Zinicola — Restaurant in Charlotte

I have to start this review with a confession that this was our first trip to Zinicola and that is a shame on me. I normally pride myself on being able to find fine dining that does not involve the arduous trip to Uptown Charlotte. We were planning to attend a retiree gathering nearby and I wasn’t wanting bar food so I did a nearby search and found this gem that will now most definitely be on our return list. We arrived on time for our reservation and were immediately greeted and seated. We chose some bar style seating with a firsthand view of all the kitchen activity. Our server (Layla) greeted us promptly and set about getting drink orders. Layla was in training (her 3rd night) and she worked along side her trainer (Benjamin) to be sure we were taken care of. You would never know Layla was a trainee other than some guidance she was getting on the order system, etc. She was outstanding and I think it showed how careful they are in their hiring because everyone we spoke with was extremely professional. She is a great find for them. Now to the food. We started with the calamari appetizer which I can say was as tender and tasty as any I have ever had. It came with two dipping sauces, both which were great. We both followed the appetizer up with Caesar salads. Normally, I have to ask if they have anchovies for a Caesar salad but not here. Just part of the dish as it should be. My wife is not a fan so I got hers as well. BONUS! My main course was the Pappardelle Bolognese and my wife had a ravioli stuffed with scallops dish. The ravioli was black because of the squid ink addition and it added its own from the sea taste. She was lucky to get her order in as they alerted us when they were reviewing the dishes that they only had one available. Both dishes were outstanding. We finished with a wonderful Tiramisu and were thoroughly stuffed. I need to mention the benefits of our seating choice as well. As I mentioned, we enjoy being seated where we can watch the kitchen activity and the smoothness of flow at the good restaurants. The added benefit was that we got to meet Rich the owner and head chef and converse with him. We also want to give a shout out to Anya who worked in the kitchen area and made sure dishes were being delivered as soon as they came out. Because we were newbies and were having conversations with her, she started announcing to us what she was delivering to other tables. A huge bonus because we now have an idea on what we want to order next time. And, although we didn’t have one on top of all of the food we ate, the pizzas looked incredible. So…. to Layla, Benjamin, Anya and Rich; thank you for a wonderful dinner and enjoyable evening. Charlotte area residents and guests from out of town, certainly try Zinicola. You will not be disappointed. We will definitely...

I've been wanting to try this restaurant for a while now and finally decided to go with a friend and our daughters for dinner. I am sad to say that it was a terrible experience and I will definitely never be going there again. First the food was mediocre at best. Calamari appetizer was ok, as was the octopus. Everything else was terrible. Mushroom risotto special was tasteless, as was the asparagus risotto. Even the pizza was not good. To make matters worse, my daughter ordered the gnocchi with bolognese and it came cold and the gnocchi was inedible. I had a hard time getting our waitress's attention (Maya our waitress was by far the best part of the whole experience) so I asked another passing waiter if he could get her for me. He then said he could help so I told him that the gnocchi was cold and my daughter didn't really like it, and if her could just get her the mushroom risotto instead. He then started to raise his voice to my daughter, demanding she tell him exactly what was wrong with it because he didn't know what he was supposed to go in and tell the chef. I started to get upset and I asked him to call the manager. At this point he got very angry and told me that he was a manager too and that I should watch how I speak to him. At this point I asked him to please get me another manager to speak with and to please leave. The manager finally came over and began consoling the waiter telling him it was OK, all while the waiter was complaining about me and how we were returning a dish. I explained to the manager that my daughter did not like the gnocchi and it was cold and if he could just get her the risotto instead. I also said I would pay for both if he could just keep the waiter away from our table. We had all finished our food by the time her risotto arrived which was the asparagus risotto instead of the mushroom risotto she had asked for. She ate it anyway. They did bring us a tiramisu on the house, but by then the evening was just ruined. They did take the gnocchi off the bill but the prices were very high for such poor quality food. I will definitely never be going...

Went last night for Valentine's day. I knew going into it that it would cost a lot, but it seemed like it would be worth it. We got there and were seated promptly. Our waitress was nice and decently attentive. We were the first table to be seated, in the whole dining room, and the very next table that was seated, was seated right next to us despite the whole rest of the dining room being empty. They also seated children next to us which was a little unexpected for an upscale restaurant on Valentine's day.

We ordered the Lobster Bisque, Scottish Salmon, the Tiramisu and the Red Velvet cake. The Lobster Bisque came out and looked amazing. We each took one bite and were disappointed with how bland it was. It had almost no flavor. There were only 2 small pieces of lobster in my girlfriends bisque, and only 3 in mine. We were disappointed by the Bisque.

We were more hopeful for the salmon which we were hoping would be very good. The salmon came out and also looked amazing, however just like the bisque was lacking all flavor. It was served with capers which were not seasoned very well, and some of what I believe was spinach, which was very soggy and flavorless. We were hoping the lemon mint sauce would be our saving grace but this was also very bland. I asked our waitress for some salt, pepper, and lemons in hopes that we could improve the flavor. This helped, but it took a lot of salt pepper and lemon. We were unable to finish the capers or spinach as they were both pretty bad.

Finally we held out hope for the tiramisu and the red velvet cake. Luckily this time we were not disappointed. The tiramisu was good, and the red velvet cake was great. This was how I hoped the food would be.

All in all, I would give it 2 stars as the staff was nice, and the ambiance was good, but the food was not good at all. For the price, it was absolutely not worth it.

TL;DR, I've had better food at Outback Steakhouse, but the ambience was nice. Definitely not worth over $200 in any way shape or form. Will...