Cibo e Vino Restaurant

Friendly service. But the food and deserts are tasteless and poorly presented. No pepper or salt on the tables.

Food was actually pretty nice, risotto and bosciola. When I asked for cracked pepper I got a little ramekin that had finger prints through it. That was a bit weird and unhygienic. I would have loved a good old fashioned pepper mill. Heaps of waitresses but when we wanted to order food then drinks then the bill we had to try real hard to get someone to help.
Over all good food pretty good atmosphere. The rest meh.

I haven’t been to Cibo e Vino for a while. Last Saturday I went to the movies, the movie was screened at 6.15 so no chance of dinner beforehand. Afterwards we wandered out to the Piazza in Castle Hill and discovered it to be heaving with crowds of people and eating there was going to be impossible.
I suggested Cibo e Vino, I thought as they were a little bit of a way from the Piazza they would be quiet and we would get a table. It took us all of two minutes to walk across the road and own the street. It’s strange when you become use to simply taking the easy way out and accepting mediocre food just because it is closer.
We found the restaurant was very busy, we secured the last table. It was different from last time I visited it. It had been painted and there was a cosy feel to it, it had found some of the ambience that it had always been missing.
The menu was different as well. Short and sharp, much easier to make up your mind. But there was still plenty of choices, several pasta dishes and a range of meat and fish. The choices were similar but definitely different.
I asked the waiter had the restaurant change hands, the changes were so obvious. It had last September, wow, it didn’t seem that long since I had been.
We ordered our meal and a great wine and throughly enjoyed ourselves. The wait staff were extremely friendly and the meal turned out to be the highlight of the evening.
I had the seafood pasta, a simple dish which is hard to get wrong but this was exceptional. Medium sized prawns and mussels along with sweet small rings of calamari in a delicious sauce which had a slight zing from the chilli that had been used with a light hand so you could tell it was there but it was an enhancement not a show of bravado.
I have gone off desserts recently but the others had one so I joined in, a lovely semifreddo with a wonderful praline and sweetened poached pears on the side it was presented well and left me wanting more.
The chef ‘Hans’ came out to talk to us as I had told the waiter that his seafood sauce for the pasta was sublime. We had quite a conversation about food, he is definitely talented and I hope they manage to keep hold of him.
We left the restaurant satisfied but not uncomfortable feeling that we may have made a marvellous rediscovery just moments away from the heart of Castle Hill.

Castle Hill has quite a few restaurants located in the piazza or along terminus street. The trick though is to move away from these populated areas and you’ll find this neighbourhood Gem.
FOOD
Cibo e Vino is has a very pasta focused menu.
Fettuccine with shitake mushrooms, garlic, parsley & parmesan ($ 23.5)
House-​made agnolotti with wild boar and truffle pecorino ($ 25)
Orecchiette pasta with scallops, chilli, rocket and lemon ($ 21)
We had a try of each others dishes and concluded that whilst they were all nice our favourite happened to be the dish we ordered. I would highly recommend the agnolotti or what my mum calls a ‘big wonton’. Stuffed with meat and cheese. Tasty!
HELPFUL HINT
If you check-​in on facebook you get free mini «Cibo style» shoestring fries with herbs, parmesan, garlic and chili. The fries are a MUST! Jam packed full of flavour it had us cleaning out the bottom of the bowl!
OVERALL
This place always has the right music playing to create a wonderful cosy ambiance. Great place to take a date or to sit, drink wine and catch up with friends.
HI PEOPLE AT CIBO E VINO
I’m glad this place has unlocked their Unilocal business profile. If anyone from Cibo e Vino is reading, two points for you to note
1) Please bring back the mid-​week treat or at least get the Green pasta with spanner crab, chilli and garlic back on the menu. PLEASE!
2) If we check-​in on Unilocal as well can you upgrade us to a full size portion of the heavenly fries?