Cibo Wine Bar

Cibo rocks Winterlicious — dinner was perfection from start to finish! I came here with two girlfriends but I love that this place seems equally ideal for date night or group night. The black tiger shrimp with spicy wine garlic tomato sauce was my favourite appetizer, and all three entrees we ordered were excellent. The ravioli stuffed with lobster, lemon, béchamel, with lobster cream sauce is beyond reproach. Will definitely have to order that the next time I come here. The homemade lemon gelato was like summertime in a spoon — soo refershing and just perfect after all that comfort food.
Order a few different choices if you’re with a group — portion sizes are great for this price point ($ 25 for Winterlicious dinner). Service was unwaveringly excellent: not rushed and certainly not lagging. I appreciate they don’t pressure you to move along right away once you finish. And did I forget to mention they have an aerialist wine retrieval system. Yes — check out my somewhat blurry photo or go there yourself if you don’t believe me. Amazing!
The noise level is moderate to loud, but I didn’t feel the spacing was too close at all, and I love the décor. It’s a real standout for the Y&E crowd. Bathrooms are spacious, well-​lit, and clean… and don’t forget to take advantage of the antique scale in the hallway. Nice touch.

The food was delicious. The service was good. I ordered the ravioli pasta and it tasted very good, and not too filling. I found the tables too close together so your proximity with other groups was fairly close. Overall, if you are there from fresh pasta and wine — it is somewhere I would recommend.

My boyfriend and I made a reservation for 2 on a Friday evening around 6 PM. LOVED the ambiance and atmosphere, perf date spot and service is top-​notch.
Our waiter was knowledgable about the menu. Explained to us what was made fresh in house and what was imported from Italy. My boyfriend and I ordered:
⁹⁄₁₀ Black tiger shrimp in a spicy wine garlic tomato sauce
— Loved it, but the pricing is too high for 5 shrimps ($ 17)
⁸⁄₁₀ Chianti Braised Short Ribs
— So tender, the meat fell right off the bones. The reason I didn’t give it at ¹⁰⁄₁₀ is because the blue cheese is strong in the mashed potatoes and I’m not a fan of onion rings: p Overall, highly recommend!
⁶⁄₁₀ Margherita Pizza
— Went to Italy in Apr and I’m a die-​hard fan of margherita pizzas now so… needless to say, I’m determined to try every single margherita pizza in Toronto and this one here isn’t authentic. Cheese and dough was off.
Def coming back as there’s a lot of options on the menu :)

Brunch Groupon $ 35/​2pp on a Sunday .
This place has great potential, given the ambiance and atmosphere, however there are several flaws that have left patrons on the fence about returning. Definitely NOT worth the full price.
Food: great selection of stations — fresh fruits, rolls/​croissants, antipasti, cheeses/​meats, personally crafted wood oven pizzas, omelettes, Belgium waffles, tossed salads, pastas, dessert table/​stuffed mini cannellonis + !
–they didn’t serve fresh berries with the waffles as a topping choice and when I asked they said they didn’t have any… oh please, you had a bowl of strawberries at the fruit station that was never replenished either
–the carving station was a SUPER FAIL, the «worker/​chef» was bored out of his mind and left station empty 85% of the time, the meat did not look appetizing it was dry. The whole set up was a disaster with the wiring and all. some patrons had to slice at the meat themselves because there was no one servicing the station
–cannellonis had only 1 filling which was an orangey flavoured ricotta, you should at least have just a plain?
Service: Plates were removed in a timely fashion 100% of the time. The wait staff all look dazed and slow, and lacked character. We were NOT allowed to substitute the Groupon included Prosseco for a non-​alcoholic beverage: tonic water and OJ??. Our waiter did not greet us generously or in a timely manner and did not give us a run down of the stations and what they had to offer — perhaps if the waiter is busy at the moment the hostess could assume this task. The 2 hostesses were also sleepy and boring and did not greet us at the door with enthusiasm. I had to ask for a top off for my coffee 5x, not once did she come around and offer on her own. One waitstaff, was wearing a NIGHTGOWN, it was see through with lace, satin, chest exposed and she kept having to cover herself with her cardigan and she walked down the restaurant everytime. INAPPROPRIATE. everyone else wore a restaurant uniform polo and was modestly cladded. When we left the hostess did not even say bye.
Cooks/​Chefs: extremely nice and pleasant ! accommodated to my egg white omelette
Venue: the basement where the restroom is located is like a morgue, F R E E Z I N G, most uncomfortable experience, I didn’t want to drop my pants.
Overall: lots of room for improvement, add some live jazz, and replace your sleepy hungover unexperienced unprofessional waitstaff/​hostesses

Pretty good place for dinner with the girls! We were 6 people and some of us wanted drinks some wanted dinner. We had a reservation for Saturday night last week of December and they sat us right away.
The ambiance and décor in this place is flawless. They have this incredible wine room with an acrobat in it. The tables aren’t crowded and there’s plenty is room to move around. Music is great, not too loud and obnoxious and everything about the atmosphere was fantastic.
Our server was full of charm for us. He was super sweet and helpful but he didn’t write down our orders and a couple times made us repeat it to him. He didn’t come back to check on us after drinks or dinner but the food and drinks came very quickly which was a plus. I understand the other reviews about the not great service. He was super friendly but not so attentive.
I’m torn about how to review the food. I don’t have a taste for fine food so keep that in mind. I love love very easy simple Italian food and found the food to be good just not spectacular. I got the Arancini and margharita Pizza. The Arancini was very good and all the portions were huge. The pizza was really so-​so. It got very soggy very fast and was a little chewy. Some of the other things we ordered were the veggie calzone, some salads and gnocchi. Everyone said the food was good but we didn’t rave, and truly the portions were quite big. The dessert was a little dissapointing, the gelato was freezer burned and the coffee too bitter.
All in all a great place to meet for drinks with friends and fantastic atmosphere but slightly lackluster food.

Nice ambiance, wait staff a little rough, great food.
Cibo Yonge Street is very similar to Cibo on King Street. The ambiance is warm, modern and relaxed. It does get a little loud when the place is full. The food is good and the prices reasonable. However we found the wait staff to be friendly”, but a little too «in your face». There may be a few reasons for this including needing to turn tables quickly and just not having enough staff. Either way, it just didn’t seem as «relaxed» as other places.
We went on Lobster Tuesday and they had various dishes including a Lobster pasta and salad. I had the Lobster pasta and my guest had the Branzino., The presentation is definitely nice and the portions good.
For a better experience in the future, when dining with two people, I would go at a non-​peak time and get a booth. These look comfortable and are a little hard to come by when it’s busy… unless you have some clout… which I hate to say but yes, Cibo does seems to cater more favorably to a younger attractive crowd.

We went to cibo wine bar on a Thursday night (9pm). Street parking is free after 9 (everyday of the week) so it was perfect timing! Lol when we entered, there were two groups waiting ahead of us. I was annoyed to find that the hostesses were on the laptop and didn’t even bother to look up. Eventually they greeted us and said the wait was going to be 20 minutes, so we left our number as they said they’d text. We came back in 20 minutes although we didn’t receive a text. There was a different host who seated us after another 10 minutes. We never got a text from them and we would’ve waited aimlessly if we hadn’t returned, so I’d advise you wait in the restaurant to not lose your spot and shorten your wait time.
The restaurant has amazing décor. High ceilings, bright lightbulbs in a somewhat dim atmosphere, huge wine rack… Love it. We got the seared asahi tuna and seafood risotto which were amazing!!! The tuna dish is a bit on the oily side though.
We got cannoli something as a dessert and that was the fail of the night lolll it was so bland and too creamy for my taste. Should’ve gone with tiramisu which is apparently made in house fresh.
The waitress was so great with recommending wine and dishes. The wine she recommended went so well with the food :))) She was honest about what is popular and not, which made our experience much better. She def made up for the annoying hostesses.
Overall my experience was great. I will return.

I went here with a group of 6 on Saturday night. The place was packed and understaffed. The service was awful.
At first I thought it was forgivable that our server ignored our table for nearly 20 minutes – no water refills and didn’t bring our drinks – because they were so busy. But as the evening progressed it became clear that the bussers were simply not doing their jobs. Empty side plates and glasses sat for nearly the duration of our meal. Speaking of our meal, the food was sub par.
We had:
Fettuccini bolognaise — bland ¹⁄₅
Cheese tortellini in Alfredo sauce ³⁄₅ — to me it was bland but the guy who ordered it liked it.
Fish of the day: branzino — ³⁄₅ well cooked but bland
Margarita pizza — ²⁄₅ bland
Grilled octopus– ³⁄₅ overcooked but edible
For desert we had the Nutella pizza which was not made with Nutella but an imitation chocolate spread. ³⁄₅ it was tasty but it wasn’t Nutella.
There were no salt shakers on the table which demonstrates a gross and misguided overconfidence in their flavourless food.
The atmosphere is nice and the wine list is extensive but I don’t think I will be back to cibo on Yonge.
This is a Liberty Group establishment. I have yet to enjoy a proper evening of good food and great service at one of their places. If I can give a tip it would be to avoid Liberty Group restaurants.

Finally had a chance to try it here. The appetizers were tasty especially the cheese and meat platter. Wine was great too. However I ordered seafood pasta as main dish, which is a bit salty. Overall the atmosphere was very relaxing here!

Came here with a brunch Groupon (2 for $ 35)
I will return during a brunch promotion, but not for the full price.
The brunch buffet was amazing, i had yogurt parfait, personalized pizza, sandwiches and dessert. I definitely left CIBO full. But if i were to pay $ 35 per person, based on what i listed, I would not get my money’s worth.
I agree with what the reviews are saying, you really are paying for the vibe of the place.

I ordered spaghetti with meat sauce. I have never tasted something so bland. I had to ask for salt and chilies just to try and give my meal some
flavour. Even then, it was still pretty gross. I couldn’t eat it, and was disappointed in wasting my money when I had to go buy another lunch after my lunch.
I will not be returning here. You are paying for trendy décor over food quality.

Brunch at CIBO was just great! I made a reservation on OpenTable a few days before for Sunday at 1:30 pm. We were early finishing in some things that morning so headed to Y&E around 12:15 pm. We explained to the hostess that we were early for the reso and if they can squeeze us in now and she was happy to obliged. It was busy and lots of people walking around.
As we were taken to our table on the 2^nd floor, the hostess told us about all the food stations which are spread out across the restaurant.
There was a fruits, yogurt, cheeses, cured meats, made to order pizza, raw station with salmon and tuna, pasta station, made to order omelettes, bacon and hashed potatoes and dessert. Lots to choose from!
We got a groupon so $ 35 for two and included two mimosas. Regular is $ 35 per person.
It’s lots of good and we thought everything was delicious for an all you can eat italian restaurant. I especially enjoyed the pizza and the raw bar. The cannolis were also very good but it was hard to enjoy dessert cause we were stuffed. We tried every station except the pasta.
I loved the décor with the bricks and exposed piping.
The wait staff was very attentive for the amount of customers there and the tight space to work in.
I don’t know what everyone else’s beef is with this place but we enjoyed our brunch there!

I’m very surprised that Cibo has such a low rating. The place has a fantastic ambiance, the service we got was great, and watching the girl swing around to retrieve bottles of wine was a unique experience!
I wasn’t particularly hungry, so I ordered a board and shared the Tiramisu, both of which were presented beautifully. The bread, olives and peppers that they bring out before the meal were also a highlight (particularly the peppers!!)

Went to Cibo for lunch and they had a special for a starter and entrée for something like $ 18 which was surprisingly great value for a nice place like this. I found both the salad and pasta dish I ate to be really good, though nothing to write home about or anything.
Their bread and chili pepper oils were pretty dope.

Had been looking forward to coming here for a little while, so I was glad I finally got here when I did! Came with a bunch of friends to celebrate the end if summer!
Unfortunately, it was an extremely hot day, and the AC in the restaurant wasn’t able to keep up. We ended up at a table that didn’t have an vents above, so it was uncomfortably warm.
Luckily, the food was really, really good! Our table ordered quite a bit of food, but I’m just gonna highlight the items I really liked and tried. First off, their complementary bread was really good! Salty and herbed, it was a nice compliment to the hot peppers that came with it, and the oil and vinegar on the table.
The Carpaccio was excellent as well! With a nice accompaniment of some leaves, the light overall taste was outstanding.
For my main, I got the Orrechiette, which was amazing as well. It was freshly made in house, and the pasta itself was quite tasty. Paired with Italian sausage and broccolini, it was a wonderful combination.
Overall a great food experience, but our service wasn’t the greatest. The server seemed a bit… slow. We needed to ask for bread twice and for water thrice. She didn’t even offer cheese and pepper for our entrees. She didn’t quite seem to be on top of things. The bartender came by to help out our table, and she was excellent.
I would definitely come back, just not on a super hot day, and hopefully sit at a table further inside the restaurant.

I typically take photos of EVERYTHING I eat when I go out. Tonight was an exception.
Dinner at CIBO lived up to my expectations (via Unilocal reviews). Everything looked amazing but tasted underwhelming.
For starters, they bring you a delicious loaf of bread. Likely ciabatta (assuming based on the name of the restaurant). It’s topped with rosemary and salt. It was amazing.
I followed that up with a minestrone soup. It was huge. Packed with vegetables, I mean way overloaded. The broth was good but there wasn’t much of it. It was served hot which was a huge plus.
I then had the seared ahi tuna arugula salad. This is where the experience went sour. Or should I say salty. Wow. The tuna was tasteless other than an enormous amount of salt. Granted I’m not sure it stemmed from the tuna, however something in that salad was drenched in salt. It must have been the tuna.
The service was excellent. The waitress was very friendly and the atmosphere was great. Everything looked amazing.
Worth a try, do some research before going as I would imagine they have better dishes on their menu

Would you rather treat your eyes or treat your taste buds?
Everything in Cibo midtown was so beautiful. The interior décor, the 2-​storey wine cellar, the food presentation, all were eye candies. But I starved my taste buds during dinner. I was very disappointed that the food we ordered were meh.
Ambiance:
I love the interior design here. The front of the restaurant was bright with panels of window facing Yonge Street. Their wine cellar upon the entrance amazed me the most. You could see all the bottles through the glass. The wine lady put on a sling and hung herself in mid-​air to retrieve the wine. It was so much fun to watch and wave at her. You could see the open kitchen at the back and saw the chefs making pasta, kneading pizza dough, and putting the pizzas in the fire oven. We sat at the booth in the middle and the seats were very comfortable.
Food:
The waitress brought us warm bread and hot peppers to start. The bread was soft and topped with rosemary. The olives were a bit too salty for me.
We ordered Carpaccio for the antipasto. I was quite disappointed. The raw beef was pretty bland. I felt it wasn’t dressed well enough with the olive oil and lemon juice.
My San Matteo Pizza was quite disappointing as well. The pizza was thin but the crust risen quite a bit. I couldn’t taste the freshness of the mozzarella and the spicy Italian sausage wasn’t spicy enough. Luckily there was the jar of hot peppers for the bread. I definitely have had better pizza at other places.
Gigli fresh pasta with cherry tomato, zucchini, bocconcini, black olives, prosciutto, basil, extra-​virgin olive oil was good. Pasta was fresh and al dante. The vegetables were very fresh and went very well with the prosciutto.
If you want fresh pasta instead of dry pasta, they offered substitution for a small price.
It was too bad that the food had no WOW factor. I felt Terroni, OVEST, Enoteca Sociale have way better Italian food for around the same price. For cheaper food, I would recommend Levetto. May be next time I will focus on the list of wine they offer.

We went to Cibo last night to celebrate my best friend’s engagement. 4 girls total.
I had heard great things about their King St. location, so I was very excited to taste and see what my friends were raving about a little bit more uptown.
The restaurant, upon entry, seemed extremely warm and inviting, the décor and ambiance was very rustic, but modern, and the place was packed. We were seated in the back of the restaurant and saw chefs hard at work, pressing freshly made pasta through machines, etc. looked very authentic…
We ordered two bottles of J. Lohr Cabernet… They had a very extensive wine list (hence the name, wine bar). As appetizers we ordered the Prociutto and Formaggio board, aranccini (rice balls) and an arugula salad. Both were very tasty and well priced. Their in-​house bread was very warm, fluffy, and tasty as well.
For mains, we shared two pizzas (Americana, Capricciosa) and a pasta. First we ordered their basic gnocchi with a simple tomato sauce… When the waitress brought out our order, the gnocchi was hard and cold. We weren’t impressed, so we sent back the pasta with no questions asked. After that, we decided to order the cannelloni stuffed lobster in a rosé sauce. Wow— very, very salty. The sauce tasted like it came from a can, and the presentation of the pasta was not what I had expected. We sent that back too… After all that, we just stuck to our previous orders. The manager was very kind and took the pasta away (again), with no questions asked.
I would come to Cibo again to try other dishes… The pizzas were great and everything else we ordered was on-​par. The ambiance is excellent. The waitress was fairly knowledgeable and the wine (of course), was excellent.

Visited Cibo this past week with 3 other diners. While one might think that this is just another location of the popular King Street restaurant, this location is very much different.
Service is excellent, as is the wine selection — two things diners have come to expect from Cibo and wine bars respectively.
Appetizers are fulsome and tasty as are the mains and desserts. Pizza is a no-​brainer here — taste it and you’ll see why!
The only two qualms that my fellow diners and I had were the noise level (you had to yell to hear anyone) and the seemingly non existent air conditioning. We were sweating through the entire meal.
Will be back!

Where Shark Club and Italy meet for Sunday brunch
We live in the neighbourhood and would definitely end up here, but the Groupon offer was the nudge we needed. It lowered the risk since we already have our neighbourhood favourites.
We arrived on time for our reservation and were «greeted» by 4 hostess that were just hanging out at the front. The restaurant was packed, but apparently they could spare half hour chilling out at the front while patrons were looking for a good experience plp.
We finally got a table, but it took over 15 minutes for someone to just come by and offer us water, forget the mimosas that were part of the Groupon or having someone explain how the brunch stations worked. It didn’t take us long to understand that they’ve squeezed as many tables as possible to make the place profitable while forgetting to hire and train the staff to match the upscale hipster family-​friendly environment they are trying to convey.
30 minutes later and after asking if we could just go and serve ourselves, the mimosas and coffees we’ve ordered were nowhere to be seen. But how bad can this could get? Oh, wait, I’m forgetting to talk about the food!
Cibo is an Italian restaurant that would make any Italian national want to abdicate their citizenship. From the selection of dry and chewy prosciutto to the cheese-​less arancini to the mushy cannoli to the day old chocolate croissants (I don’t know for sure if they were a day old but they sure tasted like it), everything was very disappointing. The cheese selection is OK, and the fruits are sweet, however, anything that you’d expect a restaurant to cook was mediocre.
The service is awful at this location. Dishes pile up on tables while sweaty bussers try to match customers’ expectations and hostess in high heels run around trying to help in organizing the chaos somehow. There’s no consistency in how the food stations are managed and items will stay out until they dry out.
Overall, definitely not worth the $ 35/​person charged for the brunch buffet. I doubt I’ll go back in the evening for dinner. And next time I’m looking to spend more on Sunday brunch, I’ll just head to Collette at the Thompson. But hey, I did get to watch one of the hostess hanging from the wine cellar ceiling while I was there… That should’ve been enough, right?