Zanzi Bar Cuisine & Lounge — Restaurant in Sandy Springs

I was waiting for the restaurant to call me back and resolve the issue after I left a voicemail, but since that hasn’t happened, I’ll now leave a thorough review of a less than tasteful night:

On Saturday, Sept 20th, I came to Zanzi for a friend’s birthday party. She booked out the left side of the restaurant.

While I was waiting for more of our party to arrive, I sat at the bar and ordered a drink. I was speaking to the bartender about different menu items and she was very helpful. I inquired about a meatless egusi and she assured me that the kitchen can omit the meat. Also, at this time she informed that our party should order all of our food at once because they take 45 minutes to get orders out….

I ordered the kelewele (plantain) as my appetizer. It was REALLY good so I wanted to save it to go with my egusi soup. We tried to order all our food at once and they wouldn’t allow us to because they wanted the birthday girl to have some drinks etc (not sure what that has to do with us ordering since it’ll take a while for the food to come out anyway).

After a while, everyone started to receive their meals and I just figured the egusi was taking a bit longer so I waited and waited….and waited.

I had to flag down Damya because she never came back to check on me or my order. She asked did I get the Egusi…I told her yes. She then went to the kitchen.

Some more time passed and they started passing out TO GO PLATES. Mind you, I still have not received my order.

I had to go hunt Damya down to ask about my meal. Her exact response was, “They said they brought everything out here. Do you want me to just cancel your order?”

I told her well obviously I want the order cancelled because it hasn’t been made but also I literally haven’t eaten. My kelewele was extremely cold because I was waiting to enjoy it with the egusi that never came.

Frustrated and disappointed with her response, I went to the bar to speak with a manager. I told him that I didn’t receive my egusi. He let me know he’s aware of the issue. I asked him so what are you going to do?!

MORE time went by (I was there about 4hrs total). I saw him speaking with Damya. She came over, held no responsibility for facilitating the orders because “They told me they brought out everything” as if she wasn’t responsible for our table and as a courtesy, she apologized for the mistake and said she would give me a kelewele dish on the house. I said that would be fine. She asked did I want the egusi, and I told her I was no longer interested.

After some more time, a long time…the manager came back over to me with the egusi packaged to go, apologized and said the egusi would be on the house to due to the mishap.

When it was finally time to get our checks, Damya gave me my ticket…that still had the egusi on my check. I informed her that the manager said it would be free and she went to speak with him. After more time, she brought me back a new check. At this point, I was tired, hungry and ready to get the hell out of here.

(There also was a whole ordeal with them not having cash and I was paying with cash with a $100. That again, took more time for them to find change.)

Upon finally leaving the establishment I was waiting for valet, and he asked how the service was. I gave him a short think piece and he informed me that 3 other people before me had also complained about the service as well…yikes.

Here’s the kicker, the next morning when I was looking over my bill, I see that Damya literally charged me for the Kelewele that she was supposed to be giving me for free because of the mishap…I can’t make this stuff up.

I paid cash so I called and left a voicemail to come up there to get my refund. I have never received a call back.

I wanted to like this establishment SO bad. To have such great food but poor service is such a shame. I’ll...

Wouldn’t take my worst enemy here! Upon arrival the waitress lied and said we had to buy a $300 bottle in order to sit down although we made a reservation. They were out of everything I wanted from the menu. Our service was beyond slow all night. We were asking to order since 9pm but didn’t get our food until almost 1am! We asked to speak to a manager, the same liar with HORRIBLE service said she was the manager. We asked to speak to someone else and she walked away with an attitude. By almost midnight most of everyone had received their drinks except 1 guest AND THE BDAY PERSON. A male comes to ask what’s wrong and how they could make it better. We asked how much longer would the food take? He said she hadn’t put it in yet because she didn’t know if we still wanted it. Absolutely ridiculous! We never told her we didn’t want it. We asked to speak to a manager because everything was so horrible. Our waitress was too busy smiling in men faces, getting shots for the dj, and talking crap to us about how bad the bartender is and how we wouldn’t have sent drinks back if she made them… BUT SHE COULDNT EVEN KEEP UP WITH THE FLOOR TABLES SHE HAD! Use a handheld. Doing stuff off of memory is not for you. She clearly had dementia. The owners and other waitresses were trying to make it better but her attitude and ignorance kept making the experience horrific. You already had nothing in stock that we wanted to eat and drink. She finally brought the champagne bottle at 1am with only one glass! It took literally 30 minutes to bring more glasses and then another 30 before we assumed that we had to pour the champagne ourselves. A gentleman had to tell her to ask if we’d like it poured (which we did). We sat with a dirty table majority of the night but when we asked for our checks, she said we had to wait until they got everything cleaned up. Why not clean as you go? By the end of the night, she tried to be nice to get a good rip but everyone was so OVER IT. To make matters worse, we waited HOURS for our food (when her tables near us arrived after us, received food, drinks, their check and left before us) was incredibly nasty. This place was...

This is a new beautiful establishment. I’ve been here 2x prior to my 3rd tonight. Excited to have suya and the deep fried red snapper, I ordered my favs only to be disappointed. The suya wasn’t seasoned properly and either was the snapper. I should’ve followed my intuition because once the suya came out, unseasoned and as if it was leftovers, I should left it there. I met the owner, and several managers and they pleaded to rectify the situation. They explained that everyone’s taste buds are different and agreed, my food wasn’t properly served as it usually is. I was told my suya and snapper would be complimentary. I didn’t ask for them to fix the food, they insisted. The check came and I’m charged for everything! At this point, I didn’t want to make a fuss bc it’s a black owned establishment but I’m upset bc now I’m paying for food I did not like and chose not to be fixed. My bill totaled to $119.46. Jada my server was amazing. I wanted to support her! Anyway, I wouldn’t recommend bc after paying a bill, after stating my dismay, they stated it’s too much to refund my funds. The problem is, the food may be great, one time but horrible the next. If you tell a patron the food is complimentary, I don’t expect to pay for anything I do NOT like. The most embarrassing part about all of it is, my friend is an influencer and added to the reason I loved this place. I was looking forward to the GRAND opening but at this point, this is bad business and I would not recommend. Moving forward, online hours are stating closing at 2am. It’s 12:22am and because everyone is upset about my review, they are insinuating I be put out as I’m waiting for my Uber. lol. Kevin has been kind and told me “no rush” but I’m just done. I hope everyone has an better...