Cini — Restaurant in Blaby

So we went here for the first time on a double date. Our table was booked for 7pm our friends were running late because they had a family emergency regarding their children and explained this after them ||asking where the rest of the party were after 20mins.||When we got to 8:10 my partner went to the WC and that’s when an older blonder lady came over and asked me to confirm the time the rest of the party ||were joining us and I replied with ‘they will be here within 10 minutes’ I totally understand why they were asking I don’t have a problem with that as yes they ||were exceptionally late!! I politely discussed the situation as why they were running late thinking she would understand and she rolled her eyes and said ||‘well we need the table back by 9pm’ then she walked off. This is not professional and was not our fault!!! We also weren’t told when we booked that ||we had a time slot for the table and I’d like to make that clear hence why we booked there becauSe it was the only restaurant that didn’t state that you’d ||only got the table for a certain amount of time. ||We ordered our food .. it arrived pretty quickly and I won’t slate that but I ordered the asparagus risotto, ||my partner isn’t very exoctic and he ordered a margarita pizza.. the other couple ordered two pasta dishes and I will say they made all dishes come ||out almost within the same time because we ordered ours before the other couple arrived. The only dish Edible was the margarita pizza .. the pea and ||asparagus risotto tasted like a spoon full of cooked frozen peas even with more than a handful of grated Parmasan and salt and pepper added.. the two pasta|| dishes one being shell fish smelt like gone of fish and if you eat fish enough you know when it’s off.. the spaghetti bolognese was no good either and was|| a child size portion. ||As they came over to take our plates they asked why we didn’t eat it all and if everything was ok as to ||which we explained to the waiter about why we weren’t happy and hadn’t finished our meal they then sent a senior member over and she said ‘ do you ||want to order another meal? ' we didnt as we wont happy.. wed all ordered something different so what was the point? It’s was all pretty bad. At this point we’d given up all hope and we requested the bill.. they did knock 3 meals of the bill but the customer service let the entire restaurant experience down Especially the lady that was sent over the resolve the situation as to why we didn’t want a replacement meal. As she cleared the plants she said under her breath ‘would we like a replacement meal (as did the previous waiter) and we replied with the same answer saying no she then muttered under her breath (no of of course you don’t) what did this mean? after all this time being worried about going Out and interacting with the public because of covid I was extremely looking forward to a night out. It was the first we’d booked to go to after a lengthy time as my partner suffers severely...

So we went here for the first time on a double date. Our table was booked for 7pm our friends were running late because they had a family emergency regarding their children and explained this after them ||asking where the rest of the party were after 20mins.||When we got to 8:10 my partner went to the WC and that’s when an older blonder lady came over and asked me to confirm the time the rest of the party ||were joining us and I replied with ‘they will be here within 10 minutes’ I totally understand why they were asking I don’t have a problem with that as yes they ||were exceptionally late!! I politely discussed the situation as why they were running late thinking she would understand and she rolled her eyes and said ||‘well we need the table back by 9pm’ then she walked off. This is not professional and was not our fault!!! We also weren’t told when we booked that ||we had a time slot for the table and I’d like to make that clear hence why we booked there becauSe it was the only restaurant that didn’t state that you’d ||only got the table for a certain amount of time. ||We ordered our food .. it arrived pretty quickly and I won’t slate that but I ordered the asparagus risotto, ||my partner isn’t very exoctic and he ordered a margarita pizza.. the other couple ordered two pasta dishes and I will say they made all dishes come ||out almost within the same time because we ordered ours before the other couple arrived. The only dish Edible was the margarita pizza .. the pea and ||asparagus risotto tasted like a spoon full of cooked frozen peas even with more than a handful of grated Parmasan and salt and pepper added.. the two pasta|| dishes one being shell fish smelt like gone of fish and if you eat fish enough you know when it’s off.. the spaghetti bolognese was no good either and was|| a child size portion. ||As they came over to take our plates they asked why we didn’t eat it all and if everything was ok as to ||which we explained to the waiter about why we weren’t happy and hadn’t finished our meal they then sent a senior member over and she said ‘ do you ||want to order another meal? ' we didnt as we wont happy.. wed all ordered something different so what was the point? It’s was all pretty bad. At this point we’d given up all hope and we requested the bill.. they did knock 3 meals of the bill but the customer service let the entire restaurant experience down Especially the lady that was sent over the resolve the situation as to why we didn’t want a replacement meal. As she cleared the plants she said under her breath ‘would we like a replacement meal (as did the previous waiter) and we replied with the same answer saying no she then muttered under her breath (no of of course you don’t) what did this mean? after all this time being worried about going Out and interacting with the public because of covid I was extremely looking forward to a night out. It was the first we’d booked to go to after a lengthy time as my partner suffers severely...

I came here on a Friday evening and tried the 7 course taster with the wine pairing, and unfortunately I left disappointed. Firstly, it was good to see the restaurant observing social distancing rules with hand sanitizers readily available and staff wearing face masks (along with guests as they get seated). It's reassuring to see.

Unfortunately the pre-starter and starter were relatively bland in flavour, but the risotto (pasta course) and main course stepped up the quality. The risotto was perfectly spiced and the beef in the main course was cooked well. However I don't feel ingredients in the main course complimented each other. A parmesan potato bread was served with the beef, which tasted very good in isolation, but didn't suit the dish as a whole.

And that's the thing with all the dishes to be honest - nothing quite married up and complimented each other. Their dessert was just three of their desserts they normally serve - it didn't quite have the finesse or presentation fitting of a taster menu.

And I don't believe the wines suited their dishes as well. They weren't always served at the same time as the food, meaning we had to wait. And I don't think the staff knew the wines too well. One waiter just put them on the table and walked off, with no details about it. And when we did receive some information, it wasn't very useful... "This wine is from the North region of Italy, it's quite dry".

None of the food tasted terrible, but I think that if a restaurant is to offer a taster menu with a wine pairing, the customer naturally will set their expectations high and unfortunately this place didn't deliver. I don't think they should offer a taster menu with the standard of food on offer and especially not a wine pairing if the staff know so little about the wines which suggests they just served anything they needed to get rid of.

On a side note, of a 7 course taster menu, one course was tea/coffee and another course was a palate cleansing drink. Considering the pre-starter wasn't anything special, if you still decide you want a taster menu, I'd suggest the 4 course taster as it seems much better value with being £20 cheaper. But if I'm honest, I'd recommend a restaurant in Anstey called Sapori. Their taster menu in terms of quality and presentation is a step above, and is priced similarly (see my other reviews for more information).

Cini did offer 20% off the bill during October 2020, which brought the total down to £152 for two people including service charge, which is good to see. And they allowed me to leave my car overnight in the car park which was also...