Zaks Poringland Diner in South Norfolk

One of the best American style diners I've been to!

Excellent place to eat, watch out for portion sizes though they are pretty big!!

Just awesome as you would expect foil wrapped burger just the same as when it was made in the cabin at castle cattle market 34years ago made me smile

Great place for burgers. Watch out as the portions are very generous 🙂

Great place, friendly, nice food

First time in this branch and became our main one directly! (not because others bad, Poringland is too good :)) Staff is very friendly and quick, burgers are yummy as always, see you again shortly 😬

I have been going there for many years But never been treated so rudely as I was last week , by the manager

Guy was not very pleasant so we left

Great meal, luvly tasting burger. But prefer the Great Yarmouth restaurant the portions are more generous there.

Very disappointing. Waited at the bar for 20 mins (7:15pm booking). No one offered to seat us or a drink. Finally just took a table. Had to ask twice for drinks. No menus brought. Had tonask twice for someone to take the order. Food was all OK when it finally arrived at gone 9pm, but took ages to bring condiments. After eating it took ages for someone to bring the bill, then ages for someone to actually take payment. Biggest problem here is no leadership. No-one was in charge. Most staff were young, so inexperienced. They were nice, but not attentive. Better management required.

I visted Zak's last Wednesday with some work colleagues for 'Wing-It-Wednesday'. The wings were cooked perfectly, with a thick coating and a generous amount of sauce. They were not small like other estabslishments, but rather meaty and tender, making these the best wings I've tried so far. The restaurant had a warm and welcoming atmosphere, with aesthetically pleasing American-style decor. The service was excellent, with our servers checking on us frequently and promptly addressing any requests. I rate Zak's a perfect 5-star review and look forward to returning soon for another round of wings.

My grandson's birthday treat which he didn't eat much of. Very disappointed 😓 would not go back. I had the chicken and thighs again not good.

Lovely food but very, rich, salty etc. Portions way too big. Was asked what type of chips/ fries / potatoes on the spot and found out after they were £2 extra as opposed to coming with the meal. One member of party said butter tasted off but was addressed promptly. Service was fairly prompt and polite, but no set cutlery for each person just random knives. One adult one teen, no pudding, came to £47:50. Family milestone birthday so not optional but will take a whole year to save up for that again. Will definitely pay more attention to find print in future and might order a starter to eat as a main to facilitate cost and portion control.

First time going here drove a good 45 minutes to try it out , we arrived and got sat on a small table so had 0 view of the place really . And well the food is basic you can make it at home definitely not American food.. and even missed topping on the hot dog so I didn't tip for that reason. Even when mentioned the kid didn't understand. So won't go to this restaurant again.

Best Zak’s out of all of them, amazing staff amazing service. Food always perfect !

Went for wing it Wednesday, the food was hot and lovely and fresh every time, really good pricing and amazing service by Leona who kept us topped up with wings!

Good food - if a tad expensive. Good job it was BOGOF on burgers.

Good food, very reasonably priced and the service was excellent, highly recommend

Good choice, food lovely, good portions will be back

Went in during week and enquired about take away for 10 people on Saturday evening was told all ok, phoned early Saturday afternoon to place order and was told no they couldn’t accommodate

Thank you for a lovely time this evening had a wonderful meal

Lovely food, I remember a Big 'Un from the original caravan, still as good after nearly 50 years!!

9 of us for 50th birthday meal. Fantastic food. Great service.

Food was great, but the service was slow.

I had a great time at zaks on my forest visit. The waiting staff are very knowledgeable about every ingredient in each product and advised me on my dietary requirements. It's not often that you get this in many places. I will be returning. The food was amazing, atmosphere was great and the staff were really helpful, welcoming and friendly

A very warm and fun place for families

First time there, after usually going to the Mousehold Zaks. Much, much, much prefer the Poringland one! Less claustrophobic and feels more chilled. Very good service and a lovely meal. No urgency to us leaving so they could re-use the table, but it got quite chilly in there, almost as if the heating had been switched off, so we left at that point.

Great Place Highly Recommend the Chicken Wings

Food was really good but the service like in a lot of restaurants since Covid was not the best as was slow to take orders and ask if we would like more drinks.

I am not a fan of American Diners but came here as part of a group for someone's birthday. I was pleasantly surprised by the food and the service was amazingly good.

Good parking area, really good food, vegetarian / vegan options. Great service!

Go as a group for a better experience,

Love the place great food and great Staff

I ate here for my work's Christmas do and I can honestly say Zak's is fine. If you like that sort of Americana vibe i.e. burgers, hotdogs, fried chicken stuff, you'll enjoy it. Food - The portions are enormous! I ordered a plate of fried chicken because I'd heard their steaks weren't great and I try to avoid ordering a burger in restaurants. It was fine, not a lot of meat on the thighs, the seasoning was flavourful if not a little bit hard, the fries and beans were fine, definitely from the freezer and a can but it is what it is. It was fine, not exciting but edible. Service - The service was friendly, they asked if I had any allergies, I told them onion and in her defence she did everything right, checked with the kitchen etc, they removed the coleslaw from my meal, it wouldn't have hurt offered some gravy as an alternative or something but it's not the end of the world. She messed up the starters for the table but fixed the issue... Service was fine. Atmosphere - Hyper Americana, it was super loud and bright. Plenty of parking, level access to the restaurant at the side. Broken toilet door on the only stall. Nothing to write home about.

As always great food, great service and a wonderful atmosphere.

Have always loved this place, 10/10. Been 50+ times over the last 20 or so years. Don't book on the 241 days as it means I can't get a table...

Visited on a Thursday for their 241 offer nights. Place was very busy but a nice atmosphere. We all had burgers which were nice and had a couple of desserts. We were looked after by Leonna who we could not speak more highly of, she was great fun and looked after us so well.

Excellent food and service thank you for a lovely evening

All amazing food , shame drinks order was slow... the young lad behind bar needed some help, which was not given.. shame really

Great food and service at a very decent price; highly recommended

Fantastic food, service was perfect, friendly and welcoming. Really enjoyed our visit with a large group of us, food all came out together piping hot and delivered with a smile. Highly recommended

Copieux et savoureux. La formule 1 Burger acheté/1 Burger offert le jeudi rend le prix très attractif. Mieux vaut réserver.

We used to come to this particular branch regularly, but after a mediocre experience here we veered towards using the city centre restaurants instead since. It had been a couple of years since our last visit to this Zak’s and thought we’d give it a return visit. We were not disappointed! We prefer the space inside that Poringland offers. Our order was taken swiftly and food served within a very reasonable wait time. Our fussy, particular likes/ dislikes, order came spot on! The food was hot and fresh and the portions were plentiful. Thank you, we will be back soon.

I've frequented Zaks many a time in the past and have always had a pleasant experience. Yesterday was no exception. This American Style restaurant never fails to put you in the mood for a fat ol' burger. I just wished that was what I ordered yesterday! I thought I would go against the grain and order the Texas Combo, a combination of BBQ ribs and chicken. Coming in at £20, I was expecting something a little more than average. When the food arrived, I wasn't expecting to be presented with fried chicken to go along with my self described "Fat Boy" ribs. No where in the description of the Texas Combo did it mention fried chicken, so I was a little taken aback. It was quite literally just a fried drumstick, and what looked like a fried thigh. It's just a shame that it was so dry that I couldn't chew it properly. And the bone was pink, a clear tell tale sign that it had been fried from frozen. The ribs themselves had really lovely flavour to them, but, personally, I found the sauce they were smothered in to be a little too overpowering, so any chance of actually enjoying the ribs, was sabotaged by the shear amount of BBQ sauce cascading off the plate. I think I'll stick to The Hogfather, a tried and tested favourite of mine! Service is always top notch here, too. Nothing was too much trouble, and even as I was handing back my plate of mostly uneaten food, our server was attentive and listened to my concerns.

Cool place with a hefty dose of Americana. Had a burger & fries and it was an honest burger. Nothing mind blowing but not bad in any way.

Food very bland, had burger - tasteless. Wedges oversized and underseasoned. Adult shake felt like it had only a drop of alcohol in it

If I could a 0 then I would. Had pre booked a table & got refused the wing it Wednesday and the waiter then laughed and advices that T&Cs apply. Appalling service.

First time here and we all really enjoyed it. Massive portions that beat me after I made the mistake of stacking up my burger but it tasted lovely 😍 Wife and young daughter both also enjoyed their meals. The waitress was very good and attentive. There was a slight hiccup with my smother (sauce on fries) not being added so I had to send it back but otherwise it was very good. Not massively expensive either at around £15 for a big burger meal. I'll definitely be back 👌

Great food and service! We found this just looking on google maps. We were staying in Great Yarmouth and was going to go to the restaurant there but parking looked very sparse so we decided to come to this restaurant. Lovely food and the sharing sundaes are huge!

Great food. But exceptionally quiet place mid aftenroon during the week.

Very family friendly for a group of us with multiple babies! Made to feel very comfortable breastfeeding and a progressive move having a baby changing facility in the mens toilets. An all round great place, will definitely return.

It's becoming a guilty pleasure.

Food very poor and cocktails were not great also

The food was excellent. Service was kinda OK

Great service but not overbearing. Drinks brought quickly. Order taken and arrived promptly

Food was lovely as always but service was painfully slow, 30 minutes for someone to take our drinks order and another 20 minutes before we got them, we did ask for other drinks halfway through meal but never received them, definitely not enough staff working considering there was a big party in, and waitress was backwards and forwards for them, so no blame towards waitress....wouldn't stop me going again tho!

Arrived at 7 and was seated almost straight away and forgotten about, 20 minutes later after we enquired as to whether we had to come to the bar to order our food and drinks we were told very rudely no and 10 minutes later a server came to take our drinks order, 15 minutes after that 2 drinks were dumped at the end of the table and 10 minutes after that the other two drinks were dumped and being two different milkshakes we were unsure of which one was which as the were both the same colour, luckily the smell test told us which was which. After another 5 minutes a server appeared at our table to take our food order, this was after serving two tables which had arrived well after us. So far 50 minutes had elapsed and we had only been served our drinks. Now we were in for the long 25 minute wait until our food arrived. The steak that we ordered was cold and fatty and when we brought it to the attention of our server all we got was "Oh sorry" and then disappeared. So if you want to go to somewhere with extremely poor service and average food and no ambience of what an American diner should be then go here.

Arrived at 7 and was seated almost straight away and forgotten about, 20 minutes later after we enquired as to whether we had to come to the bar to order our food and drinks we were told very rudely no and 10 minutes later a server came to take our drinks order, 15 minutes after that 2 drinks were dumped at the end of the table and 10 minutes after that the other two drinks were dumped and being two different milkshakes we were unsure of which one was which as the were both the same colour, luckily the smell test told us which was which. After another 5 minutes a server appeared at our table to take our food order, this was after serving two tables which had arrived well after us. So far 50 minutes had elapsed and we gad only been served our drinks. Now we were in for the long 25 minute wait until our food arrived. The steak that we ordered was cold and fatty and whenvwe brought it to the attention of our server all we got was "Oh sorry" and then disappeared. So if you want to go to somewhere with extremely poor service and average food and no ambience of what an American diner should be then go here.

Relentlessly bad service As per last few visits this place has gone down hill in terms of the staff. We all know what to expect from the food at Zak’s - basic, greasy and mediocre. The staff used to make it though. These days - for months now - the staff add to the poor quality of food by being snappy, rude and make you feel like every ask or request Is beyond them! They need much better customer service training or just shouldn’t do this job.

Awful food, very greasy, dry burger/bun, curly fries are greasy. Service absolutely awful salad was awful no flavour to it at all

Probably the best burgers locally.

Dont be fooled by the neon lights on the outside, the food is terrible, burnt, shrivelled up onion rings, burgers are nasty and look as terrible as they taste, sweet potato chips horrible, plates too small which makes the whole meal look bad, expensive rubbish, also we were seated under aircon unit so food was cold in 30 seconds, to be fair there is a positive, we wern't charged for the onion rings.

Fantastic birthday day surprise

Visited on Thursday 7th September. We were served by a girl called Leona. Excellent service considering she was clearly rushed off her feet and one of only 2 floor staff members I saw our whole meal. I am surprised I saw no management staff stepping in and helping as they were clearly struggling and needed some support. As always delicious food and excellent service. Will be back!

Not the place or experience it used to be

Our lunch booking was meant to be a treat for my two grandchildren to mark the end of the school holidays. They love macaroni cheese so this is what they ordered. Unfortunately it was not up to the standard they are used to and refused to eat it. The garlic bread it came with was all they ate. I had a small Caesar salad which was ok but arrived a considerable time after their meals with apologies from the waitress. All the staff seemed to be interested in was selling us extra sides. Very disappointing for us all.

Having not visited for several years I wasn’t sure what to expect. However, we were not disappointed! Friendly and helpful staff, excellent menu choices, value for money and fantastic food. Everything was piping hot and freshly cooked and everyone enjoyed all their choices. Great burgers and desserts ( we didn’t have a starter!) and good portion sizes too. Not sure we’d have managed three courses!

Went with 5 year old son, and my brother and sister-in-law yesterday. Excellent food, good value and excellent service. Very happy. Will definitely go back.

Wings are tasty as always. Fin is awesome for serving us the wings and tab is the best waitress to have. Lovely place to go with a mate. Highly recommend

ZAKS!!! Don’t be fooled by the fairly ‘safe’ frontage, it’s a great place for friends and family to grab some great food and have a good laugh. We’ve been going to Zak’s for years with friends and our family. It’s consistently good in both service and food. (Double stacked Western Burger with sweet potato fries for me please) Service is nearly always swift and always friendly, and they’re very accommodating with kids. Food is served quickly, and it’s tasty! It does get busy, and it does get noisy. If you’re looking for a quiet romantic date, look elsewhere. If you want to get a bunch of friends together and you want a good bite to eat, give Zak’s a go!

We booked a table at short notice and was able to get one. We were politely greeted and shown to our table. Bryony P (I hope this is the right person as its on the receipt, she had black hair). She served us went above and beyond making sure everything was ok and if we had everything we needed. We didnt even wait long for the food and drinks either

Out with family food very nice waitress marvellous

Came in to restaurant with have you booked not a hello or anything menus then passed to us while we sat there other couples came in and where sat down asked if they wanted a drink we where still waiting everyone makes a mistake? Had burger was asked how I wanted my burger not sure why asked medium came over done and dry In summary food dry service terrible need to review why I have to go to the bar to ask for a drink when it’s table service !

Always the best, Never disappoints

Usual Zaks service, best in Norwich (or surrounding area)

Being a veggie there wasn't anything marked up on the main menu as V so had to ask. Was given a tatty well used veggie menu. That aside, and a couple of screaming toddlers, We proceeded to place our orders. Drinks were bought up quickly. Food followed shortly afterwards. Have to say that my veggie meal was delicious, fresh and tasty. No complaints with the food at all. Niggles were that I saw the table being cleaned down from where the family of about six (plus toddlers) were sitting, all of the detritus was just wiped off the edges onto the floor OR chairs! Meaning that the next person would be sitting on this! NOT A GOOD PRACTICE!

Very tasty. Had the chicken and rib combo and a side of Mac and cheese which is probably the best I've had in a long long long time!

Great dinner, not been for a few years... But just as good as we remember.staff were friendly and helpful

The staff were incredibly helpful accommodating mine and my mums dietary needs. Wheat, gluten and dairy intolerances.

Hadn't been for a few years and it's still much the same but in a good way. Easy to park, they were full and we had to wait a short time as we hadn't booked. Once seated we had great service, food and drinks were nice. We all had various starters and then burgers but I noticed they have more vegetarian options now too.

Staff very friendly and attentive, and food plentiful and reasonable quality. Bit noisy as it was full of kids, but that's kind of what you'd expect. Decor was more "Pile a bunch of random American stuff in, and turn it up to 11 so everyone knows it's supposed to be really, really American" than actually like an authentic American diner in the US, but then again, what could be more American than pastiche and excess?! A+ for effort.

Fantastic service and helpful staff. Really helped make a nice evening for our daughters birthday. Each return trip gets better - not too busy or quiet and great tasting!

American theme food with great burgers and shakes in an Americana themed setting. Good service, fast enough for a quick bite to eat during a lunch break.

Lovely meal, service, staff with our lovely friends.

First visit, quite by chance. Enjoyed the food, pleasant surroundings, friendly service. Good value. Will definitely return.

Zaks is a family favourite, so it was an obvious choice to come here to celebrate our daughter’s birthday. The food is always amazing, and our waitress, Kelsey, was lovely and attentive. We will be back :)

Fantastic ribs, my favourite. 😜

I don’t usually write reviews but on this occasion I’m making an exception. Following on from the reviews regarding the cancellation of the table for 16 people, I have to say I was shocked at the reply !! I am the person who booked the table and, while I fully understand that people make mistakes I cannot tolerate that people do not stick to the truth. I was not offered another table 30 minutes later. I was offered a table for 6, a table for 4 and one for 2 available in an hour. Which ever way you add that up it does not make 16!! That, and the fact that amongst our party we had a 3 year old who couldn’t wait that long - which I explained to the manager were the reasons why the I refused the tables. I made the booking by telephone ( with the manager) as on line 11 people is the maximum you can book for. If I had been made aware that I would be sent a text the day before confirming our booking, alarm bells would have rung as to why I hadn’t received one. This would have enabled me to ring to confirm that the booking was still required. At the end of the day it was what it was but, I can’t agree that the manager went out of his way to accommodate us. I was simply told that my booking had been cancelled.

Great food but they should have a choice of the size of the fries they serve with their burgers. Ours were huge and two out of our party could have shared theirs.

Food was nice but service was rushed, they wanted us out of there asap and weren’t shy in showing it! Very frustrating as we had booked for 7.45 and were chucked out (felt that way) as the last people there at 9.15!

We had booked a table of 16 for a family celebration. When we arrived we had discovered our table had been cancelled by someone that wasn't part of the group. The manger said it was cancelled online, which i thought was odd considering the booking had been placed over the phone. It turns out the manager had written down the wrong number when the booking had been placed and the confirmation text was sent to someone else. There was no empathy from the manager who didn't seem to care that we had 7 children In our group including a very hungry 3 year old. There was no apology, no compensation and there certainly won't be any returning custom from anyone in the family. Very disappointed.

Disaster and rude! We booked for 16 people for a family celebration. When we got there it had been cancelled because they had written the wrong phone number down so had text someone else a reminder who had not booked. So there we all are expecting to sit down, and the manager just dismissed us, he didn't care and we had very upset children and hungry adults, there was no compromise, no apology and no food!

Wow! We had the most amazing service from the staff at Zak’s this evening. They really went above and beyond for our party of 11, especially our wonderful waitress Nicole. Thank you so much for everything 😊

Wow! We had the most amazing service from the staff at Zak’s this evening. They really went above and beyond for our party of 11, especially our wonderful waitress Nicole. Thank you so much for everything 😊

Had a family meal here last Sunday and it was excellent. Service was quick and efficent and the service was friendly. The steak I had was excellent and the other dishes were good too. The Maple & Red Pepper wings are to die for and they were huge, highly reccomended. I only lost a star in the review as I was dissapointed to see the Rib-Eye Steak had been removed from the menu. Hopefully it will make a come back in the future?

Ordered a meal that I used to have at the Mousehold restaurant and was pleased to see it was still available. When it arrived I noted that the coleslaw was missing and queried this with the waitress. She immediately went and got some on a...

Great birthday meal, great friendly welcome and service. All meals were well presented and tasted great. First time had been to this branch, but now my preference over Mousehold and Waterside, well worth the extra travelling to get to. Ample parking and more comfortable surroundings.

Unable to get somewhere closer to home, we came to Zaks Diner, even though we could only get an early table. We are so glad we did. The menu had a great choice of food and drinks. Milkshakes and cocktails were tried and got the thumbs up and then the process of working out which burger to have. There were so many to choose from. I settled for a PB (peanut butter and maple syrup) It was lovely. All the food came out quick and there was no complaints around the table. Our waiter was attentive and all in all we had a lovely time.

Another fantastic meal at Zaks Poringland. Tried the new Screamin Hog and will definitely back for another. Kelsey was quick to take our order, polite and friendly. Thank you for making us feel welcome 🙏🏻

Food was good but the service was poor again. Second time we had to wait too long for our deserts and paying!!