Ciao Bello

The word, too salty! That’s all I tasted for any of the food I had. The meatballs, pizza — ok. I was hoping this new place would be different. I can’t remember anything else, but the salt content.

Went here on Monday for my 2 year anniversary with my BF. First time either of us was there. It was empty for us which made it nice quiet we could enjoy each other’s company. First complaint was the salad price. 4.50 for a salad which I don’t consider to be small just not worth the price. I got ravioli and my BF got chicken parm. Both was great prices were average to most other Italian places that I been in. Workers was very pleasant which gives them 2 thumbs up from me. The end the guy gave the wrong bill to us the second time charged more to us for someone else’s bill about $ 11 more he changed it to our price then gave us free appetizer for the mistake he made for next time. Not sure when we be back since it was around $ 45 for two, but I highly recommend trying the place out. The place looks really nice on the inside it’s definitely a romantic setting to me in my eyes

This was the best dining experience I’ve had in a long time. The service was excellent. Our waiter Ray was attentive without being intrusive. The food was absolutely incredible. I’ll definitely be going back.

I love their mussels, cavatelli & broccoli, and spring rolls. They are always within the timeframe for deliveries.

My wife and I had dinner there for the 1^st time last night. Ray was our waiter and he was fantastic. The balsamic calamari was melt in your mouth delicious, the veal parmigiana and eggplant rollatini was outstanding. Dessert was Apple pie with ice-​cream and cappuccino. The restaurant is a byob with a liquor store 3 blocks away. I would highly recommend this place for dining out and we will definitely be returning!!!

Great meal! Split a salad– can’t imagine getting a full one myself it was so large. Baby green, mango, pomegranate goat cheese in a balsamic vinaigrette– so delicious. It was so hard to choose an entrée but I had a delicious chicken with peppers, eggplant and mushrooms in a wine reduction. Portion very generous– brought home half my meal.
Desserts were delicious-​we ordered a few and shared. Tiramisu was very good and the chocolate desserts decadent.
Staff was very attentive. Looking forward to my next meal there.

good restaurant
good staff
good location
good lunch
good dinner
good customer services
food is delicious

I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone. The food is great and the price is reasonable, you get a lot of food for your money as well;the portions are a nice size. Very clean place and everyone that works there is very attentive and professional. Thumbs up

Fantastic new BYOB place in town.
Menu has normal Italian fare. From the soups & salads to apps and entrees to dessert, everything was delicious for our party of 3. While it can get quite busy & loud on weekends, the staff is pleasant and the atmosphere is low key.
Perfect for a date night or a nice local spot to dine with family and friends…

A must do! New restaurant in the Cranford area but great service, great food and a BYOB. Food was excellent. I will definitely be back.

Wonderful dining experience. Quiet Italian place. Went for an early dinner and had the ravioli with parmesan cream sauce. Food was great. Service was kind and attentive but not overbearing. Highly recommended! special thanks to chef benny

We read the previous reviews and were nervous to come, but we are happy to report it was excellent. Our waitress was attentive and friendly. Our food was delicious. Swordfish delicious. Gnocchi was very good. Seafood salad was excellent. The antipasto plentiful and amazing. My daughter loved the white pizza. I loved the pasta special.
I highly recommend it.

Great food experience. I strongly recommend Italian food lover. Sea food, desert were best. You should try here and write your feel…

Please don’t ruin the Italian food. Did u never been in Italy? In Italy doesn’t exist ‘penna alla vodka’ or Oreganatto ecc…
Please don’t ruin the best food in the world

Went here on the Saturday after Thanksgiving I was visiting family from Boston. We ordered the Balsamic Calamari, Iceberg Wedge, Stuffed Mushroom, and Beat and goat cheese tower. All were great. I had a a special seafood pasta in a garlic cream sauce that was on the special list. It was dope. The other members had the veal parm, eggplant parm, and crab cakes for dinner. They all had very good reviews. The BYOB was nice because it saved us easily $ 60 for the 6 glasses of wine we had. However if you’re looking for a mixed drink or something on draft you won’t find it here. Keep in mind that the appetizers are the size of entrees so order them to share and you’ll have more room for your actual meal. Good food, I would be coming back as a regular if I lived near by.

Very nice Italian Restaraunt just opened in cranford neighborhood. We ordered steamed mussel in Mariana sauce, it was soon delicious! The mussels are fresh and juicy, the Mariana sauce is so yummy and well balanced the sweet and sour flavor, they also added a little bit minced basil to give it a little bit spice.
We also ordered the arugula salad with dried cranberry, mango and roasted almond, which, I think the dressing could add a little more lemon/​lime juice to balance the sweetness from dried cranberry. But the salad is delicious too.
We definitely will come back and really happy that Cranford has a decent Italian restaurant in the neighborhood

We have ordered in twice and tonight sat outside for dinner with family. The food has been fantastic. I’m always concerned with delivery as sometimes food doesn’t always travel well but there’s does.
We have had the eggplant sorrentino several time and the portions were plentiful. Tonight I had the chicken ciao bello and it was spot on. Loved it. Even my 1 year old loved her ravioli.
The staff is very friendly. My one critique would be the attentiveness of our waitress. She did a nice job and didn’t make any errors, but I think she may have had too many tables to cover at once. Not her fault but just my thoughts.
Anyway, Ciao Bello may have just become our go to Italian spot in town. Hopefully they keep up the good work.

I’m going to give it four, but it’s really a 3.5, but it’s new, so I’ll give it the benefit. The appetizers are too big– I had the beet tower, and it was huge, great, but ginormous. Service is really friendly and attentive. The chicken entrées were excellent, we had chicken ‘benni, and the chicken funghi – juicy and different. We also had a fussili entrée that was quite good, too. We’ll be back!

I will note I never got to eat the food but figured I should share my experience.
We waited about an hour for a table outside and were hoping for a great experience at a new place.
We happened to run into friends who had already ate and they informed us that they had waited over an hour for their food but that despite their food not being what they actually ordered, it was pretty good.
Once we sat down after a few minutes a waitress came by and opened our wine and I also requested real sized wine glasses which the waitress informed me she didnt think they had as they were all dirty but would go and check.
At this point the show really started. The table next to use was comprised of a small child maybe 4 or 5 and 3 women. In the 30+ minutes we waited outside the restaurant we had not even noticed them but they were the focus of what happened next.
They were just beginning to eat their food when an employee came to the table and just blurted out «you need to leave» and in response the table asked understandably wait what? And she repeated that the owner no longer wanted them there.
They left without incident but I have to say I have never seen anything like this before. I cant imagine this type of response is ever necessary and certainly shouldnt be handled in this fashion. I would of hoped the owner would handle something like this personally if that were his/​her desire.
To top it all off the police had even been called! I just couldnt believe what I was seeing. It seemed like everything blew over without major incident but this all seemed terribly uncalled for.
Afer another 5 minutes of waiting we still never saw our waitress so we decided to just grab our wine and leave. This just didnt seem like the kind of place we wanted to spend our money.
It may have been a fluke but any business that handles customer service in this fashion, especially in the hospitality business needs to take a hard look at their practices. This is no way to endear people to your business, even if the customer is wrong.

Let me just clarify how I star something: 5 stars means its pretty darn amazing. 4 stars means it’s very good, and 3 stars means it’s just plain OKAY.
3 stars for Ciao Bello my first time there. We sat outside in order to enjoy the patio seating which was pleasant… Then the carpet cleaners for Pastosa came by and punctuated the night with the din of vacuums. I KNOW, not Ciao’s fault but it still affects your mood. Also another note on the ambiance: The two TV’s inside were playing Jeopardy during dinner… I mean, I love me some Trebek but REALLY??? Turn the TV’s off man… You’re making your restaurant look more like a diner than a place that I’d wanna come back to.
Food:
We ordered Bruschetta which we enjoyed. Had a sweet taste to it with sundried tomatoes and Balsamic. Def. good. Would get again.
I ordered Shrimp Fra-​Diavolo which came out as Shrimp Marinara. They told me it was Diavolo but I couldn’t find a red pepper flake anywhere. The wife got Fusilli with shrimp and spinach. In both dishes, the pasta was cooked Al Dente. Nice work. However, in the wife’s dish the shrimp were WAY overcooked and came out hard and tasting bland. Though my dish wasn’t Fra-​Diavolo, the red sauce was good and had a nice plum tomato on top that I cut up and incorporated into the dish.
The service was a little slow and I’ll attribute that to kinks in a newly opened restaurant. Our waiter, Derek, was friendly and polite. We enjoyed having him but unfortunately, he had never tasted any of the dishes. Again, new restaurant. Hopefully with time, the servers will sample more and be able to give informed suggestions on dinner.
Would I go back? Maybe. But I’d have to look out for the Cleaning service first. Oh, and if I’m eating inside… I might bring my own remote and turn off the freaking TVs.