ciao bella italian grill

tried ciao bella after my favorite italian place (cafe tuscany) closed. was very happy with my experience! i ordered pesto linguini with spinach and mushrooms that wasn't on the menu and my server had their chef fix it for me. i started off with their garden salad with house dressing and garlic bread. the salad was fresh and the dressing light and tasty. the garlic bread was a little dry, but otherwise good. the main entree was superb. i read a review where the reviewer complainted about the pesto and i can see their point although it wasn't bad. the pesto needs to be a little less creamy so the the pesto favors come out more. i had a glass of melini chianti also and it was fairly mild (i prefer bold reds). bill came to almost $40 with tip, but it was really good for not being cafe tuscany. i look forward to eating here again!

great little italian place. service was a little slow initially, but solid after my waiter finally got to me. i had the lasagna. portion was about medium sized, but was excellent. their marinara was good without being too sweet. they do not allow firearms, which did cost them a star.

delcious food and service at a great price. great lunch, dinner specials, and happy hour in the bar! best martini in town!

try the beef gnocchi, spinach and strawberry salad, fig and prosciutto pizza, and lamb burger!

overpriced mediocrity. nothing bad but nothing great either. our food was $18 an entree and the dishes came out less than 5 minutes after ordering. only fazoli's is this fast and, of course, it's because nothing is freshly prepared. if you're going to present yourself as a moderately-priced italian restaurant, you should prepare your meals fresh. this isn't mexican food.

read the reviews...not pleased. the food was overpriced & not good. the marinara sauce was watery and tasteless. i will say that the waitress was quite pleasant & was nice enough to give my mother a free dessert for her birthday. unfortunately, i would never go back nor would i recommend it to others.

generic italian. ciao bella was recommended by a friend, but i don’t understand the fuss. the restaurant is in a good location, and the place is clean and casual. overall, the food was ok, but the meatballs were the worst i’ve ever tasted. they were just gross.
service was terrible. our waiter was pushy. he was constantly trying to shove wine down our throats. he constantly interrupted our diner conversation by demanding wine orders. we didn’t want wine. after saying “no” multiple times, he finally got the message. hands down, he was the most obnoxious waiter i’ve ever had. despite his insistence to push up our bill, he never brought out our appetizers. his efforts to generate sales were counterproductive.
other than pushy service and the horrible meatballs, the experience was so generic i really can’t say much more. and that’s sad. this is a mediocre establishment. if you’re hungry, visit huey’s next door.

ciao bella’s cute little outdoor porch. it was drizzling a bit when we arrived so we ended up sitting inside, but hopefully we can sit outside the next time we come!

this place is pretty good! the brisket gnocchi are awesome! i also like the fact that a lot of the entrees come in half portions.

we came in at 3:30 in the afternoon so we really weren't expecting great service since it is an off time. however, we were blown away! great staff. very attentive and happy to see us. food was a delight too. we had chicken carbonara, italian spinach, home-made (i promise) toasted raviolis and chicken scallopini parmigiana. we will be back!!

lunch review. i'll begin by saying that i really like ciao bella for dinner (see my earlier review); however, in my opinion, their new lunch misses the mark. for a little history, ciao bella served lunch at their old location next to kroger but stopped it when they moved to the spot on erin way. sometime after moving, they started an off-shoot, lunch-only spot, called carmella's that was attached to the main restaurant. it even served lunch on saturdays, which was a personal favorite. anyway, they closed carmella's and eventually resumed a m-f lunch service at ciao bella but with a few of carmella's offerings. i say bring back carmella's (even if it is still called ciao bella to avoid the awkwardness and confusion of different names/same space)! i just find the atmosphere at ciao bella for lunch to be dark, depressing, and a little stuffy; whereas, carmella's was well-lit and generally bustling. i also enjoyed the expanded sandwich offerings of carmella's versus the predominantly pasta-laden menu at ciao bella. perhaps they can come up with a best of both worlds option by utilizing the windowed carmella's space more and making the overall atmosphere and menu a little more low-key. maybe it's just a personal preference, but i'm not really interested in lunching there again with the current set up.


-----12 oct, 2011-----

great mid-range priced dinner. we had a great dinner at ciao bella this weekend. they have a nice patio (which there are far too few of in memphis) and variety of selections. i opted for the spinach salad and wild salmon entree, and both were delicious. i was particularly impressed that the salmon was wild and not farm-raised or "atlantic." my entree was $20, and it was as good, if not better, than some of the $30+ fish entrees i've had at more upscale restaurants. service was on the slower side, but not to the point of being bothersome. overall, it was a great meal at a mid-range price.

nice greek dish. chicken santorini with spanikopita

tiny expensive salad. i went for lunch with a friend, and enjoyed my eggplant parmesan served with linguini. it was served with a side of italian spinach, which was just okay. but here's what i didn't like: the "side" salad was $5 at lunch, and it was the tiniest salad i've ever seen! the lettuce was wilted, the dressing was flavorless, and the tomatoes were mealy. and it was mostly onions. i like a good salad when i eat pasta, but to have to pay $5 for this was infuriating! also, the parking situation is not good. it sits in a strip mall in east memphis, so it's crowded.

chef johnathan steenerson and his team at ciao bella invited me over for dinner the other night to get to know them, to serve as a ‘guinea pig’ for a couple of new dishes, and to try out some of the stalwarts on the menu. i was happy to accept after embarrassingly letting them know that i had recently eaten at the restaurant, and that because it was a last minute decision, i only ended up with a terrible cell phone photo. i couldn’t use that in the blog as evidence of how good it had been. so, the professor and i met up over in erin way and settled in for an intense night of deliciousness. they led us back to a nice, well-lit (good for photos!) booth in the back and our great server cole got us started with a round of drinks. i’ll go ahead and get this out there, but when i was talking to jonathan during the meal, i was hyping up how good the service was, and he let us know that it was only cole’s second day at ciao bella. props to him, as he was excellent, as in knowledgeable, nice, a

great place. what a find. great service, great atmosphere, great food. we have found our "go to " italian place. several visits and a number of different menu selections have uncovered some must have and some "good" items. very consistent food , and something for everyone's taste.

great italian food!. we ate there for the first time last weekend and i was a little skeptical due to previous reviews. wow was i and my party surprised. everyone shared a bite of their food and it was all delicious. the meal was how a restaurant meal should be, giving you time to finish your appetizers and salad before bringing the entree! we all enjoyed very much and will be coming back very soon!