Chez Zee American Bistro Reviews

Highly recommend Chez Zee's gallery for a wedding & reception. We had a wedding with 65 guests & had our ceremony & reception there. It is a pretty all-inclusive event space, you only need to bring music, anything you want to add to centerpieces (Chez Zee provides mirrors, lanterns, candles), & decor for the ceremony location (we did ours at the front of the drapes and just pinned flower garlands and used Chez Zee's lite-up trees).
The food & drinks were delicious & we got lots of compliments. I know that some brides may balk at not bringing in their own alcohol for savings, but since Chez Zee's gallery fee is only $250, using the venue's alcohol won't hurt your budget at all! I am still breathing a sigh of relief that all I had to do the day-of was get ready & show up, which is what I was looking for in a fun Austin venue.
The crown jewel(s) of getting the gallery for your ceremony/reception is that you get the Chez Zee staff!! They were so sweet! Laura, the event manager is AMAZING. When I was a week or two out from the wedding, I started to get bridal nerves & would just email and email. She was so patient & answered everytime & was super honest about costs (for example, she said I was ordering too much cake for the guests, & that saved a little $).
It also rained on my wedding day. I was going to have a buffet on the porch for the guests to go through since I had wanted a larger dancing floor inside. With rain, Laura and the staff just quickly plated everything & we had a nice sit down dinner instead!!
I also didn't like the idea of "flipping" the space from ceremony to reception (I don't like guests hanging around awkwardly) but I also wanted a real aisle to walk down so it would feel church-y. Laura really made that happen by doing long tables instead of rounds so that when guests were seated & facing forward, it still gave a pew-row type vibe. :) She also let us hang our cross up above!

Laura was fantastic! She helped us decide on buffet items and helped make our reception perfect! The food was so delicious and everyone is still talking about (6 months later) how it was the best wedding reception food they have ever had! We loved the atmosphere of the room and couldn't have asked for anything better. Thanks for making our reception perfect!

DELICIOUS!!!! You won't get a better-tasting wedding cake anywhere. I got as many compliments on the cakes as I did on the dress!

What an amazing place!! We have frequented Chez Zee for years as their eclectic dining room comes alive under the twinkle lights, desserts and wonderful ambiance! Johanna & Greg were simply amazing in pulling together our wedding ceremony and reception in The Gallery. The Lemon Rosemary cake was to die for and the guests just raved. From set up and prep to making the night perfect we couldn't have asked for more. Be sure to request Leon as your bartender for your event! Also, the sweet owner stopped me as I was about to make my Bridal walk in and congratulated me herself. Simply a heavenly environment and the place we will continue to frequent for years and years!

We ordered our wedding cake from Chez Zee, and it was one of the most delicious wedding cakes I have ever tasted, even if I was biased. :] Our guests all commented on how good it was and demanded to know where it came from! We had the Orange Chiffon for our wedding cake, and the Raspberry Truffle cheesecake as the grooms cake. MMMM, just thinking about it makes me want to take a trip to Austin to buy more. Delicious... AND affordable! Definitely would recommend them.

Chez Zee has ALWAYS been one of my favorite places to meet friends with their true Austin atmosphere and amazing menu. I didn't even know they made wedding cakes, but they provided a gorgeous and delicious three layer cake that was less than half the price of other bakeries. This is a hidden gem of a resource!! Most bakeries use "wedding" to charge triple what they would in other circumstances. Chez Zee did not, and the cake could not have been better! Also, they were incredibly helpful in working with our florist since we wanted fresh flowers as decoration.

I also held my bridal luncheon there, completely separate from the bakery services, to thank my attendants and the mothers for all their support. If you are looking for an authentic Austin restaurant with an amazing menu, Chez Zee can't be beat. And by authentic Austin, I mean they subscribe to the "Keep Austin Weird" campaign of supporting local businesses, celebrating the eclectic nature of the city, and providing a warm, friendly atmosphere to just hang out. Yes, it's nice, but everything from formal to jeans is appropriate in true Austin fashion. While Austin is changing rapidly, Chez Zee has held onto what made them a landmark in the first place- celebrating Austin, not changing into a stuffy environment to meet the expectations of newly transplanted citizens. It's refreshing to those of us who love what made Austin wonderful and unique in the first place and attracted so many new people.

I got my wedding cake from Chez Zee after a friend had her cake made from them. They did a great job. I was able to come in and try the lemon rosemary cake(because I was worried it would taste like a rosemary tree). It took a while to do the tasting, but they were able to fit me in the one day I was in town. I dealt with Lauren who was great, sometimes it took her a while to respond to my emails, but she was great having to plan everything from Canada. They delivered the cake which they don't always do. My only problem is that they don't cook stabilizers into the cake(as it apparently it affects the cake) but because of this and the rocky roads to the Villa Antonia, when it arrived and they put it together, it started to lean. Lucky for us we had engineers in the family, so we were able to save the cake for pictures. The taste was not affected and we had lots of positive comments. They only use buttercream, so for those of you who want fondant, stay clear. They are not specifically a wedding cake place of course, but they did a good job with the cake. Can't complain!

Honestly, if it weren't for my husband we wouldn't have even had a wedding cake. I was completely fine with little desserts; but alas tradition won out and on we went on our search for a wedding cake. We met with several wedding bakeries, tasted many different cakes---and each time, my husband and I just looked at each other and said, "It's just a cake? Why the hell does it cost so much." For some of the prices we were being quoted I wanted to respond that our cake better be frosted in gold. So on one of my many trips to Austin, we decided to have dinner at our rehearsal dinner restaurant. We had chosen Chez Zee on a whim and the location was convenient, but other than that I had never even stepped foot in there. So after speaking to our server and mentioned how we'd be having our rehearsal dinner there, in comes Chad, our event coordinator whom I had been speaking to for weeks. His attention to everything was great and when my husband and I mentioned how defeated we felt in search of our cake, he suggested we try one of their own. Holy yumness, this was like heaven in our mouths. No, Chez Zee is not a wedding bakery. They are a Bistro. But my husband and I loved the cake and didn't want any lavish decorations on it so we thought it wouldn't hurt to ask if they'd try and make our cake for us. Walking into our reception after getting married and seeing everything put together was nothing short of magical. And seeing how beautifully our cake turned out just topped it off. Chad was so sweet and even took an extra step by going out and buying fresh flowers to place around my cake. So not only did it look beautiful, it tasted divine. Who knew our rehearsal dinner restaurant would be the ones to remedy our cake problem?! So brides, do yourself a favor and stop by and try Chez Zee's Lemon Rosemary cake. It's fantastic and you won't regret it!

I love this place. They have a great back room for us and their food is fantastic