Zilli Green

We are sorry but this restaurant has closed - The Reader Comments are shown for historical purposes only

what the critics say

Metro

Marina O'Loughlin - 1/5

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - We're not offered any bread and our starters are freezing. How do you manage to serve tempura (more like a minuscule portion of chip shop battered veg) cold? Ditto my Portobello mushroom. Not to mention its slimy horridness...My adland chum chooses a presumably idiot-proof aubergine Milanese with spaghetti arrabiata. Her verdict: 'As greasy and tasteless as Zilli.' She's right.

Guardian

Matthew Norman

Saturday, March 13, 2010 - In so many regards is Zilli Green a total shocker that it's hard to know where to begin...The main courses ranged from the average to the arrestable. Bone-sucking carnivore though I am, I love vegetarian cooking when it's inventive and vibrant. When it's as lazy, pointless and dementedly oversalted as my spaghetti al quattro pomodori - four types of tomato, each as flavoursome as purified water - the mind turns to the whereabouts of the nearest Burger King.

your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne

If you want tasty veggie and vegan comfort food, this is a great place. Don't come here expecting haut cuisine and stiff waiters and you won't be disappointed.

I think it's like a slightly more upmarket Mildred's - a little pricey but not when you think where it is. We paid £75 for 2 courses and a decent bottle of wine, including service.

We had veggie tempura & dumplings for starters which were tasty and fresh. Main courses of tofu sausage & mash with mushy peas and mushroom tagliatelli were scrummy, with a side order of garlicy spinach. Nom nom nom. We were too full for dessert sadly (it looked very good).

Sevice was a little slow, but that's because it was packed and the poor bloke was rushed off his feet. Staff were perfectly friendly and polite.

Would defo go back... must leave room for dessert next time!
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Jo
Overall rating 9 stars
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Saturday, February 19, 2011

First visit on Saturday lunch with a vegetarian daughter who probably hadn't been to a restaurant where she could choose from absolutely anything on the menu for a long time, so I guess thats why we went. Note that the restaurant doesn't seem to serve fish either.

The restaurant has been converted to look like a veggie restaurant on a budget and it really does. It is pretty cramped and is narrow enough for passage to the back of the place to be difficult if people are sitting either side. Sit on the benches if you don't like people brushing against you on their travels. The food was decent and both of us had main courses that could easily have been on the menu at the old Signor Zilli. My wild mushroom and truffle oil risotto decorated with asparagus was very good, and substantial. We both had quesadilla to start and that was, well, quesadilla and nothing special.

My daughter enjoyed it and that was the main thing ; I couldn't help thinking that if it had been Signor Zilli I'd have enjoyed my starter better. But hey, as a meat -eater I have had worse. Value wasn't really a strength of Signor Zilli and prices haven't changed much.
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David Henderson - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating 6 stars
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Thursday, February 10, 2011

I feel like the people who have written such glowing reviews either work here or have got muddled up and reviewed the wrong restaurant. We went to Zilli Green to celebrate my fiance getting a dream job after months of unemployment. I am vegetarian and allergic to nuts and dairy so it is very difficult to find places that I can eat with confidence, so ZG seemed like a Godsend. But I was very wrong. Right from the start it was terrible (in fact we nearly walked out after ordering, but we are FAR too polite!). The staff were surly, the lighting was far too bright, the europop playing was, well, europop, they totally forgot to bring us our drinks and when we finally got a waiter to pay us any attention their apology was cursory. The food was cold, mediocre and over-priced. It was so utterly disappointing that at one point I nearly burst into tears. Not the way I would have chosen to celebrate such a special evening!! If you want vegetarian Italian food AVOID this place and head to Amico Bio! Now there's a restaurant with atmosphere, attentive staff and DELICIOUS food. ZG could learn alot from them.
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Overall rating 1 stars
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Thursday, December 02, 2010

I am a vegetarian and I am also a an Italian who loves FOOD. I visited Zilli Green yesterday with my fiance'. I have tasted great food in my life and I am generally a person with an eye for detail.

FOOD - Tagliatelle with Mushroom Porcini : Divine! Asparagi Risotto: Superb! Salad: Unique: that was more than a salad! Fresh and very tasty!

Chocolate cake: The best I have ever eaten!I A chocolate delirious! Raisins crumble + watermelon ice-cream: Sublime!!! Coffe/ Espresso: Typically Italian, Great! Smoothie: Delicious

Athmosphere: Lovely, Cosy, Relaxed

Waiter/Waitress/Manager: Exquisite!!!!You can feel all the warmth of Italy at Zilli's.They are extremely professional and extremely polite. ABSOLUTELY MARVELLOUS customer-care!

The chef is available to discuss any particular requests.In our case we do not eat garlic and onion as well.He has cooked a great food without these elements too.

PRICE - Ridicolous!!!!With less than £70.00/60.00, you can spend a GREAT night, GREAT food(your vegetarian food!) and enjoying an incredible Soho later or having a nice walk in the centre.

HAVE A GOOD TIME AT ZILLI'S!!
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Overall rating 10 stars
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, November 01, 2010

I booked for my friend and I at Zilli Green's to celebrate my friend's birthday, and then read the reviews! I wish I hadn't booked after reading the dreadful comments but have to write a review of my own to tell you that our experience was absolutely first class.

We were warmly welcomed and the waitress immediately offered to take my coat. We were not rushed into placing our order and the service throughout was attentive but not intrusive. We ordered a basket of breads with hummous to get us going and these were a wonderful, aromatic assortment that you just wanted to dive into. The only slip-up was that our starters were delivered before we had finished the bread and hummous. The generous sized steaming bowl of soup was delicious - pumpkin with almonds, truffle oil coriander. For mains I had a mushroom pasta dish, which was really flavoursome and perfectly seasoned. I chose the cheese plate for dessert and there was enough cheese for a main course. It was beautifully presented on a wooden board along with a little bowl of honey, juicy grapes and garnished with mint leaves. My friend's meal was equally impressive. We had a splendid bottle of Malbec, reasonably priced at £24.50. Every dish was artfully prepared.

I wouldn't hesitate to return to Zilli Green and thoroughly recommend this lovely little vegetarian restaurant. It is true that the tables are close together but the restaurant is very small to begin with. The total bill for two - three courses plus the breads and hummous and wine was £84. It was worth every penny.
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Overall rating 9 stars
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I was really excited about this new veggie restaurant in Soho and couldn't wait to go. The menu online looked exciting! I ordered the veggie burger with fries whilst my friend went for the bangers and mash.

My burger was horrid - tasteless and deeply dull! The fries were frozen. The "homemade" tomato sauce was actually the tomato sauce they use on the pastas and the mayo was yellow, gunky and tasteless.

The bangers and mash were again tasteless and bland - even the addition of salt didn't add to the flavour, just made it salty!!!!

The service was mediocre bordering on the dreadful - they weren't at all welcoming and even though there were only a few occupied tables it was hard to get their attention.

The ambience is not nice either - small pine tables and chairs and very close together.

I definitely won't be going there again. What a wasted opportunity to get another good veggie restaurant in Soho. Zilli - you need to sort this out
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Overall rating 1 stars
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Saturday, October 16, 2010

We had tagliatelle e fungi pasta and ravioli mains. They were both disappointing. The tables are very close. Service was good but only because we had one in the party who spoke Italian. The staff put alot of pressure on you to order. Not recommended.
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Brent Harris
Overall rating 4 stars
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I went to Zilli Green this lunchtime with a friend who is not vegetarian. Lots of cheese everywhere on the menu. Vegetarian food can be tasty without cheese.

I had the mexican dish and was dissapointed. Thought it was over priced and not the best tasting. My friend's dish seemed to be ok but over priced again. Tables are placed too closely together, tables are small and chairs are uncomfortable! Vegetarians enjoy comfort while dining too!

I doubt I will go back or take any one back. One to miss.
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MV - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating 0 stars
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, September 16, 2010

Decided to visit this establishment as am keen to support vegetarian eateries in London. I chose the 2 course lunch option. My starter was a quinoa and haloumi with some leaves in a lemon dressing. This was very good. The 'main' was a barley salad with asparagus - two sprigs- and some leaves. Yes tihs was my main. I was dissppointed that an effort was not made to present a main course that left the diner feeling they had a just eaten a main course.

To sum up the epxerience I can say the staff are not attentive, one has to ask for water, the maitre dee left us waiting for ages at the door before he came back from outside while the waitress seeinig that we wanted a table just ignored us, bearing in mind the restaurant had two other sets of diners only . I would not be coming back to Zilli green as the food is average, expensive and not every exciting. Not worth the trip to Soho, go to Ottolenghi in Islington and be amazed!
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Peter
Overall rating 2 stars
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Sunday, September 12, 2010

I went on a £15-for-two-courses deal (drinks etc extra). It was not good value.

The venue is narrow and the acoustics terrible, not helped by a raucous table of three over-excited men. We were served by three different waiting staff, one was indifferent, another brusque, the third tried but none seemed to care.

My starter of goats cheese/walnut salad was OK. Main of mushroom ravioli was small and drowned in a tomato sauce that seemed to be 50% salt, 40% water.

My partner had a Mexican dish which was bland and mostly tortilla, little filling. "All the trimmings" consisted of two tiny pots of sour cream and guacamole. His desert was a small piece of cake, one scoop of ice-cream, two halves of strawberry and one, yes one, blackberry. Minimalism is not dead.

The table was tiny, there is no cloakroom so we had to keep our bags and jackets with us, and we could barely hear each other most of the time.

When I complained about the saltiness of the food, the response was "yes". My suggestion that the waitress inform the chef seemed to bemuse her completely.

£2 was added for a "Charity Donation" - which, after some investigation, turned out to be for Help A London Child. On top of that and the rest of the bill was added 12.5% service ("optional" - but added onto the bill). So two x £15 ended up over £46.

I'll not be going back.
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Martin Barden
Overall rating 2 stars
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 2
Thursday, September 02, 2010


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