Zizzi - Oxford — Restaurant in Oxford

We've been there with a group of friends on a busy Saturday night in early December which still doesn't make any part of what happened better. The place is/was severely understaffed, food (not all of it) is/was abhorrent and drinks are overpriced for what they are/were. Firstly, our orders were only collected 45 minutes after everyone in our party arrived, our drinks were served another 50 or so minutes later and we had to listen to our waitress explaining how poorly the bar works and that waitresses are mixing drinks themselves, finally our food started to arrive another hour later. Secondly, the quality of food was all in a range from horrible to acceptable with the exception of pizza which was nice. My so-called risotto arrived the last and it was quite an adventure. I ordered a chicken and mushroom risotto, but first plate to arrive contained seafood risotto. Second plate to arrive was the same seafood risotto delivered by a manager who was "helping" our waitress. I was then told that my correct order would be with me in 5 minutes and I probably should have stopped them there. A plate of overcooked and very much liquidish rice with pieces of mushrooms arrived 10 minutes later. I digged for some chicken in it and found none, which was solved in another five minutes by what looked like dropping some chicken bits from a separate dish into my plate. Should I mention that it all tasted exactly how it looked? We've also had to listen to a lot of excuses and explanations from the manger which was definitely excessive, a short apology would have been much easier to accept. I have to admit that we were not charged for our food and drinks in the end, but I'm still not going back to any of the...

On arriving to the restaurant the whole place including downstairs iwas Empty, we was greeted by a waiter who told us to sit anywhere except downstairs which I thought was strange!! And thought maybe because it was 4p.m perhaps that’s why!! Apart from us/him the only other person was the chef!! Took 15 mins to get a drink, we got compllimentry crisps whilst he told us that lots of things was missing across the menu.. again thinking this happens sometimes so just carried on.. starters came out warm.. followed by mains then pudding!! Whilst waiting for the bill I used the toilet to which by this time I realised why he didn’t want us going downstairs, as I got to bottom step I could smell damp/mouldy smell like they had used a dirty mop.. on entering the toilet ewww dirty/smelly sewage smell!! On coming back upstairs went to pay for the bill got a dirty look as used the taste card so cut the bill down dramatically then got another dirty look when I refused to pay 25p.c service charge!! During the night I became very poorly with sickness/diarherea chills/sweating/clammy/temp, rang doctors next day gotten asked what I are,, told him pasta/mozzarella cheese on top to be told that it was proballybthe food not stored properly and possible food poisoning due to the fact that I had eaten different food to my partner and he wasn’t ill at all.. took me to today to get better and that was 5 days ago we visited should of seen the red flags empty restaurant/lack of menu choice /dirty establishment such a shame as zizzi is one of our fav restaurants but deffo will not be going back to this one...

Mixed reviews for our visit. We visited on a Saturday evening. We'd booked in advance so beat the growing queue that was appearing and with minimal tables available, we were glad to have booked.

Atmosphere and facilities were all great, very clean and tidy, good lighting and seated near the cooking area all added to the atmosphere.

Service was a bit flaky. We were shown to the table and supplied menus but nonfirther instructions. We had to call someone over after about 10 minutes to ask for drinks, of the 4 of us, 3 of us received ours after another 5mins or so but we had to ask a couple of times for my wife's Rose, which eventually appeared approx. 10mins after the rest of us.

The waitor appeared to take our order and took a couple of items before being pulled away to handle a complaint about a bill on a neighbouring table, therefore abandoning us mid order, at this point we realised we were able to order through the app thanks to the table card buried in a pot at the far side of the table, angled in such a way we couldn't see it.

Anyway, order placed and food arrived in an acceptable period. All but my meals went down a treat, with my 'mildly spicy' meatball dish being so hot that I was unable to eat the pasta due to the sauce, this being the first time I've never been able to stomach a spiced dish! Thankfully the garlic bread and my wife's minimal appetite allowed me to finish...