Chiesa

Ate there last night w/​5 other folk. Place was busy @ 7pm (rec. reservations) service warm & efficient. Nice selection on menu. I had the chicken marsala over home-​made angel hair, really good. This place is definitely worth a shot. Owner greats all warmly and is really sincere to know if all goes well!

This restaurant is the BEST! We had the veal and mushroom ravioli which we both agreed was one of the top 5 things we have ever eaten. Relaxed and easy to get into. They have an expert Italian wine selection with a wide and reasonable price range. Staff was amazing. Will return!!!

We dined at Chiesa for the first time recently. It is a great addition to the very good restaurants in Asheville. The homemade ravioli was as good as I have had! The menu has a daily pasta, made on site; red tomato gravy (which I have seen only one place previously) that looks great; and several «Piatti del giorno» that seems to me to always include a nice vegetarian entrée. The wine list is great and is well represented with Italian wines. There are several well-​selected beers from the abundant amazingly good local breweries.
The setting (a former classically built church (that does not now look like a church on the inside) in a 100 yr old historic neighborhood (Montford) is very nifty. The inside has a crisp, warm, professional feel. A number of paintings are hung on the walls; cabinets at the edge of the dining area are real wood with a warm feel. All of this works to give the room an elegant, but casual feel.
There is a great bar which is ideal for drinking and/​or for dining. The waitron that served us was engaging, knowledgeable, always there when we needed her and not there when we did not need her. The owner is a very engaging guy who seems committed to continuing to build a great restaurant.
This restaurant has quickly become one of our favorites. This restaurant is a gem.

A cool location and remodeled historic building, in a historic neighborhood on the edge of downtown. Has a neighborhood feel, not extensive waiting, take reservations. The owner and staff were amazing and welcoming. The food was excellent especially for the price. Not crazy expensive, most dishes under $ 20. Just a very fun, casual, outstanding experience!

I wouldn’t have thought that Chiesa was a likely candidate for my fourth five star restaurant review… But our dinner last Saturday was simply outstanding.
(I’ve written 80 plus restaurant reviews and I reserve five stars for only really special experiences and/​or places that do «their thing» exceptionally well.)
We made an 8:15 reservation and we showed up a bit early, but we were seated immediately. The gentleman who seated us also served our table and the service — from start to finish — was just terrific. Friendly, informative and helpful, but not intrusive. As others have suggested, the atmosphere at Chiesa is wonderful. It feels warm and welcoming. It has soft lighting, but you don’t need to get your iPhone out to read the menu.
The star of the show at Chiesa, however, is the food. This is simple, fresh, and very, very tasty Italian comfort food. The menu is fairly limited, but I suspect that has to do with the fact that they want everything they serve to taste great. I applaud them for not offering every single Italian dish that you might think of ordering. There is still plenty to choose from, and from what we sampled it is all prepared thoughtfully and with a great deal of care.
We ordered the brussels sprouts and the mussels for starters. (Your table will receive bread and olive oil shortly after you are seated, so you don’t have to spend money on starters. I’d encourage you to order at least one appetizer, though.) The sprouts were terrific. My wife and I both love b. sprouts, and we found ourselves thinking the same thing about this dish — it was different than any other b. sprouts dish we’ve ever had. While we both love the roasted sprouts that appear on so many menus in 2015, this preparation was quite different. The sprouts came in a light sauce and they’d been cooked so that they were tender but not soft. Delicious. I’m not a mussels connoisseur, but my wife orders them all the time… and she thought these were excellent.
The main dishes were the highlight of the evening, though. I ordered the homemade ravioli (all of their pasta is made in house) with the meat «gravy» (red sauce). The spinach ricotta ravioli are great, but the gravy is absolutely exceptional. It is bursting with fresh ingredients, and the taste from each individual ingredient really shines through. As much as I loved my ravioli, my wife’s eggplant parmesan was the best dish of the evening. It was the best eggplant I’ve had. Period. The eggplant was cooked perfectly (tender but not mushy or tough), and it had just the right amount of breading. Plus, the eggplant was cut in circles (horizontal cuts instead of lengthwise) which made the dish perfect for sharing. We will be returning to Chiesa as soon as we can just so that we can get another order of the eggplant.
We ordered a bottle of wine with dinner. Neither of us know much about Italian reds, so we asked for recommendations. The Sardinian red our server suggested was perfect. It was tasty, something new for us to try, and very reasonably priced. The wine list is fairly small, but it is presented in the most clever way: Each wine is listed near a map of Italy so that you know where the grapes for your wine were grown.
We finished off the evening with dessert. We split the tiramisu. It was a very manageable portion — perfect for two people to share if they are already full — and it is priced very reasonably.
This isn’t the best Italian food I’ve had (though it is really, really good). That’s not why I’m giving Chiesa five stars. It gets five stars because it is great at what it is trying to do: It wants to be your local Italian restaurant that gives you great food at a great price. If we lived in Asheville full time we’d eat there three or four times a month. Chiesa provides great «bang for the buck» and it is a terrific addition to the amazing restaurant scene in Asheville. It’s even nicer that it is a bit outside of downtown on beautiful Montford Avenue. Finally, as an added bonus and a nod to the restaurant’s roots (it was a church — chiesa), the owners have a «poor box» from which donations are given to a local charity. (I believe the charity changes on a monthly basis.)

It took me a year to finally make it to this «new» Italian restaurant, and now I am sorry it took this long! Chiesa is located in a beautiful refurbished building that formally housed a piggly wiggly and then a church. The name «Chiesa» is Italian for church and the menu is cleverly worded offerings (main courses) and amen (desserts). We ate there last night with some friends who have a small infant, and the staff was more than accommodating. Service was excellent– our server brought out some wine tastings when we could not make up our mind. I had the orecchiette with roasted chicken. My husband had the veal ravioli. All of the pastas are made in house and the sauces were delicious. The menu is small, but intentional and executed very well. Montford is lucky to have this delicious addition to their side of town. We will be back!

The service was friendly and excellent. The waitress helped explain the specials as it was out of view from our seating location. Not your typical italian restuarant with the basics or Americanized entrees. It was… different. The frutti di mare was very flavourful and contained a very good amount of seafood and homemade pasta. I thought the fish was cooked just a minute too long but was still good. The ravioli were the perfect portions and just simply delicious. A small menu but with good options for entrees and salad/​soup, I did not really want to try any of the appetizers though.

Robert, the owner opened his restaurant one year ago this past October. The building was a church & is over 100 years old. Exceptional food, service & Robert greets all. Friendly staff.

Had dinner here with 3 friends at 8pm on a Sunday night. Restaurant was cozy and inviting, and full despite the ‘off hours’ dining time. Service was prompt and attentive, and waitress spent time explaining all of their unique dishes. Only downer was they were out of seafood for the tutti mare dish, but there was plenty left to chose from. I had the sausage and red sauce over angel hair. Very good, but not as good as my wife’s veal and mushroom ravioli. All the pasta was home made and excellent — rest of the meal was fresh and flavorful. I had the bread pudding for dessert which other Unilocalers raved about — it was good but nothing unusual. I’m a bit spoiled as my wife makes great bread pudding and this did not compare well to hers. Overall however it was an excellent meal for a reasonable price. I will return next time I’m in Asheville!

Excellent choice for a great Italian meal. We were greeted quickly and seated upon arrival. The owner was very attentive and observant the entire time we were there. Our server was fantastic as she had a great knowledge of the menu and had everything to us promptly.
For the meal, I had the bisque and the ahi tuna entrée. The flavor was perfect and the preparation and presentation also very good. My wife had a pasta dish with a bolognese and found it to be excellent.
The menu pricing is a good value. We highly recommend Chiesa.

This little neighborhood restaurant was just fantastic!
I was staying in Montford for a long weekend and this was recommended to me by a friend. I showed up at 8p on a Friday night without reservations and the place was packed! However, the owner, Melissa, was incredibly welcoming and found a spot for me on the patio.
The food was delicious! Handmade pasta is hard to find. In fact, coming from the father of Italian immigrants, I rarely eat Italian in a restaurant, but I was not disappointed! I got the carrot, raisin and walnut ravioli’s in a butter sauce. They were well made and the flavor was well-​balanced. They paired nicely with the wine I chose (of which they had a great selection of Italian wines). In fact, it was so good, that I ordered a second meal to take home and have for lunch the next day!
The staff at Chisea made you feel like family. Ian was friendly and incredibly helpful and accommodating. Despite the fact that I was downstairs and outside and it was busy, he happily made multiple trips in and up to the kitchen to get me tastes of wine. He made great recommendations and really made me feel at home. Melissa came by to check on my and stopped and spent quite a while chatting with me… again, really made me feel like family. She explained that she and her husband had specifically picked this location over some of the downtown choice b/​c the relationship with their customers was so important to them. This was very clearly felt!
If you want to know what it feels like to eat in a small Italian village restaurant (of which I’ve done many times), visit Chisea!

Wow, the first word that comes to mind after dining at this wonderful little Italian restaurant. The word is WOW!
We decided to stop in here after just searching restaurants on Unilocal the night before. We realized we should get there early since Unilocal said they open at 5pm and close @ 9pm. Unilocal was wrong and said it closes then but actually closes at 10pm. And lastly, we didn’t want the pressure of a reservation. We decided to beat the crowd and sit at the bar. Just so you know the bar is very small, and only has 4 bar seats. Seriously, if you indeed are up for it, make sure to get there early. MAKE A RESERVATION.
We weren’t sure if we were going to stick around for long or just try a few things. So we decided to start w/​a glass of brut rosè(me), & a beer (him). We then decided to order the orecchiette in a delicious basil cream sauce. It was really good almost like a basil macaroni & cheese. YUM! All their pasta is made in house. It’s so hard to find restaurants that make their own pastas, that my boyfriend & I usually try and seek them out. We found a winner!
The last thing we decided to grub on, recommended by Robert (the owner), was the blueberry bread pudding. Holy crap, it was like blueberry French toast. Amazing. Breakfast as dessert … Very smart!
The owner, Robert was exceptionally nice. We (boyfriend & I) both worked in restaurants for many years and if I went to work at another one I would hope that the owner was as considerate and genuinely nice as this man was to us. His hospitality made our experience pretty amazing. He explained that he & his wife had moved here from Baltimore, this was his first restaurant, that in October they will have been open for a year, and that the restaurant itself used to be a church which is the name of the restaurant in Italian, «Chiesa.» Believe me it definitely looks like a church from the outside, in a mainly residential area, I would not know this place was a restaurant unless I saw a picture or had been here before. The interior is cute and open but I don’t picture a church. Last thing it’s only wine & beer. So get your liquor fix before!
Our server/​bartender McKenzie was really great too. All of the staff at this restaurant were all great. They all cared about each other because they always share tips. They make it a family environment, they also have family meals before a shift which I thought was pretty cool too. So now after I tell you how amazing our experience has been, you’re thinking surely something has to go wrong?! Welp Unilocal,that’s where you’re wrong. This place was hands down a 5-​star experience. I felt warm and fuzzy being here, and the lighting was just right. COMFORTABLE. This place is great for anyone looking for homemade pasta dishes. Comfort and Happy are my final words from this place.
I’m a big fan and will definitely be back to this place next time I’m in Asheville. If you live in Asheville, you must come try this place if you like Italian food. Highly recommended, so get out here and give it a try. Hope this helps!
Cheers & Enjoy!

Can’t say I was impressed. First off I’d you are an Italian restaurant, you need to know how to cook pasta. They need some work.
The mushroom appetizer was really pedestrian and over salted. The mozzarella balls with pesto was quite good. The pesto tasted fresh and had a good balance of nuts with the basil. The best thing I tasted.
I had the «red» meat sauce over angel hair. The sauce was definitely made from scratch. It was good, but certainly not the best I have ever had. The angel hair was like mush. It was so bad there was actually a clump of pasta stuck together in the center the size of a large walnut. I couldn’t eat it. I hate sending food back, but had no choice since I couldn’t eat it. The apologized and brought another serving. It was almost done al dente, close enough. The should switch to penne or rigatoni. There is more room for error.
I tasted some of the ravioli others had and they were ok.
Too many other good choices in Asheville.

I am so in love with this place! My boyfriend and I were in town for the Asheville 10k the next morning and we wanted to load up on some carbs the night before. Our waiter was great! He offered house specialities and was very attentive throughout our dining experience.
We started off with the brown butter brussels sprouts and they were full of so many flavors! We also had the dill gazpacho, ahh so so good! The watermelon pieces (don’t be afraid) was a nice addition to the soup.
I had the house made Fettucini with house made red tomato gravy with beef. The sauce reminded me of a bolganses sauce, full of veggies and meat. The portion size was large and shareable.
We should not have, but we did. had dessert! They get it from the local bakery and our waiter worked with us (because we just couldn’t decide) :) and gave us a little of the ultimate pistachio ice cream and the blueberry crumble with marscapone whipped cream. It was so fresh and delicious!
The owner came over and spoke with us twice. She was so sweet. We learned how Chiesa was started and where some of the recipes came from.

Went to Chiesa a new place. Spectacular! Homemade pasta, lovely wine list, sat outside with my dads dog. Great service. I just can’t say enough good! Elegant enough for date night but they are VERY accepting of casual, especially early. The owner Robert and his wife are there making the red sauce and checking on everyone. Happy happy discovery!

I’m always optimistic when I’m trying a new place, and I was not disappointed! Every aspect of my dining experience was on point! The service was perfect, the food was great, and the atmosphere – adorable.
We came on a Sunday night maybe an hour and a half before closing time. There were only one or two other groups inside, and they were well into their meals. We were greeted immediately and given our choice of seating since they weren’t crowded. Our server was with us within a few seconds to take our drink order. He was very nice and efficient, but made us feel like there was no rush at all. We took our time with the menu, and made selections with our servers advice.
The menu does change each day and the ravioli I had was new to the menu. And I sure hope it sticks around! Crab and shrimp stuffed ravioli in an old bay cream sauce. Uniquely delicious!
The owner (I assumed) of the restaurant was there to check on us as well. She made recommendations on dessert and we enjoyed every bite. She was polite and eager to speak with us, something you don’t get often!
I loved the location as well. The restaurant is small and charming. The building is an old church and they even use church pews for seating. It has a really homey feel; the atmosphere is inviting and comfortable.
We will definitely be returning to enjoy some other dishes!

The restaurant is beautiful and comfortable, great atmosphere, staffs are really friendly and nice.
We have ordered the spinach Parmesan dip, and it was terrific! The sauce is creamy, with a hint of garlic taste, and the spinach… Mmm… You can tell is fresh! It’s one of the best spinach dip I have ever had!
They also provide bread and olive oil dip with a few drop of balsamic vinegar, the bread taste good and fresh :)
We ordered the angel hair with vegetable medley and shrimp in creamy sauce, and a spinach ravioli with tomato beef sauce. Both ravioli and angel hair are made fresh that day according to our waiter — AJ, he is really good, with great recommendations and excellent serivce.
The ravioli is pretty good, spinach is great, and they seriously have the best tomato sauce!
The angel hair pasta however, in my opinion, is slightly overcooked, some of the pasta kinda melt in a big piece together, the shrimps was delicious, I was a bit disappointed to see the veggie medley is some little green beans and little pieces of carrot, I was expecting fresh broccoli or zucchini or something, I guess I misinterpreted it. Anyways, it taste good! ;) I can eat it again :)

This is a beautifully renovated place, and the staff are warm and friendly and down-​to-​earth. We weren’t in there when it was crowded, so no «noise» like others complained about.
Such a shame about the food. Not sure who is running this place but must be a «beginner». The main thing being the pasta is over cooked and the food flavors are mediocre… I’m not sure how someone who is Italian and «makes fresh pasta daily» could not know how to cook pasta. It has the feel of sitting in the pot waiting for the orders, type thing. I don’t believe they realize they need to «cook to order» or what «al dente» means. In addition, the zucchini in the chicken breast was pure mush, and the peppers in the sausage and peppers were pure mush too. I think these people are cooking dinner ahead of time, and then letting it «sit» while the diners arrive. Then it just cooks, and cooks, and cooks …
The one desert we shared, lemon panna cotta with chocolate «drizzle» on top, was old, ie, they didn’t make it that day, but probably it was about 3 days old. Chocolate sauce on top stiff, like when it sits in the fridge for awhile or without a cover… panna cotta tasted flat and just… not fresh.
Its a confusing place to be, as its quite lovely, whoever created the set up did a great job and put in a lot of hard work renovating it. But the food is like diner food. Its all very strange.
The basil salad dressing tasted fresh and was nice. The chicken itself was cooked nice as well. Not sure what’s going on over there, but someone hasn’t a clue… its very sad.

This was our first visit, and we loved this place! It has a warm ambience, with original artwork on the walls, a pleasant bar, and tables with both chairs and banquette seating.
We were greeted by Robert, who owns the place along with his wife, Melissa. Most of the recipes are from her grandmother, and although the menu was small, everything we had was really good.
We started off with the Pancetta Crisps — slices Rolf pair topped with pancetta, creamy goat cheese, and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. They were sweet, savory and very refreshing. After that, Ben and I shared a house salad with the basil vinaigrette (terrific dressing) and the Faithful Companion had a bowl of the Potato Leek Corn Chowder — lovely. Ben and I both ordered the Red Tomato Gravy with Hickory Nut Gap beef (essentially Bolognese sauce) over homemade Fettuccine. The pasta was light, and the sauce was rich and hearty — a little sweeter than I would prefer but very tasty. The Companion ordered the Not Your Mama’s Shrimp Pot Pie which was more of a casserole with a saltine crust — it was beautifully seasoned. For dessert, Ben and I shared the Pear Bread Pudding with Bourbon sauce. It was lightly scented with lavender and was sublime.
Our server, Emma, was really on top of things — knowledgeable and with personality plus. And Robert checked by periodically to see how we were enjoying our meal.
There were a number of other dishes that I would have love to have tried such as the Fettuccine with Sweet Italian Sausage and Roasted Peppers or the Chicken Dijon Stew with Kale and Potatoes — or the Marsala Sauce with Mushrooms — and the Panna Cotta, to name just a few.
I should add that Chiesa has a very nice wine and beer selection, including some sparklers and some dessert wines as well.
Great homey spot — we’ll definitely be back!

Went to Chiesa on recommendation from bartender @ Hotel Indigo (BEST hotel EVER!!)
In a renovated church, nicely decorated, just a bit out of the downtown area, walking distance.
Although the menu was a bit on the sparse side (minimal offerings for main dishes particularly), the service was prompt, and attentive. My dining companion had the soup, which he said was lovely, and the house salad was good, but the Basil dressing was unusual, and wonderful.
The house made pasta was delicious. I’m VERY particular about my Italian food, being of that heritage, but found their red sauce (or gravy as they call it) with beef extremely good, with a nice balance of sauce to meat. Contrary to previous reviewer, the parm cheese was fresh grated (an adjustment after opening?).
We had the bread pudding for dessert and it was to DIE FOR. I usually don’t eat it but took a chance and it was just yummy.
I would have given 4 stars, but the noise level when full was abysmal. The owner (who came to check on every single table) assured us that he was in the process of having rugs and acoustic dampening panels installed.
I’d go back in a heartbeat, and considering I just moved to Asheville, will plan on a second trip in the next few weeks.