Cibo Ristorante

Home

Cibo Ristorante

Cibo

It’s 20 years since Dino Caidominici opened Cibo, an Italian deli and espresso bar on the Gloucester Road, and it shows ever so slightly in his silvering hair, but Dino’s indefatigable charm and energy remains the most important ingredient for diners. Now a restaurant, the place seems understated from the outside – especially on the windswept, rainy Monday night of our visit – but Dino’s greeting is warm and welcoming as ever. We’d booked, The Princess and me, but being Monday it wasn’t really necessary and we joined a couple of couples and a lively party of half-a-dozen young women in the bright dining area. It’s a nicely laid-out place, understated décor with plain wooden chairs and bright red tablecloths. We discussed wines with Dino and treated ourselves to a Chianti Classico from a wine list with plenty of choice under £20 as well as some pricier items for those ‘push-the-boat-out’ occasions. This was more a ‘careful how you push anything’ occasion for The Princess, whose hand got a bit mashed at work a few weeks ago, but the wine was surprisingly light yet well-rounded for flavour and seemed to be helping her recovery along nicely.

As with any good Italian restaurant, the menu offers a range of price trajectories – there’s a special £10 deal going on, or you could just grab a pizza… though a tempting array of classic dishes offers the full Italian Monte(pulciano?). Listening to them order, it was clear the young women are simply sharing a few dishes between them – it’s a birthday party and all bar the birthday girl knew about a massive cake hidden behind the bar – but Dino gave them all the attention and encouragement they needed to have a happy evening, with even a few ‘doggy boxes’ to take away leftovers. We were equally well attended by our young waitress and generous starters were soon delivered, crispy frito misto fried seafood for her and a bed of roast vegetables topped with just-melting goats’ cheese for me. This was satisfying stuff, a mix of flavours tasting freshly cooked throughout, and the same could definitely be said of our mains. I’d been tempted by hake pizzaiola from the ‘catch of the day’ specials list and was presented with two sizeable chunks of clean-tasting fish, white leaves peeling away like pages from a book and more than holding their own against the rich tomato sauce. Any painful memories were soon forgotten when the Princess tucked into her rare-cooked sirloin in gorgonzola cream sauce, the meat as flawless as she’d hoped. Generous (and crisply perfect) vegetables came too, making the house salad side dish wait, Italian style, to be eaten as a course of its own. Full-on puddings followed – white chocolate profiteroles and walnut and caramel tart – almost too big, really, but splendid with a glass of grappa and dark espresso. When the bill came it seemed we had pushed the boat out, after all – £90 with drinks – which made it one of the pricier meals, but you could eat comfortably for much less and, after all, the hospitality came free. (Tony Benjamin)

CIBO RISTORANTE 289 GLOUCESTER RD, BRISTOL, BS7 8NY. TEL: 0117 942 9475, WEB: WWW.CIBORISTORANTE.CO.UK

VENUE VERDICT