Zeppoli — Restaurant in Collingswood

The food was good, but we will not return.

When my finance asked if I wanted to have dinner with two close friends at Zeppoli, I quickly said yes based on all of the previous great things I had heard.

While small in size, the environment and atmosphere overall were good without being too loud. We were easily able to have conversations without feeling like we were cramped. The service was friendly & good, but only to a point, before turning towards being unprofessional (more on that later)

We had the gnocchi appetizer which was absolutely delicious. I wished I had ordered the larger portion. Our friends had a salad & burrata for apps which they mentioned were good.

For dinner, my finance had the grilled swordfish which was good. I had the ribeye steak which was cooked exactly how I like it (medium) and was very tasty. Our friends had the grilled chicken and the spaghetti with clams, both of which they remarked were good.

This is where things started to turn, however. They served each entree one at a time. Being polite, we would not eat until all had their entrees. Unfortunately, they clearly forgot to put the spaghetti w/clams order in, as the meal was significantly delayed and we could see the staff scrambling to make it quickly. They eventually brought out a half order, apologizing for the delay and allowing us to then begin having our meals. They eventually brought our friend another half order and said it was on the house for the delay. Fair enough.

We had coffee and for dessert, we ordered the cannolis, cinnamon donuts, and Biancomangiare. All remarked they were good, though nothing overwhelmingly delicious. Note, the cannolis did have a lemon taste to them, something I was not expecting.

After dessert was done, we paid our bill and began discussing if we’d soon head out for a night cap at another location. While discussing this, two of our four wine glasses were quickly cleared away, apparently signaling that we should move on. Minutes later, at about the two hour and twenty minute mark - while we were just about ready to leave - a woman employee (assuming a manager) came over and tapped on our table. She said hello, and that the next group has been waiting for our table for the last 20 minutes. She proceeded to walk away, while we all sat in stunned silence that we had just been asked to leave…

Looking around, there were plenty of other open tables that Zeppoli’s could have rearranged to allow seating of the next party. Further, we noticed no one, either inside the restaurant or outside, waiting to be seated. Again, it is not a large establishment so it was clear no one was “waiting” for our table.

Had this employee had a different tone and approach - asking us if we needed anything else? More coffee or water? etc. - we would have gotten the hint and likely told her we were heading out very soon, so no thank you. Instead, we were rudely and in a not so subtle way, told we had over stayed our welcome, and needed to leave because some mysterious and not yet present group was waiting 20 minutes for our table.

So, again, the food was good - save for the mishap with the one dish - but due to how the night ended, we...

I read good things from Craig LaBan and other articles about Zeppoli. I was looking forward to trying this place since Joey Baldino’s other place is members only. I was able to get reservations when they first opened that day.

Everything is seemed fine when we were seated out back in the garden area. We were given the menus and the waitress said take a look and she will find out the specials for today. When making the reservation, no one mentioned that their are two prix fixe menus and you could not order their normal menu. I didn’t see it on their new menu either (I know it’s a new menu because majority of the items increased $1 each). One is a 3 course meal and the other is a 4 course meal. The waitress didn’t clarify what is included. Most prix fixe menus that I eaten at offered an appetizer, entree, and dessert. Or at some Italian-American restaurants, they will let you pick between antipasti (appetizer), primi (pasta, rice, etc.), secondi (meat dish), and dolce(dessert).

The waitress said we can order a three course meal or 4 course meal. I asked the waitress if it mattered if we orders pasta, entree and dessert instead of salad, pasta, and entree. And she had an issues with that because the entree isn’t included in the 3 course meal. She said the entree is only included in the 4 course meal. Not sure why would someone just order that way?

The first problem I had is we couldn’t order what we wanted to order. We were going to order a few items under salad, multiple pastas to split, a entree to split, and a desert, which I don’t think it’s right to not inform your customers by social media, company’s website, by phone reservations, and online reservations (RESY/OpenTables) that it’s only prix fixe menus.

I believe a 3 course was $55 and a 4 course was $75. The price structure doesn’t make sense; the highest price salad is $14, highest price pasta is $20, and desserts are $10. So the total cost of those items would be $44, while offering it for $55. Hopefully, they offer a menu people can select the food they want. If not, offer a prix fixe menu that has perceived value to the customers. I understand times are difficult with Covid but I don’t believe in this business approach. First, make it known the new menu is prix fixe as I previously mention on multiple platforms. Second, evaluation the prix fixe menu and price accordingly. The prix menu shouldn’t be more that ordering its off the normal menu unless it’s a holiday like NYE or...

We came here on a recommended by some friends and were very excited and waiting for a special occasion, no problem making reservations a week and a half out. It was an incredibly hot day, 94 degrees outside, and when we walked into the restaurant it was some how hotter inside than it was outside (we actually saw a table request to move to one of the outside tables instead). Our service was great & menu explained well. My husband was a big fan of the bread and oil brought to the table. For our appetizers I got the special which was a burrata with grilled apricots, and he got the panzanella, both were amazing! Next came my husband's pasta dish, which he originally wanted the spaghetti with clams, but they were replacing that on the menu with squid ink pasta with calamari. I was a big fan of the squid ink pasta, my husband found it to be too messy (which it definitely was, black lips/teeth/tongue, and unfortunately black spots on your clothes if you had a drip anywhere). I am someone who LOVES salt and over salts almost all of my food, but I even caught myself saying that the squid ink pasta was pretty salty, but it was still probably my favorite dish of the night. For entrees I got the gnocchi, definitely different than any other gnocchi I have ever had! The texture is very very soft, and is sitting in a lot of oil that makes it a pretty heavy dish. My husband got the dorado special and liked it a lot. Dessert was perfect with the zeppolis and cannolis. We also ordered a carafe of the orange blossom lemonade, probably one of the best lemonades I have ever had!

I knew prior to going here that it would be a pricey bill, but when it came I did the math quite a few times and still was coming up with what I believe was a $10 overcharge. Unfortunately I was sweating so profusely at that point, I didn't want to stick around and question things and just wanted to get out of there. Don't get me wrong, the food was amazing! Worth the price....maybe. But what was not worth the price was the setting, the lack of air conditioning and uncomfortable seating (take into consideration I'm currently pregnant, so really not an ideal environment) made things pretty unenjoyable. It felt like relief when I walked outside into the 90 degree "cooler" air. If the menu prices were adjusted some & either the air conditioning was working better/or during a cooler season, and the seats were upgraded, this would have been a 5 star...