What: Cibo Tapas Bar
Where: 76 Beaumont Street, Hamilton
Prices: $7 for warm ciabatta to $19.20 for fillet mignon. Desserts $6.50
Chef: Michael Whetton
Wines: 15 cocktails; small but interesting wine list with Hunter, SA, Victorian and NZ wines, 14 by the glass
Hours: 11am to late, seven days
Vegetarian: At least half (10) of the dishes are vegetarian
Bookings: 4023 0535
Bottom line: Two can eat well for about $70 without drinks
Hamilton's Cibo bills itself as a tapas bar but it's something of a Mediterranean fusion. It has an Italian name, for starters, and a menu that takes its influences from not only Spain, but Italy and Greece as well. And the portion sizes are more shared plates than the traditionally tiny tapas that is eaten with drinks.
But if you go with the flow, take a couple of friends and enjoy the eclectic mix, there is plenty to keep the most exacting pedant happy and all tastes satisfied.
With more than 20 items, the menu changes regularly to reflect availability and seasonality of ingredients and, unlike many restaurants, provides some interesting vegetarian offerings.
Four substantial arancini ($11.90) ooze mozzarella and come with aioli. The risotto is creamy and the crumb crust golden and crisp but that wedge of lemon is needed to cut through all the richness.
If the chilli on the soft shell crab ($15.90) doesn't meet the heat quotient then the lemon chilli chutney at the side will help. The soft shell crab trend has really caught on and no wonder; you get all the flavour of sweet flesh without the hard work or mess. Some rocket and a scattering of green shallots add a fresh note.
Carnivores can rest assured. There are at least five items featuring meat, from chorizo provolone rolls, to polpetti (lamb meatballs), pollo pizzaiola (chicken fillets with pizza style sauce) a mezze plate and an oven-roasted 200-gram beef fillet with seeded mustard and garlic butter and fried haloumi ($18.90). But we can't go past the Cibo Greek lamb ($19.90). Lamb shoulder has been cooked long and slow and bathed with a yoghurt and honey glaze. The meat melts in the mouth; a shaved fennel and baby spinach salad and a dollop of hummus rounds out a complex dish.
The vegetable dishes are designed around seasonality. Tonight it's green beans and fennel ($8.20) but on a later visit it might be green beans and carrot. We order two servings but one would have been enough to share. The beans are bright green and al dente and the fennel is finely shaved. Unfortunately the red onion rings are a little chunky for a raw presentation.
Desserts lean towards slices of various cakes and tarts or friands, which may be more appropriate earlier in the day with coffee, but why not have just one to share?
Millefeuille is a rectangle of crisp, layered puff pastry and rich creme patissiere, topped with icing and presented with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream ($6.50).
The space is large with well-spaced tables and tonight most tables are filled. A previous attempt to front up on a Saturday night without a reservation was met with a polite "Sorry all tables are taken", so be warned.
Tapas are also available at lunch, in addition to a small selection of pasta and sandwiches.
Go with an open mind and a group of like-minded friends and try more dishes than we could manage with just two.
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