Baked Telefono, ASAP! Cibo's new 'instant dining' format serves familiar faves under a minute, combining convenience with Chef Margarita Forés' touch.
MANILA, Philippines – It’s Cibo, but make it rapido.
The homegrown Italian restaurant has introduced a quicker way of enjoying your favorite Cibo dishes with its new concept Cibo Rapido, designed to cater to on-the-go diners who want a speedy twist on a good-quality Italian meal. Think Cibo, but upscale cafeteria-style!
Located at The Marketplace of the new Opus Mall in Bridgetowne, Quezon City, Cibo Rapido’s medium-sized space offers a streamlined dining experience, where you can choose your preferred viands, sides, and meals on-the-spot, and receive them hot and fresh in a minute.
With founder and Chef Margarita Forés’ touch, this new “instant dining” format combines convenience with Cibo’s familiarity.
Since it’s a new concept, the ordering process may take a while to understand, but Cibo Rapido’s staff is ready to help. Check the menu for the day, choose your “package,” and slide your tray from the left up to the ordering counter for payment, pointing out your dish, drink, and dessert choices to the staff along the way.
The presentation and serving sizes may differ from the restaurant’s, but you’re still getting Cibo’s standard recipes, with a few new Rapido-exclusive items on the menu, at slightly lower but roughly the same prices as the restaurant. You’d still need a mid-range budget to dine.
How it goes: You can customize your meal by choosing two items for P489 (one main dish and one additional dish), three items for P649 (one main dish and two additional dishes), or four items for P969 (two main dishes and two additional dishes). Cibo Rapido’s setup makes it optimal for sharing.
The “main dish” includes a portion of pasta or a rice meal, while the “additional dish” includes pizza Romana, an appetizer, Cibo di Strada, a salad, or panna cotta. If you want to add something extra, options like iced tea, coffee, or tiramisu are available.
Prefer to mix and match? Cibo a la carte menu offers Antipasti/Starters in solo and sharing sizes, like Taralli (P129, P255) and Potato Chips (P129, P255).
The Insalate/Salads include Palm Heart Salad (P249), Tuna Salad (P249), and Seafood Salad (P349).
The street food options, or Cibo di Strada, include Mozzarella Sticks (P99), Risotto Balls Telefono (P139), and deep-fried, crispy Beef Crocchettes (P139) with a garlicky aioli – an exclusive to Cibo Rapido.
For the Pasta options, there’s Classic Lasagna (P399), Seafood Lasagna (P589), and the best-selling Baked Telefono (P399), but this time, it’s baked with extra sauce slathered on top, which makes it even better than its resto counterpart for me – the already comforting pasta dish is made creamier and cheesier, with an extra hint of fresh tomato tartness.
The Pizza Romana options include all meat (P135), four cheese (P135), all-veggies (P135), and bolognese (P135), which tastes similar to the pasta sauce and comes with a fresh tomato slice on top. The Roman-style pizza is made from housemade focaccia and comes in rectangular slices that are airy and light, and slightly crisp on the edges.
For heartier meals, Margarita’s Mains offers solo dishes that come with parsley rice pilaf, like Roast Organic Chicken (P399); crispy, dry-rub, Italian-style Baked Chicken Wings (P399) that are new on the menu; Pork Ribs (P399), and Roast Pork Roman-style (P745 for 200g).
The Roast Organic Chicken is seasoned with fresh, Italian herbs, featuring thin rotisserie-style skin and moist meat, nicely complemented by a light lemony gravy and a squeeze of lemon on top.
Sharing options include Baked Chicken Wings (2 pcs for P159, 12 pcs for P949), Roast Organic Chicken (whole for P1,199, half for P605), Pork Ribs (solo for P699), and Roast Pork Roman-style (400g for P1,299).
For desserts, Cibo’s Panna Cotta (P199) is available in chocolate, caramel, or mango flavors, and so is the Tiramisu (P379).
Cibo Rapido also offers coffee, wine, and the iconic Cibo iced tea (P149) in takeaway bottles with Chef Margarita’s face on them, made a tad sweeter than the restaurant’s freshly brewed version.
Cibo Rapido is the latest innovation from Cibo, the beloved name for modern Italian cuisine since it was founded by Margarita “Gaita” Forés in 1997. With Cibo Rapido, Forés aims to bring Cibo’s same quality to a faster-paced, ready-to-eat, cafeteria-style setting.
Cibo Rapido is now open at The Marketplace, Opus Mall, Bridgetowne, Quezon City. The mall is open from 10 am to 10 pm daily. – Rappler.com
