Cinelli's Pizza

Terrible environment. I have been to Cinelli's several times because of the practical location at North Hills. The food is alright (some dishes -- others are just greasy and upset my stomach), but the service is what I don't like, especially during our last visit.

We went there before catching a movie, and we were all immediately, hm... distracted by the hostess's dress. It was unbelievably low-cut and flimsy; I felt very awkward for my dad. She was jiggling all over the place. When she turned around, we could all see perfectly the outline of her thong. For first-time customers, I cannot imagine that she would make a good first impression for the restaurant (besides with the male clientele of ages 13-22).

What was the most distracting was the overall environment. Our waitress was actually quite sweet and attentive; however, we kept noticing this thin, dark-haired woman walking around with all these children in her arms. At first I was asking myself, "Wow, she is a bit over-friendly with the client's children..." We eventually learned that they were actually the woman herself's children -- three little girls who all had to be under the age of 5. They were loud and running around. It was entirely inappropriate for a restaurant. Turns out that the woman is the manager's wife, so I don't think the kids are going anywhere -- which means I won't be going back.…

Soooo SAD! Aweful food.... What once was a wonderful restaurant back when the first Cinelli's opened in Durham years ago is now a sad story.... There is not one hint of authentic italian taste to the food rather, it reminded me of high school cafeteria quality. They have continued to "downsize" the menu over the years and I believe the ingredients as well. Besides the quality of food and ingredients to be exceptionally poor and tasteless, the professionalism of waitstaff and atmosphere are also severely lacking at this location. The waitstaff are not rude however, appear to not give a crap at all about the job or restaurant. I had a similar experience last year and thought I'd give Cinelli's one more try. I Can never go back again. Bar food has better taste and quality. I'm bummed since once upon a time the food was great.…

A little class would be nice.. We were visiting North Hills this weekend and felt like having Italian for dinner. We had tickets for the NH theatre, so rather than go elsewhere, we decided to try Cinelli's. We had not visited Cinelli's before. I have to say that their red sauce seems to be designed for the taste of three year olds and their service reminds us of Waffle House. Given the more upscale image of the locale, we were expecting something better...WRONG. On the positive side, our order was taken promptly and delivered to us in a very reasonable amount of time. However, the female waitstaff was gossiping loudly enough for us all to hear much of the time we were there. Later they were carrying on their conversations from across the room. It was as if they didn't realize (or care) that we could all hear them...whether we wanted to or not. It was not a pleasant dining experience at all. The food was very so-so but the service was spectacularly poor. This is a great location and someone really ought to open up a nice Italian restaurant...or they could just fix this one.…

Would've loved to have eaten..... I had heard good things about this place and had some time to spare, so I ventured in about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. The seating process seemed to be a bit difficult as the person telling the hostess where to seat me had to repeat her directions at least three times. Once seated a waitress appeared, took my drink order, then quickly came back with my drink and asked for my order. I wasn't ready at that point and asked for a few minutes. My waitress then disappeared. The other workers (all dressed for Halloween) were busy playing, laughing, joking and horsing around (except for the only male in the place who seemed to take his job seriously and was attentive to HIS customers). At one point the employees in the booth adjacent to mine were horsing around so much they ended up shoving my table almost knocking over my beverage. After several minutes and no waitress or anyone else acknowledging my presence I threw a dollar bill on the table to cover the cost of the tea and walked out. Also not acknowledged.

It's a shame that in an upscale shopping center like North Hills, that cusotmer service can be so bad. I hear great things about the food, would've loved to have eaten.…