Cibreo Italian Kitchen
We had, on numerous previous occasions, tried to get into Cibreo (always pre-theatre Thursday) and had always been told that they were completely booked. I even tried making reservations 3 days in advance and was shut out. So on this particular night, after calling 3 weeks ahead, we finally were able to get reservations.
Oh my – I am still wondering WHAT the big draw is!!! Except for the fact that it’s located across the street from all of the Playhouse Square theatres, we couldn’t find any reason that they should always be booked to capacity! When it comes to Italian dishes, we prefer “southern Italian”, but have always been able to find something that we really enjoyed in places that specialized in “northern Italian” cuisine. The service at Cibreo was excellent. The entire wait staff was really attentive and friendly and we loved our server. She took the time to chat and offer suggestions, without hanging around too long. Unfortunately though, we didn’t enjoy our meals nearly as much. Mr. Z played it safe and went with the only “southern Italian” dish on the menu, which was the chicken parmesan. The chicken itself was good, once you got through the very heavy crust on the outside. We both thought the marinara sauce tasted a little like Chef Boyardee though – too sweet with very little spice added. It was served with basic spaghetti that wasn’t very al dente! I ordered the ravioli, which consisted of 4 ravioli, stuffed with ricotta cheese and tiny shrimp, slightly covered with a saffron cream sauce (very sparingly) and a slice of pancetta on top. Our server had forewarned me that it tended to be “lemony” so if I had an aversion to lemon, I shouldn’t order it. Good advice – while it was lemony, I didn’t find it to be overly so (Mr. Z would have been very upset had he decided to order it without any advance warning – not a lover of anything lemony)! The first dish was delivered cold, so it went back and after about 10 minutes, the second order arrived, thankfully hot. It was good, though not something I’d ever say, “wow, I have to have that again”, nor would I go out of my way to recommend it to anyone. It was just okay!
In summary, the atmosphere at Cibreo was very warm and inviting and the service was outstanding; but our feeling was that they just didn’t deliver with the food; particularly for the $$.
1438 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH
(216) 862-9212