Two weeks ago, the restaurant Cisco had a soft opening at 955 Montecito Dr. in Corona, California. Cisco is a newly opened upscale American food restaurant, owned by the same owners as Luna Mexican Kitchen, which is located right next door. The family-owned restaurant offers a curated menu featuring a variety of modern and indulgent dishes, all cooked with the intention of pleasing customers. With entree prices ranging from $20 to $100, the fine-dining experience is more on the pricey side. We decided to go and check out Cisco ourselves.
We decided to visit Cisco on Friday, April 11th, just two weeks after the restaurant opened its doors. The ambiance of the restaurant was casual and elegant, featuring rich, dark furnishings and warm ambient light. We were immediately greeted at the front and welcomed into the restaurant. The hostess was quick to take us to a table with two chairs. My friend and I asked if we could sit at a booth instead for more comfort. This request appeared to annoy the hostess as she seemed hesitant to allow us to move to one of the many other booth tables available. She eventually ended up taking us to another table, which was a booth on one side and had a chair on the other, although it wasn’t what we had wanted. However, we were going to take it to avoid further disruption.
Upon being seated, we observed the restaurant’s interior and were pleased with the comfort of the warm lighting, as well as the overall cleanliness and orderliness. A warm-lit bar was presented in the center, while the waitresses were kind and helpful in offering us recommendations for beverages and entree choices. However, we felt that perhaps, due to our age, we were treated with less urgency and friendliness than the other, older customers. We thought that we weren’t necessarily being taken seriously. We were respectful, mature, and outspoken with the employees, and were confused as to why we were being treated differently from everyone else in the restaurant. We didn’t want to read too much into it; however, we felt as though we were judged simply for being younger than the other customers in the restaurant, even though we were serious customers. We also let our waitress know early on that we were writing a review for our school paper, which didn’t seem to interest her at all. However, we did not want to be too critical, considering this was still during their soft-opening and things were still coming together.
The food was presented perfectly and came out as expected. We ordered the cheeseburger and the chicken and red pepper pesto sandwich. Both of which were delectable and worth the price. Although that’s only two things on the menu, every food brought to the tables around us was presented well and looked very appetizing as well. We were extremely pleased with the food in terms of taste and presentation.
Overall, it was a pleasant experience at Cisco. We thought it was fun to try something new and would recommend that other Corona residents give it a try for themselves. They launch their grand opening on April 25th, so definitely go check it out!
