My friend and I made a last minute change to our plans when we learned DeColores wasn't BYOB anymore. We had two bottles of wine and wanted to find a nice spot nearby. I've had Ciao Amore bookmarked for awhile so it was an easy decision. We knew that being a walk in at 7:30pm on a Saturday would be hit or miss so we crossed our fingers.
They greeted us right away and sat us on a couch in the back. It was clear they were  busy but they were wonderful in trying to accommodate our walk in. They ended up splitting two larger tables to get us a place and we were very happy.
Matt was our server. He was professional and knowledgeable but most importantly he was very personable.
I ordered the Brascole which was delicious and my friend ordered the Festaitaliana which she really enjoyed. Additionally we got the spumoni and tiramisu for desert which were tasty.
I'll definitely be back to visit. Our meals were delicious. The portions were good. Best of all is that there's no corking fee! I highly recommend.
Yea, just okay. I went there with a friend because we both like Italian, wanted to try something new and because she live on the south side I thought this would be a compromise. First off, they were out of Coke and Sprite and it's BYOB, so unless you like water or Diet Coke and brought your own booze, the beverage options were limited to overpriced bottled beverages. The proportions were off with the baked goat cheese marinara appetizer, we had to ask for more bread because 5 oval toasted bread slices just weren't enough. Overall the food was okay if not on the pricey side and both my dish and my friend's were chipped which I believe is both unsafe and not professional. We were sat in the front between a large loud party and a small loud live music group, needless to say it was hard to have a conversation. There are better places in Chicago for Italian, no need to search this one out.
Review Source:So why a 2 star for a joint that averages 4? Â Grab some Bruschetta and let me tell you...
Walked into the place which has a wonderfully colorful decor in the front room, but no double awning door, helloooo, its Chicago, in the Winter, you have been here for 4 years, that one wide open door set upon the first four tables wind from the Siberian tundra, i felt really bad for those up front. Â Take care of your guests and buy the permit and door, it was so open a store front that if those were the only tables open I would have walk right back out.
We were seated in the back and while not as vaulted or artsy, it was clearly the place to sit on a cold night. Â Then quickly happened error #1, it was 7 PM mind you on a Saturday night, they were out of minestrone soup, clearly an Italian restaurant staple favorite, but forgivable. Â On the heals of ordering salads we asked for more bread only to be told they were out.
Bread. Out. Saturday Night. 7 PM. Ouch. I felt bad for the next several hours of tables they sat for dinner.
The next 30 minutes went by with our appetizer- the very tasty rice ball made with meat and cheese- that came and went in 5 minutes, and we sat there for another 30 waiting for salads, and the place was not full. Â We finally asked about them and they came right out seconds later, only to be follow by our main course seconds later... and the second waiter said they had been made and were sitting in the kitchen awaiting the main course, um, no, not requested and now this was a bigger issue. Â Hot food, cold caprese, not good.
The food was ok, nothing spectacular, vesuivo w/ lemon and garlic, but not with any real lemon or garlic taste... I wonder if they were out of lemon and garlic?
Lastly I wanted a decaf Cappuccino, they only had regular. They had the espresso machine but no decaf.
No apoligies and no offers to remove anything from the bill, when we asked they said they had already rung it up and could not change it, they did finally offer some future coupons, 2 little 2 late.
Saturday night, no soup for you, no bread for you, no decaf for you, no return for me.
UPDATE - the owner did send me a very nice email on the week following with a more heartfelt apology and their current battles with the city and landlord to get a new door system in place as well as personally say he was sorry we had a negative experience. He expressed his hope we would return and let them honor the discount and give the place a second try. Â Very nice effort and appreciated.
Love this restaurant! The owner is sweet, he will make sure you are happy. The owner/chef is talented and comes out to check on you. Food is amazing. Always delicious and creative. The service is great. People have such good, attentive attitudes!
I have a couple of fav dishes... the green bean salad and the mussels dish. Â So good!
On weekends they have live jazz, this play is just lovely.
One star is a generous rating. This place is unbelievable! For a $27 lobster ravioli special we got something resembling a fishy canned salmon filled ravioli smithered in white cream sauce--cream only, not a hint of white wine.
The best part-- the osso bucco came decomposed (meaning it looked like the leftovers of a previous customer's osso bucco) in a super salty canned ragu sauce with a bone filled with a four ball instead of marrow. Nice touch, "chef"!
Staff was good-food fantastic, But...We sat in the back so the music was low enough for conversation. In the front the music is too loud for polite conversation. My complaint is the after an hour our entrees started arriving. One by one. You'd think the kitchen knew how to time things better. Having a twelve minute window from the first diner's entree to the fifth person's meal arriving at the table is not professional. Then serving the wrong meal to a guest --only to come back five minutes later and serve the proper order, while taking the prior delivered, part eaten, meal and giving it to someone else to eat is wrong. Ask, the staff to serve entrees at once as any good restaurant would. We went on a Saturday, I would have expected the Head Chef to be working.
Review Source:Great neighborhood restaurant with plenty of room for groups (we were 8 people on a Sunday night). Â The portions are HUGE so you may want to eat "family style". Â We brought two bottles of wine since it is a BYOB place which is awesome.
I used a Yelp deal ($7 for $15) and the waiter forgot to apply it to the bill so make sure you watch for that.
Amazing food. Â We had Vitello Porcini (TO DIE FOR) and the Penne with Sausage and Meat balls, another delicious HUGE dish. Â Also had the tasty green bean salad which was very good. Â BYOB huge bonus. Â Our waiter, Matt, was EXCELLENT. Â Don't miss this place. Â Got seated immediately on a saturday night.
Review Source:When my friend suggested meeting here for dinner, I was a) surprised she wanted to eat Italian (not her typical food of choice) and b) uncertain because it was in the Pilsen neighborhood, not the usual place I would seek out fancy Italian restaurants. In the end, we and our sig others discovered the right place for our long-awaited reunion with enjoying the BYOB option and the massive amounts of quality food.
While starting out our night by uncorking our two bottles of red wine and requesting multiple bowls of olive oil/parm for our bread, the server enthusiastically suggested we order the mussels special for our app (not on the menu). We were grateful for his suggestion because the flavorful cream sauce was one of the highlights of the night for us. However, the actual size of each mussel meat was a bit small for my liking.
When we got to the entrees, I admittedly already felt full but still anticipated our choices. The four of us selected different dishes and sampled each others. I fell in love with my husband's spinach gnocchi because of the pillow-like texture of the ricotta cheese in the middle with the comforting spinach cream sauce that the gnocchi drowned in. As for my osso bucco, it had ginormous pieces of meat and it didn't even look like I made a dent in it once the night ended. I was happy to honestly just have the dish as leftovers to eat at home for the next three days.
I would definitely return to double date with our friends who live nearby, and the atmosphere would even be perfect for an even bigger group of friends.
Many Many Many wonderful things about this restaurant.
BYOB
HUGE portions
everything is made from a pound of butter
the mussels appetizer!!!!!!! We literally licked the plate clean with our bread. That sauce is so garlicky and delicious. I'd go back just to eat that over and over and over again.
My friend's osso bucco was the size of a family size serving plate, enough food to feed a small village.
And it's priced so well! Dinner for 4 people, drunk and full was under $100.
Yay! I finally like italian food!
Hello love....
Ciao Amore was so good that when we went for dinner on a Sunday night, before we left the restaurant, we made reservations for a group of 6 for the next Friday night.
To begin, Ciao Amore is a storefront restaurant on 18th and May in the Pilsen neighborhood. We heard about from a friend who was in Vancouver and saw it on Chicago's best - go figure. You could actually pass right by if you were not looking for it. Décor is chic. Love the brick wall and vintage Chicago ceiling, as well as the local art displayed on the walls.
The food is amazing. Not your typical pasta restaurant. For appetizers, we had brushetta and Caprese salad. The caprese salad was maybe the best I ever had. Entrees included osso buco, veal in porcini mushroom sauce with ravioli, chicken Vesuvio, lobster ravioli in a red jalapeño sauce which was ever so warm and wonderful but not hot and a very light gnocchi. Every entrée was good, my favorites being the lobster ravioli and the gnocchi.
Had the tiramisu both times. It was fresh and they were nice enough to decorate the plate so nicely in a chocolate Happy Birthday. One piece was enough to share.
Service is enthusiastic and upbeat.
Did I mention the restaurant is BYO? Yes, it is BYO, with no corkage fee.
And if I was not in amore enough, Friday nights hosts live jazz music. So cool.
Scored street parking, on both visits, just East of the restaurant. The sign on the door says it is okay to park in the Church lot on 18th and Allport.
A good solid neighborhood Italian restaurant.
Hits: Friends' seafood w/linguine and ossobuco. The 2 appetizer specials (green beans w/balsamic dressing and steamed mussels in a creamy broth) were also good too.
Misses: My veal piccata. Veal was overcooked and tough and the sauce was way too salty and lemony, almost inedible. The chef may have added more salt without thinking about the capers.
Unexpected surprise: How great our server Mateo was. Attentive without being overbearing, genuinely friendly without being artificially sweet.
btw the portions are crazy big. Crazy. Big.
This place has hands down the best. Â BEST service of any restaurant I've ever eaten at. Â The food is also to die for! Â But you might need a wheelbarrow to get yourself out! Â These portions are no joke.
We had a wonderful young lady as our server, I didn't catch her name but she was witty and had plugs in her ears. Â All the other gentlemen walking around had great dispositions which fit well with their sweet haircuts.
I got the gnocchi. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone. Â We also started out with a mussel appetizer which was nomnomnom. Â Oh...and a little tip...if the server says a dish is spicy...they aren't lying!! My boyfriend's dish had quite the kick! Luckily we are pros at spicy food...but I wouldn't advise it for the faint of heat.
We will definitely be visiting again in the near future.
What a wonderful place this is; great service and amazing food. I had no idea this place existed in my old neighborhood until my girlfriend brought it to my attention. Decided to come here for my birthday before catching a show and have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The live jazz band (here every Friday it seems) was a very nice touch as well, I'm a sucker for live music. Highly recommend it to everyone. Side notes: printing on the menu should be changed, small italics isn't the best font; had their petti di' polo porcini - extraordinary; shout out to our waitress Marianne, she was a professional and did a great job (I later found out it was her first day)
Review Source:I came here for an anniversary celebration. The minute we sat down, the waiter recommended some specials. No price were given. I basically had to sit through it to listen to them talk about all shellfish products that I can't eat.
I ordered the spinach and cheese gnocchi. The other was the veal with angel hair. The starter was the calamari. Everything was pretty good. My significant other said the olive like bulbs were really sour. The overall dish for him was sour and didn't really like it. The waiter recommended that... And said he liked it.
The gnocchi was good, I enjoyed dipping bread for the sauce.
The place is pretty cozy and had a really good feel to it. There are art decorations and some display cabinet with some photo and some figurines and plants.
There was a table of obnoxious women chatting and laughing loudly.... I dont know about another visit.
BYOB w/ no corkage... Ok, i'm a fan... good food on top of that... even more of a fan. Â Had the Bruschetta, typical, bread maybe a little too thick. Â Calamari was good, but just your basic. Now where I loved this place was with the main entree... Osso Bucco was tender and perfectly slid off the bone. The stuffed gnocchi that accompanied it was tasty as well. Â It's a small place and we went on a Thursday so, not sure how busy it gets on weekends, but based on the reviews I see, I imagine it's gaining popularity pretty quickly.
Review Source:I think of myself as being very lucky to live down the street from this place! The food was amazing, and I can't wait to go back.
No corkage fee? Awesome!
The environment is really nice and cute, and my boyfriend and I were seated almost right away on a Saturday night. Â It's got a romantic feel of course, but it would be great for night out with friends and a couple bottles of wine.
I believe we ordered the lasagna and a shrimp fettuccine, both amazing!
One of my favorite restaurants, ever. Â A year ago my now-fiance and I wanted to have a really nice Tuesday night dinner away from Hyde Park, and this place was closer than the north side steakhouses. (Note to south siders: We took the 55 bus and got the 8 on Halsted. Don't get the 8 on Halsted.) There was only one other table occupied, and granted it was 8:00 on a Tuesday, but I would have thought with the great Yelp reviews it would be packed.
We had...
Green bean salad - blanced green beans, fresh mozzarella, diced tomato, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and chopped basil. It really is awesome.
Gnocchi ripieno - "Pillowy" is an apt description, very cheesy and VERY rich spinach parmesan sauce. Did I mention the cheese?
Veal porcini - the gnocchi was awesome, but this is maybe the best thing I've ever tasted in my life. Thin pieces of veal, ravioli, and mushrooms in a pool of cream sauce made with an earthy red wine. The server said they use chianti. I have never had a wine sauce like this anywhere else, but there was something oddly familiar in the flavor and it's still driving me crazy to this day. We definitely used some of the crusty Italian bread to mop up the sauce.
Tiramisu - very good, but bad tiramisu is rare.
Plus we did the BYOB thing.
Then we went downtown and he proposed to me in Grant Park. :)
We went back right before we moved away from Chicago and got the green bean salad and veal porcini again, plus a beef brascole which was as splendid as expected. We told our server we'd gotten engaged last time we ate there and we were sorry to leave the city, and he came out with tiramisu on the house.
So yeah, I love this place. I hope we just hit them on slow nights and their business is going well, because they will be a required stop on all our future Chicago trips.
Came here on a Friday night because of lent, I needed pasta.... And their lobster ravioli combined with the BYOB option is great.
We had dinner for 4, we were seated immediately and our waiter was more than helpful. He began with the specials, and we ordered the mussels appetizer and the green bean salad both were absolutely delish and the warm bread with EVOO and parmesan was a nice start.
We also ordered the spaghetti bolognese, lobster ravioli, fettuccine alfredo with shrimp, and linguini with garlic and olive oil.... Dinner was heavenly and the staff was great. Will be back again...
Took my girlfriend there on valentine's day. It was a nice, quiet, romantic atmosphere with a good mix of people. The staff was extremely friendly and our waiter was very helpful and attentive.
They had a pretty decent range of options on the menu and an even bigger list of specials. We had the Calamari to start which was absolutely delicious! I got the Crab Manicotti, which was a special. It was a little to creamy and you couldn't really taste the crab... not to mention it was about $28! Definitely not worth the price... so make sure you get prices of the special before you order. My girlfriend got the Chicken Valusio (sp?) and she seemed content with it. It had chicken breasts and what looked like thick cut fries in a lemon-y white wine sauce.
The food was decent and I would go there and try other things on the menu. It's a nice romantic hidden gem in Pilsen.... not to mention BYOB rocks!
This local italian place is HIDDEN - so go find it! :) My friends brought me here because it never disappoints! After my dinner here with them, I would have to agree it was pretty darn good. Yelpers talk about the green beans.. yes, eat these. But, warning - it's a big portion! Tossed with a vinaigrette it's healthy, light, and flavorful.
The homemade lobster ravioli I had was cooked al dente and served with a spicy, arribiata (creamy) sauce. My friend's Brascole - beef brascole, stuffed with spinach, prosciutto & parmigiano cheese and served over homemade cavatelli with marinara and basil - was a nice departure from the usual italian menu items you find. Gotta have that next time! Being a BYOB with no corkage fee, talk about a money saver.
Located in Pilsen, parking now is aplenty in the nearby church parking lot for Ciao Amore customers. Wait staff and the owner/chef are super friendly and personable.
The wait staff was helpful. The food was only ok. We ordered the specials for the day. One was a mussels and linguini dish and the other was a chicken and spinish roll with creme sauce and ricotta stuffed gnocchi. The gnocchi were like pillows and delicious but everything was so rich, and the portions were huge. They don't have a large dessert offering and they serve coffee but it's not recommended.
If you can, try to get seated in the back because if you sit upfront you will need to leave your jacket on. The temperature control was awful. We were all freezing and it was made worse each time someone left or came in.
I won't say it was bad because the atmosphere is nice, and the menu is long so maybe my dish just wasn't the best that day.
They only do reservations of 6 or more, which means if you are just 2 or 4 you can't really control where you sit. Try not to get stuck up front.
This place is a hidden gem and an unexpected surprise. Â The food here is crazy good - I think I was licking my plate clean and almost took my waiter's finger off when he was trying to clear the table....ooops.
And I'm not even usually crazy about Italian food, but this right here is the real deal and has made me change my mind. Â I know I had a very lemony chicken dish (vesuvio, maybe?) with potatoes and it was ALL THAT!! And then some. Â Hubs had this stuffed meat pasta dish in a very rich and meaty sauce that was THE BOMB and might have been a special...which is unfortunate b/c it was just as good as mine. Â I usually like to be the one with the better choice of meals, but these two were seriously both so good and so different that there really is no comparison. Â We must have looked like fools switching plates every five minutes like clock-work...lol.
Oh, and it's BYOB!! Â This is almost too good to be true. Â I am soooo glad I took a chance on a yelp deal b/c now I found my new go-to amore Italiano ristorante!
Drive past this restaurant daily, finally tried it on a Saturday night. Â Will go back
For appetizers we got calamari and green bean salad perfect. Â The green bean salad. Â All of these were delicious.
For the main course, I had the Veal Picatta and it was absolutely wonderful. Â My aunt had a Mahi Mahi and my husband a chicken entree, all excellent.
Excellent service and BYOB. Â $100.00 for four with appetizers and dessert. Â Great value.
Birthday dinner, a table of 9 and now as I'm writing the day after, we are still clamoring over how wonderful the food is. I'm still thinking of the sweet and tangy balsamic vinegar tossed green beans with the soft and marshmallowy mozzarella, gnocchi, and the creamy portobello pasta dishes.
Most of the time, when I think of Italian, I typically think pasta is something I could make myself. So, if I go out for Italian, I want the food to kick my mouth into overdrive and this place definitely did it for us. You can smell the garlic aromas emanating from the kitchen pulling you in by the nose.
A few notes:
1) Yes, BYOB and boy did we bring plenty of bottles. Best part is there is no corkage fee. Someone brought vodka since they don't drink wine and the restaurant supplied us with cocktail glasses with ice.
2) $5/entree "sharing" fee. I am not a fan of the sharing fee, but apparently, they do make the portions a little bit bigger - however, I feel that this was not by much.
We did family style consisting of 4 different appetizers, 5 entrees, and dessert. Even though the reviews down here said it was a lot of food, I felt there could have been a just a little more, maybe because everything tasted so good, I just wanted another bite. We all took small rations of each dish. Maybe that is a good thing as everything was so rich. I didn't feel full until fifteen minutes after the end of our meal. My friends had a latte and espresso which they said were excellent.
Great atmosphere, great service.
BYOB....need I say more? This place is awesome!! I love Italian & I love saving money by BYOBing ;) I went on a Friday night with a group of 10 friends to celebrate one of my closest friends birthdays. We decided to do family style and just get a ton of different foods to try. We also had more than enough liquors to try lol. We had the best waiter, Gilberto, he helped us make great choices and treated us great!!
Appetizers we got calamari, green bean salad and goat cheese. All of these were delicious. Calamari is the softest I've had. It wasn't chewy at all. i wish the breading would have been a little crisper but it was really good. For the main course we had several different things but the one I fell in love with was this tortellini with all this gooey amazing cheese. Anything with bubbling hot cheese is A ok in my book!! For dessert we had tiramisu which was yummy!!
At the end of the meal I spoke to the owner who is also the chef and he was very nice and wanted to make sure that we enjoyed our meal. Very friendly and I really appreciated his taking the time to chat with me. Definitely recommend this place. I'll be back ASAP!
Their spinach pesto, asiago and ricotta gnocchi is why you go here. It may read like a wild combination, but after having gnocchi prepared this way, I wonder why the hell it isn't served more often in other restaurants because I've not had it taste better! There's a smooth, buttery envelope around the fat noodles that hold a pocket of spinach and cheesy goodness that HAS to be the perfect, bitterly-cold winter comfort dish. And this was on on a very evening in early June. All I'm gonna say.
We'd passed this quaint, Pilsen BYO several times going to and from Simone's Bar and this was the perfect summer's night to give it a try. Cesar and his staff will make sure and frequently that you're being served and that you have everything you need. You won't be ignored.
I did not know there was a restaurant like this in Pilsen. This is truly a hidden gem.
My sister and I stopped by for an early dinner on a Saturday night, before heading to see Les Miserables. We were the only guests in the restaurant initially, and were greeted with friendly and attentive service, who even suggested a liquor store across the street since we hadn't brought anything - Yes, it's byob and no corking fee! The decor is cute and cozy, with Andrea Bocelli playing in the background.
We started our meal off with 2 appetizers: the mussels, a special, and the polenta, which is on their regular menu. Both were amazing and the portions were huge. The crostini that came with the mussels were to die for. The creamy, garlicky sauce that the mussels nestled in was so good that I could've tossed a batch of pasta in it and called it a meal.
My sister ordered the osso bucco, which was super tender and full of flavor. I've always wanted to try osso bucco and now that I have, I can say with certainty that all future osso bucco meals will be compared to Ciao Amore's ranking of deliciousness.
I had the lobster ravioli in a special sauce of the day - cream with peas. Although I liked it, I didn't taste anything fantastic and I'm sure that would not have been the case if I had stuck with the normal sauce. Even though that was a flub in my book, I still have to give this place 5 stars. Huge portions, great service and way affordable. Everything was amazing. This is going on my top 10 list for sure.
A great addition to the Pilsen neighborhood with authentic Italian food. We went on their 1 year anniversary date (without knowing) and were pleasantly surprised. We ordered
gnocchi ripieno - pillowy & stuffed with cheese. WOW.
vitello piccata - very tender veal
tiramisu - slightly mushy
free ice cream - yay!
I thought the food was very food, and the portions were HUGE for the price. Amazing find in Pilsen!
Are dinner here for Valentine's Day - this is our 2nd time at Ciao Amore!
Service: Great, professional, timely & prompt!
Atmosphere: Truly romantic for Valentine's Day w/wonderful music playing in the background.
Food: Awesome! Surprising and delicious and fresh!
Service: Our waiter was Mario. He was prompt, friendly, gave us the specials, asked if we had questions. He didn't rush us through. He was very attentive to our needs. Excellent service!!
Atmosphere: From the single candle on our table, to the lighting, to the decor and soft music playing in the background - it was perfect for a romantic evening for Valentine's Day!
Food: We had 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, and dessert w/coffee & cappuccino! It was FANTASTIC! We ordered the Bruschetta & Green Bean Salad. The Bruschetta tasted fresh and the bread was awesome. The Green Bean Salad was crisp, tasted fresh with a great balsamic vinegar dressing and awesome marinated mozzarella!
For our entree we had the Lobster Ravioli w/marscapone & sun-dried tomatoes. It was gone so quick! So tasty, fresh and light. The ravioli was filled with lobster, and it was SOOOO good. We also chose the gnocchi w/parmesan spinach cream sauce. The gnocchi was soft, light and truly rich filled with cheese. The sauce was light and tasted soooo good with the gnocchi! What a wonderful treat!
For dessert we were served two chocolate-dipped strawberries and a small chocolate-raspberry cake drizzled with chocolate sauce. It was so flavorful and such a great ending to dinner! We brought a bottle of Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay with us and it was a perfect compliment to our meal - Ciao Amore is a BYOB and sooooo nice!
We even ended our meal with a cup of freshly ground coffee and cappuccino! From the service to the decor to the food - everything was appetizing and delicious! We will be back again soon!!!
LOVE CIAO AMORE! Thank you for a wonderful evening!!!
I don't think I have ever loved a sauce as much as their porcini mushroom wine sauce! Â You could put it on cardboard and I would stil think it is heavenly. Â When you put it on their fluffy gnocci pillows I could die right then and there and be happy!
My boyfriend and I have been here 5 times and each time have had great service. Â Everyone goes out of their way to ensure you are happy and have everything you want. Â Combine that with a BYOB and you have a perfect spot! Â Delicious food at a very reasonable price with great customer service, definitely a rare find!
The best Italian food in Chicago. Â There, I said it. Â
I've never had gnocchi so flavorful and the lobster ravioli was a shock with the addition of jalapenos. Â
Excellent service, staff and decor as well. Â
Not only were we asked if we wanted dessert, but after declining we were given sorbet. Â Go now before its on "Check Please" and crowded.
Buonissimo! The best I have had in a while...
I have visited Ciao  Amore about 3 times now and we have been consistently BLOWN AWAY every time. (In a good way...) As a longtime Pilsners, my friends and I have been watching restaurant openings like hawks, and it's great to have a place for unpretentious and flawless Italian on 18th street!
The gnocchi are the best I have ever had, either in the US or Italy. The Cioppino (spicy seafood stew) was delicious, the calamari were perfectly done, not rubbery or oily.These three items are bellwether dishes that cannot be muddled through. Â Pastas were light and fresh like in Italy.
The food is top-notch, authentic Italian. In general, the portions are large, so best order family-style and share. ( When you factor that in, the prices are beyond reasonable.) Normally places that have large portions skimp on ingredient-quality, but everything at Ciao Amore was fresh and high-quality, even small touches like a sprig of fresh rosemary on a meat dish.
The staff was always very welcoming and they were all genuinely sweet and friendly. Some of the waitstaff are from Italy, as well, and everyone we encountered seemed happy to be there. It was more like visiting the cool and cozy loft of some Italian friends rather than being customers in a restaurant!
We met chef/owner Caesar on one occasion and he regaled us with tales of the town in Italy where his mother came from.
We were surprised to find such a hidden gem in Pilsen. They had a soft opening to fine-tune the kitchen, but everything was perfect from the first time we went, which literally 2 days after they opened.
Since then we have brought groups of friends and honestly, no one has ever even had their dish come out so much as slightly off. Every app, every dish was singularly wonderful. These "paisani" really know what they are doing!
Dessert-wise: The sorbet and the tiramisu were OFF THE CHARTS. I was sad I didn't have more room for them!
Friendly, welcoming, delicious, authentic, what more can I say?
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,611 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,972 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,318 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,916 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,987 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
