Ristorante Cibus (IT)
As I mentioned in my previous post, in our last trip to Italy we have enjoyed a very nice meal as we have not had a in a rather long time. And when I say enjoy, I mean ... something falling in my personal top10 best meal where lately we seems to never end up! The restaurant I am hinting at (which until recently was called Osteria) is in Ceglie (Puglia) and it is called Cibus. They have an half-baked website ... and surely they fed us too much. In fact, at a certain moment I had to stop and go outside to breath!!! Gosh, I am getting old!!! So, let's get to my small report of the dinner we had there with my parents.
The place. Cibus sits somewhere in the centre of Ceglie ... which makes it rather difficult to get to on a saturday evening because of parking and, when the wrong turn is taken, results in driving through shallow alleys fearing for your own car! But hey ... not their fault and my dad was driving (gee, he is good at it). Actually the restaurant is very nicely decorated. All white like a Trullo almost, with a nice entrance and nicely isolated from the outside world. When you go there, it is worth getting the host (Lillino) to let you see their cellar for cheese !!! And beware of stone sculptures ... as I bumped into one with my knee. Ouch!
The service. Very good and very italian in nature. The personnel was rather invisible but doing their job well ... even if a tad too fast. Nevertheless, we never had the impressions they wanted our table to get free. Something rare these days in Italy which is more and more treating customers like in US. But why very italian? Well, personnel invisible, but the show was on the host who nicely interacted with us and made us feel rather welcome. One hint ... beware of him choosing food for you .... it will be way too much!!!! Wine ... trust him (still too much).
The wines. I was impressed. Every one we got its own shaped glass as it should always be. Our first wine was brought without request ... it was a novello, which impressed us as being more like a wine. I dislike most novello's, but this one was excellent and it went down very well with the mixed antipasti we were served. Lillino wanted to propose us something as main wine, but I kind of asked for something slightly different ... and he came back with a Notarpanaro 2001 ... excellent choice! A refined wine which shows how it is possible to make modern wine while respecting the grapes. I think I might have drunk most of it ... Finally we concluded with a sweet aleatico. Again Lillino did all for us and his choice was perfect for the cheeses it accompanied. Truly a beautiful wine list and a knowledgeable host! Well done Lillino.
The Food. Finally ... what did we eat??? Let's start from the style ... classics revisited in modern key would be the main theme. Few quality ingredients and respect for locality would be the secondary theme. The result, apart from one of the starters, was excellent. Among my favorite starters: stracciatella cheese with truffles, carpaccio of King Oyster mushrooms and fresh goat ricotta with almonds. As first main course (the pastas) we were served a perfect pasta again with fresh king oyster mushrooms, where the pasta was home made with wine instead of water. Perfect. This was followed by a dish I will try to make myself: wheat with a fondue of caciocavallo cheese and truffle .... simply amazing!!! As second main course (the meats), we had a traditional roast of high quality cuts (including the podolica cow) and horse meat in Negroamaro juice. Really nice ... even if somewhat too much! Here I was feeling really full, but how could I say no to the cheese tray??? Various mature cheese of outstanding quality among which I will never forget the 12-year matured Caciocavallo Podolico, the famous Punto cheese (mature cheese with worms) and the Provolone del Monaco. All cheeses were nicely served with honey and perfect wine. After this I went for coffee, my parents dessert and Elke nothing. Gosh we young ones were exploding!!!
Verdict. Very good. It is not a cheap one (even if I cannot judge on that as I did not see the bill), but I feel comfortable to strongly advising it. We will go back ... but maybe focus more on cheeses & pasta than meat!!!
PS: Photo from their website
The place. Cibus sits somewhere in the centre of Ceglie ... which makes it rather difficult to get to on a saturday evening because of parking and, when the wrong turn is taken, results in driving through shallow alleys fearing for your own car! But hey ... not their fault and my dad was driving (gee, he is good at it). Actually the restaurant is very nicely decorated. All white like a Trullo almost, with a nice entrance and nicely isolated from the outside world. When you go there, it is worth getting the host (Lillino) to let you see their cellar for cheese !!! And beware of stone sculptures ... as I bumped into one with my knee. Ouch!
The service. Very good and very italian in nature. The personnel was rather invisible but doing their job well ... even if a tad too fast. Nevertheless, we never had the impressions they wanted our table to get free. Something rare these days in Italy which is more and more treating customers like in US. But why very italian? Well, personnel invisible, but the show was on the host who nicely interacted with us and made us feel rather welcome. One hint ... beware of him choosing food for you .... it will be way too much!!!! Wine ... trust him (still too much).
The wines. I was impressed. Every one we got its own shaped glass as it should always be. Our first wine was brought without request ... it was a novello, which impressed us as being more like a wine. I dislike most novello's, but this one was excellent and it went down very well with the mixed antipasti we were served. Lillino wanted to propose us something as main wine, but I kind of asked for something slightly different ... and he came back with a Notarpanaro 2001 ... excellent choice! A refined wine which shows how it is possible to make modern wine while respecting the grapes. I think I might have drunk most of it ... Finally we concluded with a sweet aleatico. Again Lillino did all for us and his choice was perfect for the cheeses it accompanied. Truly a beautiful wine list and a knowledgeable host! Well done Lillino.
The Food. Finally ... what did we eat??? Let's start from the style ... classics revisited in modern key would be the main theme. Few quality ingredients and respect for locality would be the secondary theme. The result, apart from one of the starters, was excellent. Among my favorite starters: stracciatella cheese with truffles, carpaccio of King Oyster mushrooms and fresh goat ricotta with almonds. As first main course (the pastas) we were served a perfect pasta again with fresh king oyster mushrooms, where the pasta was home made with wine instead of water. Perfect. This was followed by a dish I will try to make myself: wheat with a fondue of caciocavallo cheese and truffle .... simply amazing!!! As second main course (the meats), we had a traditional roast of high quality cuts (including the podolica cow) and horse meat in Negroamaro juice. Really nice ... even if somewhat too much! Here I was feeling really full, but how could I say no to the cheese tray??? Various mature cheese of outstanding quality among which I will never forget the 12-year matured Caciocavallo Podolico, the famous Punto cheese (mature cheese with worms) and the Provolone del Monaco. All cheeses were nicely served with honey and perfect wine. After this I went for coffee, my parents dessert and Elke nothing. Gosh we young ones were exploding!!!
Verdict. Very good. It is not a cheap one (even if I cannot judge on that as I did not see the bill), but I feel comfortable to strongly advising it. We will go back ... but maybe focus more on cheeses & pasta than meat!!!
PS: Photo from their website
Labels: restaurant
posted by The Food Traveller at 6:27 AM
4 Comments:
Ciao: vedo che sei un'interessante scoperta!!!
A presto
Grazie!
Molto carino questo ristorante!
Appena riesco ad andare in Puglia ci vado!
La cucina deve essere ottima!
Ciao!
un ristorante da provare se si decide di fare un giro in Puglia, un'altra delle regioni italiane che amo molto.
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