Zabaglione Restaurant

Reviews 4

A

A Private User

I visit Ipswich area about once a year. Remembering a lovely meal about a year ago, I decided to make reservation to Zabaglione on Saturday September 19 at 8pm. After being seated and after being served a bottle of wine that we ordered, we waited patiently for the waitress to take our order. After few minutes she came over. My wife being a vegetarian and on a restricted diet, ordered a green salad from the menu as her first course, and for the second course she requested a grilled vegetable medley with any available vegetables, with the exception of the three she dont like: eggplant, zucchini, and artichoke. I ordered Grilled Portobello Mushrooms as an appetizer, and a veal chop special that they were offering for that day. Being a nice evening we where in no rush, especially that we had the bread and wine already served. After some time the waitress came over and put a dish in front of me, turned around and left without saying a word. She didnt bring the salad for my wife. The dish in front of me didnt look like anything that I ordered. It had mushrooms, but it wasnt Portobello. It looked like another mushroom dish they had on the menu. Since she didnt bring the salad for my wife, I thought that possibly they are delivering it to the wrong table. I managed to catch my waitress attention. She came over and I told her that it is not the Portobello mushrooms that I ordered. She looked kind of hesitant; she took the dish and said: "we will have to make a new one". Not but ninety seconds later the owner / chef Michael Zabaglione comes over to our table. He looks as though he just had a conniption. Looking with that wild face at my wife, he says: "I dont have the vegetables that you ordered. That makes me confused. GO EAT SOMEWHERE ELSE". He tears up the check and throws it on the table and repeats: "GO EAT SOMWHERE ELSE". For split second I thought it is some kind of a joke. Am I on Seinfeld???? Is it Candid Camera???? Being in the restaurant and hospitality business myself for forty years, I have never experienced or heard anything close to this. I managed to mumble: "how is it that we make you confused", but received no reply. I walked over to the open kitchen area and said: "Mr.; that was uncalled for. You are an Idiot". He just waived with his hand dismissively as though saying: get lost. I motioned to my wife to get up and follow me outside, she was still in disbelieving shock, I had to go over to the table and prompt her to get up and leave. Walking outside we tried to comprehend as to what we could have done to trigger that type of reaction. It just doesnt make any sense. From Zagat I was aware of another restaurant in the area that I wanted to try. We walked over to Ithaki Mediterranean Cuisine. We where warmly greeted, seated right away, and had a delicious well served diner. Highly recommended, well deserved Zagat rating. While dining we relayed our adventure to our waitress. She informed us that it is not an uncommon occurrence at Zabaglione. The stories she told us are worse and come close to violence perpetrated by Mr. Zabaglione. The question being asked is how long Mr. Zabaglione is allowed to behave in that manner before someone is hurt either by him or by a patron who may loose his cool by such a confrontation. I give ZERO points to the Mussolini Nazi savant.. If you ever decide to go to Zabaglione, which I do not recommend, make sure not to make any complaints or return any unordered dishes that they put on your table. If you do so, bring a bullet proof vest and a helmet, because if Michael is in the kitchen, FIREWORKS will fly.

SH

Shawn Smith

So here is the story of the evening on 11/9/12... myself, my wife and my 6 1/2 year old daughter decided to try cafe zabaglione for the first time. We went in after my daughter got out of dance lessons. Ordered drinks and apps. My daughter was having a cup of chicken noodle soup and we were sharing the mussels. The soup came first. As the mussels were being placed in front of us i could right away detect a strong fish odor. I told my wife that i thought something was wrong with the mussels. When i went to eat one of the mussels, the fish taste was so strong that i gagged. We called the waitress over and told her that we did not want the mussels and told her the situation. She apologized and we place our dinner order. Within 5 minutes this raving lunatic, who i later found out was the owner, came over to the table yelling at me that there was nothing wrong with the mussels. I tried to quietly tell my side of the story seeing that other customers were in there and he told me to speak up so that everyone could hear. I told him that this behavior was not appropriate and he proceeded to kick us out of the restaurant saying never to come back (which we wont). He was so out of control and screaming that he proceeded to make my daughter cry. As we walked out another customer who was getting a to go order came outside with us and had to hug my daughter. She told us that she had granddaughters of her own and that this man acted so inappropriate in front of a young child. In my years alive i had never seen such an out of control, arrogant, cold hearted person as this man! I can easily say that we will never step foot inside his place again and i wish him the worst with all my heart!

KA

Kathryn and Matthew Castonguay

Last night, my wife two children went to Zabagliones Ristorante in Ipswich. They recently expanded and took over the restaurant space next to their smaller cafe type restaurant so we wanted to check it out. We got there at 7:15pm. We ordered not soon after and my 19 month olds meal FINALLY came out at about 8:45. Meanwhile, tables that arrived prior to us still did not have their food yet. At 9pm, I finally inquired why it was taking so long for the food. About a minute later, the owner came out with one of the meals. I then asked him if the other two meals were coming - that we have been waiting an extremely long time for the food. The owner then began to SCREAM at me for asking that and then he took the plate away and threw it on the bar. He then continued yelling at us and told us to "Just get the hell out!" It was very upsetting to be treated this way, especially with my children present. He continued yelling in the restaurant in front of all the other patrons. As we left, the kind server apologized for that behavior by the owner/chef and said he was deeply embarrassed. We gave the server a nice tip as he took good care of us while during the very long wait for our food. However, obviously we will never return to this place and suggest that you never go, too. The owner should not treat his customers like this at all - especially after waiting almost two hours for food!!! DO NOT GO TO ZABAGLIONES!

A

A Private User

This restaurant is a gem. I am a long distance bike rider and asked one of the locals whats awesome in Ipswich and he emphatically endorsed Zabaglione as the best in town. He was right. We had the veal chop and the pork entree...we travel extensively around the world and this was amongst the best meals weve had in a while. Superb in every way -- flavorful, cooked to perfection. very interesting sides!!! We had the special salad which was very fresh and we ate too much of the home-made bread...because the portions were more than plentiful. We skipped dessert but the plates around us were very tempting. Zabaglione is a storefront -- so expect tightly spaced tables and some of the specials to be out...its a small place and this is part of the ambiance ...its very much worth a drive to Ipswich!