Zizzi - Banstead — Restaurant in Reigate and Banstead

I LOVE Zizzi, as a company, I have visited many branches and would would rate them from good to excellent. That's why I was surprised to find that a bad branch exists in Banstead. The sole reason for my bad experiences rests firmly on the shoulders of the 'supervisor' who was visibly rushed off her feet.

Upon arrival, we joined the queue and noticed her rudely dismiss a family that had not pre-booked, not even suggesting a time where they might have a table free for them. They stood around for a while waiting for her to suggest a time to return but as she ignored them, they left.

My family and I found our friend who was already seated at the table and unfortunately the supervisor was our server. She tutted, huffed and rolled her eyes anytime one of us asked a question or changed our minds when ordering. I tried to order a cocktail and she said 'nothing with rum, we're out of rum'. 3 out of the 4 cocktails available had rum in it which left me with vodka which I don't drink. I asked to swap the alcohol for anything else and she said 'that's not allowed'.

I cancelled dessert and a hot drink based on her poor attitude and tableside manner. She was even more bothered by my NHS discount and removed the free children's meals and cocktail that I was entitled to on my zillionare rewards. She stated it had to be one or the other otherwise it would be 'too much discount.' I have always been allowed by the managers of Zizzi to use rewards and discounts on the same order but I did not argue as to not spoil the meal any further.

Halfway through our meal we noticed that the restaurant was not even half full, so we could not understand why she appeared so flustered and stressed, turning customers away.

The rest of the waiting staff were absolutely fantastic, friendly and warm. The supervisor was blaming a lot of the inflexibility on the chefs however they seemed happy in their work and produced good food (though not the best). It is a shame the supervisor spoils the whole atmosphere when she has a great team behind her.

At the end of the meal we mentioned the supervisor's demeanor made us feel like we were bothering her and all we got was a 'thank you for letting us know that.'

Overall this worst the worst experience I've had in Zizzi, table arrangements were bad, we had to keep shuffling our chairs in for people to get to the toilet. I won't ever visit the Banstead branch again nor would I...

So this a tale of two contrasting thing one the restaurant itself and the other Zizzi as a company. First the restaurant, lovely staff , clean, Greât atmosphere and really good food. I had an offer sent on my zillionaire app so we decided to take advantage of it as it was my birthday. I was offered a free main and 50% the other mains if we had a starter or pudding. Sounds good. We arrived and seated .. its wasn’t busy. We ordered drinks and our starters. We had large calamari to share and my son and partner the garlic breads. The calamari was delicious and hot. For my free birthday main I had Calzone, my wife the Salmon salad, son the wild-boar Ragu and his partner margarita pizza. All looked and tasted delicious. No complaints at all beautifuly cooked if I were to be picky the Calzone has shrunk over the years ,I think due to cost of ingredients. But was still lovely. We didn’t have a pudding. So to the Zizzi part of the review the bill.. so I get the part of we had to order starters and we always do. So 50% of mains is a perk. But my free birthday main was the lowest main on the bill… so my Calzone was 17.95 and the margarita pizza £13.95. They didn’t charge for pizza but that wasn’t my meal.. I’m not being awkward here if my birthday meal is free then it should be the calzone not the lowest priced main on the bill.. that’s the company policy not the restaurant. Even with the discount and one round of drinks it came to nearly £100. £24 pound a head about average for a meal out .. forget the nitpicking part of the bill,it’s a lovely restaurant...

Upon entering the building, we were not greeted despite there being a few people in the bar area. We had a young child with us and instead of her being disruptive in the entrance area. We sat quietly at a table in the entrance. I observed 2 members of staff walk round to see us sitting waiting. One simply frowned and walked away. My husband had to go and ask if we were okay at the table we had sat at, or if we needed to be seated somewhere else. We were seated somewhere else. We had just finished getting settled when a waiter come over asking if we were ready to order. Luckily for his time, we had looked at the menu online and decided what we wanted beforehand. We ordered our food. The waiter then brought over some complimentary pasta crisps. Noting that we had ordered all VEGAN food, he casually added 'These are dairy free, but the are cooked in the same fryers as meat products'. It took myself and my husband a minute to realise what he had just said. We then went and checked if the chips we had ordered were also cooked in the same fryer as the MEAT products. He confirmed they were. We were extremely disappointed. Zizzi advertised these on their menu as being suitable for VEGANS (VE). If the waiter that served us had't told us this information then we would have eaten our meal and not realised. I am not sure how they are getting away with advertising dishes/sides as suitable for VEGANS and then cooking the vegan products in MEAT 'contaminated' oil. I am absolutely flabbergasted! If you are VEGAN then Zizz's isn't the place for you. Zizzi's...