CineBistro

Cocktails, dinner & a movie in 1, and no one under 21 allowed. CineBistro is a movie theater/restaurant combo located in the Dolphin Mall. The deal: Come half an hour before your movie starts, have a seat at the bar for pre-show cocktails or wait to be seated in plush leather armchairs with movable trays. Once seated, you order your meal, dessert & drinks and they bring it all out at once--tapas style; once the trailers start, service is discontinued. Payment is at the door for the movie ($30/2) and as you order (the meals are seemingly well-priced, but we still ended up spending $70 total for the two of us--watch out for the $5 beers).

What we had:

I had a decent shrimp and veggie burrito with red cabbage slaw. The shrimp had a nice grill taste, and the burrito was pretty good. My DH had a decent Cuban sandwich and fries.

Décor:

Really nice red leather seats--the whole place is very plush with a nice low-key feel.

Service:

Pretty decent.

Overall impressions:

This would be a perfect date or get away from the kids for an evening place, but it's just not practical enough to become an everyday movie place. If you were to go out to dinner and a movie separately (averaging $30 for a meal (sans alcohol) with similar quality and $20 for the movie tickets), CineBistro comes out $20 more. But with CineBistro, you have the added ambiance and the really, really easy to make it a special night feel. The vibe just feels "grown up" here. I don't think I'm willing to drive all the way there, battle the mall crowds and pay more than I'd like to see a movie often, but were I on a date or have small children, this place would be on my short list of places to while away a few hours.

Company website; what Google says

Rating:

3.5 out of 5 salamanders