Za’s Italian Cafe

I’m really a fan of Za’s ordering system because it allows you to customize dishes or just go with what’s on the menu. I came here for lunch with a friend and it was an interesting experience. Overall, the quality of food matches the prices very well and it’s generally inexpensive,
My friend decided to experiment with a peculiar combination of ingrediants on her pizza at the risk of being disappointed. Her face slowly went from «that’s not bad» to «I’m dying a bit inside with each bite» as she continued to eat. We branded the pizza, the GPS (garlic, pain, and sadness) pizza. So just a tip if you mix ingrediants; do not combine pineapple with garlic, basil, and tomatoes. They tend to go a little heavy on the garlic if you order it so anything sweet is going to taste like tears and disappointment when added. Otherwise, everything was very good. They have a pretty large selection of food and give pretty decent portions for the price. I would recommend this place for anyone who just wants to drop in and get a quick bite to eat. It’s also not a bad place to hang out for a bit and converse with friends; they even have a lounge area with couches.

I found the experience at Za’s to be really off-​putting and I don’t think that I get the concept of this place. It’s seems like this restaurant is set up so that the people that work there have as little interaction with the customers as possible.
When you arrive, you fill out a form to order the food that you want and then write your name on it at the bottom. You then hand that form to a person who barely acknowledges your existence and pay that person for the food that you ordered. You then go sit down in the dining room. This is the only direct interaction that you will have with a person at this restaurant.
The people that work in the restaurant will then quietly call out your name when your food is ready. It will be waiting in an area called «The Window»… you then retrieve your own food from the window, fill your own drink, and retrieve whatever side items you paid for.
Once finished with your meal, you are expected to bus you own table and place your dishes in a bin which is sitting on the garbage bin.
At no point are you offered any assistance in figuring any of this out.
You have to just figure it out on your own or ask another customer… or someone that works there, if you can find one. (It’s like they are trained to not talk to you.)
In my case, the food tasted like it fresh out of a can, and it was cold by the time I got it. I never heard anyone call my name from «The Window» when it was ready so it sat there for 10 minutes. Another customer had to come over to my table and ask me if I had ordered food because she heard the person quietly call out a random name and we were the only people there that hadn’t eaten… so she assumed that it was our food.
The experience here was so confusing and disappointing that I frankly don’t know why this place even exists. Why does a business that normally specializes in hospitality provide absolutely none?
I wouldn’t return to eat at this place even if someone else were buying. My experience at Za’s is the reason why I downloaded Unilocal onto my phone.
If you want fake Italian food, go to Fazoli’s…at least you’ll talk to a human person who smiles at you and gives you free breadsticks.

I’ve heard great things about Za’s from friends so I decided to stop in for a Saturday lunch. The place was surprisingly packed, but they got the food out to us quickly. I ordered the BBQ chicken ranch pizza and it didn’t have an overwhelmingly ranch flavor, which I loved. Prices were good, employees were friendly (I loved the cashier’s Hawaiian shirt!) so I will be back. I also got the tiramisu, it was little frozen but delicious.

I have given Za’s a chance twice now. Salads are very basic and it’s extremely upsetting to wait 15 minutes for your food (a veg salad) to get back to your car/​work and find out you are missing items you paid extra for. Why did I stand there and check all the boxes thinking «yeah, that sounds good!» I’m over this place…

The customization of your meal is the big selling point here. You can basically have whatever you want, however you want it.

What a delicious surprise this place was! My son and I found it on Unilocal.I had half a pizza and half a sandwich. They were both delicious! My pizza was pepperoni and fresh basil. Since it cost extra for extra cheese I didn’t order it but my cheese loving self was surprised and pleased at the amount of cheese on it! My sandwich was turkey, provolone on a toasted hoagie roll. Delicious but I might ask to not have it toasted next time, it was very… crunchy. My son had half a salad and half a sandwich. He loved his also.
The only bad part is the price was bordering on high for lunch. The food and drinks were $ 20. Not too bad, but there are places where you can do better for lunch.
Oh, also as we were filling out our order sheets some teenagers came in and said there was a fight in the parking lot. Apparently it’s not the best part of town.
We will go back, for sure! I took a photo of my food but not sure I can figure out how to post it. LOL! I’ll work on that.

Totally customizable makes this perfect for my whole family. My kids can make it their own way while my SO can have something a little different each time while I get what I’ve found works for me. They even have 5 different flavors of iced tea and caffeine free drink options! Bring you cup back to reuse next time for a drink discount too.
I get to pick my toppings instead of having to tell them to hold half of what comes on it. The salads have more options than most salad bars around here like local goat cheese, green apples, and walnuts. And while I’m not a fan of the pizza I enjoy the cheese tortellini (which costs no more than the spaghetti) with 4 add ins.
Service hasn’t always been perfect but the once or twice we’ve had problems they were fixed.
For the same sorts of prices, they blow fazolli’s out of the water. and are just better tasting and more comfortable –not to mention better prices — than olive garden.

I absolutely love the customizable menu as it gives you a chance to sample their various dishes at a reasonable price. I got half pasta and a half salad and it was simply scrumptious. I wish their service was as good as their food though.

I think Za’s is a good idea for an Italian restaurant. I like the different menus to customize your order, but it is really wasteful for every person that orders something to use a sheet of paper. I sure hope they recycle them.
Unfortunately the food has been marginal at best. I’ve tried multiple pizzas, pastas, and salads hoping I’d find something that works but no luck. The only reason I kept returning was because it’s sort of a «tradition» for my coworkers and I, but I’ve decided to not spend my money there when I can avoid it because I end up having to force myself to finish as much of the plate as I can. The portions are always far too large, but many people (Americans) will see that as a good thing.
I can see this place being popular on campus when you need something filling and fast, but otherwise it’s a pretty mediocre restaurant.

I went to eat lunch here today. I ordered pasta marinara with shrimp and meatballs. Everything was good EXCEPT the shrimp. They were chewy with an intense fishy seafood flavor… which is not normal. I eat a lot of shrimp from other restaurants and they taste just fine. The ones served by Za’s are either spoiled or just not prepared right. I went to talk to the manager at the cash registered and he basically didn’t care. He asked if I wanted something else and I said no… because I had already eaten my entrée. I told him about the situation and he told me, «I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’ll check it out for you.» I was not looking for a refund, all I wanted for them to do was realize that they serve disgusting shrimp.
WARNING: DONT ORDER SHRIMP AT ZAs… go to red lobster for shrimp because they actually care about the quality of their food.

Descent place to eat and relax. The ordering here is somewhat fast despite being a busy place. I like the service here. Friendly. One can make their combos and mix/​match. The ingredients here are good and there is taste to the food. Great portion for the price.

Restaurant review
I am glad that I am back by Za’s after moving back to Champaign. This was my favorite place to eat at on campus when I was a medical student. Now that I am back I have found out that there are multiple locations which works out well. The prices are actually cheaper than when I was here for college due to a modification in the menu. For the pasta you get to select from multiple types and sauces with 4 toppings for 5 dollars. The premium protein items i. e shrimp, meatballs, chicken will run you a dollar more each. The food is prepared quickly, however I don’t know if they changed it now to use a convection oven/​microwave to nuke your toppings which is one down side. This is then added to a pan with the sauce and served quickly. You also get a nice piece of garlic bread. All and all this is better than McD and for the same price. There are also other options such as pizza, salads, sandwiches etc. I have never strayed from the pasta
Pro: inexpensive, quick, large portions
Cons: microwaved toppings (i guess you get what you pay for)
Hidden gem:
Sign up for the perka app. You need to check in and tell the cashier so they can give you the punch to earn free food. I did not realize this and ended up not getting my first check-​in. You can’t just check-​in which makes sense or people would abuse the system

I go to Za’s on a regular (weekly almost) basis. I like the variety of food available, how fast it is, and the cost. The staff isn’t friendly necessarily but hey, I’m not there to make friends, I’m there to eat. They also carry Cheesecake Factory desserts!

This is easily one of the worst places I have ever been. Bad service, terrible food, and horrible atmosphere. So what I’m saying is don’t go. Get chef boy r’ de you’ll be happier.

I have moved from Champaign, IL to White Plains, NY. But still I miss this small town for its food.
Zas is by far my most favorite Italian place.
There serving time, hospitality and price are unbeatable. Tomato basil soup, Pesto pasta with grilled chicken and tuscan chicken pizza are my all time favorites.
I have tried all other dishes as well, all I can say is everything is equally best. I miss you. Please open a place in New York.

I like to eat the pizza here from the drive-​through.
It takes some time to go through the drive-​through, but that is to be expected when ordering custom pizzas.
I don’t know of anywhere else in town where I can order my Classic crust, Alfredo sauce, sun-​Dried tomatoes/​red peppers/​pepperoini/​Mozz-​feta cheeze pizza.
The pizzas aren’t completely consistent. sometimes it tastes like they’re swimming in sauce, and sometimes it tastes like there’s not much sauce at all, and sometimes the pizza is undercooked, but I keep coming back because I normally enjoy my pizza.

Ate here with the family to celebrate a birthday while at the same time ordering relatively healthy food. Be it pastas, salads or soups, we have all enjoyed eating at Za’s. The Loaded Baked Potato Soup was excellent, as usual. The sandwiches, pastas and salads were up to the usual Za’s standard of excellence. We were eating later in the evening and had the place all to ourselves. Great food and fast friendly service — what more could you want?

I love this place. Cheap, good food.
The combo menu is my favorite, which allows you to order either two or three items (with a choice of ½ pizza, ½ panini, ½ salad, ½ pasta, or soup). I love that you can choose your own ingredients/​toppings.
And a MAJOR PLUS — they serve Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes.

Solid.
This place has had it’s moments. I will say I like all of the options and combination possibilites (the ability to make your own pizza/​pasta/​salad/​sandwich/​etc), and how fast the food comes out. However, if I had to get lunch somewhere on campus, I don’t know that this would be one of my first choices out of the tons of other restaurants in the area. I guess it’s good if the people you’re with are all hungry for different things?

Since there seems to be confusion about Za’s vs. MiaZa’s, this particular page is for Za’s off-​campus. Back in the day when it was simply Za’s on campus, the food was delicious, but no more.
I went to the Za’s on Springfield and was tortured by lukewarm cheese tortellini with bolognese sauce and broccoli, carrots, and red peppers. They forgot the fourth topping I had requested so I cannot comment on the potential mediocrity of that item. I can only vouch for what I did taste, and boy was it subpar. I guess I was happy that garlic bread came with it.
The service was also terrible. I had to get the drive-​up employee’s attention. When the food was ready, the guy handed it to me without saying anything. In fact, he was completely turned towards another employee, talking and not paying attention. Consequently, he did not notice that he crushed the container. Thankfully there was no spillage.
I wouldn’t eat here unless I am desperate.