Review: Cin Cin

https://www.cincin.co.uk/ 

60 Western Road, Brighton, BN3 1JD

"Cin Cin Western Road is an open kitchen with private dining showcasing the best of Italy in Hove"

I'm sure most people reading this will already know how brilliant Cin Cin is, and I have no controversial opinions on that topic; it's up there with the best Italian food I've ever had. In fact, this blog was started because I saw that Cin Cin held a press/blogger event for the opening of their new restaurant, which instantly created a new life ambition for me - to be invited to their next opening and fed free pasta. Is that too much to ask?! Help me on my journey by reading this blog post...

I visited the new (and very smart looking) Cin Cin on Friday night with a couple of friends from university. We all love a good bowl of pasta so there was much anticipation and excitement beforehand, with lots of Instagram stalking of the restaurant. The Hove branch is pretty similar in style to the Brighton one, with the same open kitchen surrounded by bar seats. However it definitely feels a lot more restauranty, probably just due to the fact that it's not in a garage (no disrespect to Vine St, love the garage).

We ordered a bottle of white wine (cheapest one on the menu, we're not made of money) which the waiters kept topping up our glasses with. This is lovely but unfortunately means your wine disappears pretttty quickly. We shared a sharing board (as you do) from the Antipasti section, which had 4 meats: mortadella, coppa, pancetta al pepe nero and spianata calabrese. Don't worry, it explains what they actually are on the menu. You can also have cheese instead, or a mixture, and either way it comes with bread. I enjoyed this sharing board a lot, BUT to be fair it's hard to mess up a charcuterie board.

Then we ate PASTA! (I am very hungry while writing this so it's making me very enthusiastic). This was all incredible, which is no less than you would expect from Cin Cin. The spaghetti carbonara, smoked eel, confit egg yolk is a great twist on your usual carbonara and the garganelli, Sussex lamb, kale pesto was rich but (somehow) still light at the same time. The pasta makes the dishes though, honestly think it's some of the best I've ever tasted.

For dessert, all three of us had the warm chocolate mousse with beetroot ice cream so unfortunately I can't tell you what any of the others were like. What I can tell you is that if you like chocolate, you will love this desert. The chocolate has a strong, almost bitter flavour, offset by the sweetness of the ice cream. Basically, it's really nice and because it's a mousse it's not too difficult to fit in after you've stuffed yourself with carbs.

I think I've probably ruined the ending of this post already, but I LOVE everything about Cin Cin. If I had to pick between the two branches I would maybe go for Vine St just because it's more intimate and less flashy, and it is the original after all. However, the food and service is unbelievable at both and I'm already excited to go again.