Zizzi - St Albans — Restaurant in St Albans

I would not recommend this branch at all. We were greeted by the manager rahul who curtly told us to leave our pushchair at the door. Which we did.

When we were served our meal, the child's meal included garlic bread. This was served cold. No one came back to our table to ask us if the food was to our satisfaction. In fact no one at any point asked us if our food had been to our satisfaction.

Two parties who arrived after us also had young children and were allowed to take their pushchairs to their tables.

When we wanted to pay the bill we had to call out several times to the waiter who I later found out was called Nick. He appeared to not hear us, but in hindsight I feel he was purposely ignoring us.

When he eventually came to our table, he was extremely gloomy in his disposition. However, he took things a step further by actually giving me dirty looks as I proceeded to ask for the child's fruit pot to be taken out and if I could have the left over pizza put into a take out box.

He walked off and went to get the bill. When he came back to the table I showed him a voucher code. He then rolled his eyes at me and started to write something on the back of the receipt and then allocated the discount. My parents and I just looked at each other in disbelief. We paid the bill. He brought the take away box. I reminded him that we were waiting for the fruit pot for the child's meal. He again shooting another dirty look at me said yes it takes time. I then asked for his name.

When Nick eventually came back with the fruit pot his manner had changed, he was much more friendly. He then asked if anything was wrong. I told him i found his behaviour unacceptable and rude. He said if I thought his behaviour rude he apologised which I found utmost insincere, he took no responsibility for the fact he had blatantly been rude to our table and implied it was my imagination he had rolled his eyes at us.

I then complained to the manager Rahul and also mentioned that he has been very curt in telling us to leave our pushchair by the door. He insisted this was due to our request for a booth seat. I reminded him that he had told us to leave the pushchair at the door before we had even decided where we wanted to sit. Then he changed his story. He said he only let's the pushchairs through where the children are very young and need to sit in the actual pushair. Both children on the other two tables were sat in highchairs and were not in their puschairs at all during the meal. He then changed his story for a third time and said that they dont let puschairs in the aisles as it blocks the access.

The restaurant was empty, bar for one lady when we arrived. There would have been plenty of room to leave the pushchair behind the booth and not block the aisles. I think the manager rahul dealt with my complaint very poorly, he apologised on the one hand and made ever changing excuses on the other.

I found the staff unprofessional, rude and improper. We felt unwelcome and we were blatantly treated differently to the other customers. I have eaten at many of their branches and never recieved such appalling treatment.

When I got home, I saw the fruit pot contained no raspberries, despite being advertised on the menu. A fitting end to...

Food was good (well, main courses. Kids starters were awful) but the service was appalling. Ate with my husband and four children, one of whom is in a wheelchair. No-one attempted to open the door for us on arrival or departure which is tricky with a wheelchair. The wait between courses was nearly an hour and they didn't clear the table between services meaning the table just starting piling up with dishes, glasses etc. We asked three times (per course) for it to be cleared to make some space and for both courses had already stacked the plates ourselves. Then the inevitable happened. One child knocked over their drink because there wasn't enough space. We managed to clear it from the table ourselves even though three members of staff were standing next to the table chatting when it happened. The spill remained on the floor for the next 30 minutes until I reminded them again them to clear it before there was an accident. At the end of the meal, another family sat behind us (and who had arrived even earlier) were becoming increasingly inpatient for the bill and so two members of staff had a conversation across the tops of our table, passing things between them over our heads. All in, the very significant wait between ordering and any of the courses arriving meant the youngest child started to struggle. We had arrived at a time we've usually arrived at a restaurant for a meal - the length of time they took over everything and that we had to grab people and ask them to do basic things such as bring drinks, clear the yables, order the children's puddings etc meant it was a long and difficult experience. They didn't ask if we wanted dessert! I don't feel like we received any service at all as everything had to be...

Went to Zizzi couple of time before and it was decent. Not this time thou. Invited friends, were greeted and shown the table by the Italian, I'm guessing manager, but that's were the pleasant experience stops. The rest of the staff clearly didn't get any training. We were served by two young waitress who were unhelpful and disinterested. Asked for two bottles of water, that was brought with only two glasses, we were group of 4. Asked for two more glasses, waitress made a face is brought one glass, asked her for 4th glass, she didn't apologized. She just disappeared and it took a while to get that last glass. Starters arrived but only with two sets of cutlery, had to ask for 2 more sets again which took time to get to us again. Starters where bland and my friends had to ask for salt. For mains we all ordered pasta dishes, which were very disappointing. My pork and garlic meat balls were over salted so much I had to stick to pasta and leave the salty sauce alone and to wash it down with 3 glasses of water. My misses pasta dish was clearly reheated, chewy and bland. My friends left thier pasta unfinished after just trying it. Saying it was tasteless and mushy. At the end when waitress was taking our plates, she did ask how was it. To what my friend replied with cheeky smile that he can cook his pasta better at home. Waitress replay was shocking "well, you know what not to order next time..." After this we all refused her offer of more drinks or desserts and left. Safe to say that we won't be coming back after this. There are plenty more restaurants in St Alban's that offer better food...