Ciao’s sign boasts as being «fine dining», I’ve eaten at fine dining Italian restaurants and this place is about as far from fine as you can get. Upon arriving at Cibo’s I was presented with a basket of their «famous» homemade dinner rolls. The rolls were cold, bland & tasted of nothing. When My waitress arrived I asked her at what times the risotto is served. (most fine dining Italian restaurants serve risotto at the top and bottom of each hour) my waitress had no idea what risotto even was. (my dreams of fine Italian dining were dwindling quickly) So for my main I ordered another classic Italian specialty, veal parmesan. What arrived was disappointing once again. The veal patty was one of those shaped, breaded & frozen portions that I can get from any wholesale distributor like Gordon Food Service ( GFS) or others. Since our party was quite large I looked around the table and noticed that the popcorn shrimp, the chicken tenders, the chicken parmesan, the cheese sticks, the crab cakes, and the calamari. All of these items seemed to be of the same wholesale distributor quality. The salad was just a bunch of iceberg lettuce thrown on a plate and drown in sliced canned olives. The grilled (frozen) salmon was dry, unseasoned, and tasteless. This place may have been the standard for Italian dining in the 1980’s but the menu is dated, all of the way down to the red pepper and canned parmesan cheese shakers on the table. In the restaurant business, you move with the times, or the times move you. I believe the american palate has become more sophisticated over the years and has come to expect more out of a «fine» dining experience, but that would be hard to tell from the clientele I saw at Cibo’s. I think they would have been happy with replacing the tables with a pig trough, filled with spaghetti and garnished with a couple of dead dogs. When I think of FINE Italian dining I think of FRESH! Even a chain restaurant like Carrabba’s is way closer to fine dining than Cibo’s. There I can expect freshly cut herbs in my extra virgin olive oil that is used as a dip for my FRESH HOT bread, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is freshly grated at the table and the lobster ravioli is so thin delicate it makes you want to cry! I have had hospital cafeteria food that was better than this place. On a recent visit to a hospital I was shocked to see that they had a exhibition cooking station where food was being cooked fresh and to order.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |