Cinco Bistro

Cinco Bistro is less than a 500m walk from our door. Even better, it’s downhill on the way home. A very attractive proposition when you’re heading to a 5 course Taste of Piedmonte degustation with matching wines ($ 120 pp). Hat’s Off Dinners are a chance for restaurants that received 1 or more hats in the ¹⁴⁄₁₅ Guide to do a special menu that shows off their cooking chops or in this case, cotoletta.
Cinco is lucky enough to have Michelin chef Andrea Leone working with them and it was from his native Piedmont that he drew inspiration for this dinner. A region in northern Italy that borders both Switzerland and France, it’s famous for its fortifying mountain cuisine. The style of hearty food you enjoy after day of hiking the freezing alps or skiing the piste is quite different from the calorie intake you require after a 500m walk. The dishes on offer had been lightened significantly but the elements remained.
Many people would be hard pressed to tell you where Piedmont is on the map but if they had any knowledge of Italian cuisine, they’d certainly know the dishes. As part of the anti pasti, Bagna Cauda was served in a baked and caramelised onion cup. Translated as ‘hot dip’, garlic and anchovies are pounded together to create a warm, creamy, salty sauce served with blanched vegetables. Vitello Tonnato is a favourite of mine. Rare veal is sliced paper thin and coated in a sauce of eggs, tuna, capers and lemon juice. Served at room temperature, this version included slivers of pickled sardine to add extra piquancy to cut through the rich sauce.
Tiny ravioli filled with oozy regional Fontina cheese was the richest dish of the evening finished in brown butter dusted with shaved truffles. It didn’t touch the sides. The final dish was Bollito Misto or ‘boiled meat’, though there was nothing plain or peasant like about this dish with carrot top pesto, little gems of sweet mustard fruits and an almond tarator style sauce. Dessert was a cold, smooth milky chocolate pudding or budino that despite its appearance was not overly rich. A citrus sauce and candied, dehydrated orange slices provided sweetness, with a slight hint of bitterness. Paired with a moscato, it was a remarkably light dessert.
Service throughout the evening was stellar. It’s an art to serve an entire restaurant with the each of five courses at the same time. The somelliers were happy to discuss the qualities and merits of the wines being poured. It’s been quite some time since I’ve been able to engage in conversation with staff who really knew their product. Peter Stubbs has certainly put a lot of effort into selecting the correct staff and providing a high quality dining experience. Cinco was recently awarded BYO Restaurant of the Year by the ²⁰¹⁵⁄₁₆ Brisbane Times Good Food Guide

Been here once and loved it! Little on the pricey side and the night I was there service was slow but the food was Awesome! Portions I thought were ok but I boyfriend grumbled a bit :-)

We drive past it almost every day and I had been keen to check it out for a while so it was a nice surprise to be taken here recently for my birthday dinner.
We were greeted quickly and in a friendly manner though the table we were seated at hadn’t been fully turned over from the previous guests and we were left with no knives and one clean (?) water glass and this wasn’t noticed or rectified by the waiter.
We ordered pre-​dinner drinks and then tried to narrow down our choices for entrée and main This was no easy task as we would have been happy to order anything off the menu. We settled on sharing Empanads for entrée and the Duck and Baramundi for mains.
We ordered wine to be served with our main but it was delivered promptly along with the entrée which was devoured even more quickly. The empanadas and the accompanying sauce were delicious.
Our mains took quite a while to arrive but the waitress acknowledged the wait time and apologised without any prompting. When it finally arrived, my fish and all its accompaniments were divine. The skin was crisp and the fish cooked perfectly. My husband’s duck was greeted with matching appreciation and again, all the accompaniments were well matched and prepared and presented beautifully.
My husband ordered the white chocolate panna cotta for dessert as a sort of birthday cake for me (yay!) and it was perfect. Served unmoulded with a variety of delicious raspberry related sides and a crips tuille, I barely even missed the candles.
All in all we ended up with superb food and service and a most enjoyable night. The city prices in a suburban setting can almost be forgiven for the quality of food and service.

I dinned here with my girlfriend for my birthday. Have to say I enjoyed it greatly. The food was great, timely and service was exceptional. For entrée I had the wild mushroom tart (had a fancier name of course) it had good strong mushroom flavour without being overbearing, a nice start. My partner had calamari, it was a larger serve then you would expect and of what I tasted it was well cooked and accompanied by a nice combo of salad and chili. For mains I tried the braised pork neck. The meat was a lot denser then It looked and while soft to eat I did actually struggle to finish so much meat. (not a Bad thing ;)). Sides of sweet potato and dates were a good compliment. My partners cheese ravioli was good well and the pasta was well made. A bit to cheesy for me personally though. For desert we shared the hot donut and pineapple 3 ways (dehydrated, candied & something else) The pine apple and coconut sorbet were awesome. The donut was a donut. The wine was exceptional. No soy milk for coffee was the only disappointment.

Great modern Australian Food. Wonderful suburb gem!