Osteria Cibo Rustico

I’m sad to report that friends and I went there this past Saturday early evening only to discover it was closed.
After dialing the restaurant, an automated phone company message stated the number could not be completed as dialed.
An absolute shame as it was one of our favorite Italian restaurants!

The food was good, not amazing but pretty decent.
I liked the atmosphere of the casual and rustic place. It’s not fancy, but not too casual either. The host was very friendly, I’m not quite sure if he was an actual host or a manager just seating people. Anyway he was very nice and professional at the same time. Our server, ehh, not the greatest personality. He did the basic job of filling drinks, taking orders but nothing welcoming about his attitude. His service was fine, but at the end I was annoyed that he gave us our check after we finished our entrees, he didn’t even ask if we wanted anything else. We wanted dessert!
Some points to mention.
— Portions are on the bigger side. Not huge but not tiny either. They serve you with bread first and I wish I didn’t eat too much of it because I ended up too full to finish my entrée.
–I noticed the place was kid friendly
–Appetizer, Mozzarella and capprese tomatoes — it was decent. The mozzarella wasn’t as creamy and rich as I would of liked
–Appetizer, Fried polenta. This was the first time we had something like this and I have to say it was pretty tasty
–Entrée, Rigatoini bologense. As I mentioned before a hearty portion. Myself the big eater could not finish it as the bread and appetizers. The sauce was pretty good and there is plenty of meat.
–Entrée, «Spaghetti and Meatballs». The spaghetti is in parenthesis because it’s not actually a spaghetti noodle. I forgot the actual name buy it basically long like spaghetti but its a tube. Like a skinny straw. My husband ordered it and he let me taste it. The sauce was pretty good but I was not too found of the noodle. I would of preferred the spaghetti noodle. And the meatballs were on the dry side. My husband did not care for his meal. I noticed the lady sitting next to us ordered the same thing, and when her friend asked her how she liked her meal the lady’s response was that she did not like it.
–dessert, Tiramsui. It was fine, nothing special.
All in all, it’s a good value. Maybe if I was shopping in the plaza and was hungry I would stop at this place. But if I were to make dinner plans ahead of time, I probably wouldn’t choose this place.

I’ll admit I was saddened by the closing of Mirko Pasta — it was a really good pasta joint at close proximity. I was also perplexed that its space replacement — Cibo Rustico — was going to be such a similar concept (the franchisee
stepping out on his/​her own?).
Well, whatever the reason, I finally had the opportunity to dine in for dinner on Friday night, and the verdict?
I miss Mirko.
Cibo Rustico is definitely a solid Italian restaurant, I liked the dishes I ordered, but I prefer Mirko’s menu — there was more variety. Their menu — at least the dinner menu — was a bit limited and a little pricey.
The atmosphere’s still fairly casual and the set-​up is the same, though they’ve spruced up the décor a bit.
The service was interesting, while our waiter was very friendly (very, very, very friendly) it was a little uncomfortable, he was quite touchy — especially with the boyfriend; Neither of us minded, I think we were both more amused than anything, but he seemed like a sweet guy, and he was attentive with our orders.
On to the food!
We were started with the traditional complimentary bread and olive oil — fairly standard, but I missed Mirko’s white bean dip starter — now that was a stand out. .
We chose the ‘Fritto Misto’ as out appetizer, it consisted of both fried calamari and shrimp (!) with mixed in fried onions, which was a very tasty trifecta indeed; the accompanying sauce is billed as a «spicy tomato cream» — which scared me a little, but the kick is nice and subtle, full of flavor yet not too overpowering for my weak taste buds. I chose the «Bucatini Amatriciana» for my entrée, which essentially was spaghetti with seared pancetta. It was decent — I did like it, but it was quite standard, nothing too special there. I also tried a bit of the «Penne con Salsiccia» (featuring fennel sausage, herbed ricotta, mushrooms, toasted garlic and onions, pistachios), which I enjoyed much more in comparison to the other dish. The flavor combinations were great, and the pasta was so rich and very well balanced.
Overall, Cibo Rustico is solid, I wish it was still Mirko though.

Beautifully presented, ambitious food that claims to be fresh, authentic, Italian-​inspired fare… but in a few cases falls flat.
The complimentary focaccia we received at the beginning of the meal (served with a spicy olive oil dipping sauce) was bomb– fresh, sprinkled with herbs, warm, and moister than most focaccia I’ve eaten. Probably the highlight of the meal for us.
However, I also really liked the homemade meatballs we ordered as an appetizer, as well as the marinara sauce it arrived in.
My Calciofi (entrée #1, with pan-​roasted artichoke, mushrooms, asparagus, grilled scallions/​onions over polenta «with a touch of butter») was decent, but the polenta in particular had a somewhat strange texture for me – like mashed potatoes, which I wasn’t expecting, and moreover was somewhat flavorless.
The bf’s penne with fennel sausage in a ricotta sauce, on the other hand, was… again, kind of strange. The fennel in the sausage made it taste almost fishy to me, and those flavors combined with the ricotta and the walnuts in the sauce just… didn’t seem to go together.
Both my entrée and the bf’s were 13.95, and the meatballs were 6.95. Not bad prices, for what I think the restaurant is trying to accomplish. But in terms of what it actually manages to do… I think there are likely better Italian options elsewhere.

I was excited to try Cibo a couple of weeks ago. I went there for a business dinner-​meeting. However, I was disappointed by requesting several items on the menu that were not available. The restaurant was not full by any means so my party was quite surprised that items ranging from appetizers top entrees were not available. Given the slow nature of the evening we were more surprised at errors with the order.
The food that was available was great. It was not excessively salty, greasy, or spicy. In fact, the meatballs were simply spectacular. The service was reasonable. Yet, bear in mind that wait staff are similar to a sales force and they need something to sell. In this instance there was not much to sell.
I recently heard that the restaurant closed or will be closing. Perhaps that explains the scarcity of menu items.