Zippy's Hilo — Restaurant in Hawaii

Friday was the 2nd time that I have had terrible service from this place. The first time they waited until my whole family had their food to tell me they were sold out of my order. This past Friday my order was #422, as I hear the guy announcing numbers he skipped mines and kept going up 436. I waited over half an hour for my food. When I asked after 30 min where my order was, they proceeded to lie and tell me they were waiting on my Hawaiian. Combo and bento. But then the guy announcing the numbers was also saying the food orders similar to mines. I then walked up to the counter and asked for a refund because my 6 year old son waiting to eat was over it. She then went to go get her manager, as I looked in the space to the kitchen the cooks were playing 1,2,3 show. I then told the manager this is ridiculous. He looked up and proceeded to get me my refund, I told him this is the worst service ever. He didn't even care to ask me what happened, I then told him since I waited this long, I'll wait for me him to find me an explanation to why I waited over 30 minutes. He went to talk to his co-workers and then told me someone accidentally bumped my order and tried to offer me the food back to me. I told him next time tell his employees to practice honesty. I would have been less upset if they told me it got bumped and could have found an alternative to hold off my hungry 6 year old, rather then lie about why I'm waiting. The girl behind me who was waiting for her order asked if that was the manageer and wanted to speak to him too because when she called in her order the guy who answered said "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" . Zippys you offer terrible customer service, if you don't like...

The overpriced food was decent except for the house salad which was old and withered. Initially our waitress Chantel was sweet and likeable. Along with the food we ordered a cup of black Lipton tea and coffee.

After steeping my tea I placed the tea bag on the pouch it came in next to my tea cup to be reused. I also ordered several slices of lemon from another waitress that arrived in a little bowl for my tea. As dinner progressed and my wife finished her meal, we stacked her dirty dishes on the other side of the table to make room for dessert.

As I finished my meal Chantel came by to grab My wife's dirty dishes and asked if I wanted more hot water, since my cup was empty. I said, "yes please!" After she walked away my wife noticed that she grabbed my lemons and tea bag too. I told her "maybe she's bringing a new tea bag." When she returned to refill my cup and walked away, I thought perhaps she forgot my tea bag.

After a minute or two, I waived her down and asked for the tea bag. She said that she'd have to charge me again. When I mentioned that she took it, she said she'd have to talk to her manager as she walked off. She returned with another one and said "This time we'll let it go, but next time we need to charge you!" To which I replied "But you took my tea bag and lemons.." "Well you had it on the dirty dishes!" she said condisendingly as she walked off. This attitude infuriated my wife and I so much that we skipped dessert and left without leaving a tip.

Final thoughts? Average overpriced food with a rude waitress named CHANTEL!! Stay away, we're never going back again! Should've went to Hilo Burger...

I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. I mean, I can't blame this on the staff, but I had never been to a zippys but had heard good things. We went to get seated at the front and after waiting probably...at least 20 minutes, I then noticed the small QR code with small writing saying to scan the QR to get onto the seating wait list. With the restaurant maybe 1/8th full, and the wait board saying seating would be max 8 minutes, I then waited another at least 20 minutes while I watched the only 2 front staff running around trying to seat guests, clean tables, serve food, take orders, and what I learned later also washing the dishes. I saw numerous people being directed to the take out side, and numerous others just straight up leaving to go eat elsewhere. The business probably would have made far more from the people that left, and having customers sit down they will always spend more, and it would have more than paid for another employee. How dare an owner run a business like that, and putting the only two front staff in a situation that was clearly unnecessarily stressful. Ultimately the food was tasty and the server was very good. The way this is being run, isn't Hawaii, isn't Pono, and isn't Aloha. Clean...