Gino Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Municipality of Centar

While Gino is widely known as a restaurant, I want to focus this review exclusively on their bakery and dessert counter, which in my opinion, is where they truly shine—especially compared to the rest of the menu, which hasn’t quite maintained the same standard over the years.

🍦 Mandarin Ice Cream – A Taste of My Childhood

Ever since I was a little girl—walking across the bridge after music school—Gino’s mandarin ice cream has held a special place in my heart. Even 25 years later, they still serve it, and it’s just as refreshing and unique as I remember. I’m typically not a sorbet person, but this one hits different. I don’t know if it’s made from real fruit, but it tastes incredibly authentic and vibrant. A must-try.

🍰 Signature Cakes That Never Miss • The “Gino” Cake – Named after the restaurant, this dessert is made with delicate phyllo pastry, layered with chocolate and vanilla custard. It’s light, yet deeply satisfying—the kind of dessert that doesn’t weigh you down but still gives you that “yes, this is exactly what I wanted” feeling. • Fruit Tart Variant – A lighter version of the Gino cake, featuring the same vanilla custard and phyllo base, topped with a variety of fresh fruits. It feels like a hybrid between a classic Italian cake and a French fruit tart—elegant, fresh, and not overly sweet.

🌰 Other Temptations

They’ve recently expanded their cake selection, and one that stood out was the pistachio cake—rich, nutty, and well-balanced. There are many more I’ve yet to try, and I’m genuinely excited to go back and explore the rest of the display.

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🎯 Final Thoughts:

Even if you’re skipping the full meal at Gino, don’t miss their dessert counter. Their cakes, cookies, and especially that iconic mandarin ice cream are a Skopje staple. It’s a beautiful blend of nostalgia and consistently great quality—rare to find...

Our 2 families came with 2 children each for some ice-cream and coffee. While I was looking for a table and discussing with the waiter that we need two tables for 8 people for some coffee and ice-cream, the children were impatient for ice-cream so they went directly inside to get it in cones.

We were seated outside, were the restaurant was at around 50% capacity. When the waiter passed us and saw the children eating ice-cream from cones instead of ordering it from him in cups, he rolled his eyes noticeably and came back after a minute to give us a lecture. The lecture was that the kids should not have ordered the ice-cream from inside, in cones, because he was working on a percentage, and now he would have to weigh on two tables but get the percentage only from one, and he said he now has double the work for half the profits.

I don't think that I need to know how they've agreed with management to get paid, and what their inner workings are, from my perspective as a guest, I see a single interface into the restaurant when interacting with their staff, and I don't need lectures, rather management.

The restaurant was half empty and he is lecturing us how we are taking up a table for the kids who are eating ice-cream (bought from their restaurant btw) from cones from which he can't get a percentage.

And to make an unpleasant afternoon even worse, when we asked for a couple of glasses of water he commented smirkingly: "Yes, you order that when it's free".

I think this sort of experience is bottom of the barrel and completely unacceptable from a reputable restaurant. Sufficient to say it would be my last...

It gets 2 stars only because of the excellent atmosphere and the great service. The food deserves a zero. At least what I ordered did. I'm sure other things from their overly huge menu are probably fine, though. DO NOT get the lasagna!!! 🤢 It is the worst lasagna I've ever had in my lifetime.🤮 Not an exaggeration! I'm sure it was pre-prepared, froze, and microwaved because some spots were hot, but most were lukewarm to room temp. The noodles were absolute mush. No consistency to them. Like baby food level mush. And the tomato sauce was so bland and not tomato flavored I couldn't believe it. I still forced most of it down because I was starving after being on a tour all day. On top of all that, the beer they brought me was flat! When the waiter came, he had the bottle open, so I'm sure it was opened quite awhile ago and the fizz left it. SOMETHING must have happened for it to be that flat because I have opened beers, drank half, put the rest in the fridge, and it still had fizz hours later. Not this. It was like it was opened yesterday. I still drank most of it, though, because I was so thirsty after that hot day. I should have returned it, but I dont like people thinking I'm a difficult customer who makes things up. I used to own a restaurant and know how difficult it is, so I don't like to complain ever. The place was busy with locals, so they must have been here before and like it. Maybe I just got unlucky?🤔🫤 Regardless, I'm leaving the country tomorrow, so I'll never...