This branch of Zizzi is one of their many branches in Manchester city centre, which includes a branch in Piccadilly Gardens and the Corn Exchange. This branch is probably the largest and it seems the nicest decor wise, being up just one slight step before going in to a large building, which is actually a former bank.
Having wanted to try this branch for a while, I found today to be the perfect moment having found myself to be hungry in Manchester city centre with the Piccadilly branch which I went into first, having no working oven, as well as considering I had a £20 voucher from Head Office to make up for an experience at the Trafford Centre branch, where they given me a pizza which contained gluten despite being well aware of my allergy to gluten.
I had quite a few issues with this branch which I'm going to explain in paragraph form.
Service:
The waiter to me seemed quite rude. When I was still deciding what to order, he basically just stood there without offering any suggestions, this was a shame and slightly intimidating as I felt slightly rushed to order my food despite saying "Can I have a few more minutes?"
The server didn't even know much about the products. I asked what the star meant next to the potatoes and he said the star meant it contained potato, although this applied to the broccolli as well. I presume it meant they were fried in the same oil as things which had gluten in, but he just didn't seem to know.
He also described the house slaw just as vegetables. He lacked all product knowledge as well as friendliness, enthusiasm and good customer service.
As my phone was going to run out of charge, he seemed unwilling to even take my voucher code beforehand and I really had to pressure him to do that which was once again bad customer service.
When my food arrived, I was then told I would have no potatoes which really made me angry and sad, as I had not only ordered them but I had a conversation about them with my waiter. When I asked to have some, he refused and said they would take too long, which was really frustrating I couldn't have them due to timing even though they allegedly had them in, gave me no prior warning and I did order them in the first place.
Food Quality:
The food really disappointed me. The pizza base tasted far from fresh, it just tasted far too soft, it was soggy and bland to the point the pizza would have been better just the toppings on the plate.
Even the toppings weren't fantastic, the pepperoni was just really small slices, like you'd give to a kid and their was some areas of the pizza which didn't have as much toppings on, making it basically inedible due to the poor quality of the pizza base.
The food was expensive too for the quality and awful service, it came to £25 for my pizza with a Spaghetti Bolognase for my friend, which she also commented was poor and a bottle of Orchard Pig cidre.
Mainly due to the awful quality of food and service, I feel even one star is generous for this place which is a real shame considering how much I liked Zizzi in the past, and as a chain they seem to have gone downhill drastically and this branch is a prime example of that. read more