Cinco is a really beautiful, funky, awesome new restaurant at The Mills, which is just exploding and becoming the hippest and coolest part of town. Cinco means '5' in Spanish is named so because of the extremely passionate 5 people who came together to open this place. The open-air section is beautiful and has a Mediterranean vibe. The indoor section is pretty rad, like being in a super exclusive club in Ibiza or something. Funky crazy interiors, velvet lines sofas and soft lighting make you want to party all night. They even have their own dedicated Patisserie for lovely bakes and cakes.
I was invited to Cinco for their Sunday Brunch and I was quite looking forward to it. The only problem was it didn't start till 1 pm, making it more of lunch but the vibe of the place and drinks kept us going.
Drinks,
-Green Apple Sangria and Tomatina Sangria: Was soothing and super tasty.
Their cocktails, though, just blew my mind.
-The B-Ananas: A cocktail with banana infused rum, passion fruit etc was absolutely smashing. Looked so beautiful in the brass glasses and it was sweet, fruity, potent and super fun.
The biggest surprise was the 'Tea Cocktails' which were exactly as mad as it sounds, but let me tell you, were really nice, especially if you're a fan of high-end teas, black tea or green tea. Not everyone may like it, but really worth a try as they have a really soothing, sweet and mature flavour. They are even served in a specially designed exquisite cup on a glass stand.
-Jasmine Tea Cocktail: Sweet with the great flavour of rosemary.
-Chamomile: Milder, slightly less sweet with litchie and such a pretty rose on top.
-Oolong Tea - Amazing litchie and lemongrass flavours.
Speciality Cocktails - These were a bit mad, utterly beautiful and really interesting. With these cocktails, the whole restaurant is gonna be looking at you.
-The Honeybee Comb was the maddest. Specially designed glass and metal contraption made to look like a bee. It contained Turmeric flavoured Tequila which was super innovative and it tasted delicious.
-The Kiwi Mist and Smokey Pokie were amazing too. The latter was given a wonderful smokiness with a smoker. All these cocktails took us back to chemistry class from school.
The Food: We started off with some Crispy chicken which was fantastic. Really crispy, juicy flavourful chicken inside, tasted amazing with the dip. The Wok Tossed Vegetables too was crispy and had a great garlicky caramelly taste.
-The Pizzas were fantastic. Cheesy, really great sauce and toppings with a thin crust. The BBQ chicken and the Margherita were my favourites.
-The Middle Eastern starters of lavash, pita and bread with Hummus (plain, green peas & beetroot), salad and pickled vegetables gave a wonderful light healthy addition to the starters.
Mains: Not all the mains were as great as the starters, though. Some of them had the generic 'buffet' food taste. Let's start with the good ones.
-The Mustard Chicken was the best mains. Juicy chicken in a creamy sauce full of course English mustard. Wonderful hit without the pungency. The Mutt and Mushroom Lasagna was excellent too, full of mushroom, spinach and cheese.
-The Chicken Thai Green Curry was good, but the veg Red Curry was very average, not at all like the original.
Desserts: Desserts are an essential part of a sinful Sunday brunch and there was a decent spread. Belgian Chocolate Pastry was gooey and really nice. The Mix Fruit Pastry and Swiss Roll were creamy soothing and nice, though nothing exceptional. The Brownie, unfortunately, was hard and pretty much not eatable.
I ordered their Baked Lime Cheesecake, as I'm a huge fan. It was nice but not that great. There wasn't enough lime flavour and it had hard sugar crystals in it which made the texture a bit weird. The actual cheesecake, though, was quite good, so there is potential, just fine-tuning is required.
Verdict: Frankly, I think the place is amazing and some of the food is really nice, but I personally wouldn't go back for the brunch. Their cocktails, on the other hand, were fantastic. I really want to go back and try their ala carte menu before I can give a full-blown verdict about the food.
I was invited to Cinco for their Sunday Brunch and I was quite looking forward to it. The only problem was it didn't start till 1 pm, making it more of lunch but the vibe of the place and drinks kept us going.
Drinks,
-Green Apple Sangria and Tomatina Sangria: Was soothing and super tasty.
Their cocktails, though, just blew my mind.
-The B-Ananas: A cocktail with banana infused rum, passion fruit etc was absolutely smashing. Looked so beautiful in the brass glasses and it was sweet, fruity, potent and super fun.
The biggest surprise was the 'Tea Cocktails' which were exactly as mad as it sounds, but let me tell you, were really nice, especially if you're a fan of high-end teas, black tea or green tea. Not everyone may like it, but really worth a try as they have a really soothing, sweet and mature flavour. They are even served in a specially designed exquisite cup on a glass stand.
-Jasmine Tea Cocktail: Sweet with the great flavour of rosemary.
-Chamomile: Milder, slightly less sweet with litchie and such a pretty rose on top.
-Oolong Tea - Amazing litchie and lemongrass flavours.
Speciality Cocktails - These were a bit mad, utterly beautiful and really interesting. With these cocktails, the whole restaurant is gonna be looking at you.
-The Honeybee Comb was the maddest. Specially designed glass and metal contraption made to look like a bee. It contained Turmeric flavoured Tequila which was super innovative and it tasted delicious.
-The Kiwi Mist and Smokey Pokie were amazing too. The latter was given a wonderful smokiness with a smoker. All these cocktails took us back to chemistry class from school.
The Food: We started off with some Crispy chicken which was fantastic. Really crispy, juicy flavourful chicken inside, tasted amazing with the dip. The Wok Tossed Vegetables too was crispy and had a great garlicky caramelly taste.
-The Pizzas were fantastic. Cheesy, really great sauce and toppings with a thin crust. The BBQ chicken and the Margherita were my favourites.
-The Middle Eastern starters of lavash, pita and bread with Hummus (plain, green peas & beetroot), salad and pickled vegetables gave a wonderful light healthy addition to the starters.
Mains: Not all the mains were as great as the starters, though. Some of them had the generic 'buffet' food taste. Let's start with the good ones.
-The Mustard Chicken was the best mains. Juicy chicken in a creamy sauce full of course English mustard. Wonderful hit without the pungency. The Mutt and Mushroom Lasagna was excellent too, full of mushroom, spinach and cheese.
-The Chicken Thai Green Curry was good, but the veg Red Curry was very average, not at all like the original.
Desserts: Desserts are an essential part of a sinful Sunday brunch and there was a decent spread. Belgian Chocolate Pastry was gooey and really nice. The Mix Fruit Pastry and Swiss Roll were creamy soothing and nice, though nothing exceptional. The Brownie, unfortunately, was hard and pretty much not eatable.
I ordered their Baked Lime Cheesecake, as I'm a huge fan. It was nice but not that great. There wasn't enough lime flavour and it had hard sugar crystals in it which made the texture a bit weird. The actual cheesecake, though, was quite good, so there is potential, just fine-tuning is required.
Verdict: Frankly, I think the place is amazing and some of the food is really nice, but I personally wouldn't go back for the brunch. Their cocktails, on the other hand, were fantastic. I really want to go back and try their ala carte menu before I can give a full-blown verdict about the food.
