Ciao Wood Fired Pizza & Trattoria

Always an amazing dinner and the service is exceptionally good. Went there this evening and Spencer was taking care of us. He was so good that we went in for a little something and ordered an appetizer, the special for the evening, another entry off the menu, 2 soups and 2 dessert and ordered a pizza to go for tomorrow! He had us at every course. So pleased with him, he took his time, we didn’t feel rushed, he explained the menu perfectly, what more can I say. Everything you expect and deserve when dining out. His tip was greater than the bill! When we have great service The tip should and will reflect so. Servers work very hard. I had my birthday here a few months ago and over the top service and food! Recommend dining here. You will not be disappointed.
Donna S
Cape Coral

We have never been disappointed here. Last visit topped them all. Butternut squash ravioli, spaghetti pie, eggplant parm, calamari, chocolate cream pie, cream puffs. The four of us could not stop raving, and my friend is a great cook herself. Worth a trip here. Great staff and top-​notch service.

Absolutely amazing! Moma Jill treats you like family! Delicious Italian meals– we had the mahi-​mahi, which was topped with pineapple tropical salsa served over coconut rice– my son had the chicken Alfredo –so creamy and delicious! My husband had the chicken Marsala, the Marsala sauce was amazing! My daughter had the margarita pizza– brick oven cooked. Our waiter was Alex– who was very attentive to our needs. Go early (5:00) or go late (8:00) — they do not take reservations– we had a 20 minute wait– wish we would have been offered a glass of wine or cocktail– only negative.

Nice people. Food was pretty good. Eggplant Parmigiana was a little heavy on sauce and cheese without much eggplant taste. Salad good and fresh. Good service but a little pricey. The Frutti Del Mar could have used a bit more pasta but the ingredients were good and fresh.

Great home cooked Italian food. Jill, the owner, is hands on from start to finish. She is the topping fora 5 Star dinner.

We again had the spaghetti and it was a big disappointment. The spaghetti tasted very starchy and the sauce was sure not the way it tasted last time. New recipe? I didn’t like it! We won’t be back.

Stopped there to get a pizza. Only had a 12 inch for $ 18 and the pizza wasn’t that good. I was shocked that two small pizzas cost $ 38! The price is way too high and the place is way too small. The tables are too close together that its like being in a pack of sardines so I will not be going back again

I was REALLY hoping to Love this place, thought we may have found a hidden gem, but I’m sorry to say WE DIDN’T !! If you have an East Coast Italian Palate, this is not the place to find Authentic tasting Italian food. Once I learned the owner/​chef was from Wisconsin, I knew we were in trouble! Tomato sauce, meatballs, meatloaf. inedible! If you grew up eating your mom’s or grandma’s Italian food, you may want to pass on it here. Sorry Folks!

It was the worst Italian food I’ve ever had. I’ve wasted enough time, $$$$ and energy eating here that I’m going to make it short.
DON’T Eat Here! The food is really bad and it needs a good deep cleaning.
Brick oven pizza?? They have no clue what that is. The website photo is not what the pizza looks like thats a stock photo or it was taken from another restaurant.
It’s terrible!

Wir kommen oft hier her zum Lunch oder Dinner. Hier gibt es sehr gute Pizzen und tolle Pasta Gerichte. Allerdings ist mein Favorit das Chicken Marsala und dazu ein klasse Caesar Salat, davon bekomme ich nie genug :-). Auch das Restaurant selber ist sehr gemütlich und das Personal wirklich sehr freundlich und immer hilfsbereit. Die Preise hier sind gut und die Qualität der Gerichte hervorragend, was will man mehr? Ach so ich habe noch vergessen die Italien Wedding Soup zu erwähnen, die sollte man auf jeden Fall einmal Probieren. Also wir werden hier natürlich des öfteren zum Essen wieder herkommen.

A very special treat. We golfed 36 holes today and were looking forward to special Italian dinner. We started off with the calamari that had a marinara that was to die for. I had the pork shank that literally fell off the bone. My brother had the sole that tasted like it was infused in butter. Our waiter Sean was extremely informed about the menu and very able responded to all of our food and wine requests. Being so impressed with the meal we wanted to meet the owner. When we met Jill we instantly understood why the meal and the evening was so special. If you are looking for an exceptional homemade Italian meal a rarity in the Cape this is your first stop.

Was just there again for the second time and my birthday. Had shrimp and scallops with spanikopita. Everyone I were with had the same. Dessert was Jill’s mother’s recipe (a pumpkin type tart). Absolutely fabulous. .Trying to get my daughter and 2 friends to come back this week. The waiters were great and very obliging. Great Italian food. Best in Cape by far.

This just a fantastic restaurant. Both Chris and Jill make you feel right at home. We have never had anything that was less than stellar here. The Osso Bucco on a bed of creamy risotto here is one of my favorite meals. Finish that up with the incredible chocolate pie and you have the recipe for a perfect date night.
The restaurant is small so expect a wait. The patio is lovely though and they will happily serve you a drink while you are waiting. Beers are all bottled but do yourself a favor and try the Brooklyn Local 1 or 2 for a nice surprise.
All in all, highly recommended.

The absolute worst pizza I have ever eaten, they cook their marinara sauce on the dough. 12 inch sausage and pepper pizza cost $ 21. If you like real Italian pizza I do not suggest going here! Will not be returning!

This is a tough one to write a review on. I hate restaurants thst discount people who eat alone. It is a small place and I was ignored for a seating. I wanted the antipasto salad. They quit offering it 6 months ago eventhough they have it on their online menu. The pizza was very good. 22.50 is steep considering all the pizzas were less. I asked for pepperoni to me added to the $ 16 mushroom and sausage. They plopped the pizza in front of me. I had to ask for a plate.
They did not go over the specials but might have skipped because i knew what i wanted. It took awhile to be acknowledged after sitting down. Water refills were very slow.
When I ordered pizza and was sitting I was asked if i was getting it to go. Duh! I was asked if the pizza lived up to the reputation. I told the waiter I am from out of town and don’t know the reputation but their place was recommended.
They have a large menu that looks good. The pizza was 5 stars for taste not price. Service was good for the regulars.
Finally dont play Christmas music in September. Why have Christmas trees?

What an unusual (in a good way) little place. In this world of homogenized boring on the inside, boring on the outside restaurants Ciao is not. This place has some character.
I have been in town for a few months now and I keep driving by this place thinking that I need to go check it out because it looks so interesting from the outside. I finally got my opportunity the other night on a blind date.
I arrived first on a friday night and was a little early. There is an adorable little outdoor seating area where other diners were all sitting around, waiting for their tables. Nobody had any food or drink at the outside tables so it seemed as if it was just a waiting area but I’m not certain about this.
I went through the door so I could find a host and check in. One thing I found unusual is that there is no host station They totally maximized on dining space and the inside was stuffed with as many tables as you can possibly fit into a room and every table was occupied with seemingly happy diners. Although crowded, it was not overcrowded and there were clear paths of entry and egress.
There was no obvious host but there was a kitchen pass through, which was also where I could see other standing patrons. It was apparent that they were waiting for someone or something from the kitchen so I joined them. The wait was not long for me. A lady came out from the kitchen and I told her I’d be a party of two. She let me know that there were two parties ahead of me and that it could be a little while. No problem! my own party was not complete yet anyway.
I went back outside to await my date and my table. As I sat there, the lady came out a few times to bring other guests in. On one of these trips I asked her if I could drink wine outside and when she said yes I asked for a glass. I’m pretty sure that she forgot my order though. My date arrived before the wine did. We were not sitting there for very long before it was our turn to be seated by a different server and the wine never came.
Our new server took our drink orders and promptly returned with wine for each of us by which time we were ready with our food order. We asked for the quattro formaggio pizza and he suggested that we might want to add some tomato sauce, which we did. It was clear that our server knew the menu well and was able to help us make good decisions. The food came out reasonably quickly and we enjoyed everything we ate.
While we were eating, the owner, the lady who initially greeted me was making her rounds, making sure that all of the patrons were having a good meal. Normally I would judge this as a good thing but I happen to have a huge pet peeve, that I’ve probably mentioned in other reviews as well, and this is when business owners go overboard with religious displays or statements. There is nothing that will turn my mood faster than to be told by someone to have a «blessed day». This is not the venue for me to launch into a diatribe defining my own views on religion and public expressions but suffice to say I find that phrase to be offensive and presumptuous on the part of the speaker. The owner’s telling each departing patron to be blessed troubled me greatly and caused my estimate of this otherwise great spot to be revised from a 5 to a 4. As we were departing, my date also observed negative feelings about being blessed by a pizza chef.
In spite of our awkward discomfort the food and atmosphere was great and I’ll likely still return.

The owner, Jill will come out to the dining room and makes a beautiful announcement showing her appreciation as she welcomes you to her family. Tonight we went with 6 ppl. Everyone at the table commented how delicious their dinners were. Pizza is not a thing I typically order for a dinner. I had the white pizza w extra ricotta, added grilled chicken. The garlic on the pizza was amazing. Everything so fresh. The service was perfect. Definitely will come back.

Recently visited Ciao and had to try there famous pizza and it was very bland. Not only was it for me but all 10 people at our table said the same. I had a pasta dish and the pasta was over cooked and the sauce was bland. Sorry to say all 10 of us had same with their meals. We won’t be back…

This restaurant has seriously authentic Italian food. When you walk in the front door, you will get hit will a breeze of the best tasting smell a restaurant can have! I was truly blown away. We came here on a Friday night and waited outside for a table. The restaurant is fairly small so I recommend coming here early for dinner. I started the night off with a glass of Moscato. All wines and beers are fairly priced. Our table split the Italian Eggrolls. With that name, we just had to try it! It included Italian sausage and ricotta cheese in a fried roll.
For a main course I ordered their famous lasagna with a side of soup. The Wild Mushroom soup was fantastic! It came in a large bowl and it wasn’t too thick or thin, just right! The lasagna was pretty good but not as good as I expected. I rather the sauce be a little more sweet as opposed to bitter, but that can be my personal preference. The lasagna was also $ 17.00 which came with no side or side. You certainly pay for what you get here. This restaurant has excellent food made from scratch but a bit pricy.
I recommend this restaurant to people looking for great Italian food!

An evening of some big highs and some big lows.
We entered the restaurant and felt immediately welcomed by the charm and atmosphere. Delightful. We were seated quickly and pleasantly. The place is lovely and the music isn’t too loud.
Then, we opened the menu to look for a bottle of wine. Four to five times retail markup is completely unacceptable. And a big downer. Unhappily, we settled on ordering just a glass of the house red at $ 6 — which turned out to be a large glass of a decent wine. Okay, that’s better, but it’s still annoying.
We split an order of fried calamari. Decent size serving, prepared properly, nothing special UNTIL we tasted the marinara sauce that comes on the side. Now, this was what marinara sauce dreams of tasting like. Such a shame to not have bread to sop up what was leftover when we finished the calamari! (Why no bread in an Italian restaurant? Another downer) But that marinara sauce will live on in my memory as one of the best.
So we’re stoked by the marinara sauce for our shared pizza. The most expensive pizza on the menu at $ 19, the Diavola is topped with San Marzano tomato, Mozzarella, Salumi, Sopressata, Sausage, Crushed red pepper. We struggled to cut it up to share (really, if you know we’re sharing a pizza can’t you cut it up in the kitchen?), tasted and were flat out disappointed. Maybe we expected more because of that marinara sauce, but this was just sopping with pizza sauce — and that pizza sauce wasn’t all that great. The toppings and cheese were skimpy (especially considering the high price for a 12″ pizza). The crust was very good and deserved better than what we tasted in the sauce, toppings and cheese. Crushed red pepper was non-​existent and we added more ourselves at the table. The sausage and sopressata should also have had a spicy kick, but were mild. A serious letdown.
I noticed the place is filled with regulars who are warmly greeted by the owner, often with hugs. If we lived in the area, I would absolutely give it a second try, concentrating on the pastas and maybe the meat entrees, and without question, something ANYTHING covered in the marinara sauce.

Dined here last night celebrating Mothers Day eve with my mom. Since they don’t take reservations for parties less than 6, and they only have about 12 tables inside, we decided to arrive when they opened at 5pm.
Upon arrival, there was a line up if people who had the same idea as we did. It wasn’t a problem at all. What impressed me is that the owner and chef, Jill opened the door to greet everyone. Then she kissed each of the ladies to wish us a happy Mothers Day. Boy, did I feel welcome!
They have beer and wine only with a nice selection of both. We started with a bottle of merlot and a couple of beers. For appetizer we tried the fried calamari, the mussels, 2 meatballs, and the fried Italian egg roll. We told our server that we wanted the calamari with spicy sauce. Unfortunately, he took it upon himself to have them toss the calamari in saracha sauce — which caused it to be a little soggy. The meatballs were fantastic — as close to homemade as I’ve ever had outside of home. They were very soft inside and definitely full of Pecorino Romano cheese and not loaded with garlic. The Italian egg roll reminded me of a deep fried calzone — filled with fresh ricotta cheese and some prosciutto (I think). The mussels were disappointing — they were cooked properly but the sauce was not a mussel sauce — I was hoping for a delicious red sauce infused with the mussel flavor — and it just wasn’t. It was their regular tomato sauce mixed with the mussels.
For dinner we had the lasagna which was fresh and delicious, veal piccata over linguine which was delicious, osso buco which is served in a red sauce with Parmesan risotto which was absolutely delicious. There was also mussels we asked for fra Diablo but that didn’t happen. And again the sauce was not a mussel sauce just their regular tomato sauce.
The pizzas that were coming out looked very nice. Will have to try them next time.
For dessert we had homemade cannoli and tiramisu — both delish!
Jill was in the dining room a few times to check on the diners which was a really nice touch. She came out with a glass of wine and toasted everyone and we all toasted back — you really feel like you’re in her family home while dining in Ciao!
One final note — not that I mind paper napkins that much but when we asked for extra napkins, our waiter brought out bathroom hand napkins — not too classy…

Aufgrund von Empfehlungen (die hauptsächlich die Pizzen betrafen) suchten wir uns dieses italienische Lokal zum Abendessen aus. Es liegt gleich an der Straße und ist mit vielen Lichterketten geschmückt, bei Nacht ganz nett. Wir haben relativ schnell einen Platz für vier Personen bekommen.
Da wir mittags schon Pizza hatten, haben wir uns für drei Nudelgerichte und einen Antipastiteller entschieden. Die Hummerravioli meiner Eltern waren okay, meine Fettucini Alfredo eher nicht. Die Soße bestand nur aus Sahne mit wenig Geschmack und nach ein paar Löffeln war man eigentlich voll. Und jetzt das Highlight des Abends: der Antipastiteller! Daran merkte man, dass der koch wohl noch nie in Italien war, denn mit antipasti hatte das sehr wenig zu tun. Salatblätter mit groben Salamiwürfel, dazwischen ein paar Oliven und Gemüse aus der Konserve. Fast ungenießbar.
Der Wein meiner Eltern war allerdings gut.
Das ganze Essen kostete uns 100 $, die schon etwas weh tun, wenn es nicht wirklich schmeckt.
Die zwei Punkte gibt es für den wirklich netten Service, der Kellner war sehr freundlich und Jil, die Besitzerin, hat alle Gäste persönlich begrüßt und sich erkundigt, wie das Essen geschmeckt hat.
Das Lokal war bis auf den letzten Tisch voll — den Einheimischen scheint es wohl dort zu schmecken. Bei uns in München ist man von einem Italiener einfach anderes gewöhnt, deswegen war der Abend etwas enttäuschend für uns.