Cibreo Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Cleveland

To put it succinctly, embarrassingly not good! The details - 15 friends came into town, at our invitation, to see my husband's performance at a theatre close by. I called ahead and made reservations for 16 at this recommended restaurant. When we arrived, no offer was made to take our coats. I asked the hostess if she could please hang them. She did and handed me 5 chits with no indication of which ticket went with which coat. Management - Your restaurant is in Cleveland where it gets very cold and you have no apparent coat check?

Ordering drinks - I'll confine this to the guests closest to me: Three of us ordered Manhattans. First round was sent back and came back ok. Second round took awhile and friends weren't happy with it but didn't want to wait again. Manhattans are a standard cocktail. Even if different bartenders make it, should be a consistent product. My second never came so got up to chase down the waiter. When it did arrive, it was watery. Wait staff - You have 16 people sitting at a table and you don't visit it to see how things are?

Food - While waiting for drinks, we ordered. I asked if a guest could sub potatoes for the pasta. The waitresses response was so rude that my friends commented on it. By the way, they do have them on the menu. So, while chasing down my server to ask where my drink was, I mentioned to the manager that she might inform wait staff that they do have potatoes. I did this in the nicest way as the manager was standing at the bar by the server station where they could hear. Later, the waitress brought some potatoes to the table and said "Apparently I don't know our menu!" and set it abruptly down. What was our friend to do with potatoes and no entree? She ended up sharing them as an appetizer with those at her table.

A friend asked if the pasta was spaghetti? He was told it was. He was served fettuccine. When he asked about it he was told that they didn't have spaghetti. An Italian restaurant with no spaghetti noodles? Meals came out at room temperature and cream sauces are not good (can you say congealed?) if they are not at least warm. Our friends are not ones to complain but it became apparent that there was an issue with practically everyone's meal, particularly when I started noticing that dishes were being sent back.

Speaking of sending things back, the most egregious thing was the seafood risotto. To keep seafood, shrimp in particular, from going 'bad', some places soak it in a mild bleach solution. Boy, could you taste the bleach! Two of my friends had ordered it on my recommendation as "You always know the best thing to order". I guess I don't!

By the time our replacement meals arrived, the others had finished. They did bring a tiramisu and 12? ricotta donuts to share although, there was no apology. To the manager - Smart of you to comp dessert. However, I'd bring enough for everyone and come over to the table and apologize! You obviously know things are not right.

I had allowed 2 1/2 hrs. before the theatre start time as one of our friends has a very bad limp and I knew she would need the extra time to get to the theatre. We settle the bills, sort out the coat situation, and start trickling out. My friend hurries as best she can and we arrive with barely time to get to our seats with no time to 'powder our noses'.

I was so embarrassed! Our friends had gone to all the time, trouble, and expense to be with us in Cleveland and I'd picked a restaurant that turned out to be quite a bit of a debacle! Not a great start, to put it mildly.

P.s., Waitstaff and management - You have a party of 16 theatre goers you know are from out of town coming to your restaurant. You can safely assume that they are somewhat sophisticated, have discretionary spending money, and therefore know about ordering and tipping. 16 people times a minimum of $50 for food and drink = $800. The tip for an hour and half of labor? $160, if you're any good. Don't you think you ought to come to the table and at least refill...

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...

Not worth the nearly $300 we spent on 4 people. I wish I had taken the time to read the reviews and now understand why the lower overall rating. We were seated in a booth in the bar and sliding into a booth with dresses on was not easy. Plenty of tables were available. Our server was negative. I asked if the pasta was home made and was told by the bartender/server (Walter) “no we ship it in”. I asked later if they had bread and the response was they were out and that was shipped in too. We did get the bread so I wonder how. Guess what? Lasagna? Shipped in as well and they were out so we couldn’t have it. We ordered a Caesar salad and for $13 it was a huge disappointment. How can you mess up a salad? The bolognese did not have any meat in it and was made up of sauce and pasta. Bland at best. The server did not bring over any cheese. We had to ask for it. I got tiramisu for desert and it was frozen right out of the freezer. We sent it back. The server/bartender offered me gelato “on the house”. I chose Chocolate out of his list for flavors.. He showed back up with Strawberry and said, “we are all out of chocolate and well ……… you are getting strawberry”. I’m not making this up! This happened. (Sat dinner 7/5/2025 if mgt wants to look it up). An apology will not help from the restaurant when you respond to my review as you do in all the bad ones that I saw. You fell short and I hope this review will save someone else from wasting their money. I highly recommend Fahrenheit a short Uber ride away and SO well worth every dime...