Winterlicious!!!! (Cibo)

To those that have no idea what Winterlicious is all about; It is a glorious time of year, much like Christmas,  when restaurants all over Toronto offer a price fixe menu to gluttonous people (like myself) at very affordable prices. For my very first foray into this wintery culinary adventure I braved the cold and traveled all the way to Cibo wine bar for some fine Italian fare.

Cibo wine bar, (pronounced Chee-Bo) is one of Toronto's latest addition to the wine bar scene. The wine bar is separated into two sections: one dining area and a one cocktail/bar area. The full menu is still available in both areas; the only difference between the two sections is the atmosphere. The dining area is just as it sounds, quieter then its counter part and well suited for a romantic night out with your significant other. The cocktail/bar area has more of club atmosphere with load music and a younger vibe.

Winterlicious restaurants usually offer two different price fixe menus: one for lunch and one for dinner. The lunch menu is often the better deal of two, which is why I went to Cibo for lunch. For 15 dollars at Cibo I was able to order a 3 course meal for lunch, pretty good deal considering its about the cost of 2 value meals at McDonalds.

Fresh bread with Olives

One of the best things at Cibo is their fresh baked bread, the bread is chewy, fresh tasting, and is topped off with some toasted herbs and salt (just drooling when I think about it). The olives were fresh tasting and looked like they were marinated in a chilli oil, too bad I hate the taste of olives.

For my first course I decided to see how they would handle the Caesar salad. The lettuce was fresh, the dressing was nice and the salad was not over dressed. The salad wasn't the greatest salad in the world but it was a light and a nice way to begin my meal.

My compatriot for this meal ordered the baked Eggplant. According to Cibo's menu the roasted eggplant had melted bocconici, parmigiano, with a light tomato sauce. When the dish first arrived to the table we both thought this dish was going to be heavy like a lasagna; we were very surprised that the dish was very light when got our grubby little mitts on it. The combination of the tomato sauce, egg plant and bocconici wasn't heavy but tasted fresh. Personally, for me the dish was a little bland a could have used a touch of salt and pepper.

Now for the main event of my meal, Quattro Stagioni (according to the menu). The delicious disk of food was topped with red peppers, mushrooms, olives, zuccini, and eggplants. The pizza was a thin crust neapolitan style pizza. Each slice of pizza packed a ton of flavour and loads of tasty veggies. Topping the slice of pizza with a little bit of their chilli oil creates a little bit of heaven in the palm of your hands.

The other main dish that arrived at the table was tagliatelle with shrimp, pesto, pine nuts, mascarpone in a touch of tomato sauce (again according to their menu). This was a little misleading because as you can see, it is actually tomato sauce with a touch of pesto instead of the other way around. The tomato sauce was creamy with a little bit of tartness and the shrimp was cooked perfectly and fresh like it was just fished out of the ocean. The tagliatelle was house made fresh pasta; cooked perfectly al dente. It was hard to stop myself from leaping across the table to consume this dish because it tasted so good.

To help me finish off my food coma, I ended my meal with a tiramisu martini. This was a very pretty dessert, which made it hard for me to want to plunge a spoon into it (for about 10 seconds). This was not an overly sweet desert but more of mature desert because you could really taste the espresso to compliment the nice cake beneath the whip cream instead of tasting tons of sugar and chocolate.

The vanilla bean panna cotta with candied blood orange and tangerine arrived next. This was a fantastic dessert, which wasn't overly sweet and had an amazing texture. The vanilla bean really stood out and combined with the candied blood orange sauce created a flavour explosion in my mouth. 

The meal here was quite amazing and the price here for Winterlicious is tough to beat. Cibo has extremely friendly staff and amazing food, which makes me want to come back soon and try something on their regular menu.

For more information:

Cibo Wine Bar