Ristorante Rinuccini — Restaurant in The Municipal District of Kilkenny City

Visited yesterday to celebrate a friends 60th birthday. There is an very good value lunch menu at 2 Course €28 ~ 3 Course €35.50. Ordered our starters and drinks and caught up on the gossip. Our starters arrived and mine was calamari fritters, which were more like calamari shavings, most unusual texture. Unfortunately, they arrived at the table cold, so they had to go back to the kitchen. By the time they were returned, my three friends had just about finished theirs, so things were running behind. Mains and desserts were very good and the Safari wine was glorious. Now when I booked, I mentioned it was a birthday. The person taking the reservation asked for my friends name and said they would put a candle on her dessert. As it happened, she did not order dessert but she was given a blob of ice cream with a candle in it and two handsome waiters sang Happy Birthday. All very sweet. I paid the €300 bill and we left.

Sitting at home later, I happened to take the bill from my bag and look through it. I noticed that the items were listed individually, which I thought was strange. There was also a charge of €5.50 for a bottle of water AND €3 for a scoop of ice cream...... So I called the restaurant.

Apparently, there was a supplement on both the duck & the steak. Now, this may well have been stated on the menu and we hadn't spotted it so I decided to suck it up. However, I knew that nobody had ordered bottled water or an extra scoop of ice cream.

The Lady with whom I spoke on the phone said she would check with the waiter about the water, but the €3 scoop was the blob of ice cream and birthday candle given to my friend!! She said she would call me back.

When she called back, she said she had looked at the CCTV and the water was in fact for the table next to ours and should not have been on our bill, now would you actually be bothered looking back on two hours of CCTV to argue the toss over a bottle of water??? She also said that I had "ordered" the candle on the dessert. I distinctly DID NOT. When I made the booking, I was told to" identify the birthday girl to the waiter and he would pop a candle on her dessert". The fact that she did not order dessert was not my fault.

In conclusion, the food was mostly excellent, as was the wine. The waiters were charming as usual. However, to argue with a customer, who had just paid €300 cash, and spend valuable time looking back over CCTV to identify who had a bottle of water, is beyond believable. My €5.50 will be refunded the next time I am visiting....But she is NOT happy about refunding the €3 "scoop". Whatever happened to "The...

What a STUNNING dinner we had yesterday here. From the starter to the dessert it was a true hyperbole. This is not only fine dining but top notch use of ingredients, which made every single dish fully packed of flavour and at the same time light. Calamari and zucchini, perfectly crispy and excellently fried. The fish was fresh and tasty. Burrata with dry tomatoes and prosciutto… oh my God, to die for! Burrata was so fresh, with some hints of basil pesto. Prosciutto was incredibly sweet and moist, as a very good prosciutto has to be if it’s of top quality. Then… Linguine with burrata and ‘nduja. Well, pasta was perfectly cooked, an amazing balance between ‘ndujua and burrata. I had porchetta and, honestly, I’m still dreaming of it. Never had such a tender porchetta in my life! Besides, I usually don’t like lentils but I literally devoured the lentil ragù the porchetta laid on. Even the roast potatoes were delectable. My partner had a truly, authentic Italian tiramisu. Totally different to the ones that you find in Ireland which are NOT the real Tiramisù we have in Italy. It was delicious: 2 layers of pure pleasure with zabaione and you really taste the coffee. We appreciated that the menu at Rinuccini is authentically Italian, no compromise at all, which speaks up of their love, mission and passion for their task to bring Italy in Ireland. Last but not least, a wonderful service. The guys work hard to make you feel at ease, meet your expectations and you really feel cuddled by them. Besides, they work in a very harmonious way. You feel they’re a team. Always smiling, always bringing a kind word. Excellent job by the manager who hires such professional and committed guys. I can speak especially about the Spanish guy and the bearded one who were fantastic with us and made our dinner even happier. Thanks for the magic...

Special occasion dinner here last week. Food was excellent. Service / Atmosphere was very mixed. We had a very poor experience with our first server who embarrassed my partner by very unsubtly mansplaining Primi/Secondi and how my partner should order - even though she already understood and knew exactly what she wanted to order. His manner was condescending, unsmiling and ungracious - the absolute opposite of hospitality. Far less than I would expect from an experienced waiter in a quality restaurant like this. The table we were directed to was in a VERY loud and crowded part of the restaurant. I realised later that the overall space was being utilised in a "zonal" fashion, where e.g. 8pm customers were all being seated in the same area, leaving other areas of the restaurant almost empty. While I get that this might make things easier on the floor staff, it makes for a poor environmental experience for paying customers. Our zone was very loud and boomy while others are almost empty (and a lot quieter). I would have asked to be moved, but I didn't notice the emptier areas until after our starter had arrived. We just about managed to have a good experience because the food (and wine!) was so good. However the overall experience had dis-improved significantly since our last visit for the same special occasion a year ago. Floor staff and management/booking could do a far better job complementing the fantastic work their highly skilled kitchen staff are producing by being more friendly/hospitable to customers and more conscious that packing customers into one area for staff convenience diminishes the customer's dining experience considerably. I have no problem paying well for great food, but not if the service and the environment don't hit the same...