Restaurant Zola

11/05/09

Highly overrated

by Curlygirl at Citysearch

During my dinner with friends, our evening started out with an impertinent waiter admonishing us to taste our food before we salted it (duh). My appetizer and main course had too many conflicting flavors and both courses tasted a bit too sweet. Three of us ordered the grouper special. For two of us, one of our wo pieces of grouper was fine; the other, however, was mealy. I thought the waiter should know this. His response was a lecture about this particular grouper having come from the Yucatan, or wherever, and perhaps not the grouper we, the great unwashed, were used to. (Actually, I thought we were quite nicely dressed.)

A good kitchen wants to know when something isn't prepared properly or an ingredient is of poor quality. Either the waiter didn't bother telling the chef that half of two entrees were inedible or the chef didn't care. All that was necessary was an apology. None was forthcoming.

• Pros: Potato skins were good, but you can get those at TGIFriday's
• Cons: Too many flavors spoil the pot

10/05/09

Disappointed

by bunny95 at Citysearch

Wanted a special restaurant for Vanderbilt parents weekend. Was told Zola was one of the best restaurants in Nashville. I do not recommend it! Each entree had so many different ingredients that the main point of the dish was lost. The pork was so undercooked it was dangerous to eat. The beans in the halibut dish were slightly crunchy. So were the cubes of butternut squash in the salad. Inedible. We were at the table close to 2 hours before our food arrived. Our waitress told us this was unusual. Another employee said it was not.

• Pros: suppose to be great food
• Cons: food not good & waited too long for food to arrive

02/13/09

Found hair in food, bad service

by delialah at Citysearch

This was my favorite restaurant until I recently found a long black hair in my food. I told the server about it and she replaced my dish- only for me to find another black hair in the new dish. By that time, I couldn't finish my dinner...I was too sick to eat. I might consider returning if the kitchen staff agree to hairnets.

• Cons: Hair in food, terrible service

02/13/09

Worst service in town

by citygirl31980 at Citysearch

I made a reservation for Zola 3 weeks in advance, but when my husband and I showed up to dinner, they lost our reservation and told us they would not have a table until later in the evening. We understand mistakes and decided to come back later- only to have the server forget about us. We were seated at the table fro over 30 mins before someone stopped by to see if we needed anything. I don't care how tasty the food is, the service was terrible and managment was unapologetic. We will never return.

• Cons: Terrible Service

07/07/08

Worst Food and Service in Nashville---HANDS DOWN LOSER

by minakash at Citysearch

We had reservations for 3 couples on a slow Saturday night. The night started off on a bad note when we couldn't get our server to take our drink orders...then as she was going through all the food they were OUT of she said only a couple of Salmon dishes left. When asked if she would go back and ask the chef to save one of the Salmon dishes she refused. Which set the tone for the entire evening...Horrible service...horrible food. One of the fish entrees came out raw while the other food came out cooked but cold. It took almost 3 hours to get through this painful dinner. Zola's has lost 6 customers! I will NEVER return.

• Pros: The dinner finally ended
• Cons: horrible experience.

05/05/08

What a letdown

by drkstaff at Citysearch

My husband, two business friends and associates and I had dinner at Zola Friday. The service was rude; the drinks were not generous, and the wine we had with dinner was bad. The food, while okay, certainly was not worth the price. Our server seemed put out with our questions, and she acted like she would have rather been somewhere else. We all agreed with her - we would have rather dined elsewhere, too. We will not make this mistake again. There are plenty of established fine dining "hot spots" in Nashville and nearby Franklin to avoid this pretentious place.

• Pros: Ending the evening
• Cons: Everything from service to the food

08/13/07

worst oh yeah

by ifood at Citysearch

this is probably the another one of the worst restaurants on west end this true slow service ugly waitresses/waiters food was horribl and disgusting nolas is waaaaaaaayyyyyyy better than zolas ill never come back thats a fact!

• Pros: nothing
• Cons: everything

07/14/07

Can we just get our check please?

by sandrita32782 at Citysearch

My boyfriend and I were very excited to try this restaurant, since we had read such good reviews and from the awards the restaurant and chef have won. But we were greatly disappointed by the experience. We had reservations for 8pm but didn't get seated until close to 8:30pm, then it took another half an hour to get our dinner orders taken. An hour and a half after we arrived we finally got our meals. I had ordered the pistachio salmon, which was competely raw in the middle, and although the server was apologetic and took it back to the kitchen, it was still undercooked when she brought it back to me. By then I had lost my appetite. My boyfriend's pork chops were pretty good, however. After 2 hrs of waiting and then a disappointing entree, my boyfriend and I just wanted to leave. I don't know if they were just having a bad night, but I could not recommend this restaurant.

12/29/05

Failed to Meet Expectations

by thefoodone at Citysearch

This restaurant is highly rated and I expected a great experience. I went with three other foodies - people in the business. We did not have one dish which was exceptional, let alone good. I don't understand why chef's in Nashville feel they need to create dishes with so many flavors. Great food should be simple, the complexity should be in layering flavors, not adding a great deal of different flavors. The service was amateur at best. I could get past the decor, if they had delivered on the food and service. Perhaps they were having an off night, but regardless, we will not go back.

• Pros: ?, ?, ?
• Cons: Food, Service, Parking

10/15/05

walked out coz of poor service.

by nandyk at Citysearch

We were coming back from the vandi game, and walked to zolas, as we saw atleast 4-5 empty tables and still we were asked to wait for more than 20 mins. They dont take the drink orders (not even food) for more than 10 mins.

Extremely rude manager, who tried to meddle with our wallets on our tables, even when our orders werent taken yet.

Note for vegetarians.. there isnt squat there to eat. If your definition is having a salad.. i pity the people who classified this restaurant under vegetarian.

• Pros: ambiance
• Cons: poor service, rude manager, no vegetarian entrees