Zini’s Restaurant

Amazing little Italian restaurant. Great atmosphere and perfect for a date night out.

Excellent service and staff. Delicious homemade desserts and martinis! Very nice atmosphere, will go again!

One word Excellent! Service, food, drinks and atmosphere! AJ is a great servicer who gives professional service! I highly recommend the roasted shrimp cocktail and artichoke appetizer! Great Martinis ! The desert menu is Amazing! I can’t wait to go back !!!

I love the intimacy and European feel of this cozy restaurant. Our first experience here for dinner, started with calamari then we had scallops and veal, all of which were supurb and the perfect serving size. The service was excellent and we’ll be back!

Nothing but the best cooking around. Great atmosphere and Zini is a pro w food. Can’t go wrong or hungry here.

So wonderful, I don’t know where to start! The building is a beautiful display of masonry craftsmanship inside and out. The restaurant is not large (which I think is a bonus), it’s quaint, cozy and the seating is well organized. They have a well stocked bar with a flat screen TV, tables, booths, and a fireplace.
The staff is extremely courteous, friendly and attentive. You feel as though you’re eating at a friend’s restaurant. Our meals came out quickly, were presented beautifully and most importantly, tasted amazing! This truly is a treasure and I feel lucky to have found it. Next time I will definitely make reservations, it fills up quickly.
I would recommend Zini’s for a romantic dinner or a family dinner!

This hidden gem is our favorite place to eat. Staff is always attentive and welcoming, and the owners, Zini and Ardiana, treat us like family. Tonite I had the grilled salmon over Caesar salad — unlike most place, Zini makes a light, refreshing Caesar dressing. Delicious! My husband had the pasta with clam sauce, again delicious. Dessert was a cheesecake with a layer of chocolate mousse. Yummy!

Zini’s is a hidden culinary gem in Bantam CT. Wonderful pastas, beautifully cooked meat and fish. Zini Aldili, the chef and owner makes great soup! I had a bowl of chicken soup this last frozen Monday night — I called it Jewish penicillin. He corrected me «Albanian penicillin»!
The menu changes every month. Always worth a go. I was there last night and had delicious rack of lamb with sautéed spinach. One of my friends had an amazing piece of prime rib.
The food is terrific, the service is excellent, the ambiance is warm and friendly AND the price is right! They’ve been around 17 years in Bantam. They are doing something right! Try it, you’ll like it!

This is a lovely local establishment — and some of the best service we’ve experienced. We went on Super Bowl Sunday, so we were close to the only people there, but regardless, our waiter was exceptional. Not too attentive, but just the right amount of attention. We loved everything about our meal. The salad & bread was traditional, but delicious. For main courses, I had Prime Rib (very generous portion), husband had Baked Stuffed Shrimp. This is the best place in the area to get good old American home-​style (focused on Italian) food. The restaurant is pleasantly decorated, warm & inviting. We’ll be back. Reasonably priced to boot.

This place was amazing! Me and best friend were in town from Washington, D.C. Needless to say, we weren’t sure if we should hold the same standards from home when we felt to be in such a small town. We were surprised the moment we walked in the door. The place was welcoming, the décor was beautiful and comfortable, upon request we sat right next to the fireplace. The staff was very attentive, friendly and accommodating. By the middle of dinner, the place was packed.
Undeniably, the food was amazing. The steak with gorgonzola crumbled cheese on top was delicious and juicy and cooked to perfection! We also tried the special, which was salmon. Both had mixed veggie medley and carb side. A unforgettable meal that out flavored some of the best DC spots I’ve been to which cost way more!
Desserts– ummmmmmmm. Creame brûlée and double? Cheesecake. The brûlée was standard and good. The cheesecake was to die for! They also had a great selection of wine, we got an Italian blend that was smooth and opulent. So good, we stayed after dessert by the fire and talked and drank another bottle!
We’ll most def be back and look forward to seeing the monthly menu changes as I am sure everything is done to perfection at this place!

My husband and I love dining here. Perfect date night location. Wonderful food, the menu changes monthly so you never get bored. The décor is cozy and comfortable. The scallops I had this past visit were the best of my life!

Fresh and delicious. Good old fashioned Italian food. Not pretentious. Great value. I love it.

Our dinner was delicious! The staff was great and I think every person who was working greeted us and/​or asked if we needed anything. We had the crabmeat stuffed artichoke hearts as an app and they were yummy! Both me and my date loved our dinners, and desserts were fabulous. We will definitely be regulars here.

Zini is a master at sauces. Love the Artichoke app. They make great drinks. We go frequently and if we are lucky enough to get AJ as our server things run smoothly… love the renovation made a few years ago.

So happy to have found this great little restaurant. The apps were good, comfortable seating, clean and cozy. We experienced a noisey night as there was a large party with young kids. We had a mature experienced waiter who was excellent, he had a female assistant who was not so good… argumentative. Excellent martini, nice wine list. Lamb done perfectly, linguini with red calm sauce had good taste but the pasta was not drained properly so the excess water diluted this delicious sauce. For the price salad should be included. We paid $ 6 for a greek salad that was not good. We will definitely try it again.

The guy that rated this place a one must have been somewhere else, or maybe a competitor!
The atmosphere is cozy country. I wouldn’t describe it as romantic but it could be if it was a little darker.
We started the meal with the Artichoke Hearts. «Lightly egg battered, pan seared in a lemon white wine sauce» That is the menu description and it doesn’t do them justice. The lemon flavor was pretty strong though. Not overwhelming but I would not recommend this for someone that doesn’t like lemon.
I had the Zuppa Di Pesce for dinner. It was the best I have ever had. Not much in the way of soup, but unlike most there was more seafood than pasta. A whole lobster tail, and enough shrimp, clams, and scallops to make a seafood lover very happy. Absent was the sausage, or pepperoni I have seen mixed in.
My Wife had Veal Parm and reported it to be excellent. She finished dinner with the Coconut Crème Brulee. She is a big fan of Crème Brulee and thought it was excellent as well. I thought it too soupy but then again I’m not a huge fan of Crème Brulee.
I had the Tiramisu. I have tasted Tiramisu all over the country and have never had it the same way twice. This was more cakelike than most. That doesn’t make it bad. iIt was, in fact excellent.
As with everything else service was excellent. The hostess continuously circled the dining room checking on service. With only 18 tor so tables you were never more than a minute or two from having any request satisfied.
The bottom line is that I would be very surprised if you were disappointed dining at Zini’s

I’ve been living in Litchfield for a couple years now and never tried Z’s until just last week. We headed in with a party of 6 and were promptly seated within 15 minutes despite the lot being packed and it being prime dining hour on a Saturday night. According to friends, the restaurant had just gone through a little interior face-​lift. It was clean, and the tables were set up in just a fashion that it did not feel too crowded or you were part of someone else’s dinner party.
I was pleasantly surprised. I am very picky when it comes to Italian food as I cannot stand heavily breaded meats swimming in sugary sweet sauce topped with 5lbs of cheese AKA you typical «Italian» chain… We started with an order of the fried artichoke hearts. which were highly recommended smothered in a lemon wine caper sauce that made me want to lick the plate… but, I didn’t. In fact we ordered a second but the waitstaff failed to follow through with the order.
The only complaint here is that there seem to be too much time between the app and when the dinners arrived. I’m talking like an hour. After been primed with a delicious app, I wanted to die waiting for my dinner. When we were seated, all the tables were filled and by the time our dinners arrived, there were about 3 tables remaining– just to give you an idea of how long we waited.
I ordered the Veal Marsala. The veal was lightly breaded (perfect), nicely portioned and very tender. The sauce was a little different than the typical Marsala. I think perhaps the stock that was used was very robust yielding in a very thick, dark, well flavored Marsala reduction with plenty of sauteed baby bellas. It could have used a little less sauce, or maybe a little more angel hair pasta. Over all, it satisfied my craving and would for sure return and reorder this dish. Other than Roma in Waterbury, this is my new local Italian spot.
I was lucky enough to try my friends Chicken Parm. HUGE piece of chicken, although, I was not a fan of the sauce. I respect that the freshness and simplicity of the sauce, but it was a little too flat tasting. Maybe more salt, olive oil and garlic would make a difference in the flavor profile. I probably would not order anything that came with this red sauce if it was the same one used for all dishes.
We did not order any of the dessert as we were all too full and tired.
I certainly would love to return to try some of the other dishes. and hopefully not have to wait so long.

Great Italian food !!! The Chicken Parm was fantastic. They recently remodeled and it looks great. Cozy and Delicious… Highly recommend !!