dessert as we wanted to leave as soon as we could, and went to Mauds instead, which was just across the road. Sozo really needs to up their game with their staff and decor. A cleaner interior and more friendly staff would benefit Sozo greatly, however my experience there was extremely disappointing. They really do deserve a food hygeine...

Sozo has really gone downhill, we used to frequent here for meals and coffee but recently have had a number of bad experiences. Really disappointing considering the service and food used to be brilliant. The last few times we've been we have found the staff (particularly the blonde lady that seems to always be in) to be very rude and stand offish.

Previously we went for a family birthday meal, booked for 6 and we arrived at 5 past to be told our table needed to be cleaned despite an empty restaurant, no veggie options available and our vegetarian had to have sides. Our order was taken after a multitude of people who came in after us had their order taken, our food then took 50 mins to arrive and for a table of 5 and a quiet restaurant this wasn't great. One of the burgers was burnt and once we were served no one came near the table again, we had to ask for the bill on our way out. These were not the only issues but the major few.

After this we decided to try it again thinking this was a once off but we were wrong. Came in with a friend, all seemed to be going well until our food arrived and the blonde server asked us if that was everything and we mentioned we were missing a salad, this was met with "well I only have two hands", considering we were asked if that was everything, this was really rude. After that the server cleared two of the plates and then never came near us again, we waited for half an hour to attempt to order a coffee but decided we'd rather spend the money elsewhere, highly disappointing we used to love this place but there's just been too many bad...

We arrived about 1.30pm on Saturday afternoon. Waited 5 minutes ,and was seated by a friendly waiter. He served us our drinks, and preceeded to take our order. My husband ordered chicken goujons, with chucky chips . My son ordered the same with skinny chips. I asked could I have baked potato with chicken coronation. To be told, by our waiter there was no baked potatoes left today. My reply was oh then I'll have Taco dirty fries. Oh he said, that's a much better choice you'll love them. Our food arrived 5 mins later, very quickly indeed. We all started to eat, my chunky chips, was hard, and on greater examination, my chips was sitting in water at the bottom of my dish. I asked my husband, how was his chunky chips. His reply was hard. Not nice at all. There was also gristle in one of his goujons, which totally finished him, with the meal. Our sons was ok, with skinny chips. He left, one goujon,on his plate. And I picked it up and ate it. It was greasy. My husband went and paid the bill, of course he said nothing. But paid £68.00, for the worst lunch I've had, in a very long time. I was a chef for over 35 years, so I know good standards. So much for my birthday lunch, with my family....