Zins

Braxton was the best server! Quick, funny, attentive and all around wonderful! He was the highlight of our experience and that is something since the food and wine also excelled.
Everything we tried from the Crispy walleye, cheese board, coconut shrimp, spinach artichoke, truffle fries, spicy cauliflower, to the Mac n cheese was excellent! On the night we came they offer ½ price wine — so we ate and drank like it was our last meal and the check was so inexpensive!
We sat at the Chef’s Table and watched them artfully prepare our dishes. The décor is stylish and comfortable… I loved the artwork in the front, especially the framed tablecloth etched with erie shapes of dish-​ware and silverware outlines, leftover from the flood a few years back.
I had no idea that downtown Cedar Rapids offered such a big city dining experience — I will tell all my friends.

For having such high prices, the food at Zins should be amazing… but alas, not so much. My date and I ordered two «big plates»: the salmon and the pork medallions. The salmon was a tiny serving, so my date left hungry, and the pork was so overcooked it was almost inedible! Also, it took about an hour for us to get our food. We spent that time sipping cocktails and snacking on some of the bread, both of which were actually quite tasty, for what it’s worth. However, the ambiance was quite dark, and the blaring classical music and wannabe-​upscale ambiance gave me the impression that Zins is just trying to hard. All of it seemed inauthentic, and the quality of the food didn’t remotely match the efforts in the décor. It’s unlikely that I’ll return.

Nothing special. A bit pricey. Attempt to present well but actually stumble vs. large city venues. Not sure always who they are trying to be. Menu seems to have gaps & voids.

We have dined at Zins off and on since it opened, but let me just say that our recent dinner was divine. The menu has such a wonderful assortment of dining options from appetizers, soup, salad, small plates and entrees. Oh, and don’t forget to save room for dessert. If you haven’t been to Zins recently for a fine dining experience in this cozy place do yourself a favor and make a reservation for Zins. We’re already anticipating our next dinner date there very soon.

Really enjoy eating here … the place is warm, feels sophisticated and the menu is delish. I personally am not a fan of big plate meals, so I wish there were more tapas to choose from (as the focus used to be), but I appreciate the balance between the two options. Also — great wine list! service was fine, but what I really liked is how friendly everyone was. I am so appreciative this isn’t just another run-​of-​the-​mill experience … if wanted that, I’d go to a chain. But for quality food, good service and accessible prices, I was pleased with the experience.

My favorite place to go out on the town in Cedar Rapids. Great atmosphere and even better service. I like the personable service given by the staff, they make you feel like family at Zins. I would recommend this to anyone either traveling through town on business and or staying in town. Also a great local hangout.

Once liked this local place. WORST SERVICE EVER TODAY. After 1 hour 20 min. No food. Wasn’t busy. Waitress kept saying food was coming. We walked out. NO THANKS NOT RETURNING.

Well what can I say… I really enjoy the dining area… the service staff are good… valet parking. …the menu can be hit or miss… but if you enjoy tapas then this is your spot

Perhaps it was an off night because I cant understand the reviews I’m reading. Because of Unilocal I came here and had the worst time I can imagine.
It took 30 mins after being seated to have our drink orders taken. It took 30 mins to get the drinks and have our meals ordered. Half menu wound up being unavailable… had we known that we would have never waited that long. We ordered all the same. 40mins later a waiter comes out apologizing with free fries. 20mins after that our food comes out. The chicken was raw in the middle, the beef was too tough to chew. They offered us free desert to make up for it. This took another 40mins and were not the deserts we ordered.
The services was slow, if not polite. They should have warned us about the menu.
Undercooked chicken is not only unacceptable but illegal. Zins should be closed down for this alone.
This place was not only terrible (obviously) but destroyed my confidence in the Unilocal app.
Do not eat here. Perhaps use a different app as well.

My wife and I regularly attend TCR and rotate eating at the local dining in downtown CR. I think we are now done eating at Zins. The Service was very slow and disjointed. The seating arrangement we had felt like we were sitting on top of the couple next to us. The were out of the pork chop on the big plates menu and this is early Friday evening. Our food though was really good, so congrats to the cooks and chef

Not sure how this place gets decent reviews. Literally one of the worst dining experience in recent history. Was never expecting much but having to ask 2x for my drink 15 mins after ordering it was not a good sign. Then not having 1 of only 5 entrees on menu (the salmon) after waiting another 15 to order was Ridiculous. The scallop was decent except 2 small scallops for $ 15 is wrong. The chix I ordered was literally RAW & though waiter was willing to comp the replacement was no better then a dried up chix mc nugget from Mickey ds!
Left in a hurry & will never return. Cedar Rapids could use a fine dining experience as this place sucks!!!

Tapas and half off bottle of wine on a Tuesday?! I’m sold! This place was great! I’ve visited Cedar Rapids a lot, and I could say this place probably has the best food and variety of food there. I loved the scallops, the mac n cheese, chicken, and the crème brûlée dessert. The staff was friendly and put up with our loud, but fun group of friends. Definitely coming back here again when I’m back in town.

I really use to like Zins. I would look forward to great service and great food. After having a 7:30 reservation, we were seated at approximately 7:40. At 7:50, I got up and walked out after never actually having a server approach our table. We received menus that looked like they were sneezed into. What a dumpster fire this place has become. I should have known that when I saw 4 other couples in your establishment, it probably was for a reason. Just a small word of advice, don’t go begging on social media about needing customer’s to give you business when you can’t even provide them with service!

Second visit to Zins, second bad experience at Zins. I think I just paid $ 9 for a gin and tonic happy hour drink. The bartender claims I gave her less than the amount owed, so I gave her more money, though I insisted I gave her more than enough. She supposedly takes me at my word, gives me a discounted price, and gives me back some money. Since when does $ 13 less a drink for about $ 4 get me change of $ 4.25? As I indicated in my previous review of Zin’s, no wonder they have a problem staying in business.

I ate here the other night and I find the poor reviews puzzling. My husband was formally a concierge in the French Quarter in New Orleans and we now dine out regularly in the DC area. The service, while not the most sophisticated we have ever seen, was charming and friendly. We got the calamari small plate, the seared scallops small plate and the soup — all of which was delicious. We split a large plate flank steak with balsamic marinade and the lollipop lamb small plate. I did find the risotto to have an odd, almost bitter flavor. Everything else was outstanding. The «go to» dessert is the crème brûlée. It was thick, creamy and had a lovely burnt sugar crust on top that cracked nicely. We would definitely go back when we are in the area.

Zins is an area tapas place, they offer small dishes meant for sharing. So it really is nice to come here with a group of people to try a little bit of everything.
I’ve eaten here a few times, I won’t go over every dish since I do believe their is some rotation in the menu options. The food is pretty good and they do put a decent effort fourth in the quality of the dishes they serve. I would say they put their chef school training to use here. Places like this are good for group outings since you are actively sharing.
The prices and size of the tapas dishes are about right, they give you a good sized portion for your money. I’ve seen similar places to this become very successful, check them out and find the right mix for you or your group.

Having seen a lot of Unilocal reviews, both super good and super bad, I didn’t know what to expect.
The bar service was pretty slow, but not as bad as I’d heard.
Basically it’s kind of bad. The servers don’t know how to deal with a restaurant like this. We sat in the «Chef’s Table» which basically means your ambient light is fluorescent from the kitchen.
Literally every plate was delivered to the wrong person.
Over and over again. It was like a buffet where you had to yell «that’s mine!»
With 10 people this turns from an amusing joke into a Marx brothers farce.
And yes we were sitting at the «Chef’s Table» which is just an alcove of the restaurant where you get fluorescent lighting from the angry kitchen staff instead of something appropriate.
The food was not even good enough to make up for that.
Realizing it was disaster in the making, the only person in charge (the waitress) produced every desert for free.
No.
So I dunno, maybe it’s good for 2 people. Like all restaurants I’ve seen in Cedar Rapids, they don’t know what they’re doing.

The very best part of Zins is the free valet parking; everything after that is downhill.
Before I expose the too-​many-​to-​name fails, let me say this: I really, really, really want to love, or at least like, Zins. I want to support locally owned restaurants in Cedar Rapids and to see them succeed. Truly, I do. This is why I always give restaurants several tries, returning in hopes of discovering improvements in the wake of less-​than-​great experiences of which I have had at Zins in the past. And so, we chose Zins over Cobble Hill, 360, Vinos, Popoli’s and White Star as our pre-​TCR show dinner on a Thursday night. There were four of us and while we had made a reservation, we definitely did not need one as the place was nearly empty.
Right from the start and throughout our entire visit, the service was slow, disjointed and sporadic, despite our having announced our time frame with our up coming 7:30 show. Cocktails were delivered one at a time, the third coming about 15 minutes after the first two were delivered. I have never experienced cocktail service like this. The teenager at our table ordered a Shirley Temple that caused her to squint her eyes and say to me, «Taste this. Is this right.» It was not. «How do you screw up a Shirley Temple,» we wondered. We learned they had run out of Sprite and had thought it wise to substitute plain club soda. Not.
We ordered the cheese plate to start, followed by a couple of salads, and then three pasta dishes. The cheese plate tasted good enough, but the presentation of piling all the cheese and relishes onto a small plate with no division of the components was less than impressive. I recommend spreading it out onto a board and adding more relishes, mustards, nuts or greens. Just something creative.
There was a huge gap after our first course and we were getting pretty impatient, when our pasta dishes arrived, before our salads. Ugh. We noted the absence of our salads and the pastas were wisked away by the food delivery person. Two minutes later she was back, with our server, and now, our pasta dishes AND or salads, all at once. Ugh. It’s not like the kitchen had a full dining room of full tables with many orders to fulfill. How does this happen? Sequencing is Restaurant 101 stuff. C’mon, Zins.
By now, I’m just praying the food doesn’t suck and I’m eating the bread they had brought just in case it does.
The tiny pasta dishes were fine, not good, and consisted of box spaghetti tossed in sauce with about 3 ounces of protein (no veggies). The shrimp and seafood portions served in the pasta were below average and reminded me of the shrimp and seafood you would find at Panda Express. Edible, but not fine dining. None of us would order these again.
We ate our salad AFTER our entrees because we didn’t want to eat cold pasta. Salad was fresh, but I don’t think it was properly dressed as we tasted no lemon vinaigrette as promised. Ugh again.
I need to stop as I am getting stressed out again just thinking about our dinner. Just know that dessert took forever and service continued to be poor. We barely made it to the show on time.
Why two stars? Valet parking, good décor, cocktails tasted very good, and the focaccia bread is yummy.
Will I return? Not likely.
Zins, I’m out.

I like Zins. They never let us down. Very professional service (Jeremy.) Good delicious locally sourced food.
I had the Carolina Pulled Pork and it was very good. Wife had a Chicken sandwich and it was delicious too!
We ended with Bread Pudding ($ 4) and it was amazing. A very generous portion that both of us shared. Very good value.
We will be back!

Stopped in several times a while back, with some notable ‘wtf?’ moments…
Mid afternoon, with a promo board out front listing several food specials, I walk in and am informed that there is in fact no food being served until after 4pm (clock reads about 3:30). Well, aside from being hungry, I’m thirsty as well… but the bartender is already distracted on the other side of the wall/​bar before I can place my drink order. I figure I’ll still check the place out and have a drink and wait until she returns to get my order in. 5 minutes pass before she returns.
This will come to frame my experiences at Zins, as, once I get my drink, the bartender is nowhere to be found. My beverage has maybe two fingers (mostly ice) left when she emerges to cash out the only other people in the bar, but she doesn’t even look in my direction before walking off again, let alone ask. I finish my drink and wait patiently for the better part of ten minutes while I hear conversation from the ‘other side’ — there is a wall between the front bar and the dining area. At this point, it’s been 15 minutes since the bartender showed her face, and I figure she’s forgotten about the only actual customer in her restaurant, and oh yeah, I’m hungry. The bartender/​manager is apparently occupied, so I leave a $ 5 bill on the bar and depart.
I waited, patiently, for this server to return and take my payment, for long enough that I actually said ‘1 more minute’ to myself while literally watching a clock. I do not skip out on my tab, ever, but I had things to do, including find a place to eat, and since I’d asked about food and the appointed hour had already past and the server wasn’t interested in… serving anything… I got up and left. Leaving, at least, some payment, not knowing what my actual bill for 1 drink was. Had this person made the slightest effort to check on me, get me another drink, or suggest a food option (or, once again, hand me a menu, *sigh) I’d have given it another 5 minutes, maybe… but…
So I walk down the street to another business, where I’m greeted immediately as I walk in the door (whoa, guys, calm down!), and I’ve placed my order and even paid for it when I turn around to find the bartender storming towards me. She demands another $ 3 for the drink I finished nearly 20 minutes previous, while standing in another business. I ask her for change for a $ 50 (another reason I only left $ 5 on the bar) which she does not have. I’m forced to ask the owner of the business we’re standing in if he can make change for a $ 50, which he does. The Zin’s bartender storms out while a half dozen customers and employees stare on like ‘wtf?’.
Once again we see that service is an afterthought if you’re eating alone, even at places that present themselves as fine dining and service. If you’re going to charge $ 8 for a basic drink you need to check in on your customers, period. I went in to this business expecting to spend that entire $ 50 on food and drink but was ignored and then chased down the street for an amount less than what I would have tipped, had the bartender bothered to do her job. I don;t expect to be entertained by your service staff — I just expect service. This manager/​bartender couldn’t even cover that for a single customer during a dead hour.
I might suggest, as well, that if you aren’t serving food — close! Zins doesn’t have anything on tap or behind the bar I can’t find a half a block away for half the price so don’t waste your time for drinks unless you’re there to eat as well. Even White Star is cheaper (and I daresay has better service).