Quantumania: Date Night at Cinebistro!
We’re finally headed back to one of our favorite locations in Richmond for date night. We’ve been going to Cinebistro at Stony Point Mall for over a decade, and it’s become a staple in our relationship for most of our date nights. As Marvel super fans, it’s no surprise we were back to visit for the premiere of a new movie. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was much better than anticipated, and we thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Our food, however, was a different story this time.
When we arrived, we were a little early and the theater hadn’t opened up for seating, yet, so we decided to head to the bar to grab a drink. My usual drink here is a French Martini, but in the past, servers have had trouble ordering the drink while we’re in the theater and there’s typically a longer delay. I ordered the drink at the bar, and the bartender had to ask me how to make it since she couldn’t pull it up on her phone. I provided her the ingredients, and shared a look with Alex of worry, and started wondering how this would turn out. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the drink tasted very good and was made perfedctly! Right as it arrived, our theater opened up, so we paid and headed to our seats.
French Martini
Instead of our usual wait to order (seriously, we’re usually the last ones to get our order placed), we ordered immediately. Alex wanted to order an extra side of fries, but their new rule is that you cannot order a side of fries unless it’s accompanied by a sandwich or burger. This is honestly another string of ridiculous changes we’ve experienced in the last few years. (Side note for those unfamiliar: during COVID 2020, Cinebistro had to close like most theaters, and reopened later in year. When they reopened, they had a very limited menu and lots of changes to accommodate the guidelines for the pandemic. However, since the pandemic ended, they’ve come under new ownership and with it, new menus again and again. They’ve removed french fries from the menu entirely before in favor of tater tots; they’ve completely removed favorite dishes from the menu and most recently, increased the pricing again. On our previous visit before this, we ordered a burger with fries, small salad with shrimp, two sodas, and a box of candy, and our bill was over $100.00. With these prices, we’ve had to take a significant step back from visiting our favorite theater, and are lucky we had a gift card.)
New Seats
On this visit, we found they had upgraded their seats in the last two weeks. They’re very comfortable, have higher raised trays for eating, more cup holders, and a small directional light for viewing at your seat during the movie. They also recline with an attached foot rest, which you can do once the movie begins and the food service has finished.
I ordered the blackened salmon for my meal, which came with roasted garlic mash, wilted spinach, heirloom tomato, and butter sauce. The salmon was cooked perfectly and the mash was good, but the spinach and tomato were both cold and made a weird addition to dish. Had they been warm, I think I would have enjoyed the dish more.
Blackened Salmon
Alex ordered the Cinebistro Burger, and made some changes to it (added an extra patty and bacon, and removed all the other fixins). He really enjoyed the burger, put per usual, they forgot to bring his extra ketchup. (We’ve learned by now that they never bring it, so we brought our own ketchup packets for him to use.)
Cinebistro Burger
Overall, the food was great and we definitely enjoyed the move (and the new seats that were very hard not to fall asleep in). While we love coming to this theater, until they fix their issues with the menu changes and the extreme overpricing, we’ll be eating dinner elsewhere before we visit from now on. If we do indulge while there, it may be just popcorn and candy (or when we have another gift card). We love this theater, but it may be time to find a more affordable option for our go-to movie spot!