Cibo Italia
Cibo Takeaway. Beautiful build-out, fast service, fair prices, but the pizza didn't do it for me.
Our waitress told us if you don't like the pizza here you're a weirdo, so apparently I'm a weirdo.
Cibo is a renovated old gas station in University City, with the service bays turned into windows and outdoor seating. We rolled up at 11:30 on a spring afternoon and the lot was already packed.
The pizza is the reason this isn't a 7. The cheese slice tasted like DiGiorno with too much provolone, and the perimeter of the crust was burnt from chasing a crispy bottom. Dewey's down the road is better pizza in my book.
6.8 / 10.
Come for a sandwich, not for a pie.
How Cibo Italia Stacks Up
Size, price-per-ounce, and crust scored against every other St. Louis pizza I've put on the scale. Cibo Italia is highlighted below.
| Place | Score | Price | $/Oz | Width | Undercarriage | Sauce | Cheese | Crust |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pizza Head | 9.2 | $18.00 | $0.45 | 18 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 7.0 |
| Union Loafers | 9.1 | $16.50 | $0.97 | 14 | 8.0 | 9.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 |
| Pie Guy Pizza | 8.2 | $20.00 | $0.58 | 18 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 |
| Pizzeria Da Gloria | 8.1 | $17.00 | $1.09 | 12 | 5.0 | 10.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Pizza-A-Go-Go | 8.0 | $13.50 | $0.56 | 15 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Dewey's Pizza | 7.9 | $18.95 | $0.48 | 17 | 6.0 | 9.5 | 7.0 | 4.0 |
| Vito's Sicilian Pizzeria & Ristorante | 7.6 | $14.00 | $0.61 | 10 | 9.5 | 6.0 | 5.0 | 7.5 |
| Pizza Champ | 7.4 | $20.00 | $0.63 | 18 | 10.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 10.0 |
| A'mis Pizza | 7.1 | $16.43 | $0.54 | 15 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 7.5 | 6.0 |
| Dr. Office Pizza | 7.0 | $6.99 | $0.70 | 12 | 9.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 8.0 |
| Nicky Slices Pizza Club | 6.9 | $20.00 | $0.56 | 10 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Anthonino's Taverna On The Hill | 6.6 | $14.00 | $1.00 | 13 | 4.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 7.0 |
| Urban Chestnut Grove Brewery and Bierhall | 6.3 | $22.00 | $0.79 | 17 | 1.0 | 9.0 | 5.0 | 7.0 |
| Pizzeoli | 6.2 | $16.00 | $0.95 | 11 | 1.0 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 |
| Blackthorn Pub and Pizza | 6.1 | $20.00 | $0.42 | 12 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 6.0 | 1.0 |
| Costco | 5.0 | $9.99 | $0.17 | 18 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Domino's Pizza | 4.0 | $10.39 | $0.30 | 14 | 5.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
Experience at Cibo Italia
We went to Cibo for lunch at 11:30 with a couple of friends. It's brand spanking new, open maybe a couple of months in University City. The newly paved lot was already packed and it took us a minute to find a parking spot.
The building used to be a gas station. Cibo is the second St. Louis restaurant in Michael Del Pietro's group, and the renovation looks sharp.
We sat outside with fans on a nice spring afternoon. Inside and outside were both about half full when we showed up. By the time we left the whole place was packed.
Our waitress was super chatty and super engaged. She'd been on the job a couple of days after a long stint at Katie's Pizza, and she clearly liked it here. She's the one who gave us the weirdo line.
Food came out in 10 to 15 minutes. That's a great turn for lunch, and we were eating before the rush really hit.
The menu is fairly priced for what you get. Friends who've been here at other parts of the day say the coffee and pastries are good too.
Food at Cibo Italia
I ordered two slices so I could rate the menu fairly. A regular cheese for $5 and a Sicilian "salsa celia" for $6, with the Sicilian about twice the size of the cheese for a dollar more.
I'll start with the cheese, because that's the baseline test for any pizza place.
The cheese slice is built on marinara, fresh mozzarella, provolone, basil, and grated parmesan. That's a three-cheese pizza dressed as a cheese pizza, and it tastes like one.
It tastes like DiGiorno with too much provolone. I asked our waitress if she could pull the provolone off and she couldn't, because the slices come pre-made and get reheated. So I ate it as-is, and the provolone was the loudest thing on the slice.
The mozzarella faded into the background. The basil never really showed up. The cheeses were fine, they just didn't have much flavor.
I gave the cheese slice a 6 out of 10, which puts it under the Flood Line for restaurant pizza. The bottom was very crispy, which is usually my thing, but the perimeter went past crispy into burnt. It was so toasted I couldn't fold the slice in half without it snapping.
The Sicilian "salsa celia" was the better of the two. Sausage, caramelized onions, balsamic glaze.
It read like a worse version of a Detroit-style pizza, with too much going on between the balsamic and the onions. My wife took one look at it and called it flatbread, and at that point it really isn't pizza anymore. I gave it a 7 out of 10.
On pure calories per dollar, though, the Sicilian is the order to make. Twice the slice for a buck more is unbeatable in this part of town.
My buddy came back a few days later and got the pepperoni pizza, which is a strange one. Pepperoni, banana peppers, ricotta, hot honey.
There's no plain pepperoni option on the menu, which fits the rest of the lineup. The pizzas all skew fancy. He liked it, and the picture he sent me looked more like a big magpita than a slice of pizza, but he and I have different taste in food.
My buddy at the table ordered the chicken parm sandwich and that thing looked really good. I didn't taste it, so I can't put a score on it. Sandwiches at Cibo run around $14 to $15, which is standard for the area.
The people at the next table were getting the Caprese with tomato and pesto on a ciabatta bun. That's the other one I'd try next time.
The pricing across the menu is fair and the portions match. It's the pizza that didn't do it for me.
Dewey's down the road is a better pizza in my book, and that's the comp I keep coming back to. If someone invites me back here, I'm ordering a sandwich.
Cibo Italia Atmosphere
The atmosphere at Cibo is the best part of the visit. The place is a renovated old gas station, a car service center in a former life, and you can tell a lot of money went into making it not look like one. Clean lines on the outside, a fancy logo, the whole build-out feels professionally done.
The old service bays have been turned into an outdoor seating area, and we sat out there with fans going on a nice spring afternoon. Inside was almost half full when we showed up around 11:30, and the patio was about half full too. By the time we left an hour later, every seat was taken.
Inside is super clean and super modern, basically just built. The old bay doors are now huge windows, so you get a clear view straight through to the patio from any seat in the dining room. The view across the street is a couple of gas stations, which is not great, but the room itself is so well done you stop noticing.
This is the hot new place in University City right now, and the crowd shows it.
Parking at Cibo
The parking lot is newly paved, so that's fun. When we pulled in at 11:30, it was already most of the way full and I had to circle once to find a spot. By the time we left it was packed, so get there before noon if you want an easy time of it.
