Zenchef Reviews 

I experienced a problem trying to create a service exception. The result was a mess and confusion on my side.
I contacted the supportteam (Roos), explained the issue in an email and received a message back that everything was corrected and working plus some words of explanation as to correct this myself next time. So I had a working solution, a communication with the right tone of voice and all that in no time.

This is a useless platform as they accept a reservation request and hours later you get a confirmation or not. I might just call the restaurant directly and have a answer immediately.

worst customer support. just bot going circle, sending agressive messages for already paid invoices. Phone number going nowhere. the worst

Our Honest Experience Migrating from Formitable to Zenchef

We recently migrated from Formitable to Zenchef after being convinced it would be a significant improvement with better features and integration, especially with our POS system (Lightspeed Kassa). Unfortunately, our experience has been very disappointing.

After nearly five months trying to initiate the process—and now five days into active use—we are frustrated and honestly very upset. Zenchef has not met our expectations. The platform is not intuitive, it creates additional costs, demands more administrative handling, increases the chances of human error, and its integration with Lightspeed is far from smooth.

For a restaurant like ours, where the reservation system is the backbone of our sales operations, this change has been more damaging than beneficial. The migration process was chaotic, poorly supported, and it feels like we were forced to switch without the proper time for analysis or onboarding.

In our opinion, Zenchef is not a reliable replacement for Formitable at this stage. Unless improvements are made immediately, we believe many businesses will face the same operational stress we are experiencing.

We hope Zenchef takes these concerns seriously and offers tangible solutions soon.

Stay away from Zenchef!

Zenchef is the most expensive reservation system on the market, advertising with a range of impressive features. The company frequently showcases its subsidiary Formitable as a success story – but that system is no longer available, as it's supposedly being phased out and fully integrated into Zenchef.

Unfortunately, Zenchef still suffers from many teething problems: several of the promised features either don't exist or don't work properly.

The pricing structure is also misleading. While they initially promoted a 1.8% credit card fee, the charge for no-show payments suddenly jumps to 5%. I was also told that PayPal would be available within a month – two months later, there's still no sign of it.

I specifically agreed to a two-month trial period. Even though I canceled on time, the already paid annual fee is not being refunded.

My verdict: Stay away from Zenchef!

The UX of their booking widget is garbage. If there is an issue authorising your card, you get prompted to try again, except the date will have been changed to the earliest possible date instead of the one you choose. Sometimes this can be the same day, and then you get charged a cancellation fee as soon as you try to change the booking. This has cost me so much money, please fix it

Very bad support. It has taken me 1 hour to get the answer to a very simple question. As a business owner you need a quick and helpful support.

Good until now, then booked a place, paid the deposit (non refundable) and then got out of the blue a cancellation email with no explanation.
I can understand this might have been the place, but unacceptable this can be a standard and acceptable process on this app. How can you trust this app again?

It’s not just that they take no responsibility for any of their actions, their workflow is very questionable. From odd unexplainable startup fees wich add no value to your package to a three week response time from our account manager. We’ve run into so many problems that it has cost us almost five times more just on hours trying to get stuff done. Save yourself the money and just search for a service that actually cares about your business. Better have a simple reservation system then one with a 100 functions that don’t work.

I am absolutely furious with the abysmal service provided by Zenchef. This so-called website provider has completely obliterated years of our hard work and memories. They inexplicably deleted all our photos, some of which dated back to 2012 and are irreplaceable. When I complained, their response was dismissive, attributing it to "human error" without offering any meaningful solution or compensation.

Adding insult to injury, they replaced our cherished photos with clumsy, AI-enhanced versions that made our dishes look unappealing and rendered our menu unreadable. This is not just a minor glitch – it directly impacts our business and the impression we make on potential customers.

To make matters worse, Zenchef now forces us to use their booking system, threatening to cut off website-only services unless we comply. Since these changes, we've been receiving suspicious bookings from France, and when we raised this issue, their response was essentially to upsell us their new booking system. This is highly suspicious and seems like a deliberate attempt to manipulate us into additional costs.

Despite paying for this horrendous service for years, not once have they offered any discount or compensation for the multitude of issues they've caused. Zenchef has shown a blatant disregard for customer satisfaction and has proven themselves to be utterly unreliable and untrustworthy.

Avoid Zenchef at all costs if you value your business and your sanity. Their incompetence and lack of accountability are staggering, and they do not deserve your hard-earned money.