Cin Cin Hove — Restaurant in Great Britain

To celebrate my spouse’s birthday, we decided to try the tasting menu as a group of three, along with a friend.

I’m not sure where to begin, but in short, it was a complete disappointment. While the restaurant may have been in the Michelin guide before, I truly believe it’s overrated.

First of all, if you’re offering olive oil and bread as a starter to your customers, both the bread and the olive oil need to be above standard. The bread wasn’t bad, but the olive oil was so ordinary that it felt like a warning that the meal would be a disappointment. I can’t complain about the olives, though.

The “Arancino of slow-cooked chicken & leek, cacio e pepe emulsion” was, in my opinion, the only genuinely tasty course of the night. My wife’s arancino was slightly damaged and patched up with some Parmesan, but since the flavor was good, she didn’t mind. After all, it’s the taste that matters most.

The next course, “Caramelle, roasted celeriac & Gorgonzola fonduta, brown butter & pear,” had a flavorful celeriac sauce, but the pasta was chewy, indicating it was undercooked. No matter how tasty the sauce was, the undercooked pasta ruined the dish. Not being able to cook al dente pasta is an unforgivable mistake for an Italian restaurant.

The main course, “Grilled fillet of sea bream, Jerusalem artichoke caponata & kale,” was cooked well, but the fish lacked flavor and the sauce was unacceptably salty. One of us couldn’t even eat the fish, and no one bothered to ask why. Clearly, they didn’t care. My partner and I forced ourselves to eat it, trying to hide how salty it was from each other so as not to ruin the mood. It was a truly unpleasant experience.

For dessert, we were served “Warm chocolate & chestnut cake, crème fraîche, Vin Santo sultanas.” Honestly, you’re more likely to find a tastier, more complex cake at your favorite coffee shop. I have no idea why this was included in the tasting menu.

I ordered a cocktail and I liked it. I decided to get the same cocktail one more time. However, despite both cocktails containing the same ingredients, the second one tasted different because a different recipe was used. If I’m ordering the same cocktail twice in the same restaurant, within the same hour, I expect them to taste the same.

When making the reservation, we were asked about the occasion, and I mentioned it was a birthday. In such cases, a small dessert or gesture is usually offered to make the guest feel special. However, no one acknowledged the occasion, which made me question why they even asked in the first place.

The ambiance of the place was nice. I do enjoy open-kitchen restaurants, but without good food, the ambiance doesn’t matter much.

Overall, it was a weak experience, and I don’t think the meal justified the price we paid.

All the staff were friendly. Honestly, the Manager was a bit tense.

If you still want to dine there, I’d advise keeping your expectations low. We trusted the high ratings and positive reviews, but our experience was the...

We eat out a lot and have been meaning to go to Cin Cin for a while and we were really looking forward to our visit. The welcome was lovely as we came through the door. We booked to sit on the stools but decided to change that, as we didn't think they looked very comfortable (more like bar-stools) to sit for 90 minutes or so, eating and drinking without a back-rest to them, so this was changed to table and chairs without a problem and much more comfortable. We ordered some fabulous wine from Puglia (Antica Enotria Primitivo) which was just perfect with a good depth of flavour and lovely long finish. For starters, my partner ordered the Arancino Venetian style duck which was delicious as he gave me a forkful. I ordered the Arancino off the specials board which was supposedly with peas, tomato and beef ragu - beautifully presented but lacking in flavour and there certainly wasn't any beef ragu but just rice and some gristle in the middle of mine which I think was probably bacon? For mains I ordered the Sea Bream which was very flavourful and delicious. My partner ordered the Beef Tagliata off the specials board which unfortunately was hard-going (chewy) and fat that wasn't rendered down - we expressed our concerns and three members of staff came up individually and apologised for this but no alternative was given or anything taken off the price as this dish was £28 and terribly disappointing for my partner and the lentils were a strange accompaniment and usually served with fish in our experience. The desserts we ordered were the Pistachio cheesecake (very good) and I ordered the trio of Italian cheeses - which were ok. Lovely Lemon Cello served in a chilled glass to finish and coffee which was perfect - I always order decaffeinated coffee and here at this restaurant, was very good indeed. After spending £140 on 3 courses plus coffee (EXCLUDING wine) we were left feeling a little disappointed overall. At this cost we would expect perfection, but several of the dishes missed the...

Received a warm welcome (including by other members of staff) upon arrival at Cin Cin Hove, and attended to immediately. The food was delicious, although portion sizes are perhaps a little disappointing, we went for two courses but if you were to go for all the courses on offer it would likely be ample.

I have marked three stars because of feeling rushed. We were at our table for less than two hours, unbeknown to us this must be the cut off point. Arriving at 6pm, we were out with friends but left somewhat disappointed due to be told we had ten minutes left to leave whilst we drank our tea after dessert, this was at 7:45pm. We were about 20 minutes away from leaving anyway, but to be asked to leave is the biggest insult possible. Imagine if we had opted for six courses...

Whilst I appreciate business needs, it was not our problem and the booking process may do well to improve. Rather than book every table possible and treat customers like a production line, I would be inclined to ensure there were available tables for cross-over eventualities like this, ensuring customer satisfaction.

Further, while it is nice to have a member of staff enquire if everything is okay, we were interrupted from conversation with our friends too often. Subtlety is favourable!

I do not ever recall being asked to leave a restaurant before, let alone from a perceived premium establishment, and for that reason I am unlikely to return. After being asked to leave we went to a restaurant a couple of doors down, who were happy to invite us in for further drinks without ordering any food. That's service!

Update: Thank you for your reply. If we were aware of a time limit when booking, we would have chosen somewhere else. It may not feel like a production line to you, but it did us. Hope the feedback is taken in the polite and helpful way it is intended, because while it may suit some, we are probably not the only ones who...