CinCin Ristorante + Bar: Upscale Italian birthday dinner

For one of my birthday dinners last month, I reserved a table at CinCin, an upscale Italian restaurant on the Robson strip in downtown Vancouver.

Two major reasons why I chose to dine at CinCin for my birthday:

1. I had a very positive experience when I ate here for Dineout Vancouver this year.
2. They allowed me to book a table for up to 12 people online! For those who know how difficult it is to book large parties without having to talk to some events person, this is actually amazing.

Interior

Last time I ate at CinCin, we were given an intimate table for 2 out in the patio. This time for a table of 12, we were seated at a large round table in the right corner of the restaurant, away from all the other tables.

This table and semi-private area did not require any group menus or minimum spend as a table. They also allowed me to bring balloons.

Drinks

Modena Sour ($14 maybe)

I’ve tried several cocktails at CinCin – The Godfather, negroni – but this drink is my favourite so far. It tastes more fruity and sour. Price is an estimate because my friend ordered this drink for me and I don’t see it on CinCin’s online menu anymore as I write this review. Read here for their full bar menu.

First (Appetizer)

Beef tartare ($18)

The beef tartare comes with smoked mayonnaise, onion rings and watercress – grilled red fife sourdough.

I have a pet peeve when tartare dishes only come with 3 crostinis or crackers so I hope you all know how I feel about the amount of sourdough accompaniments in this picture.

Beef tartare is yummy – the smoked mayonnaise gives it a special kick. For the price, the amount of tartare given is reasonable. Generally, this is a nice appetizer to start off between 2 people.

Pasta + Risotto

Scallop risotto ($34)

All of the pastas and risottos can be ordered as a second or a main course. The difference is if you order it as a main course, they will give you a larger portion size and charge you more.

We order the scallop risotto as a main so our price is higher. If you order it as a second, it will cost you $24. The scallops are wood grilled and partnered with chive oil, fava beans and parmesan lace on top of a bed of acquerello risotto.

This pasta is so delicious! Those 4 scallops are probably the best 4 scallops I have eaten in my life – soft when you cut it with your knife and super flavourful when you put it in your mouth. The risotto’s consistency is great and the parmesan lace and beans add different flavours on top.

Main

Veal osso buco ($44)

We were going to order the fraser valley duck as our main, but changed our mind last second to the veal osso buco. I’m not a big fan of veal, but we rationalized that an Italian restaurant should cook veal well and thus it should be delicious so we decided to give it a try.

I’m so glad we did! The veal is the best veal I’ve eaten but my sample size is like maybe 3 in my life so take my review here with a grain of salt if you are a veal lover.

The veal meat is falling off the bone as we poke at it with our knives. The middle of the veal also has a bone with bone marrow inside for you to scrape out. The veal is braised montreal veal shin and served with this white wine and tomato sauce. The yellow portion of the dish is saffron risotto.

So delicious.

Dessert

Yogurt panna cotta ($15)

My boyfriend loves panna cotta so we order it for dessert even though we’ve had CinCin’s panna cotta before for Dineout Vancouver. It looks like a bigger version of it.

This dessert is pistachio and orange themed with pistachio namelaka, elderflower gel, marinated oranges and pistachio sponge decorating the yogurt panna cotta. Same consistent and good flavour as the one we ate previously.

Birthday dessert (complimentary)

Earlier in the meal, one of the servers handed me a handwritten birthday card from the restaurant manager. It is a nice gesture but receiving a complimentary dessert made me happier.

The complimentary sweets include a pistachio macaron, pistachio choclate ball, passionfruit chocolate ball, and a salted caramel macaron. Nothing was too sweet for my taste so everything was great.

They also passed out complimentary sweets of butter biscuits and a strawberry gel candy from Thierry bakery for the rest of the table.

Final thoughts

In total, we spent around $120 for two people and the food was excellent.

I don’t regret choosing CinCin to host my birthday dinner. The table we got was excellent, food was great and service was even better. They do this thing where all the servers stand around your table with everybody’s food and then they all swoop in and set up your plates in front of you at the same time. Everything happens very swiftly and smoothly.

The only things to keep in mind if you are considering to book a birthday dinner at CinCin is that the table for 12 is quite large so it can be hard to talk to someone across the table if you don’t move closer. You can easily get up and take photos though because of the semi-private arrangement.

Related: Read about our birthday dinner at Le Crocodile.

Related: Read about our birthday dinner at Bistro Sakana.

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Hey I’m trying to re-use my balloons this whole month and they’re dying, just like all of us on the inside. – Thanks for a lovely birthday dinner girls 😘 #blackpink – 📍 @cincinristorante

A post shared by Loewe ❁ foodie + travel (@sincerelyloewe) on May 24, 2019 at 10:52am PDT

Sincerely, Loewe