Ciao Bella Restaurant

My friend invited me out since she got a Groupon to this spot. Personally I don’t really eat at. Italian restaurants often because I do try to stay away from all the carbs but I’m always down for a dinner invite. We came in on a Sunday about 8:30. I felt bad for coming in so close up closing time also I know food and service tend to lack when you go in so close to closing time but it was the only time she could go.
When we got there we were greeted right away and taken to our seat. When I put my coat down the hood got hooked on the straw in my water and knocked water everywhere… oppsies! The servers were very polite and just moved us to another table. Our server was extremely sweet and attentive. He made excellent recommendations and we were in and out without feeling rushed even though it was so close to closing time. I got the chicken piccata and my friend got the chicken marsala both were great! I really appreciated the server took the time out to tell us about the chef and how he previously was a chef in France and how he prepared all the sauces.
The entire experience was awesome and I’ll definitely be back!

One of the treasures of Little Italy in Baltimore. Excellent food and service. We were a group of 8 and everyone enjoyed their meals, from Chicken Parmesan to Frutte Di Mare, broccoli Di Pollo down to kids chicken tenders. There is something here for everyone. The Caesar Salads were crisp and dressing was perfect. This was always one of my mother-​in-​laws favorite places, going back 25 years. I would highly recommend it.

Very very good. The food is as good as any New York fine Italian casual. The drinks were fabulously mixed and Charles our waiter was superb. We will go back and often at that. In fact we look forward to bringing the entire family.

My family and I have been to this restaurant on multiple occasions over the years. Although we are not from Baltimore, we do try to frequent this restaurant. Unfortunately it does not meet my expectations any longer. Although the price point is acceptable, the food is not. That being said the service is adequate.
Back to the food. Today, I ordered seafood pasta. I received one scallop and two shrimp. The pasta was over cooked.
Maybe next time it’ll be back to what I expect.

This was my first visit here and I was very pleased. I purchased a $ 40 coupon on Groupon, I paid $ 22 for $ 40 worth of food for 2. The table service was great, and the staff was courteous. We were greeted by the owner himself Tony as he briefly left for the evening. The prices were great and they have a variety of wines to choose from. Glad I made this choice, and I highly recommend this place. Ciao Bella!

Group of out of town firefighters stopped by here for a quick hit to eat. The hospitality was completely awesome! The food was great! Highly recommended for anyone to stop by here and enjoy the food and staff!

I came here with my boyfriend and we had a 9:00 reservation for dinner. We were excited because we have never been here before. Well unfortunately our reservation didn’t mean much because we were sat around 9:40 pm. They kept telling us to wait 5 minutes here, 1 minute there and before you know we were sat and greeted almost a hour later! Smh. Not only was the wait bad, the food was less than mediocre. Specifically, I ordered the shrimp fra Diavolo. I understand the restaurant was super packed, but why take reservations when you can’t handle the volume?

Had the calamari appetizer. It was very good as well as the marinara sauce it came with. For entrée we had the penne carbonara and antipasto salad. Must try both! Delicious

I just moved to Little Italy about two months ago, and Ciao Bella has recently become a neighborhood favorite of mine. I went to dinner at Ciao Bella last night with one of my girlfriends, and we LOVED it! The owner, Tony Gambino, greeted us at the door — he was very sweet and charismatic.
I ordered the chicken parmigiana with a side of fettuccine alfredo, and my friend ordered the chicken piccata. We also ordered two glasses of Chianti because «when in Rome…» Anyways, the food was spectacular. The portions were impressive, and the alfredo sauce was probably the best I’ve ever tasted. As a bonus, two Italian opera singers provided our section with a marvelously spontaneous two song performance.
Definitely coming back here! I would recommend this restaurant for an intimate date night or even a family get-​together. Will definitely be bringing my parents here when they come to visit me.

Great Italian restaurant in Little Italy! Went on a date night with my fiancé here a couple weeks back and had such a romantic lovely evening. The service was great. The fried calamari was delicious. We both got the Frutte de Mare, which was amazing. We couldn’t finish it all. Best leftovers I’ve had in a long time. Highly recommend. We did use a groupon deal.

Absolutely love Ciao Bella! My favorite is the Penne Carbonara! My husband loves the Frutti De Mare. Great Fried Calamari. The owner is usually there and checks on the table, which is nice. This is my favorite Italian Restaurant in Maryland. I always bring my Italian family here when they visit!

Had dinner with friends (party of 4) here several years ago… and boy, did we pig out. I started out with appetizers, then to the main course. I had the veal cutlet, and it was to die for!!! We went through two bottles of their house chianti, which was excellent. The owner even came out and chatted with us for several minutes, which I thought was a special touch… it won us over, as if the food wasn’t enough. Finished with dessert and coffee, and all said, the bill came close to $ 300, but no complaints from us. It was well worth it and then some. I highly recommend Ciao Bella if you’re ever in the B’mo Inner Harbor or Little Italy area. Even worth going out of your way.

There is just nothing to recommend this restaurant in our opinion.
First the Food… we tried the Veal Parmesan, the Lasagna and the Ravioli Marinara, as well as the Caesar salad to start. First off, both the Lasagna and the Veal had a red sauce that tasted like, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, Spaghetti-O’s! No Lie… SPAGHETTI-O’S!!! The Veal was over fried and looked grey… yuck! The Rav’s could’ve been from a box.
The Ambiance…1980’s run down and DIRTY, not to mention the smell… old basement… yuck!
The Service was adequate, but considering there was no one else in the restaurant (to be fair it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon) it wasn’t very friendly.
All in all, with so many other choices in Baltimore’s little Italy, we would avoid this one.

Second Trip Update:
So we went back to Ciao Bella and had a better experience. We went here on a Saturday night before going to The Four Seasons for a magic show. I love that I can walk from Little Italy to Harbor East. Makes going out for dinner and a show/​movie really easy.
The owner met us a the hostess stand and was very nice. He got us a table quickly (we actually sat at the same table as the first time). The food was as good as the first time However, I wasn’t a big fan of the creamy tomato soup. It had a very harsh cream flavor to it as if it they had just mixed marinara and cream. The entrée was delicious though. I had the spaghetti and meatballs. My only regret was not being able to take my left overs home with me. The service this time around was a lot better. She was very attentive the whole night and made us feel very welcome.
All in all, it was pretty decent the second time around. It didn’t exactly wow me (except for the meatballs!!), but I did enjoy my visit.

My favorite italian restaurant. Delicious FRESH fish (if you want to be healthy) and my favorite white clam sauce. Also highly recommend the house salad. The owner Tony Gambino is always there and treats everyone like family! The bar area is nice to grab a bite to eat and is a little more casual… or you can sit in the cozier middle dining room for a date night. Back room is also great for private parties as i have celebrated birthdays back there. The food is always delicious, you can tell the owner takes pride in his cuisine.

Do you ever go to update your review on Unilocal,and realize you didn’t write one in first place? Shame on me! I went here for the very first time last winter. It was a cold and snowy night and I sat at the bar because there were no tables available on a Saturday. The bartender was friendly and very helpful with finding us great things to try. We had clams casino which were great! I remember having the Chicken Milano and not being super crazy about the sauce. It was too thick and rather bland. Oh well…
Fast forward to this weekend, popped in here with a
deal for $ 25 (thank goodness), on a Sunday afternoon around 3:45. It was an off time and we were the ONLY people in the restaurant. Kind of funny but I enjoyed it. Figured it would fill up when the Raven’s game was over. Anyway, was told to try the sangria, so I did. It was great, not too strong but not too sweet and tons of fruit! Really good.
Our waitress was sweet and rattled off the specials. We tried the lamb meatballs — AWESOME. Great sauce I wanted to lick the plate. For dinner we had the meat tortellini — and asked if they had any rose sauces available. She came back and asked if we wanted them to make that, or a vodka sauce. Umm. obviously the vodka won that argument. We also ordered the Chicken piccata (learning from my mistake last time). I really really loved the chicken piccata. the sauce again was a little too thick but at least it was flavorful. Love the tang of the capers. I wish it had come with some vegetables I felt as though I was missing lots of green from my plate, oh well.
Too full for dessert but they did seem tempting. I really love this place. Cozy atmosphere and really friendly staff. It’s not overly pricey for Little Italy and there is also a more casual dress code which is nice if you were hitting up different areas of the city and want to stop in.

If loving this place is wrong, I don’t want to be right! Amazing amazing amazing food, the greatest sauce and an unbelievable staff. This reminds me of being at my grandmas but with better wine. Seriously, it’s that good! Tony the owner is at the door always ready to meet and greet and seat!

The food is awesome. And if that’s the only thing you’re looking for, go.
But if you care about hospitality, or if you’re considering bringing a group/​doing an event at Ciao Bella, read on.
We planned an event there, were promised the back private room, and Tony decided to pull that from us because he got the opportunity to host a bigger group.
Unfortunately, we had to really struggle to get him to agree to put us in a different, and only semi-​private space large enough for our group. If it had been left up to him, we would have been in that really small space between the front entrance and the main dining room on the right. And if my event coordinator hadn’t gone to the restaurant to meet him the day before the event, we wouldn’t have known about the switch till we showed up for dinner the next night. Not cool.
I can understand that he felt it was a good business decision for the restaurant, but I can’t bear the fact that he didn’t think it important to let us know about it at the time the decision was made, he felt ok about letting us walk into a situation that was going to be radically different than had been agreed to, and that he made us fight him for an appropriate second option once we found out.
He was also rude and snide to our photographer, and laughed at her when she tripped in the front entrance.
My overall opinion of him as a result? He’s a jerk, and deserves reviews like this one.
It was good that he stayed in the kitchen most of the night. And Herb and Nick took amaaaaaaazing care of us. They get my undying gratitude. And they should get Tony’s – they saved his bacon that night.

This was a huge disappointment for our first experience in Baltimore’s Little Italy: poor service and underwhelming food. We had a
gift certificate, otherwise we would have left within our first ten minutes of arriving. Short version? Not going back, period. Why? Keep reading.
When we first walked in, there was no one to greet us, and servers kept walking by without acknowledging us. We were there long enough that I walked into the dining room to try to flag someone, and noticed some servers running around, and about a half-​full restaurant. Finally, someone came over and asked us how many were in our party. He told us we could be seated in about 10 minutes, and that we were welcome to sit at the bar. The host also turned out to be the bartender, as well as food runner. This place is clearly understaffed if there is one person doing three people’s jobs.
We ordered cocktails, and immediately noticed that one of them had a bug floating it it. The bartender made a new drink as soon as he could (he was busy doing so many other things, that it took him more than a few minutes.) My drink was fine, but that just eeked me out so much that I didn’t order another drink.
While we were sitting at the bar, the bartender gave a drink to a man who appeared to be the owner, or at least the manager. The bartender wanted to seat us at a table, and the other party sitting there, but the owner/​manger said, «I don’t give a s***, don’t seat anyone.» Apparently the kitchen can’t handle a half-​full restaurant on a Friday night. But that’s really inappropriate to speak that way in front of customers, let alone be drinking while on the job.
The bartender knew we had overheard, and told us that he would seat us in a few minutes anyway and get us some bread, water, and another drink if we wanted. So at least someone here cares about this place and its customers. We were seated at a nice little table by the window, and as we watched, the people outside at the restaurant across the street clearly enjoying themselves, we regretted our choice even more.
When we were seated, our server was pretty slow to get us water and bread, but I’m guessing it may not have been his fault based on the conversation we overheard earlier between the bartender and the manager/​owner. When we overheard another disgruntled customer approach the bartender and say he had been waiting for two hours without food, we figured we should order a simple appetizer to tide us over while we waited for our meals. The bruschetta did come pretty quickly, but it was nothing special. I’m not a fan of packaged sprinkle cheese at restaurants — even the Olive Garden has freshly shredded Parm cheese.
My gnocchi was fine — too much sauce, and way overpriced (a reasonable portion, but no sides, veggies, salad or anything). My fiancée’s meal was bad though. Watery marinara sauce on top of overcooked linguine, served with «chlorine» tasting shrimp. «Chlorine» flavor was my fiancée’s description. We didn’t take home the leftovers.
Service, terrible. Food, yick. Definitely going elsewhere in Little Italy.

This place exudes old time Italian charm, and Tony is the master showman. He brings a slice of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra to everyone’s table. It is just like something out of the Sapranos, except no one is getting whacked. The atmosphere is matchless here, and this place is the perfect spot for a romantic dinner, family get-​together, or an amazing wedding reception. My friend had her rehearsal dinner here, and she said that Tony and the staff made her feel like a queen.
The only thing that could top the atmosphere at Ciao Bella is its authentic Italian cuisine. Delicious pasta in rich red gravy and mussels in cream sauce were the highlight of our evening; however, the meatballs in marinara sauce are just like Grandma used to make, providing your grandmother is or was culinary matriarch from somewhere in the heart of Italy. So, if you want to treat yourself to meal that is straight out of the Old Country, I’d stop by Ciao Bella today, foodies.