Civerino’s

New to Hunter Square, Civerino’s brings Italian “street food” to an Edinburgh audience eager for improved late night dining options. The latest venture from Michele Civiera, the man behind Enzo, it takes over a venue that has seen Daft Jamie’s, Pulcinella and Le Sept all founder, in recent times.

I was joined on today’s visit by regular guest quester Frances and first timer Cat, who was fresh off the boat from San Francisco.

The interior has been given a significant refresh, with an emphasis on informal bench seating. The place offers both sit-in and takeaway, although the balance seems towards the former for now.

The focus of the menu is on pizza, with a good selection served whole and a couple of varieties served by the slice. There is also a varied selection of starters for sharing, from which we chose the tagliata, arancini and calamari.

These promptly arrived dressed with heaps of rocket. The beef was very good, the arancini pretty decent, and the calamari full of tentacle goodness. This was a promising opener.

We opted to share a meatball pizza between the three of us. It arrived looking monstrously good. It made for enjoyably messy eating, with the saucy meatballs very good and the pizza of really pleasing quality.

Cat had had her eye on the nutella calzone since the get-go, so once we’d tried the entertaining negroni slushies, we sampled this deliciously gooey sweetness. It was calorie-laden joy.

The menu pricing needs some work. A bowl of chips is £5, while the steak tagliata is £8, which seems a bit odd. But this was a minor quibble with what was otherwise a very enjoyable first visit to an exciting new place.

So overall, Civerino’s delivers high quality informal Italian fare in smart surroundings. The pizza is likely to impress and the place has a really good feel to it. I look forward to visiting again and would recommend you give it a try.

Scores
Blythe scores Civerino’s
4/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
4/5 for setting
4/5 for service
giving an overall 15.5/20

Today’s questers were: Cat, Frances, Blythe

We ate: arancini, calamari, beef tagliata, meatball pizza, nutella calzone

We drank: water, beers, frozen negronis

We wore: black hat, fur collar, striped suit

Total bill: £76.90