Cibugnù

Excellent stumble. Farm to fork says it all. Service and ambience great. Local flavor with street car coloring the conversation at intervals. Not as busy as the Marcellos next door with their white tablecloths roomy tables and wine glasses. This dinner was tasty and fresh. The two runs Ribeye was succulent and unadulterated. The desserts sound interesting. Chocolate calzone and cannoli with candied pistachio gelato.
Place is rather expensive but we enjoyed our meal and streetcar vibrations as it passes by.

Excellent food. It offers nice salads, appetizers, main courses and sides. All were prepared with a flare that made every dish we tried, especially flavorful. The service was really good too.

Living in the neighborhood, I had suspicious about this place as their neighbors on each side are always packed, and Cibugnu is often empty.
Let me start by saying the food was OK — not the best, but certainly decent.
My reason for a 2 start review was due to service. To start, when I went to order wine by the glass, they were out of my first two selections (they maybe sell 4 wines by the glass). The waitress told me that I should opt for an alternative, that was approximately $ 6 more by the glass. I should have asked, but I assumed she would have charged me the lower price considering they were out of the wine I requested. It was kind of tacky — not the diners fault your lower price point items are out of stock, if anything she should have been upfront about this when we told her we’d be drinking wine by the glass that evening.
secondly, I was on the phone describing to my sister where the restaurant was so she could meet us, and the waitress overheard me (mis)pronouncing the restaurant name — and she walked over to me, and correctly pronounced the name in my ear (while i was on the phone!). I think she was trying to be helpful, but it was extremely rude and awkward. Who wants their waitress whispering in their ear while they are on the phone? It also came across as condescending. She should have stopped by later and informed me on the correct pronunciation.
overall, the experience just gave me a bad vibe, especially when there is another Italian spot right next door. pass.

This restaurant is the best kept Italian secret in the Warehouse District of New Orleans. Hillary greets you with a warm smile and endless knowledge about their menu and fine wines. Fresh is an understatement, when it comes to the farm to fork menu! The entrees are to die for and fresh octopus and black eyed peas, WOW! What a contemporary, wonderful spin on italian food! Chef Nick is amazing! Whether it be a night out with the kids for unbelievable pizza and yummy HOMEMADE gelato, or date night with wine and HOMEMADE pasta, this is a place that is definitely worth a visit!

CBD Italian gem! The food and service is amazing! Everything is super fresh, seasonal and delicious. The sidewalk patio is perfect for the cooler evenings. We enjoyed the crudo, wood-​fired shrimp and fried calamari. The cream corn pizza and elicoidali pasta were out of this world delicious! For dessert, I highly recommend the homemade pistachio gelato! Will certainly be back soon!

Chef out of town and short hand staff. Barely able to get thru my apps as we had water to hold us over for 45 minutes. We were served by Hilary who is apparently a management partner. She made it a horrible experience. She was extra rude to the party I was with and very disrespectful. I am on business in the area and was in company of my firm’s Principal. I can’t believe she treated us so disrespectful. I lead the charge to leave IMMEDIATELY. Hilary stay out the main floor away from customers because the Resturant business is not for you

Wow. Unbelievable. I was blown away by the service, the delectable tastes and combinations. We ordered the chef’s choice. The six of us had more excellent food than we knew what to do with. Incredible. The cocktail with the Amaro and egg white was fantastic. Meat and cheese plate is one of my favorites of the evening. Margherita pizza with pork fat was to die for. We were visiting from Portland, and we know good food when we experience it. This was unforgettable.

The food is amazing! The menu changes seasonally. I’ve experienced 2 menu changes and I am amazed and certainly a fan of my new favorite restaurant. If you haven’t tried it yet give it a shot! It’s a quality farm to table restaurant. Trust me, you will be the opposite of sorry!

Quite possibly some of the best Italian food I’ve ever had. (Better in fact than several dining spots in Italy, New York, London and San Francisco.)
The pasta dishes were amazing. It’s rare to find house-​made pastas beyond ribbon or string shapes. These guys were knocking out gemelli and orecchiette like my nonna. And it was beautifully cooked.
I was especially impressed by the authenticity of the cuisine.
If I could offer any criticism, it would be the service needs refinement, and the portions could stand to be a bit larger. (Or maybe offer an appetizer size and entrée size portions of certain items like pasta and salads.)
In respect to the service, the two times I’ve eaten there, I’ve felt the waitstaff needed to be a bit more savvy about the menu items. And, the efficiency could have been improved upon. (Re-​filling water glasses, clearing the table before bringing the next course, bringing the appropriate silver ware before the plate arrives at the table, et cetera…)
But, all in all, I would highly recommend a trip to Cibugnu! I wish I were in New Orleans more often so I could eat there more often.

Great place, the dessert was amazing (canoli with pistacchio gelatto), people is nice although kind of messy go with patience and just have fun

Delicious homemade pasta and toasted bread. Great and attentive service. Highly recommend.

I was hesitant to come after reading some of the other Unilocal reviews, but a friend of mine wanted to try it. So I did. It was okay. Nothing to write home about, but definitely not the worst meal I’ve had either. We were the only table in there for the lunch hour on Tuesday before Christmas — and one other table was sitting by the time we left. The service was slow, too — even though we were the only table (and then 1 of 2 tables) in the restaurant.

Stopped in after Buckeyes Sugar Bowl victory. Great food and wonderful service. These guys stayed open a little later to serve the rush of fans. Bartender was very knowledgeable about menu and let me sample a few wines before selection.

2 stars are generous. First, no discredit to our waiter. He worked his rear off and it is strongly advised that the owner hire more help for the staff. He served drinks, took orders, bussed his own tables and was always nice and chatty. Tip will reflect the work he did, not the quality of this restaurant. Oh and he has mad breakdancing skills so kudos dude.
Swivel chairs were def a bonus, especially convenient to chat with the other half of our party who had to have their own table.
6:30 reservation, took at least 20 minutes to set up the tables for our party and the bartender could only manage to make a couple gin and tonics while we were waiting and couldn’t even make eye contact with the rest of us waiting for some much needed alcoholic assistance.
I’m not going to ramble on about the ridiculous wait for appetizers, water and wine. Our partner table took the liberty of filling their own water and it took us an hour to get just a single glass. Just expect chaos when come here because there’s some serious dysfunction in the organization of this restaurant.
Pappardelle was sent back to the kitchen. Half orders and full orders look to be almost the exact same size. Pizza — amazing. Stracci looked NOTHING like the photo on Unilocal and who knows what happened to the truffles that are so heavily advertised. Tasted like a glorified stroganoff.
Some of us will be going next door to order more food. Sorry, I’m trying to find comic relief in this experience and it comes down to swivel chairs and breakdancing.

No problem getting a table for two on a chilly Thursday evening. We were seated promptly in a quiet, comfortable dining room with a classy, but comfortable vibe. Started with a bottle of wine from their ample selection and the bruschetta, which was not traditional, but fresh and flavorful, nonetheless. The bread that was served between courses was amazing. I’m not sure what they do with it, but no dipping oil or butter needed for this stuff!
For entrees, we went with the pumpkin/​butternut squash gnocchetti and lamb ragout pasta with black truffles, both of which were delicious. Be sure to save room for the salted caramel gelato, served with warm beignets. Yes, warm beignets with salted caramel gelato! Words can’t describe how good this stuff is.
The only part of the entire experience that was not up to par, was the interaction between our server and the manager. The server did a good job, however the manager made a couple visits to the dining room without as much as acknowledging any of the patrons, including when he dropped our dessert off at the wrong table. No apologies to either table. That was a little awkward, but overall a great meal. I’d go back.

One word to describe our dinner at Cibugnu: FIASCO
Where to even begin? We were a party of seven, dining on a fairly quiet Thursday night. There were three servers handling the half dozen occupied tables.
We were seated promptly and brought water. The male server greeted us with menus and asked us if we’d like to start out with some fresh bread. HELLS YES!
Two rounds of water later, and our drink order still had not been taken, nor had the promised bread arrived. Finally, my friend waived down the female server (who was also waiting on us) and asked for a bottle of prosecco for the table. Turns out they were out of the requested bottle, but the waitress suggested two other options. My friend asked, «Whats the difference between the two?» The waitress hesitated and finally said, «They’re different grapes.» Ok, and???
When our bottle finally arrived, she lined all the glasses up in a corner of the table (huh?) and began to divvy out the bottle. Only problem was the she had only brought six glasses and I had to tell her she’d miscounted and that there was seven of us. Later, on our second bottle, eight glasses were brought out. Again we had to tell the staff that they were miscounting (by the way, everyone was seated at the table during both of these instances). Even after telling the server that there were seven of us, we still ended up with eight glasses of wine!
We ordered appetizers, which arrived fairly promptly and were delicious — bruschetta and a cheese plate. The fresh bread we’d been promised never arrived, so we chowed down on the apps with gusto.
And then we waited. And waited. And waited. Water glasses were refilled again and again. I peed twice.
After an hour, it was starting to get ridiculous. Finally the waitstaff acknowledged the wait and brought us a free charcuterie and bottle of wine. The food STILL didn’t arrive. I ordered a coffee americano, which was served in a teacup without a saucer, brought without cream or sugar. Inside the cup was about an eighth of an inch of muddy brown coffee. I may not be the classiest gal in the world, but i know enough to know that this was NOT an americano. Not even close.
More water was poured. At this point, we’d been waiting for our food for nearly two hours. Finally, FINALLLY the food came out. And what can I say. It was… fine. Not great. I ordered the lamb stracci, which had a pathetically puny few scraps of lamb tossed into a bowl of homemade pasta noodles. It was bland and unremarkable. Even if I hadn’t waited two hours for it, I still don’t think I would have enjoyed it all that much. After tasting a few other peoples dishes, I think the general consensus was… hit or miss. A few fairly good things, a few «meh» things.
In general, this meal was a HUGE disappointment. Before going, my mouth was watering for, as their menu says, «Italian from scratch.» But the execution fell far short of the promise. The staff seemed poorly trained, without basic knowledge of simple things like how to make a coffee, or how to open and pour a bottle of wine. The female server definitely had very little knowledge of the wine selection. And everyone seemed relatively indifferent to the insane amount of time that it took for our food to arrive. They comped us a few things and offered a bland apology, but that was it. As someone who worked in the service industry for many years, I can say that if this was MY table, I would have given a lot more attention and assurances to my customers that the mistake was being corrected and that the meals were on their way.
But I can definitely say with conviction that this restaurant has got the water pouring element of the dining experience LOCKED DOWN. Ever since my dinner at Cibugnu, my skin has been feeling exceptionally hydrated and dewy fresh. So I give Cibugnu one star for ambiance, and one star for skin hydration.

While vacationing in NOLA, my boyfriend and I walked by Cibugno and were intrigued by the motto «Italian from scratch» so we decided to give it a try. This restaurant is right between Herbsaint and Marcello’s Wine Bar, both of which unlike Cibugno, were extremely busy. Maybe we should have taken this as a sign? We walked in and were immediately seated as there was only one other table that was full. While it did slowly start to fill up, for not being very busy, service was just okay. There seemed to only be one waiter for the entire place. We ordered the bruschetta as our starter and two of the wood fired pizzas. The bruschetta was very non-traditional…we were not huge fans of this dish. Maybe I misread the description on the menu, but I was not expecting it to have carrots, pomegranates, and another mystery topping? It was a strange combination and just wasn’t very flavorful. Also, even though we ordered it as an appetizer, it was served at the same time as our pizzas. The pizzas we ordered were good but nothing spectacular. We had the Capricciosa which, per the menu description, had prosciutto, artichoke, dry cured olive, soft egg, oyster mushroom, mozzarella, san marzano tomato… sounds amazing, right? We asked for no prosciutto, but I think they forgot other toppings as well… I didn’t taste or see the artichokes or tomatoes? We also had the Margheritta pizza. Again, it was good, just nothing out of this world. Overall, my experience was just okay. Let’s just say I’m not dying to return next time I’m in NOLA… I would give this more of a 2.5 stars if I could.

GO TO CIBUGNU! We had the most amazing dining experience! Food was impeccable and beyond fresh. We sampled both crudos (amazing) and has a truffled polenta that almost made me cry it was so good. The salumi board was out of the park. Nicole is one of the coolest bartenders ever. A five star evening for sure!!!

One of the best eating experiences I’ve had in New Orleans.
Things I loved:
Excellent drinks
Extremely attentive and personable staff
CORN RAVIOLI with the blueberries and cream sauce: I dream of it. One of the best dishes I’ve ever had.
Bruschetta-​such a great take on the dish. Delicious combinations. I’ve had two versions of bruschetta here– one more traditional and one with the blueberries, both terrific.
They had a corn pizza, I’m not sure if it is still on the menu but UGH it was tremendously good.
I haven’t been in a few months and I believe they have updated the menu, but that doesn’t change the deliciousness or quality of the restaurant. Such attention to detail, each dish is executed with care. They are just really on point.
Overall, just a really great dining experience. I wish I could go more often!

After I’ve been to a restaurant for the first time the only question I ask myself is «would I return again.» The answer is «yes.» The food was great and so was the service. The restaurant is not large and you definitely need a reservation.
Food: Let’s get to the important part which is the food. We started out with the calamari. I really liked it. It was simple and well done. It was lightly battered with a little bit of herb and lemon and a side of fresh marinara. The marinara sauce is cool/​room temperature and a little garlicky, but still very delicious. They also bring you house made bread, which is always a great thing. For drinks, we tried the 709 and the Joseen
We had the Maccheroncelli, which is ground veal and pasta with peas and carrots, and the squid stuffed with house-​made sausage and w/​polenta that had an amazing scallion pesto garnish. Even though it didn’t look like a lot, the pasta catches up to you. They were both delicious. The portions are enough, not huge, which is why you should probably order several courses and split them. We probably should have split these two.
We weren’t thinking about dessert until we saw what was on the menu — the chocolate/​hazlenut calzone (yes folks, basically a Nutella calzone). It’s quite large (standard calzone size) and was quite tasty. We split it but it was still too much for us. They will be expanding their dessert menu. Right now they have sorbet and a panna cotta and a couple other things.
Notables: Swivel chairs at the tables and stemless glassware for all the drinks. The lighting inside is also kind of darker than one may expect.
Pros: Staff and the food. Our waitress (Paige) was very knowledgeable about the food and drinks and she was super friendly.
Cons: Noisy — overly so, even before it was full. There’s a fine line in my opinion with «bustle» and out and out «loud» with regards to a restaurant. Loud is even fine if you can still hold some sort of conversation and the rest of the chatter is in the background. However, the acoustics seemed such that I couldn’t hear who was sitting next to me because of all the chatter around, in fact, at times, I could hear the conversation a couple of tables over better than who was right next to me, where I had to lean in and read lips. Possibly some noise dampening measures like foam under the tables, or a canvas hanging that will absorb some of it.
Overall, we can definitely appreciate the homemade/​fresh food and friendly staff. We are definitely going back.