Review: Cibo Bistro

Cibo Bistro Edmonton at 11244 104 Avenue.

Mike and I finally got a chance to go for lunch at Cibo Bistro today!

Located in Oliver Square at 11244 104 Avenue, Cibo (pronounced chee-bo) is a locally-owned Italian restaurant that also features a sous chef who happens to be my good old friend @Matt_Cibo. Cibo only opened a couple months ago!

Everything at Cibo is fresh and made at the restaurant. A lot of products/produce used in Cibo dishes are also bought from local suppliers so it’s all very local, local, local, which is a huge draw for a lot of people. Let’s face it, eating local, buying local, supporting local – it’s all very “in” right now.

The lunch menu is very affordable. There’s a $6 soup of the day and then every other dish (you can choose from about 6 different lunch dishes) are only $10. Not hard on the wallet at all.

Cibo Bistro Edmonton - Meatball Sandwich with Tomato Jam & Prosciutto

Mike chose Cibo’s “Meatball Sandwich” with tomato jam and prosciutto. He thought the sandwich was good but thought it could have been a bit bigger. We are very big-portions-loving kind of eaters so if there can be more, we always prefer that, lol.

Cibo Bistro Edmonton - Minestrone Soup of the Day

The lunch sandwiches also come with soup or salad. For his accompanying soup, Mike got minestrone (the soup of the day). Hot and flavourful. I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed by Italian soup, lol. It’s rare to go wrong with that.

Cibo Bistro Edmonton - Bucatini Carbonara

I ordered the “Bucatini Carbonara.” Bucatini is a very round, thick pasta that I’ve never had before. Kind of has a slippery texture to it. With the carbonara sauce, meat and cheese it all made for a very delicious lunch. Extra savoury when you know the chefs hand made all (or most) of the dish.

Cibo Bistro Edmonton - Chocolate Trio

We weren’t planning on getting dessert but Matt (who serves during the lunch hour) convinced us. The lunch desserts are the same as the ones offered during dinner. He listed off a bunch of desserty words and I ended up choosing the one that had “white chocolate gelato” in it.

Turns out the white chocolate gelato is part of Cibo’s “Chocolate Trio” which includes dark chocolate tart, hazelnut brittle, white chocolate gelato and milk chocolate mousse. It was deee-licious! Mike loved the mousse and dark chocolate tart. I especially enjoyed the white chocolate gelato. The mousse was also good but I’m not a fan of dark chocolate in general so that was just okay. The brittle was a bit too hard and thick so I didn’t try too much of that. Matt tells me normally it’s supposed to kind of crack all over the gelato but that wasn’t the case this time. Other then that, delicious dessert and also very pretty. Love the jar that the mousse came in.

Inside Cibo Bistro - 11244 104 Avenue, Edmonton

Cibo is a very clean, slick, modern looking place. The staff is very friendly. The atmosphere is really nice. I could see it being a great, intimate date night spot. One of the reasons we chose to go at lunch and not dinner however is because prices are slightly on the more expensive-than-we’d-normally-like-to-spend-on-dinner side. We’re more $15 for a dinner meal as opposed to $25 for a dinner meal kind of people. lol.

Still we had a great time at lunch. The food was fresh, flavourful, looked excellent and the ambience was oh-so pleasant.

If we hadn’t ordered dessert ($13) – our lunch for two would have only cost $20 bucks so again – lunch is very, very affordable!

I’ve only been hearing great things about Cibo and I’m happy to contribute to that now. I would recommend Cibo for anyone looking for some tasty Italian while also looking to support local. Portions-wise we’d probably have preferred more – but what we did get was delightful.

I hope we can suck up our frugality some day soon and come back to try Cibo’s dinner menu.

So have you been to Cibo Bistro? What did you think!?

Linda :)