Pacino's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Dublin

UPDATE: You can rest assured that after my last visit to Pacino's I will NOT be visiting again. I will let customers judge who's record of events to believe.

On 3rd April I wrote and submitted a Google Review (below) on the Pacino’s review page explaining my experience on 24th March. On 9th April I received an email from Pacino’s. The email said “We really appreciate the time you took out of your day to leave us some constructive feedback and would love it if you could share your experience with us on our Google Review page. To say thank you, we’d like to send you a voucher for 2 complimentary cocktails for your next visit!” (despite that I had already shared my review on their Google Review page 8 days earlier on 3rd April). The email continued: “Simply let your review on our Google Review page here, send us over a screenshot, and we’ll take care of the rest”.

On 22nd April I visited Pacino’s again. At no time up to 11th April in any communication from Pacino’s regarding the “two complementary cocktails” was there a mention that you must submit a Google review to avail of their offer. On the contrary, the offer stated “We take all client feedback seriously. So seriously, in fact, that whether it be positive or negative, we are happy to provide a complementary cocktail for two on your next visit. If you have improvements for us, we would love to hear them, just as if you have a good experience, we would love to hear also! If you could please take 2 minutes to leave your feedback here we would be extremely grateful”.

Regardless, I took a screenshot of the review that I wrote to warn other customers that Pacino’s did not honour their offer on completion of the feedback survey and emailed it back to Pacino’s. Nevertheless, I was still refused the complementary cocktail on 22nd April, the stated reason was that I did not have a voucher and that the offer was only available on Monday to Wednesday (again another new condition). And I will also add that on this occasion the manager was downright rude, and the food was disgusting, it was lukewarm at best and swimming in what can only be described as a greasy cold liquid.

I carefully read what little correspondence Pacino’s sent to me and followed their instructions to get two complementary cocktails so this is not a case of “guests not reading the correspondence clearly”. It is a case of misinformation and frustration on the part of Pacino’s.

Pacino’s has received 42 reviews on their Google Review Page between 3rd April and 2nd May 2023, That’s an average of 1.4 reviews per day. In their own words “we receive a high volume of reviews each week in total. This is why we ask you to send your screenshot, as we simply do not have the manpower or time to search through all our reviews for individual postings and so require you to send us proof of posting yourself if you wish to redeem your complimentary drinks.”

I would not consider 1.4 reviews per day as high volume and it is quite obvious that you don’t place that much importance on your customer reviews anyway. In my recent experience Pacino’s is a terrible restaurant that I will never visit again. Nor will I ever recommend it to anyone else to visit. There are many far better restaurants in the Suffolk Street area

I visited this restaurant many times in the past and I liked it. After visiting on 5 March 2023 I received an email asking me to participate in a customer satisfaction survey. The email stated that if I completed the survey, good bad or indifferent, I would receive free cocktails for two at my next visit. I completed the survey and visited again on 24 March 2023. I presented the proof that I had completed the survey (I showed the manager the email I received, clicked on the link and the message "you have already completed this survey". Despite showing proof that I had completed the survey the manager refused to honor the offer of "free cocktails for 2". I would advise customers not to complete these surveys as Pacino's do not honor them all the while selling your details to...

Average food with nice ambience and expensive menu. Don't have high hopes for Italian food. We went yesterday for dinner at Pacinos in Suffolk street. It has nice ambience and nice service. Only lacking thing was quantity and taste for the money that you paid. We started with garlic bread as starter. They literally just brush garlic butter on store brought bread slices. We get better one from Aldi at much much cheaper price. Moving on we ordered bruschetta with mozzarella, tomato and basil. We were four people who have eaten bruschetta million of times earlier. So we were aware what are we expecting. We expected finger size breads with toppings. What we got one big size of bread with all the toppings stacked like a mountain. It was priced for 12 euros. They literally pour very little olive oil , chopped salad tomato and sprinkle some mozzarella pieces. I am not sure why they do not think how more than one people will people eat that stack of tomatoes without creating mess. And if they think that is for just one person , it is extremely overpriced. Next we ordered gnocchi and napotelana pizza. Gnocchi with tomato sauce was the best dish which we have ordered. Reason being it was palatable and well balanced. Napotelana pizza has mozzarella and and anchovies as the toppings. It was almost inedible because of high salt content. It was extremely salty may be because of anchovies. I think staff could have given this information beforehand because if customer has high blood pressure issue they could have Heath issues with such high sodium content. As we were hungry and we were paying so much money we somehow finished it. In between all this bad food experience one good thing was their service. Their staff was courteous , polite and prompt. We then ordered two very common Italian desserts with a hope of tasty endings. We order cappuccino tiramisu and vanilla Panna Cotta and coconut sorbet. Oh man, you can get better tiramisu from dunnes and lidl. Tiramisu tastes so weird and store brought. It was not good at all. Vanilla Panna Cotta they made with oat Milk with oats toppings. You may like it if you have developed palate for oat milk Already. We all four are not into oat milk at all. For us Panna Cotta was neither wobbly as it should be nor creamy. I think wobbly and being creamy are the two main specifics for Panna Cotta . Both were missing. Coconut sorbet was okay. So overall we went to pacinos. so that we can have good Italian food. But we were pretty disappointed. Total bill paid was 117 euros . It just that I have great company with me while having food. So it was less painful otherwise food was not at all up...

I was initially absolutely gutted to find a very different menu from my last visit. I have some dietary restrictions with significant consequences, beyond an intolerance, and genuinely thought I was going to have to just lose my €20 deposit and find somewhere else to eat.

A quick chat with the amazing waiter and a dish was modified, removing the two ingredients I cannot eat. I wasn't made to feel like a pain for requesting adjustments (a refreshing joy in itself to be honest). The final result was a meal that I could eat without fear and it was absolutely delicious (Lentil bolognaise). The entire dinner conversation between myself and my dining companion was how good the main course was. The accompanying garlic pizza bread was also fantastic. Fluffy, crisp, cheesy without being dripping with fat, perfect.

However, dessert was the killer. Simply the best brownie I have ever had, anywhere....ever. The brownie contains hazelnuts, which I don't like at all, but the main was so well flavoured and balanced I was willing to go on faith that if the restaurant thought it was good...who am I to argue? My leap of faith was well rewarded with a light yet chewy, well textured, huge chunk of chocolate goodness. Even without the ice cream (I can't eat it) there was enough moisture in the brownie that it didn't stick to the roof of your mouth and it was far from sickly. I could have eaten 5 to be honest.

I ordered a cafe latte in anticipation of needing to rinse the stickiness of a brownie away, it was a fabulous coffee but it wasn't needed.

If this had been my last meal, I'd...