Ciao Baby

The food and service was outstanding. The burger was delicious and prepared perfectly. The restaurant has a great «at home feeling» ambiance. Nancy was really welcoming.

This is such a quaint and charming place in downtown Barrington. The chicken Parmesan is absolutely mouth-​watering delicious and the Ciao Baby! breadsticks are ooey gooey yummy! The service is always great as everyone who works there is very courteous and friendly. Prices are fair and I find the portion sizes to be huge! I’ll definitely be a regular patron of this wonderful establishment!

I had the Grouper and it was great. There deserts are awesome too. I can’t even describe how wonderful the carrot cake was.

I wanted to love this place. Wanted to give it 5 stars, but sadly I can only say that it is 3 stars; «A-​OK».
The ambiance is great. It is such a cute little place. Love the signs on the walls about where the food comes from. The server and all of the staff were fantastic. Super attentive and friendly. The prices are great too! Portions are huge.
I just wish that I loved the food more. I was so optimistic when we started… The warm bread and the olive oil with balsamic vinegar, fresh basil, garlic, crushed peppers… it was SO flavorful and delicious.
My husband and I shared a half order of the Umbriago salad. I wasn’t expecting it, but they brought out our portions separately which was nice. The ingredients were good and very filling but the salad lacked acidity. It needed more vinegar in the dressing. Perhaps shaved Parmesan instead of grated? A squeeze of lemon juice and some fresh cracked pepper would have helped. It was fine and very filling but needed a kick.
Next we shared the Goat Cheese Casserole. It was good, but the pesto toast pieces were too oily. I was surprised at all of the visible pine nuts on the toasts! Pine nuts are expensive and often not included in pesto at other restaurants.
For the entrée we shared the Chicken Spidini. I could only eat about three bites because it was so rich. Maybe we ordered wrong. I don’t know. I would have liked this dish more if it had a squeeze of lemon juice to cut the fatty flavors of the cream and cheese.
Even with sharing a half order of salad, an appetizer, and an entrée, we still took leftovers home. The portions are huge!
I really hope that Ciao Baby makes a few changes to make the food more memorable! Either that or I ordered wrong and need to give it another chance.

Ciao Baby is always top notch. Their food is some of the best in the area, always fresh and delicious, and the atmosphere is perfect. A real gem in downtown Barrington.
And to those here who have given them low marks because it’s always busy (explain how that warrants low scores, exactly?) would you prefer that the food not be so delicious so it facilitates you’re getting a table right away?
Ciao Baby. Always worth the wait!

Ciao Baby has outstanding food and holds a nice place in the downtown Barrington dining scene. However, they need to up the ante on their level of customer service. My experience here last Saturday left my entire family feeling rather sour.
I came here with my family to celebrate my parents’ 57^th and 58^th birthdays. My dad had called and made a reservation on Tuesday. However, when we arrived and announced our reservation, the young hostess looked around, mildly confused, and said «Um, all our tables are full, it’ll be about a 20 – 30 minute wait.» She didn’t reference any reservation book to confirm our arrival or check us in.
At this point an older hostess /​manager came over and outlined the same 20 – 30 minute wait for us. When I again asked «But we made a reservation???», instead of elegantly apologizing and offering us drinks on the house or something, she insisted that whenever SHE dines out with a reservation, she ALWAYS has to wait.
Clearly they had sat walk-​ins, when they should have reserved a table for the party they took a reservation for. It’s one thing if you don’t take reservations, but don’t take a reservation and not keep it!
In customer service, when there’s a messy situation, it is the business’s duty to remedy the situation as elegantly as possible. Ciao Baby does not have a bar to wait at, nor a waiting area, nor any buzzer system, so we would have had to simply stand on the street for 30 minutes. No thanks. We walked over to Francesca’s, explained what happened, and were seated right away, with far more sincere apologies from their hosts than we got from Ciao Baby.

What a cute Italian restaurant located right in downtown Barrington! Ciao Baby is a gem of a restaurant, and the fact that this place was packed on a Thursday night must mean that I’m not the only one who thinks so.
Complementary bread with their balsamic and olive oil dip was delicious and authentic. Very chopped salad– per Unilocal reviews– was also an excellent pick. The candied nuts were a nice touch to add sweetness to the salad. Especially with the tasty mango chutney dressing, the full size split between 2 girls was a delicious but refreshing and light meal.
Wine list is great, and prices are reasonable for an Italian restaurant. Service was excellent– more than one waiter were making sure our visit was superb. Ambience is not too romantic but a great family place or meetup with a friend type place. Would love to come back to this restaurant!

Solid, solid as a rock. Love the chicken parm. Good prices, actually amazing for b-​town. Might be one of the gems in this town that many just kind of forget is there