Cibreo Italian Kitchen: Cleveland Restaurant Guide

“This is my second time at Cibreo. I had a reservation. We were seated quickly. However, both times the wait has been very long to get our food.. This time we were not in a hurry as we came after our show. The bread was good...last time we had breadsticks and foccacia bread but this time only the foccacia bread was served. They serve it with butter oil and a pesto type mix. We ordered two dishes. My cousin had the chicken parmesan with spaghetti and she said it was very good. I had the chicken piccata with no kale and instead of potatoes I added spaghetti with mine. I really enjoyed it. The only drinks we had were diet coke and ice tea. Everything was great until the dessert. We ordered the Zeppoli's. Last time I had them they were delicious. This time they came out totally burnt and you didn't see the burnt area because there is so much powdered sugar on there. I was really disappointed that the cook sent it out that way. Certainly he could see that he burned the dough. So we sent it back and had them remove it from our bill. Had we not waited so long we would have gotten another order. I have 4 more bookings for this restaurant in the upcoming months. Our server Angela or Angelina was excellent. But she can't make the cook get things prepared faster. I hope things will be a little speedier next time we come.”

“Good experience prior to a playhouse show. Reservations are a must it looked like and glad we had them. Service was friendly and we had good food and drinks. Will definitely make plans again for a future visit. Tiramisu was huge for dessert and we could have easily split it.”

“5/5 for great decor and atmosphere (see photo). Appetizers calamari and meatballs were perfect and delicious. There were only 2 meatballs but there was enough calamari for the four of us to have a little snack, wanting more. The appetizers worked well; we were all hungry and eagerly anticipating our entrée choices. Two of us ordered the lasagna, one chicken piccata and one chicken marsala. The portion size was good - both chicken dishes had two nice, full-sized breasts. This was honestly the worst lasagna I've ever had in my life; Chris agreed. It was so dry (and devoid of ingredients between the layers) that I had to ask for an extra serving of marinara just to moisten everything and I only ate half of it because I just couldn't. I was in the mood for "good" lasagna, so I was extremely disappointed. Mary agreed with Scott's assessment: "It was good but not great. Nice presentation, though. It wasn't as good as I would have expected for the price." My "Thyme on Broadway" bourbon drink with what was supposed to be a sprig of thyme would have been better if they actually used a fresh sprig of thyme. If this was even thyme, it was long over the hill and had zero aroma. Overall it was an ok bourbon/campari drink, but the thyme was the point; otherwise I would have ordered an Old Fashioned, which I did for my second drink, and it was okay. However, our server didn't know the bourbon list, which is a criminal offense in my country. Our server also had a disgusting froth of saliva around the corners of his mouth. WHAAAAT??? Yes, seriously , it was stomach-turning, and maybe he's really the nicest guy in the world, but he was also so smarmy it bordered on creepy and was a bit surreal, like a character out of a Terry Gilliam movie. I'm not sure if this is a defense or an excuse - or a warning - but our server volunteered that Cibreo had been having personnel problems and they actually had to hire staff from another restaurant... or something like that. It was his assistant's first day on the job. That sure sounds like there was some sort of mass exodus, but who knows? These kinds of personnel walkout/retention problems are usually related to unacceptably bad management, and if the quality of the food is any indication of that, this restaurant won't be around long. Too bad, because it's in a perfect location, well-laid out floor plan with lots of tables and rooms for private dinners and great atmosphere. We had debated going to Sittoo's across the street, because Lebanese also sounded good, but I wasn't in the mood for counter-serve. Maybe next time. But I won't be going back to Cibreo, nor recommending it. .”