FOOD TYPE
Italian
FOOD QUALITY
Four of us dined on a busy Saturday night in late autumn. For drinks we ordered a Crown lager, a glass of sweet moscato wine, a cold drink and an expresso Martini - that’s vodka, shaken up with kahlua, coffee and sugar. I specifically mention this last one, because, at $19, it was a ridiculously expensive price to pay for a blackish, tasteless, watery concoction of poorly mixed alcoholic drinks without even Martini. That was very disappointing, so we left it to fester on the table, and pushed on with the food! For entrees we ordered two serves of tomato bruschetta at $13 per serve (two slices per serve), and a Mediterranean salad ($20). For mains, what else but my fav spag with meatballs ($30), Domenico’s prawns for my wife ($34) and spag marinara ($37) and a veal marsala ($37) for our dining companions. Certainly no complaints about the food. Everything was fresh and tasty, served in generous portions and delivered to the table piping hot, in modern, colourful crockery. The bruschetta was crispy and crunchy and layered with lashings of finely cut ripe tomatoes and onions with a sprinkling of olives. The Med salad was colourful and loaded up with all the good stuff and topped with a tangy dark balsamic dressing.My spag with meatballs was a huge dish, more than even I could finish. The pasta was cooked al dente just the way I like it and the meatballs were firm and chewy. It was smothered in a rich tomato-based napoli sauce. My wife’s prawns were tender and succulent and judging by the empty plates afterwards everyone enjoyed their meals. There was no room for dessert after all that.
ATMOSPHERE
Criniti’s is located in the heart of “The Piazza” the dining and entertainment hub of the growing Castle Towers Shopping Centre. The whole place, including Criniti’s was packed, creating a fun, lively and energetic atmosphere. The decor is modern and trendy with tiled floors, wooden furniture, mood lighting and interesting tubular steel pipes on the ceiling. There’s inside and outside seating, but being in a shopping centre, the outside seating is an option, although we found ourselves seated indoors.
SERVICE
Service was attentive, polite and efficient. There’s a handy little concierge desk at the front of the restaurant, so there’s no hunting around for someone to show you to your table. Despite the crowds, our booked table was ready and waiting for us in a nice spot in the middle of the restaurant. Orders were quickly taken. Drinks came out within a few minutes, but before we even had time to finish them, the entrees were on the table, followed, a minute or two later, by the salad and the mains. Effectively, everything came out at once, which, in addition to forcing us to have our drinks and eat entrees, salads and mains all at the same time, also caused one helluva squeeze on the tiny table. I appreciate not having to wait around for ages between courses, but having everything, including drinks, brought out at the same time is a little too rushed for my liking and suggestive of a philosophy to get you in and out as quickly as possible. That’s fine for a fast food joint, but not exactly what we had in mind for a Saturday night out with friends. Within an hour or so it was all over. I prefer to enjoy a pre-dinner drink, before tackling the entrees and salad and finally the mains, but here at Criniti’s no such luxury. It’s all thrust at you at the same time! I guess the booking confirmation should have alerted us, as it specifically stated that dining time is max two hours.
COMFORT
Even though it was an autumn night, it was warm inside the restaurant, but that probably had to do with the fact that there being so many bodies, and the pizza oven behind us. But rather that than freezing though! Chairs were firm and comfortable but the table was too small for four people especially as all dishes, as we’ve seen already, are brought out together. It was quite a struggle to fit everything and we ended up having to put the wooden cutlery basket on the floor.
MENU
The menu is a long, detailed and elongated affair. Handling it comfortably is made a little more tricky by the small space for each table. Still, it’s well laid out and easy to follow and kept hygienic with plastic laminate. There is a separate drinks menu which is also a fairly lengthy and detailed document. The online menus exactly match the ones that you’ll get in the restaurant, which makes planning your meal beforehand a breeze.
TOILETS
Toilets are modern, well provisioned, and easy to find behind the bar counter in the centre of the restaurant. There are separate male and female ones. Given the number of people using them though, they could have done with a bit of a cleanup at some stage during the evening. The bins in the gents especially were well on their way to overflowing by my second visit, and at the least should be emptied every hour or so.
ACOUSTICS
As expected, and with such a large turnout, this is a noisy venue, or it certainly is on a Saturday night. One mitigating factor though is that the tables are well spaced out so you aren’t on top of your neighbour and that for us, meant that we were able to converse. But this certainly isn’t the quietest venue around.
COST
We were able to use two Ent Book cards (from the 2016/17 book) with each card offering a 25% discount up to a generous max of $40. That kept our bill for four down to a reasonable $170, and it included four drinks (including aforementioned expresso martini for $19), two entrees, a large salad and four mains. Add in a tip and we came in at $45 a head, which I guess is fair value for a decent meal in an upmarket restaurant.
BOOKING
This place is clearly extremely popular with the locals, hence booking for weekend dining is probably essential.
PARKING/ACCESS
The good bit is that parking in this shopping centre is free. The bad bit though, is that, at least on the Saturday night that we came here, finding a vacant spot can be a real struggle. We drove around in circles, for probably about 15 minutes before managing to squeeze into a tiny space near the cinemas. Perhaps street parking might be a better option.
SUMMARY
We had a pleasant evening at Criniti’s Castle Hill and everything went off smoothly. These guys know how to run a restaurant and take pride in what they are doing. The result is a superior dining experience on every level.The food was beautifully prepared, fresh and wholesome and service was fast and efficient, if a little too speedy for my liking. The ambience is casual yet lively and fun, and Criniti’s is in an ideal location in the dining hub of the busy Castle Towers Shopping Centre. However, I have to say that it’s a tad expensive without any discount deal, so I’m glad we managed to get there before the expiration of our 16/17 Ent Book.
MEMO
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