Bibis Italianissimo
I’ve got a list of restaurants that I want to visit here in Leeds, and Bibis has been near the top of the list for some time. So I was rather excited to hear my parents were coming to visit and wanted to take me out for a meal, and I was to book somewhere.
As I remember, Bibis didn’t take bookings, which meant I couldn’t go with my parents as they refuse to queue; but a quick scan of their new (disappointing) website seemed to suggest otherwise. So I booked a table for Sunday evening.
Things did not get off to a great start: despite the restaurant being rather large, and very grand looking, we were seated near the door, and en route to the toilets. I can’t understand why they would choose to put us in such a poor location, but we were soon moved to an altogether superior, although smaller, table, and could get on with choosing something to eat.
The Menu & Wine List
I can never tell whether drinking with my parents seems like a good idea, but I didn’t much fancy it tonight, so I can’t comment on any of the wine, although the list did seem to have a good selection at reasonable prices.
There was a pretty good selection of food on the menu, with enough to satisfy me as a vegitarian, and plenty of meat and seafood to impress my carnivorous relations. You can see the menus on the Bibis website.
Food for Thought
The service was not of a very good standard: after ordering, our cutlery was ravaged by the drinks waiter – removing both my knife and my second fork, as my Pizza Bianca starter would come “pre-cut,” removing my need for cutlery, and a ravioli main clearly , even if each piece is half the size of the plate, does not need a knife. When our starters did arrive, they were separated by a large gap, as the waiter seemed to be distracted by some shiny object in the kitchen.
The starters, once delivered were excellent: simple and rich in flavour, whilest being satisfyingly light, leaving one ready for a main course. I could have done with a knife and a fork, to cut the gigantic slices of pizza, and allow me to steal some of my wife’s caprese.
Unfortunately, service of the main course was simlarly poor, from the reaching over the table to pass out the dishes to failure to realise that empty glasses could mean we wanted something more to drink (they did take the empty glasses away).
Finally, the wait for desert was almost as irritating as being told that some of the deserts were not available, after the others had been delivered. We gave up waiting for the bill, and went directly to the Maître d’ to pay the bill and escape.
Will I return?
Overall, I was pleased with the food, and the ambience of the restaurant; both were fitting of a top notch establishment. Sadly, the service was not, and I won’t be in a rush to go back.