Ciao Trattoria

I miss this place my dad was the executive chef here for almost 15 years or so. We grew up there, watched my dad invent specials, making and combining ingredients, he was always thinking about the presentation and how the food would appeal to the customer. He ran the kitchen like an orchestra. besides being at home with my mom, my brother and I my dad was happiest at work.

CLOSED
will turn into Dublins
(that douchy bar on the sunset strip)

I’ve got one word for you, and it’s pretty much all you need to hear about this restaurant: risotto.
Risotto. Merriam Webster says you are rice cooked usually in meat or seafood stock and seasoned (as with Parmesan cheese or saffron). It sounds so pedestrian when you put it that way. I like to refer to you as one of the seven deadly dietary sins, one that is only made better by the addition of wine, low lighting and copious amounts of pre dinner bread with olive oil.
I dont usually like pasta at restaurants, for some reason I just feel like I’m getting ripped off. The risotto here however is not a true pasta dish, and even if they are ripping me off, I’ll gladly watch them take my money for every warm filling spoonful.
Service has been great both times I’ve been here, and the restaurant itself is nice enough. Beware the parking problem of downtown Los Angeles, it can get insanely expensive, and I recommend you just suck it up and valet.
This place is good to take a date, your parents or a small dinner party as you won’t pay up the nose. I went here several times in college, and for the bf’s graduation lunch. It’s great if you’re at USC and don’t want to drive 20 minutes for decent Italian.

It was a good all around experience. If you are not interested in the insanity and so-​so food at botttega louie. Well, this place is just down the street for those wishing a quiet and peaceful dinner where you can actually have a conversation with the person sitting next to (or across) from you.
I have now been here a few times. Nice and quiet.

I actually feel rather harsh because the service was really good for our large party (10 people), but the food was just blah. We came to celebrate my friends 30^th bday, we were originally suppose to go to Bottega Louies but the wait was over 2 hours! So this was nearby and could accommodate our group.
We had a nice spot to ourselves in the back of the restaurant. The garlic rolls/​bread that comes out is very good and they are constantly replenishing it throughout your dinner. Even if you try to resist to only having one, its nearly impossible cuz it smells soooo good.
On to the food, my sister and I ordered the Caprese Salad and the Pasta Primavera– we shared and they were really good about splitting the dishes for us. However the pasta was super bland. You know its bad when you have to ask for more marinara and then drench it with pepper flakes and its still has mediocre taste to it. Also pasta is one of those things that its super easy to make at home so my standards are real high.
Shoot I’ll take the $ 18+ dollars you will pay for this dish and give you enough to feed 4!

If you’re ever in Downtown LA with an Italian craving, this is definitely the place to go… Ciao Trattoria serves comfort Italian northern food with some real serious bursts of flavor. A group of my friends took advantage of DineLA and they didn’t skimp out on portion size. We were served with tasty garlic bread, followed by a 3-​course entrée. which overall was filling and wonderful! The highlight of my dining experience was definitely the eggplant parmesan, shrimp scampi and chocolate mousse trio… yum-​o!

Went with co-​workers. The majority of us chose the lobster ravioli in tomato cream sauce. Very good. The size of the dish was about medium small (six pieces, plus three shrimp, spinach leaves, mushrooms, and basil). Bar looked nice. I asked if they made Italian sodas (flavored syrup plus carbonated water) — they don’t. I ordered a Coke (a bit watered down IMO). To my lament, the birthday girl decided to pass on dessert. But I did take a pic of the dessert tray. About $ 25 a head after tax and tip. Not bad for a special lunch I suppose. Parked at Macy’s Plaza across the street (w/​validation of course).

An aging beauty.
Ciao Trattoria is one of those places you think you can count on for a good meal. In Downtown LA, there are so many choices to spend your lunch (or dinner) dollar on. I remember a fantastic lunch I had here years ago and wanted to revisit the restaurant.
Well, it is still a beaut. But it is an aging one. When I sat down in the small two-​person booth, I could feel the brocade unraveling and it was uncomfortably sticking into my bare legs. I looked around and the other booths were in the same situation. And often the corners of the booths were dirty. Tsk tsk.
Debbie Y joined me for lunch today. Before she arrived, I heard the guy at the next table exclaim the chicken was like shoe leather. Oh dear. There goes my idea for chicken for lunch. The salads looked good though and if you added salmon, it looked like a good deal. That’s what Debbie did.
I decided to go with the veal scallopine which came with a side of broccoli. Well, my dish was quite dismally small. I understand the veal is pounded flat but I was envisioning a lot of cheese and there were barely anything between the thin breading and the even thinner piece of meat. It needed flavor in which the scarce cheese could not provide. The sauce was definitely an oily version of what I thought a light white wine sauce would be. The broccoli was well, steamed broccoli. I could do better with a homemade lunch and believe me, I eat steamed broccoli almost daily. Was this worth $ 14? Nope.
We picked the chocolate flourless cake for dessert. I hoped this would validate why I chose this place for lunch. Oh no, it was weird. No other word for it. It tasted like… frozen mousse that had been defrosted. It did not taste like cake. Our server noticed our disappointment and was kind enough to take it off the check. That’s the third star.
It is quite sad I don’t think I’ll be returning anytime soon. The only thing I truly enjoyed was the complimentary bread, endless iced tea and the affected accent our waiter had when pronouncing Italian-​o words. I’ve had much better and cheaper meals across the street at It’s a Wrap. And for great Italian, I might as well have walked over to Bottega Louie down the street.
Overall, it was meh for $ 20 each after tax and tip.

This is definitely a place I’d come back to… if my company paid for it again. The food was great, and the service was even better (especially considering we were a group of 9, and it was the peak of corporate lunch hour). Lunch prices aren’t too big of a burden on the wallet, but the cost of a dish is far from pocket change.
And please, keep the garlic bread a’comin.

My husband and I wanted to try something new and went there on a Friday night after work. Parking was not a problem for us since we work in downtown but they also offer valet parking. Though I don’t know the price.
Anyhoot, the place was pretty empty and soon realized we didn’t need to make a reservation (my husband called it in). I had the, I think it was, four cheese ravioli or something like that. All I remember is loving the sauce, I MEAN LOVING the sauce. My husband had some meat something or other, sorry for the lack of proper names.
HIGHLIGHT: the sauce, my husbands meat and the garlic bread. Would we go back? Not sure, we thought it was on the pricey side, but the food was good and we had wine so didn’t know if that cause the pricey meal.
Check out the menu before you go, if you can so you can judge price. oh, and ask about price on parking.

Well, after all these times of coming in here — I finally sat down for dinner with my wife.
Wow, it was soooo good. The waiter was excellent, very informative, very funny.
The place is always empty — no idea why, but the food was great. They had a special braised shortrib that I had and she had the seafood pasta.
It was a good portion and we wound up taking it to go — and had their strawberry shortcake desert — which was also good.
Drinks are still as stiff as they were when I first starting going there!

After reading the reviews, I thought i’d try Ciao. We went for my birthday last night and I was impressed. It was rather empty but it was also a Wed night. And contrary to lot of reviews, the staff were very friendly and helpful. The wine was very nice — although the friendly, helpful staff knew little about wine– our waitress told us she read the back of the bottle to find out if the Chardonnay was «oakey». Ahem.
Overall, the food was great. I had the chicken Marsala with veggies and potatoes, and the wine sauce was delish! Sweet and mushroomy. John had the risotto with asparagus and goat’s cheese –mmm good! For dessert, we had the flourless chocolate mousse cake and tiramisu with coffee. Brilliant! Really delicious! I’d recommend both! =)
Like the other reviews highlighted, the garlic bread did not disappoint.
I’d say overall this restaurant deserves a 3.5 mainly because they need a proper sommelier. Learn your wines– you’re Italian innit!

A big fat meh for Ciao Trattoria. The rolls were decent, but what a mediocre ahi salad. $ 23.95 for some gray fish with no texture and no taste over some arugula. Maybe I just ordered the wrong thing, but it was so wrong that I have absolutely no interest in going back.

The food is consistently good but the hostess and servers have really bad attitudes. If they would just lighten up it would be great!
I love their garlic rolls. Watch out for parking in the building it is expensive

This restaurant has a lot of history in Downtown Los Angeles. The area surrounding Ciao has been in many movies so it seems familiar and warm when entering. The frescos painted on the walls and attention to detail in the molding on the ceiling is amazing.
The food is great although the veal servings are a little small. The best dish in the house is the Ravioli Aragosta. This is a lobster ravioli with blackened prawns on top mixed with fresh spinach leaf. If you have this dish you will not leave disappointed. The bar is a great place to sit and have conversations with locals as well as traveling business people. They have a wonderful selection of Italian and California wines.
This is a must try. Great for an evening out to the Disney concert hall or the Dorothy Chandler.

My friends and I decided on Ciao Trattoria because it is one of the restaurants that advertises it provides a shuttle to and from the Music Center, and we were heading to 9 to 5, The Musical. Our waitress was very comfortable, friendly, and helpful since we arrived late with tons of traffic and were in a hurry to eat and catch our show. The food was not amazing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the kitchen had a freezer and a microwave. My gnocci was not homemade and the sauce tasted canned. My friends said their dishes seemed to have been sitting around. The wine was good, but possibly overpriced. I’m sure there may be better entrees on the menu, but I’m not going back to try them.
My big issue with this place was the shuttle. We took the shuttle to the Ahmanson from the restaurant. Upon being dropped off, I asked the driver where we should meet him, and he said to meet him in that same spot. (I was a bit nervous about this because the Roy’s driver, on my previous trip, gave me a card with a phone number to call just in case.) After the show, the driver was nowhere to be found. I called the restaurant and got their message. When we were about to call a cab, the shuttle driver for Ciudad and a few other restaurants offered to take us back. (He used to have a contract with Ciao, but they canceled it for this other guy recently.) When we pulled up, the restaurant was dark and the valet guy was packed up. I was about to have a fit, when the valet guy stepped out of a car nearby and gave us our keys.
If you go to Ciao, don’t trust their shuttle.

Ciao is not a destination dining experience. One eats there if they are wanting to attend a show at the nearby theatres, such as the Disney Concert Hall nearby. One would also eat here if they are in downtown LA on business. The surrounding area is hard to describe… imagine a busy, old downtown-​ish retail street with both rich and poor walking up and down the busy street. Like I said, it’s not in a cool retail area, like downtown Long Beach or Old Town Pasadena.
Okay, now that your expectations are set, let’s review the food. It’s good. It really is. The service is good enough, the wine selection is just fine, and the pasta and meat dishes are tasty. The chicken marsala is my favorite, but others also like the tomato sauce pastas and the carpaccio.
The martinis and vodka tonics here are well made and stiff. I always give an extra star when my drinks are extra strong.

When my mgr told me she was taking me out to lunch and I had to choose btwn Ciao and Engine Co., I immediately Unilocal’ed it and picked Ciao based on the food. And I’m so glad I did. The food here was delicious and the service was great, despite the busy lunch crowd.
We arrived a little before noon, since we didn’t have reservations. It was great timing because as soon as we put our order in, the crowd started arriving. There are nice, comfy booths lined along the walls, so if you’re able to, make reservations to get one.
I ordered the linguine con frutti di mare (which means manila clams, mussels, scallops, and calamari in this case) and my boss ordered the lobster ravioli w/​grilled shrimp. While we were waiting, they brought out these delicious rolls that were crusty and topped with rosemary. We killed the basket by the end of the meal. My dish came out and it looked like it was covered with the clams and mussels (whooot!). In fact, it had so much seafood in it that I couldn’t even finish it. I tried the other dish too and it was also good. I tasted some sun dried tomato which went really well with the lobster.
For dessert we ordered a pistachio cream cake with chocolate ganache. It was pretty rich, but the top was filled with buttercream so I ate around most of it. The pistachio was light and fluffy and the raspberry coulis on the side really made the dish. Next time, I’ll have to try the tiramisu.
Throughout the meal, our glasses were filled and we never had to wait long for anything. I’ll definitely keep this place in mind the next time someone asks for recommendations in downtown.

Potentially one of my favs in downtown.
A departure from the typical downtown assortment of restaurants. The inside is more upscale than the usual lunch areas in downtown and definitely suitable to take clients.
Another plus is that its very affordable. A coworker and I bought two entrees, desert, and soup and got out under $ 45 tax and tip.
Food is great, had fettucine with seafood and it was very tasty and I don’t normally go for seafood. Desert is amazing.
Great looking place with a well lit dinning area and there is a more private dinning area towards the back. Gets crowded by about noon.
Overall great for the price and maybe even a little bit more.

My old roommate used to be the manager of this FANTASTIC restuarant downtown… iI beleive it’s connected to an old hotel which makes the architexture quite cool to say the least. The main dining room is two stories high and makes you feel like you are in northern Tuscany! There’s also a beautiful banquet room available for events and parties and whatnot.
HIGHLY recommend the filet, all their antipasto and especially the canoli! OH MY GOD. No words.
Great place to check out if you want to go out downtown or if you’e sick of the same ol’ same ol’ before heading to Staples Center.