Just Life: Ciao Bello

4-25-10

To celebrate Erica's birthday, I decided to take her to Ciao Bello. I heard of this restuarant from a friend of mine on facebook who also loves to try different restaurants and take pictures of them. When you walk in there, the hostess will ask you if you want to sit outside or inside. At first I said inside because I thought outside was sitting outside on the patio or something but I looked over and saw that the outside was covered and it was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me of a fancy green house.

We decided to order the Calamari Piccanti to start the meal and had ordered a bottle of white wine, which was light and sweet. Erica ordered the Risotto del Giorno and I ordered a dish (I cannot remember the name of the dish) that had calamari, shrimp, tomatoes, pesto sauce and linguine pasta. Then we ordered the Potatoes Arrostiti and we finished off the dinner with Assorted Gelati (pistachio, orange and raspberry flavors).

While waiting for our dishes to arrive, they gave us chips to dip in the olive oil dip. This was different since I usually have bread instead. After awhile the waiter came out with a basket full of different types of bread. Then a waiter comes by with a huge barrel of Parmigiano-Reggiano and asked if we wanted some. Of course! The cheese was absolutely delicious. Definitely was a great topping to our entrees too. The calamari came out and it was perfectly fried and the calamari was fresh. It was not tough to chew so that was a major plus. Then came the entrees. Everything was just delicious---the flavoring and everything were all blended so well. Finally the Potatoes Arrostiti came and my goodness, who can resist the taste of truffled potatoes?! Even though we were stuffed, we had to end the dinner with a dessert. We decided to just go for something light.

Overall dinner for the night was excellent. The waiters and servants were very attentive.