Ciao Chicago

Message on their web site states they are TEMPORARILY CLOSED awaiting their liquor license, and are doing some remodeling, etc etc. Phone disconnected.
Hmmm, with a poor rating averaging two stars (5 out of 8 reviews were 1 and 2 stars) is it possible another business has bit the dust at this location?

Don’t waste your time. These people have no clue what real pizza is.

I’m from Chicago and have been looking for a good stuffed Chicago-​style pizza place for years. Their stuffed pizza was as close to a stuffed pizza from Chicago as I’ve found in the Dallas area! Of course, it takes 30+ minutes to cook, so expect to wait a while if you don’t call ahead. But that’s just how long it takes to cook a good stuffed pizza. We will definitely be back!

I really wanted to like Ciao Chicago after driving by it for months wondering if it would ever open. Now it’s been open a month and a half, but not much to draw attention to that fact (how about a NOW OPEN banner?).
6:00pm on a Sunday and the place is nearly empty. No more than two other tables the whole time we were there, but maybe it picks up later in the evening.
Since it is a fairly new restaurant, having some kinks to work out is understandable, but WOW they REALLY need to get some training for the waitstaff. Everyone was very friendly but it seems no one working this evening had any previous experience or training. Everyone has to learn somewhere, no problem with that, but if that’s the case they need much supervision. There was no evidence of management in the house during our visit. They may have been there, but again, no evidence.
Full bar setup was on display behind the glass next to our table, but was informed of lack of liquor license when we tried to order a glass of wine. They offered a comp sangria or light beer — our choice. Guess the choice of the room temp light beer was the wrong one.
Probably should have taken the recommendation of the waitstaff to order a pizza but that wasn’t what I wanted so I ordered the chicken parmigiana. The food came out quickly, even before finishing the salad (no complaint there). Flavors were good too, though fairly small piece of chicken and gobs of pasta. Marinara was to my liking. But I’ve never had a dish like this served in a bowl! The chicken was laying on top of the mound of pasta, which made it difficult to cut the chicken either with a fork or knife, as it sunk into the pasta pile. So I dumped the whole thing onto a plate that had been sitting in front of me since I got there (not sure why it was there). Waitress said the owner wanted it served that way in the bowl, which makes me wonder how much QC is going on.
The waitress was very friendly, good smile, and tried very hard. Sometimes too hard though. Needs to learn how to be within eyesight in case guests need something. She was either at the table or out of sight for extended periods. Training!!! Not her fault.
As stated, I really wanted to like Ciao Chicago so will likely go back to give it a second chance. If they can’t work out the kinks quickly, the future is not bright for them with so much competition in Addison. Come on, CC – get it together and be a huge success!

A few co-​workers and I tried this restaurant on 5÷20÷2011 to celebrate our anniversary with our company. We had all spent 2 weeks together in Chicago for our new hire training so we thought this would be a good place to celebrate. I had forgotten how long it takes to bake a Chicago style pizza (35 – 45 minutes) but the wait was well worth it. The pizza was almost as good as the multiple places we tried while in Chicago and definitely authentic. The sauce was delicious and did not taste like it was frozen as a previous review said. The ingredients were all fresh and obviously high quality. Honestly, this is the best Chicago style pizza I have had outside of Chicago.
I asked the waitress if we could call ahead and order our pizza next time so that it would be almost ready when we arrived and she said yes. Definitely take advantage of this if you don’t have time for a long lunch.
The service was good. Our waitress was extremely polite and made sure to update us on the progress of our pizzas.
We ordered garlic cheese bread while we waited… pass on that. There was not even a hint of garlic but that’sw an easy fix for the kitchen to make.
I felt the prices were very reasonable. In Chicago the pizzas actually cost much more. At Ciao Chicago a medium pizza is $ 17 but it is so big and thick that it will easily feed 3 – 4 people so the price per person is not bad at all.
They do have some kinks to work out, but they just opened so that is to be expected. My co-​workers and I all agreed that we would be making this a regular spot for our lunch outings. Give this place a try and make sure to allow time for the deep dish («stuffed») pizza to cook. You won’t be sorry.

GROSS-WORST-TERRIBLE!the food like the service was terrible. the sauce for the pizza was obviously frozen. it was not real deep dish from Chicago by any means. it was thin crust with high sides and frozen toppings. the spaghetti was mushy the marinara was to salty and there was a puddle of water at the bottom of my plate. i don’t think the owners have ever been to Chicago and they are defiantly not Italian. if you want good Italian food go to the other 20 pizza places on beltline. avoid this like the plague!!!
REVIEW BY JG

Pizza was fantastic as well as the mushroom appetizer. Unfortunately the service was pretty terrible and our order got messed up, however they redeemed themselves by giving us a free pizza! Hopefully they can work on improving their service but the food really is good. Spoken from a true Chicagoan!

We experienced extremely slow service, especially for lunch — waiter disappeared for 20 – 30 minutes at a time. They could improve their lunch menu by offering personal deep dish pizzas instead of multi-​serving ones (since larger pizzas obviously take longer to cook).
Regardless of the service, I was not very impressed with the restaurant’s feeble attempt at deep dish. Sure, the place recently opened and I expect some kinks — but when you market yourself as a Chicago pizza place, you should probably have your technique/​recipe optimized before you open. The best way to describe this «deep dish» would be a thin crust pizza stuffed into a deep dish pan in order to create high sides — definitely NOT EQUIVALENT to Chicago deep dish. I’m from Chicago, so I’m a little bit of a pizza snob, but even people not from Chicago were not impressed.

Okay so there are definitely some kinks that need to be worked out on the service during lunch. For now I am going to chalk this up to the fact that the business has been open less than 2 weeks.
I did not try the pizza so I cannot comment on the fact they are supposed to be Chicago deep dish. I had the lunch spaghetti. The portion was huge!!! Be prepared to save this for later. I really, really enjoyed my pasta. It tasted like something homemade and not out of a frozen bag. The salad was mostly iceberg lettuce with a couple of very tiny slices of tomato. They could improve on the salad for sure but it came with the pasta dish and all together for getting 2 meals out of the lunch it was well worth the $ 8.45 price.
Their menu is pretty extensive. They offer calamari, chicken tenders, breaded mushrooms, chicken wings, and bruschetta amongst other stuff for their appetizers. They have various assortments of salads like caprese and ceasar. Their pasta dishes are the typical Italian fare like spaghetti, lasagna, fettuccini or veal parmigiano. I want to come back and sample some of their Pide offerings as they have a variety of those to choose from. They even have Italian sandwiches like Italian Beef or Sausage or Eggplant. And of course they have deep dish pizza.
The prices are very fair. Sandwiches are less than $ 10 and come with fries and soup (or salad). All the pasta dishes are around $ 10. The pizza can be ordered as thin crust, deep dish or «famous stuffed pizza» and come in sizes 10″, 12″, 14″ or 16″ in price ranges from $ 9.25 for a basic cheese thin crust up to $ 19.25 for a 14″ basic cheese stuffed pizza.
If you decide to order the pizza note like most deep dish pizza places it takes time to cook. You should allow at least 20 – 30 minutes for cooking of the pizza.
I think this place is worth checking out.