Zin Bistro Americana — Restaurant in Westlake Village

My fiancé and I took his parents to Zin Bistro for Mother's Day at sunset. We've been to the restaurant before and had a nice experience. This time it was not so nice. It seemed that there was no manager on duty. We were sat at a table where my chair was about one foot from the speaker used by the guitarist/singer. When I asked the hostess about this, her answer was "well he is not that loud and if he is, just ask him to tone it down". We are there for a Mother's Day dinner to enjoy each other's company. The guitarist was practically sitting at our table, so it was difficult to hear each other when he was playing. They should have set him up farther from the tables. But the real issue with dinner was the service. We ordered at 7:25pm and didn't receive dinner until about 8:30pm. The waiter never showed up after he took our order. I had to go find him to ask where our food was. Our food arrived minus one dinner, which was a soup and salad. It took another 15 minutes for that to show up because the waiter had ordered the wrong food and we sent it back when it arrived ( earlier). And the waiter never apologized. No one came around to refill water. Many times bus boys came around with food not knowing which table it was supposed to go to. And it appeared the other tables were experiencing the same issues. There was no manager checking on guests to be seen anywhere. Otherwise we might not have been ignored for an hour. In addition it started to get cold, but it took the staff a long time to turn off the ceiling fans, and set up the heat lamps. One wonders why the heat lamps weren't next to the tables in the first place?? Customers, including us, had to get up ask for for one of the 8 lamps that were off to the side. Then we had to hear the staff noisily roll the lamps over to each table while we were eating. We joked to our guests that we took them here to starve them, freeze them and blast them out with some music, but at least the...

Should you bother? NO! We did not eat here. Made reservations over two weeks in advance. Arrived -Was given the option of sitting outside on the sidewalk in the sun in front of the stairs or in a booth in the dark corner of the restaurant directly behind a half wall and the check in stand where no one else was seated and a very overburdened stroller was shoved in front of the table- view was of a wall. When we questioned the host, he said those were the only two tables available. We opted for inside rather than the hot sun. After sitting for a few minutes, I expressed to my husband how disappointed I was. When I made the reservations, I stated in the special instructions that given it was his birthday, a nice table with a water view would be great. Our view looking around, was the wall, empty booths and the stroller which had been moved over to the side. I asked my husband if I should speak to the manager. He agreed that it might be worth it. An additional few minutes went by and finally a woman came with a water pitcher. As she picked up my glass to pour, I asked if we could speak to the manager. Her response was to abruptly put down the glass.. without pouring… turn and leave. After another 10 to 15 minutes, a man came to the table and asked the concern. I expressed my disappointment as the reservations were made online over two weeks in advance, indicated in the remarks about a nice table, etc.. before I could finish, he interrupted and rudely said: “I am the owner and where do you want to sit? There a many tables that are empty. But you can only sit at a table for two, not a table any bigger. There are plenty of empty tables under the patio, but again, if you want to move, you can only sit at a table for two. So get up and go find a table you would like to sit at….” By this time, we were uncomfortable with his demeanor as well as his insistence that we walk through the restaurant looking for a table for...

Beyond disappointed in this place and how the owner handled the situation. I purchased a Conejo deal certificate as a gift for someone and the people who went there are from another country and mistakenly did not sign the receipt and gratuity part. Zin bistro (Angelica) left me a voicemail (I made the reservation for them due to language barrier) regarding this asking what we wanted to close the bill at. I was not able to get a hold of the credit card owner but called Zin bistro back right away. I was on hold for a while and finally hung up and figured they would call back again. No one ever called and the next day their card was charged and tip added. The principle of this is infuriating that they would take it upon themselves to add a certain amount of tip to a bill without permission and without speaking to the card owner first. After contacting the business 3 times and no one ever calling back, we finally spoke with the owner who said they were very busy and he would have Angelica call back the next day, today (Sunday). She never called so we called again and instead of listening and taking care of it the owner called back a few minutes later cursing and yelling and telling us to go ahead and call the F*ing cops about the $36 charge! Beyond disgusted and would never recommend this place to anyone. Definitely do NOT use your credit card at this place as they can...