Zizzi - Norwich

Reviews

• KR

  Kayleigh Rabicano

  Jun 6, 2026
  3.0
  Food as always was good, our side did come our way before our mains. We visited the restaurant on 5th May for our daughter’s 2nd birthday meal out. She has an egg allergy and on the egg ladder and we’ve eaten here before and staff had previously been absolutely amazing! This time round was another story.. on arrival, informing our waiter of egg allergy but knew already what she come have was given a staff allergy book for us to look out. This waiter had finished his shift and said another would take over. Other tables who had arrived before and after us seem to being service by attentive staff but not us.. we had to ask staff over a number of times, including ordering our 2 year old ice cream! Felt both staff didn’t want to serve our table and take ‘responsibility’ for an allergy table. We could see our dessert sitting out ready for over 20 mins and it was until I asked a waitress about our dessert this took another 5 mins to be brought over. One member of staff was busy talking to a table. Felt so let down at this occasion and honestly felt because of egg allergy we didn’t get the service that was standard. We had been so impressive before when we visited back in December with our daughter and staff went above and beyond but felt this time the staff weren’t interested and couldn’t be bothered sadly!
• MP

  Mary Palmer

  Jun 4, 2026
  3.0
  Went for lunch, we were seated almost straight away, they were what looked like no overly busy but i could be wrong. we sat there for around 15min before we had to ask someone to take our order , we were told they would be back and then waited another 5 min . They took our drink order but wouldn't take our food order. Waited another 10 -15 mins for our drinks to come to us. We then waited again for around 20min to get our food ordered, I joked with the server saying are you guys understaffed and was told no we are fully staffed . I only saw 3 members of staff. Food came quickly. Good thing we had lots to talk about and that we werent in a hurry.
• AT

  Alex T

  May 28, 2026
  1.0
  "We want Cara-Rose" say "We want Cara-Rose" - pitiful and appalling 'service' if it can even be called that. I attended the restaurant as a group of 8 yesterday evening. I could give a play by play of what occurred - we waited so long for orders, drinks, food, to pay, that I could have used the time wisely to start this review! The short version is this: - It wasn't busy - There seemed ample staff on to accomdate the few occupied tables - We waited about half an hour to order drinks (we were ready to order food but told the manager must take the order) - Waited another 10 mins or so to order food - Drinks came - one was wrong - Food came (nice enough) - one meal forgotten and the chef himself (not no waiting staff) noticed and passed it over the food pass - No one came to check the food was okay or for us to order more drinks (1 drink was had by each of us during the 3 hours we spent there!) Or if we needed anything else - Once food was consumed and the restaurant very nearly empty, all staff seemed to have disappeared and we sat with our empty plates and pizza boards for another half hour or so - We then took it upon ourselves to seek anyone out to ask for the bill as the want for a dessert had deserted us, and mentioned we had some discount codes - Manager appears and states he'll clear the table first, attempted to take everything in one go - asking US to pass HIM everything on the table and nearly dropping cutlery on us in the process, and then made us wait further - Manager reappears, we tell him we have blue light codes, he takes one code then claims he couldn't do anymore as it's limited to tables of 6 - we proclaimed that surely he could split the tables into 2x fours (most other chains don't have a problem on the same computer system) and he gave us the stare from a long lost Little Britain character as 'Computer says no' - Being a sporting team (literally) we know when we're beaten and just agreed to settle with this - minus the £16 added for service (see above points, we done most of it ourselves) - A lost soul of a waitress then had to be summoned so we could pay, we explained we weren't tipping due to the appalling service - she shrugged like this was a regular occurrence and replied "fair enough" - No apology from the manager or anyone else we came into contact with - Won't be going back and will only spread a poor word on the place to others I'm left reflecting, after reading other reviews...who is this Cara-Rose others so fondly talk of and review with her stellar service? Maybe she was showing up the rest of the team and been locked in the cellar for the evening as we definitely didn't have any good words to say of any staff we saw. The photo, for anyone who cares, is a tiramisu ice cream from Lidl - being as I didn't get my Italian dessert last evening, I treated myself tonight! A solid 4 stars for this bad boy and something I would recommend, not Zizzis in Norwich sadly. P.S. The manager's manner, etiquette and people skills were disgusting - I hope his mother and Zizzi's area manager are proud!
• RB

  Rebecca Burgess

  May 28, 2026
  1.0
  Last night, Wednesday 27th May 2026, eight hungry girls entered Zizzi Norwich full of excitement for a little social evening. What followed felt less like dinner service and more like an endurance challenge sponsored by confusion, missing pizzas, and interpretive waiting. We sat down and genuinely started wondering if we had d accidentally booked the “invisible customer experience.” It took around 40 minutes before anyone came to take drinks orders. We did have one allergy on the table, which meant the manager needed to take that order — completely understandable — but why couldn't the waitress do the others? By the time food arrived, morale was low and blood sugar levels were critical. Some dishes were cold, one pizza was completely missing, and the only reason it ever made it to the table was because the chef spotted it sitting abandoned and handed it over himself. Honestly, shoutout to the chef — the true detective of the evening. Not once did anyone come over to ask if the food was okay, if we wanted more drinks, or whether we had emotionally recovered from waiting that long. One friend wanted chilli oil and eventually had to go on her own personal pilgrimage through the restaurant to find it. Once we finished eating, we then entered Phase Two: The Waiting. Again. Plates sat there for ages while we slowly aged alongside them. When the manager finally appeared — around 9:15pm — he asked if we wanted dessert. Sir, we wanted closure. We didnt get out until 9.45... 30mins to pay the bill. The service throughout was chaotic at best. Staff seemed completely unorganised, nobody appeared to know what was happening, and despite the restaurant not even being particularly busy, there was absolutely zero urgency. At one point, the manager attempted an Olympic-level balancing act with a mountain of plates on his arms, nearly dropping them onto me and my friend. Nothing says “fine dining” quite like the threat of a flying side plate.. Getting the bill also took forever. We mentioned that three of us had Blue Light discounts and politely asked if the bill could be split into two tables of four. We were told this “couldn’t be done,” despite it very much being something restaurants normally manage without needing intervention from NASA. The manager said really abruptly and rudely - why didn't tell me this at the start - well there wasn't anyone to tell firstly and secondly how are we meant to know this is something we have to say about at the start? The icing on the burnt garlic bread, though, was hearing the manager loudly complaining about us to staff by the till afterwards. If you’re going to talk about customers, at least lower the volume enough so the customers can’t hear the director’s commentary. Overall, £30 very well spent for just me… if your goal is to experience what it feels like to be completely forgotten in a restaurant for three hours. Really disappointing, because we’d been looking forward to it, but sadly none of us will be returning. Manager was so so rude and even admitted he hadn't bothered with us.
• EC

  Eleanor Church

  May 22, 2026
  3.0
  I want to start by stressing that the staff were very kind, and the issues I'm going to list below were recognised. That said, service here is incredibly slow and has been for a few months at minimum. I have been here once before during lunch time in March, and it took ages for us to get any help from staff towards the end of our meal. We waited 15 minutes for our bill, and, in the end, I had to get up and find someone. Tonight, I came here with my family. It was very busy but there were plenty of staff. After being seated, we were served and got our drinks quickly. Our starters took about 20 minutes to arrive. However, after this is where it all ground to a halt. After an hour and 10 mins total of being there, we were still waiting on our main and nobody had taken the plates from our starters. It took asking staff twice to have our meals finally arrive. We noted other tables around us that had arrived after us got their meals before us. It also appeared our table was not the only ones with issues. What became obvious were staff were fantastic at seating customers, getting them drinks and taking first orders. However, staff then seem to completely disappear. No one checks how the meals are or if any more drinks are required, or takes empty plates without being prompted. Looking back, this is exactly what happened on my last visit as well. Once we were finally done, I would like to note that we were given a discount on our meal and both wait staff and the manager apologised to us on our way out. As mentioned above, I think there just needs to be some training for staff on watching for when plates are empty, how long people have been waiting, asking if customers would like another drink etc. I think, with time, Zizzi could get back on its feet if this were to happen. Thank you for sorting things out for my family, and I hope we can visit again another time and maybe have a better experience.

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