Cirillo's — Restaurant in Dublin

I was very excited to go to Cerillios as I love baggot street and heard good things from this place. Myself and my two friends (all 23 year old girls) came to this establishment. We met the waiter who was to take us to our table. She said hi and then proceeded to hug and chat to the regulars beside us. We stood in the doorway lost and confused. This was the first sign that our dining experience would be a little disappointing.

Eventually the waitress took us to our seats downstairs. After 4 English men, who were quite drunk, came and sat at the table next to us. These men got served before us. Had wine at their table instantly. The waiter dealt with the abuse and the screaming from these men and I felt bad for her. However she proceeded to be aloof to us at our table.

I understand being young, often you don’t get the same respect as others do at a “nice” restaurant, however it felt like, myself and my friends were just in the way and unwanted.

Note: these men proceeded to scream at us and touch us throughout our meal and nothing was done about it.

When we ordered, I asked if the fettuccine could be done without mushrooms, as they are my only ick in terms of food. However the waiter told us they were already in the sauce. Note to self: so the pasta sauce is not fresh 📝

I decided to go for a pizza, if I had to, as there’s no pasta on the menu without mushrooms or beef so pizza was the only option. It was nice, it was wet but nice! The cocktails were nice. But me and my friends were quiet, and uncomfortable as we were not being treated adequately by the staff.

This place is expensive. I understand they have nice wines and a small cozy atmosphere however, this place is not worth the money. If you like Italian food, you can find 100 other places like it, with staff who will treat the way they’re supposed to.

When we left the restaurant we left a tip of €20, a tip in which was not deserved, but being a hospitality worker myself, I like to think it may have an off day for our waiter or she was trained to give special attention to the older crowd as they “have more money”. Who knows?

At the end of the day, this place is not worth the money you spend. The pizzas are lovely, however the pasta selection is bad, the sauce is not fresh. I’m sorry to say it, but...

The dinner was good and the food was delicious. The portions of pasta are small if you plan to take only the main course. The staff is friendly.

But there was an unpleasant situation with the tip and the total bill. The tip is calculated automatically and included in the bill, despite the customer's consent. This was not mentioned anywhere. So there is no option to choose the amount. So we had an unwelcome surprise at the end. We were forced to pay (15% of the check for three people). When I asked why we had to pay, the manager said that the policy had been changed and that it was necessary to pay extra for 3 or more people, although it used to apply to groups of more than 8. It looked like we were being played for fools.

This is not the first time this has happened. We’ve been here to celebrate birthday. Then our cake was taken to another table without even informing us. When we refused to pay a tip because of this situation, we argued for a very long time. This situation made me remember why I stopped going to this restaurant.

I personally have a lot of experience in the service industry and hospitality , so I know what I'm talking about and that's why I'm writing about it.

I have nothing against good work and gratitude for it. It's just that things like mandatory tipping (which is not common in Dublin restaurants) should be stated up front and not come as an unpleasant surprise, especially at small tables that don't require additional resources to clean.

I am very disappointed, this kind of situation makes me not want...

We left minutes after sitting down...

We had a booking for 9pm and arrived 5 minutes early, the waiter pulled down his mask and asked us to wait outside. That was fine, there were no tables free and we were a little early. As we're waiting outside we noticed that some of the tables were nowhere near 2 meters apart, and there were so many dirty glasses on the bar that there was no space left on the bar.

Then, a couple walk in without masks or a reservation (we heard them say they'd see if they could get a table) and the waiter seats them straight away... they got a really good table, away from everyone else. Then he calls us in and asks us to choose between a table in the middle of the restaurant (That's within a metre of 3 other tables) or another table right by the door, and all the dirty glasses, that only had 1 seat. We chose the table with 2 seats.

As soon as we sat down, one of the couple that took our table starts coughing loudly without covering his mouth. Then the waiter surprises me by popping his head over my shoulder and literally talking to me from 30cm from my face asking me what my name was on the booking (which I'd already told him, and we've had this booked for days). At that point I told him we were leaving and he very loudly asked 'why', causing a bit of a scene and other diners looked up. I explained we weren't happy with the situation and left.

I've had the pizza here before and it was very good. But they aren't following the covid guidelines publicly so I'd dread to think about what's happening...