Where to eat and drink – Civerino’s Italian Street Food & Pizza Bar

Civerino’s is located just off the Royal Mile near the Tron Kirk in Hunter Square. The restaurant serves a fanatastic selection of family recipes handed down through Michel’s family, featuring Italian street food and of course pizza either whole or by the slice. In contrast to some of the overpriced Royal Mile tourist restaurants offering, as a general rule, fairly low quality food, Civerinos is the real deal and very competitively priced.

The beautiful glass door way opens into a minimalist style canteen with long tables and an open kitchen with tantalising aromas. The staff are super welcoming giving a real easy going family feel to the place. The owner Michel is often sat at the bar and came to talk to us about his plans for the restaurant, the food and his plans for the upcoming Festival season.

It is easy to see why the food at Civerino’s food is so good when you meet Michel. His enthusiasm and passion for Italian food and the business is inspiring and infectious! He is so excited by the fresh produce, especially after a recent trip with the kitchen team to source new products and try out new ideas resulting in some fabulous new gorgonzola croquettes, Italian salamis and porcini mushroom sauce which are just a few of the tasty new treats. He certainly loves his food and takes pride in his family’s heritage. Civerino’s is an expression of this passion – great food from the heart; timeless, classic recipes using exceptional fresh ingredients that would last forever.

A long term Edinburgh resident and foodie Michel loves eating at many of the local establishments and is very complimentary about many of his neighbours including fellow street food success Ting Thai Caravan where he loves to go for his dinner and Ninja buns, who are now providing the food at Paradise Palms.

With the restaurant’s first festival season approaching fast they are keen to ensure they still manage to save some space for their regular followers and will be keeping a table at the back for bookings from those who have booked before. They will also be open late so you can head over after your shift or show too. Seating outside should help them to catch the eye of the passing traffic as will their new Gelato bike set to appear very soon!

On to the food – having tried the fabulous pizzas on a different occasion we decided to try out the rest of the menu. Mix and match home made pasta varieties and sauces featuring pig cheek carbonara and slow cooked beef ragu are sure to be crowd pleasers, and there are some really exciting antipasti dishes if you can draw your gaze away from the pizza menu that is.

We decided on the parsley and chilli calamari, beef meatballs in mushroom sugo, Steak tagliata with wild rocket salad and Zuccini fritti. The food is served on sharing style boards with individual paper plates, so you can get stuck in and help your self in unpretentious communal dining style.

We were very impressed with all of our dishes, light crispy battered zucchini was really tasty, well-cooked steak with roast tomatoes and rocket was the stuff of dreams believe me, and of course crispy calamari with aioli was just about perfect, but the rich tasty porcini sauce with the meatballs was a stand out winner at our table. We were dipping everything in it!

The wine and beers are all really well priced and they also have a frozen cocktail featuring popular Italian favourites including Negroni and Aperol Spritz. Desserts are also pretty awesome – we were recommended to try the Tiramisu but didn’t have space after our feast so it will have to be saved for our next visit.

I am so pleased to have discovered this exciting gem of a restaurant right in the centre of all the festival action and can’t wait to go back for more.

Especially well-positioned for late night pizza and great music on until the early hours throughout the summer of Edinburgh’s festivals.

[tweet_box design=”default”]This terrace set in Hunter Square will be a place where you can sit and watch the crazy world of the Royal Mile in Festival time go by![/tweet_box]

Website www.civerinos.com

Telephone 0131 220 0851

Opening times Mon–Sun noon–1am

Food served Mon–Sun noon–1am. Plus open later in July and August 2015 and at weekends.

Facebook – Civerinos on Facebook

Twitter @civerinos_slice