Zio Modern Italian

I have been to Zio twice now; both times, the food was high quality with great presentation. There was a contrast in service between my two experiences, but, they will make things right for you if you communicate.
The first time, the service was lackluster at best. I was very dissatisfied, so instead of just writing a negative review online, I gave them the opportunity to show me their capabilities. The difference in service was night and day. In my second experience, the food was served both timely and accurately, seating was perfect, and the staff performed just as one would expect from a high-​end restaurant.
In my experience, service is easier to correct than quality of food, therefore I see this restaurant as a welcomed addition to Mall of America. I love Italian food, and recommend Zio over Olive Garden, Spasso, Biaggi’s, and even Broders’.

Not great at all. Bad service, bad food, and no real flavor.
I was very unhappy all around. I have not ever left a restraint without finishing my meal or bringing leftovers, and I barely ate my food and left it there– if that says anything about it.

I wanted to like this place so much I went there twice. The Mall of America is lacking in great sit down restaurants and I had hoped this would be a good one. It turned out to have some of the worst food I’ve ever had and resulted in a trip to CVS.
My first experience was fine, we had decent service and the artichoke flatbread was the best thing about that meal. I had the tortellini with chicken, which was very bland. About 75% of the chicken was good but the rest was overcooked and hard to chew, and not what I expect when it’s listed as rotisserie chicken on the menu.
I decided to give it another chance this past weekend considering I hadn’t ordered the most exciting thing on the menu and they had just opened. This turned out to be a huge mistake.
The service was decent for the first half even though it took 35 minutes to get a bread basket. Then the waiter disappeared as soon as our food came out and we didn’t see him again until we were done eating. He never even came to check if our food was ok, only to see if we wanted more drinks to bump up the bill.
Our appetizer was extremely underwhelming. The pesto shrimp bruschetta consisted of mostly tomatoes that completely overwhelmed the tiny pesto shrimp. I wouldn’t complain about this if it weren’t for the fact that the tomatoes were extremely unripe and slimy.
I ordered the chicken parmesan. The chicken was decent and the red sauce was unimaginative but fettuccine that came with it was undercooked, raw in the middle, and clumped together in places. I would have sent the food back but were we already an hour and a half into the meal by the time we saw our waiter again so I just picked around the undercooked parts.
My friend ordered the gnocchi. This dish is 8 or 10 pieces of gnocchi and a massive position of sauce. The bolognese sauce consists of 5% tomato juice and 95% overcooked extremely dry ground beef. How is that even possible, it’s a sauce? I tried a bite and it tasted more like burnt hamburger helper than a bolognese sauce.
The worst part of the meal came a about few hours later. My friend and I both got very bad stomach cramps and diarrhea, I have a feeling it was from the tomatoes on the bruschetta. You could not pay me to return here, and I’ve contacted the state department of health. My tip is to avoid this place at all costs.

It’s fine, I guess, but definitely overpriced.
The bread comes out warm, and they pour you a healthy dose of the olive oil on the table on a plate for you. The problem with the olive oil, as noted by others, is that is basically inedible outside of being a part of a dish. It is not the kind you eat with bread. It ruined bread. I added pepper, and it still ruined bread.
We had the meatballs to start, and they were fine. Nothing special. It seemed like the spices were only on the outside of the meatball, not actually part of the meat mixture. That might be fine if it’s good meat, but it’s not that. It didn’t even really seem like beef; I kinda suspect it was turkey.
I had the Pollo Mattone. The chicken part was good, but the spaghetti was basically dry with more of the crappy olive oil slathered on it. There was a puddle of olive oil underneath the noodles. Why not use the sauce on the noodles as well? I skipped most of the noodles because the olive oil ruined them. (What is this olive oil they’re using, seriously.) I ordered a side of mixed vegetables, which was the good part of the meal. In fact, it was the best. The olive oil actually worked with them. I devoured those.
There’s a better Italian joint in MOA. I guess if you want overpriced and mediocre Italian, then this is your joint. The rest of us will be at Tucci Benucch.

Zio Is No Primo
The Mall of America continues to expand in every direction it possibly can. New stores (some of which only the elitists can afford), two new hotels, but more importantly, some more food options. While I think the mall is completely missing the mark except for a very small handful, at least they’re trying???
During a recent visit to the mall, my wife and I found ourselves trying to think of something to eat, with nothing sounding all that interesting. Sure there are a couple of places definitely worth eating at (Cedar + Stone and Burger Burger), but we like trying new places. We ended up settling for a place called Zio Modern Italian. They pride themselves in providing only fresh ingredients, nothing from a jar, can or frozen.
Nice architecture. Elegant appearance. Very modern, but after you review the menu, you quickly notice overpricing taking place for what you receive. I did a little research prior to dining at Zio and I found out that its ownership, Kaskaid Hospitality, is the parent company for Crave Restaurants and Union Rooftop. If you know me, you know I’m not at all a fan! All you’re going to receive while dining at one of these places is very mediocre cuisine and extremely overpriced for that same mediocre food.
Back to Zio and our first meal with hopes of a positive good first impression. As we sat down, the server started to pour out a little extra virgin olive oil on a plate and cracked some fresh black pepper into the oil. Nothing to get too excited about and a pretty lame attempt for «finer dining». Do yourself a favor and swing by Giuseppe’s Restaurant in Rosemount and see what it takes to impress your patrons!
My wife wasn’t all that hungry and settled on a Caesar Salad. Sitting in this restaurant, you would think they would bring out this amazing looking salad, amazing dressing, fresh — homemade croutons and would be downright amazing. Well my friends, we thought exactly that, but got the complete opposite! See for yourself — anyone for a side Caesar from some crappy chain? I couldn’t stop laughing! At least the lettuce was cut perfectly…
I decided to go with one of their pizzas, the Fennel Sausage Pizza. Spicey sausage, caramelized fennel, house made sauce and provolone. Sounds delicious, but provolone doesn’t belong on a pizza, so I asked for them to put mozzarella on it instead. To my surprise, I was asked if a $ 2 charge for swapping cheese was OK. We wouldn’t want to put the extra pressure on the pizza cook by asking them to put theur hand in the mozzarella bin and not the provolone bin, would we? I find it comical that they prepare their pizzas in a wannabe wood fired oven as well.
It wasn’t by all means disgusting, actually not bad. I would however drive to Punch Pizza, Black Sheep or some other place out there over Zio to enjoy more superior wood fired pizza before going back. As for the other cuisine on the menu, I took the time to wonder around the restaurant on my way to the little boys room and perused dishes and wasn’t at all impressed with what I was seeing. Again, not surprised coming from the people behind Crave and Union.
No, Zio is definitely not all that primo, they missed the mark on first impressions, but I would really need to dig into their other dishes to really see what they’re all about. I’m just not in a hurry to do so! Look, if you want an amazing zza, check out the places I mentioned earlier. If you want an amazing Caesar or Italian in general, check out Giuseppe’s Restaurant, I Nonni or make your own — that would still be better. If you are at the mall, check out a place called Burger Burger (another Kaskaid owned business that will hopefully not be ruined because it’s awesome), the hotel restaurants or even Hooters. You can’t go wrong with awesome chicken wings and cold beer!
#knowbeforeyougo

Went there because I won a gift card and wow was I happy I did! Service was outstanding. Even thought it hasn’t been open for that long they have their act together. Ordered the calamari probably one of the best I’ve ever had and we order calamari every place we see it on a menu. I have the roasted balsamic pizza crust was wonderful chicken was flavorful and balsamic vinegar was a nice touch. My husband had the shrimp and angel hair pasta. Shrimp were perfectly cooked and pasta was aldente. The bread they give you at the beginning is okay nothing to impress and the olive oil is not that great either but
Hey is free and u don’t have to eat it. Beer selection was decent also. Will definitely go again!

Menu items are major hits or misses. Service is good. Reason I’m giving such a low rating is because an Italian restaurant should really have legit PASTA. Their pasta with tomato sauces are watery and bland! I am embarrassed for them that they serve this caliber of pasta fare at an Italian place. Some of the food was pretty decent, but the pasta was seriously lame. Tucci Bennuch on the other side of the mall is SO much better for pasta!

Nice food, but dont come here if you like attentive servers. They’ll seat you, then never come back. My friend and I had looked at the menu earlier and were ready to order the moment we sat down, but we still ended up spending about 2 hours in the restaurant because the waiters didn’t come back to take our drink order after we were seated and didn’t take our food order for about a half an hour after that. The waiters were very nice, it just felt like we were being forgotten.
That being said, the food was pretty great. The calamari appetizer was very good, nicely fried and not too fishy tasting. I had the carbonara which was a lighter dish, not too heavy on the cream sauce.
My friend had the cheese tortellini with chicken which she said was excellent.

This restaurant shows all the possibilities of being one of the mall of Americas best eateries. From the moment you walk up to the hostess you are being treated as if there’s no one else around. Jordan, our waitress, went above and beyond to keep our drinks filled and our tummies satisfied as we waited for our entrées to arrive with the busy New Year’s eve crowd. She put my youngest food order in before the others to make sure he was eating earlier since he was hungry. The rest of us had to wait longer than expected for our food because of the crowd, but Jordan made up for it by giving us a free dessert. The food was excellent! The fettuccine Alfredo was the best I’ve ever had, the chicken tenders were very good, and so was the spaghetti with mixture of Bolognese and spicy marinara. I would, however, caution you on the spicy marinara sauce. I asked for mine on the side so I could control how hot I wanted the spaghetti to taste. I wish we lived in the Twin Cities so I could come here again!

Amazing fresh pasta. My daughter really enjoyed the bread with olive oil. Great kids menu but she ate most of my pasta because it was so delicious and pillowy soft. Eggplant Parmesan was very fresh and not fried. Keep up the good work!

A definite disappointment. I was excited to try this place so brought my daughters there for lunch. We waited at least one hour for our food after ordering which was way to long! Once the food was finally served and after a few bites I was so irritated by the lack of flavor and long wait I couldn’t even eat my meal! A waste of time and money. My advise, don’t bother.

Went on a Monday after the holidays and they were not ready for a crowd of people. We waited for 15 minutes for 4 slices of bread and then about 50 more minutes for our food to come out of the kitchen.
We started with the fried olives, they had a thick coating and crunch but lacked in much else. I’d skip them for sure if I ever came back.
I got the chicken tortellini and was disappointed. There wasn’t much flavor and I felt like I could’ve made it better at home (and I am not a cook). My sister got the farfalle with shrimp and that was semi-​ok. Mom had the garganelli (?) with vodka sauce, and that also was bland.
The server was nice but seemed pretty overwhelmed with the volume of people.
Overall, I won’t be going back. I prefer Tucchi Bennuch for pasta if I’m at the Mall of America.

I so wanted to like this place which claims to be the only place to experience authentic Italian cuisine at Mall of America. Well to do that you need more than menu items you need ingredients which are authentic and Zio just doesn’t have them.
Certainly there’s spirit in the menu, dishes you’d often not find but its let down by poor substitutions at the places that really matter.
First off, the Californian olive oil on the table is just inferior and can’t hold a candle to Mediterranean virgin oils. It’s runny and bland not vibrant and viscous. For sure this is a bad cost cutting measure as it might work on pizza but it adds nothing to the breads or salads. I’m always suspicious when the waitress pours and immediately adds salt and pepper– WTF is that? I want to choose and naturally I prefer my oils unadulterated. When you taste it you know why they do that. Just avoid this nasty stuff.
On my month long holiday along the coast and islands I never once had jalapeño and cauliflower in my calamari. Now it’s interesting but certainly not traditional Italian and is in an entirely different flavor space. It completely altered my experience given the description of calamari with house made giardiniera tossed with seasoned flour and then flash fried. Who added the other shit and how is that giardiniera? The mariara was over done but the lemon aioli excelled.
By now I was frustrated and struggling to reconcile the menu listening with taste expectations. The chicken strozzapreti held promise of hand crafted pasta with rotisserie chicken and arugula pesto. What wasn’t listed was quarter cup of cheap olive oil on which the pasta swan or a tomato jam that tasted more canned tomato than jam. The chicken pieces were hiding in embarrassment and neither the caramelized fennel nor grated grana padano could save it. «More cheese madam» was not what I expected.
I get that Zio wants to differentiate itself but there’s truth in advertising and you have to deliver on the promise, this really missed the mark.
Not awful but s long way from the tastes, textures and flavors of an Italy I had been promised.

The food has been excellent the two times I’ve went. The drinks are strong. I would definitely recommend.

We stopped by for evening snack here. we tried few small bites. The service was great. Mushroom cap was delicious and it had good seasoning but felt it was slightly dry. The polenta fries was the stand out dish for us. We finished off with fried olives which had an unique good punch to it. Overall it was a good experience.

The food here was awesome! I really liked the atmosphere as well… and the drinks are really sophisticated but fun!
–Butternut squash crochettes
–House salad
–Shrimp bruchetta
Those are three things that I would definitely recommend! I am going to be back soon to try out the rest of the menu. =)