Italian café and restaurant in Exchange District, Winnipeg

Cibo Waterfront Café

Bruschetta by the River

3.5 of 5

Cibo Waterfront Café sits at 339 Waterfront Drive, on the edge of the Exchange District where the old warehouse city runs down toward the Red River. It is an Italian room with a Mediterranean streak. It takes reservations like a proper restaurant and keeps the easy manners of a café, which is a balance more places should attempt.

The order to start with is the bruschetta. You pick three of the six kinds, which is the correct number: enough to argue over, not enough to ruin dinner. One comes with seared mushroom and herbed goat cheese. Another stacks feta, tomato, cucumber and pesto. The set has run about fifteen dollars, honest money for a plate built to pass around. I could not pin down the rest of the current menu, so treat the bruschetta as the opening move and ask the server what the kitchen is proudest of tonight. Cooks remember who asks.

Go in the early evening, while the Exchange is still waking up for the night. Bring a friend or two, get the bread on the table and a glass of something Italian, then decide whether you are staying for mains. Afterward, walk it off along the riverfront. Winnipeg built itself a handsome waterfront and then, in true prairie fashion, forgot to brag about it.

Order this

Bruschetta, three of the six kinds, Seared mushroom with herbed goat cheese, Feta, tomato, cucumber and pesto, A glass of something Italian

The damage

$$

Go

Early evening, before the Exchange gets busy

Find it

339 Waterfront Dr, Winnipeg, MB