SaZa Serious Italian Food — Restaurant in Montgomery

First let me say, we came in with a very large party…the wait staff tried their hardest to accommodate, but we were simply beyond their skills.

You ever gone to a restaurant and had your dining experience evolve into something akin to a hostage situation? I have…it was at a place called Sa Za in Montgomery, AL. We showed up a large boisterous group excited for a night of comradery…we left the restaurant broken and some even still a little hungry.

Drink orders were taken, the drinks came for the most part, and then orders were taken. A few appetizers were ordered and those came relatively quickly, but that is when everything changed. WE sat at our table for several hours before everyone got their food. We watched a human drama unfold in the kitchen as the red shirted expediter looking at the orders scratched his head in confusion, flung his hands to the heavens in frustration….and despite his flailing and gyrations, the food still did not come.

Like survivors on a desert island, talk turned amazing meals we had once had, elsewhere. There was even dreamy talk of visiting Jimmy Johns, it this dinner ever ended. Some wanted to leave without their food, but stayed because they believed their order to a promise to the restaurant. Sa Za felt not such commitment to their patrons. The dishes eventually came out sporadically and across the faces of the diners you could see the transition from hunger, to excitement, to disappointment, and finally resignation to survive this ordeal. My Grandma’s Pizza was nothing I would serve my own grandmother or anyone that I cared about. The crust was hard and thick, it tasted as if it were purchased by the case from a big box store. The sauce tasted canned and there was but a sprinkling of basil on top. It was lacking on all accounts. After 2.5 hours the waitress approached two members of our party who still had not received their food for a refresher on what they ordered…for those keeping track at home, this is never a good sign.

By the time we paid, we had endured 3 hours of Sa Za’s incompetence and at least one member of our party completely giving up the idea of eating, despite having just sat in a restaurant for an 1/8th of a day. In hindsight, she was the lucky one. Save yourself some time and money, buy some Chef Boyardee and a Hot Pocket, heat them using rays from the sun and eat them in a crowded...

I tried SaZa's Sunday brunch-mid January 2022. I should have stuck with their regular menu, which looked better on other people's plates than what I got. But, I love Eggs Benedict and theirs sounding intriguing. Unfortunately, it was almost inedible. The concept sounded good – the Benedict is assembled on a Ciabatta roll. But, the bread was so tough that was almost impossible to cut in to bite-sized pieces. I eventually gave up and deconstructed the Benedict, eggs, etc. to find a way to cut the roll. It was served with almost non-existent Hollandaise, so it was dry, the eggs were overcooked, and it came with regular, rather dry, ordinary strip bacon. Basically, what I got was a poorly assembled egg sandwich. So, I suggest steering clear of SaZa's Eggs Benedict and trying one of their regular Italian dishes.

Finally, the dining room experience was awful. I was seated at the bar – being a single diner, this is almost always the place where the host or hostess relegates you to, or says it will be an hour wait for a table even if it's not. It wouldn't have been, but they don't want to give a a four-top to single diner. At the bar, I has to sit elbow to elbow with loud, annoying people who were there less to eat than to visit with all their friends who kept walking up, laughing, and breathing all over me and my food. (Hello, COVID?!) And, the flippin' bartenders kept holding the doors open to the outside on a 30 degree day with no regard to those of us who were freezing on the inside. Oh, and the LOUD band that plays, I'm guessing, on Sunday brunches. Not a bad band, just super loud, which makes the diners all be even louder, too.

Needless to say, I ate and got out of there as fast as possible. Not a pleasant Sunday brunch, at all. Maybe evening dining, and eating off the menu they know best how to prepare, would make a positive difference. I'll leave it to you to discover that...

Don't waste your time or your money. Not sure why this place is always so crowded - I've walked by it several times and figured the food was good due to the number of people there. Decided to go for a nice Friday evening out with my friend. We chose to sit at the bar (usually our preference), and waited quite a while to get our initial order in (drink and apps). We asked for bruschetta and a bottle of wine. Server asked if we wanted white or red sauce, which I though was weird for bruschetta, but answered red. She came back and told us that the wine we ordered was out... as were several of the menu items. I could perhaps overlook this in a smaller mom/pop restaurant, but this seems like a chain-ish type restaurant so the multitude of items that weren't available was odd. Took an extended amount of time (~15mins) for our apps to come out and we were served our bruschetta along with mussels....that we didn't order. When I clarified with the waitress, she didn't seem to care and said she'd just throw it out. So we just kept (and paid for) it. Bruschetta was good, mussels were slightly below average, but fine - and not the best when you didn't even order them. For our entrees, we ordered a Caesar salad the lobster angel hair pasta (on the recommendation of the waitress). Service was extremely slow. Caesar salad was average, not much flavor; the angel hair pasta is why we will not be going back - the "sauce" was so watery and flavorless that we could barely eat it. Really disappointing - like someone just put a few pieces of seafood and a bunch of pasta in a bowl of water. At that point, we decided it wasn't worth trying to salvage the experience and so we just paid our bill and left. There are plenty of other fantastic restaurants in Montgomery - go...