Banzi

My wife and I went to Banzi tonight and we left without a meal. My wife commented that the experience was just like Fawlty Towers!

First of all we were placed on a table for 4 with two other diners, despite there being other tables available. Then we had to wait 15 minutes before we could order. There were no drinks on the menu and the waitress did not know what drinks were available.

While we were waiting to order a couple entered the restaurant and left after not being greeted for 5 minutes.

Once we had ordered (we had to flag down the passing waitress) the real fun started. We had to wait 10 minutes before our beers arrived (with very dirty glasses - we both chose to drink directly from the bottles). There was a lot of shouting coming from the kitchen. Clearly someone was very angry and shouting at the kitchen staff in, presumably, vietnamese. This was very distracting and every single person in the now 75% full restaurant was wondering what was going on. After a good 10 minutes of this they turned up the music to an unbearable level to try to hide the noise (rather than trying to stop the shouting!)

Several tables of people had left by this point. One table I heard complaining that they had received only part of their main course and it had gone cold while waiting for the rest. Another table left half way through the meal due to the incredibly loud shouting coming from the kitchen. At this point we decided to leave too as we had only had our beers and were not optimistic about receiving our starters any time soon given the number of tables that were waiting for food still. The embarrassed waiter let us pay for our beers with no quibbles and apologised. When we left the restaurant there was a queue to pay and only about 5 people left sitting at their tables.

This service at Banzi was a true disaster the likes of which I have never seen. I can't see how they can possibly run a business like that - a shame as other reviews on here say the food is quite nice.
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peshwengi - View all reviews by this user
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, January 03, 2010

I first heard about Banzi through a neighbour who recommened it. Now our whole neighbourhood goes to Banzi. The food is fantastic and very great value for your money. They serve the best baguettes Ive tasted and their noodles soups are very refine, natural and full of favour! Its great! our server told us that the soups are cooked using natural ingreidents and it difineltly tasted that way! The service is very friendly and attentive. I go to Banzi on a regular basis and NEVER experienced what the preivous reviewer has experienced and I go on a regular basis! Although I must say that there are some very differcult customers who do come in the restuarant who are quite rude to staff and in particular when I was there, a couple came in and were rather drunk and were being very rude to the staff but I do praise the staff for handling the situation very well. And I think good bussiness are here to serve nice customers so those kind of people can go else where were their behaviour is accepted. Banzi is becoming very poplular with the south londoners as their food taste fresh and natural. Banzi is the best thing that has happened to surrey quays as there are not many good restaurants like Banzi there. Thankyou Banzi for coming to surrey quays!!!!
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Jon Powell
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Monday, December 21, 2009

My first visit to Banzi dates back to the opening week. We waited for our food for 30mins, when it did turn up the spring rolls were still frozen in the middle and the rest of the starters cold. We decided to pay for our beers and left.

We recognise that all new ventures go through growing pains and like to support local businesses; our next two visits were really nice. The food were slow to turn up, but really good. There are 3 choices of beer on the menu, two of these have not been available since the early part of the summer. So by default if you want beer, you do not have choice.

Our last 2 visits, both within the last week, resulted in us leaving without having a meal. On the first occasion the heating was not switched on and being the coldest night of the winter thus far we were due to have dinner wrapped up in our coats if we decided to stay – it was just to cold to sit and wait for food and enjoy it.

Last night we placed our food and drinks order, we have grown use to the slow service, but it took them 15mins before we were told that they did not have the beer we ordered, in fact, they did not have any beer at all. There is a shop across the road that stock the beer they have on the menu, in fact the beers noted on the menu which never seem to be available in Banzi is also sold in the corner shop.

There opening hours are noted as Monday – Sunday, though I have turned up on a Monday night to find the restaurant closed. The service is just not reliable enough to recommend it or for us to visit again, which is a shame as I do think the food is good when they get it right.
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Liezel
3 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Started off with a slow start but now service is excellent. The food is the best I have tasted. The first Vietnamese restaurant in london that I know of to contain no MSG and artifical favouring in the food. You can diffinately taste the difference compared with other vietnamese food as I dont end up feeling so thristy!! The staff are so friendly and dont bug you all the time.. The restaurant is also child friendly compared with other vientamese restaurant. They provide baby seats and a good healthy kids menu. They also do vietnamese baguette which are so tasty, excellent bread and stuffed with generous filling!!! Lovely atmosphere, so comfortable never could get up to leave! Lots of nice drinks which are made from real fruits and a good selection of wine. Prices are excellent. affordable and value for your money!!!! Love BANZi
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Chantelle Coulborn
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, May 06, 2009