CinCin Restaurant

Hubby and I heard good things about the duck dish in this restaurant and decided to see if it's really as good as the hype. Chestnut Hill is a quaint, little-explored area of Philadelphia with CinCin located beside another restaurant Hokka Hokka. There is street parking available though CinCin has a small parking lot in front for about 10 cars. Friday night, we made 8.30pm reservations an hour before and the host was actually able to seat us even though we arrived 30 minutes early, short by 3 people from our original reservation.

CinCin describes itself as Chinese and pan-Asian. The host and waiter were gracious, the ambience was made soft with dimly-lit lamps and candles, the air filled with low talk and laughter from other diners. Our gracious waiter gave us food menus and a wine list but was unable to clearly tell me what types of Martini were available. He later explained that he was a new staff. After clearing up the confusion, I had a nice Chocolate Martini before me. Definitely one of the better martinis I have drank, and I've drank so many!

Our dinner started with Crispy Spring Rolls. Crispy on the outside with soft shrimps and scallions on the inside, served with 3 sauces that were sweet, sour and spicy. I liked the spicy one the most. The Sizzling Triple Delight with brown rice was perfect-well done, well-seasoned, with crispy vegetables. Of course we had to try the duck, so we ordered a half Peking Duck. 20 minutes later, the waiter was wrapping the low-fat succulent duck meat into Chinese panckes at our table. The Hoisin sauce tasted somewhat chocolatey but not in a candy-sweet way. I didn't care much for the Hoisin so I dipped the wrap in the spicy hot sauce, really liked that combo. We were stuffed after dinner and didn't order dessert.

Overall, we spent about $55, with a tip. I would definitely return to CinCin for dinner another day, I already have my eye on the very spicy Wild-Peppered Lamb. CinCin is a 3.8 out of 5 in my books.
http://yangmingrestaurant.com/cincin/