Ciao! Cafe & Wine Lounge

One of the things we love most about our neighborhood is the plethora of amazing restaurants… My partner & I are currently enjoying a lovely, quiet Italian place… A nice departure from the hustle and bustle of most of the others in the area. Great wine selection, craft cocktails, and delicious Italian cuisine. Chicago people, check it out!

This place is amazing!!! Intimate, cozy and a delicious menu! Perfect for date night! My fiancé and I went for dinner here last Saturday. Immediately we understood why we have been wanting to come here. The ambiance was incredibly inviting. The server Saturday was friendly, calm, and extremely polite. The restaurant is small which is a nice getaway from the über swanky and overpriced restaurants popping up in the West Loop. Ciao Café is exactly the type of restaurant you would find in a quant side street of a European town. The wine is delicious and the food even more so! The chef came out and thanked us along with our server. They even had a game of trivial pursuit that I grabbed and quizzed my fiancé with. We both walked home extremely stuffed and excited to have finally eaten at «that little Italian place on the corner.» We will most definitely be back!!! It is the perfect getaway or date night… The perfect place if you want a nice quiet and peaceful yet enjoyable evening out with incredible food and friendly staff! You won’t leave hungry… you will leave with a smile on your face.
Thank you from two very happy west loop neighbors!

This is a great neighborhood date spot! Very small and low key, in a comforting way. Perfect for locals looking for a break from all the packed, über-​popular restaurants on Randolph. Limited but excellent menu! Friendly service, I hope to go back soon!

Super cute vibe and food is really good too! I wish the menu was a bit more extensive, but quality food nonetheless.

My girlfriend and I stumbled upon this hidden gem, little did we know it’s been around for 10 years. Such an adorable café with an amazing wine list. The food was great too, we had the caprese salad, rigatoni with sausage in a creamy tomato sauce, and beef empanadas. Very good food and nice size portions. The night we came by there were two young men, brothers who performed playing guitar and singing which was an added bonus. The best part of the meal was the rhubarb tart made to perfection. Can’t wait to return and bring my hubby he will love this place.

Walked in expecting this wine bar to have some great selections. Wow, was I wrong.
Whole wine list can be bought at Mariano’s for $ 20 and under. So much for this being a wine bar.
Calling it a wine bar is a complete joke. Servers smoking outside all the time has to stop too.

Most miserable stealing staff. Wouldn’t sell me a cranberry juice. Charged $ 16.00 for a proseco split gave them $ 20.00 and they acted insulted when I asked for my change. I can’t believe I had to even ask for my change. (They just threw my change into a tip charge without even telling me.) The idiot guy behind bar managed to insult all 20 people individually in my party. Worst business I’m sure I’ve ever been to. Absolutely would NOT recommend.

A great neighborhood restaurant! Limited but delicious menu options both in terms of food and wine. My favorite is the Margherita flatbread and the Rigatoni Alla Rigo. I get it without the sausage and it is still very flavorful and spicy! They have live music on the weekends which is a plus!
Overall, it makes for a pretty perfect spot for a date as well for hanging out with friends.

I don’t know why it took me this long to write a review, considering I have been here 3 or 4 times now.
This place is… AWESOME. It’s not a big place, so I wouldn’t suggest a huge party, but it’s great for a date or an intimate dinner with friends. The service is awesome and they make you feel right at home.
Food is soo delicious. The mac and cheese appetizer is just purely addictive. You just can’t put the fork down. I have also tried their signature rigatoni with sausage. Wow. Just wow. Finally, last night they had a Hawaiian bread pudding that left you speechless. All I could think was why have I never thought of that?!
Will definitely be back.

Good food, big portions, reasonable prices — why don’t more people go here? The Rigatoni Alla Rigo is excellent.

Came here with a group of friends for desserts & scarfed away the fabulous tiramisu and bread pudding. Both were very generous portions. The tiramisu was so light and flavorful. The bread pudding was made of famous King’s Sweetbread (very famous in Hawaii) and perhaps flown in from Hawaii. What a treat.
We were with a big group and had gone to another Italian restaurant down the street but wished we came here instead. The quality and the portions at Café Ciao are top notch. The ambiance is also charming, warm and cozy and just a perfect neighborhood restaurant.

This little storefront restaurant is a gem in the West Loop neighborhood. It’s cool, casual, intimate, and the plates are exceptional. A live jazz dou plays on the weekends which makes the atmosphere perfect to enjoy Italian fare and a cocktail; especially in the summer when they place a few tables outside at street side. Everything is superb on the select menu. I suggest visiting several times to indulge in the unique, yet comforting flavors each dish has to offer.

This is a very intimate and cozy place with delicious food in the West Loop/​West Town area.
I came here a couple of years ago and loved it. Fast forward to last night as I made my long awaited return. Not a very big place but it has character with the lighting and intimate setup. There are regular dining tables, couch seating, hi-​tops and a fireplace along with the bar.
The menu itself isn’t very big as its just a few appetizers, maybe 4 pasta dishes and some flatbreads and empanadas. I decided on their signature dish, the Rigatoni that comes with a delicious cream sauce and sliced spicy italian sausage. Comes in a really nice sized portion and difficult to stop eating as it is so damn good. I even starting sticking my fork in my girl’s plate lol. We got the tiramisu for dessert and I have to say that it was something special. They also have a pretty good wine list that mainly consist of dry wines.
I was told they have live jazzy style music on Fridays and Saturdays so I def plan on returning for that. They also have pretty cool board/​card games to play while you wait on your meal.

Moved down the block from this place four months ago and have only been putting off trying it out because although we eat out a lot, we normally have our two young children with us, and the restaurant/​bar has an undeniably small dining area.
.I almost ordered carryout from Café Ciao three weeks ago, but after logging into Unilocal,and reading a negative review, we decided to go with another safe option.
Tonight, I didn’t feel like walking more than two blocks for some carryout, so we went ahead and ordered the following:
1.Angel Hair Alla Fresca with Meatballs.
2.Italian Sausage Red Pepper Flatbread.
3.Argentine Chicken Empanadas.
All three dishes were absolutely delicious. Now, I feel guilty for not trying this place earlier and stupid for accepting the one negative review as a gauge for consistency.
The food was great! I would recommend all three plates that we ordered. I look forward to returning and trying out the rest of the menu. We will be back for more soon!

Great food, great wine, great ambiance! I can’t believe we waited so long to come to this West Loop gem! We tried the Aquinas red after reading some reviews as well as the Fire Road white and both were delicious!
All the plates are fairly small, perfect for a date night to share! We ordered the baked white cheddar Mac n cheese small plate, which was by far one of the best we’ve had! The top thin layer of breading was light and added a great crunchy texture. We also ordered the spinach empanadas (not my fave but my husband liked it and the chutney… Typical Indian) and the spicy chèvre (goat cheese and tomato with bread) which was soooo good. The angel hair pasta had a great balance if garlic and basil!
And they even have board games and karaōke for private events!

Café Ciao is my quiet little nook in the West Loop to relax and escape the daily chaos of life. I’m a regular, so I’m a little biased, but if you come in here expecting to compare this place to some of the other more commercial, investor financed places, you’ve missed the boat. Ciao is cozy little place, owned and run by «Chief Cook and Bottle Washer», Julie. The staff is friendly and attentive.
This place has a small menu, but everything they make is fresh and quality. I’ve never had a bad meal. They prep their meals in a small «galley style» kitchen beside the bar. Try the bacon wrapped dates for little nosh before dinner with one of their boutique wines. The pasta dishes and salads are all fresh and they pay attention to small details in the preparation. All the dishes come with choices of sausage, meatballs, chicken, or shrimp. All good.
The bar is also unique. Bartenders pay particular attention to their mixed cocketails, made with fresh ingredients. They don’t just dump a bunch booze and juices in a shaker. They pay attention to details and craft a really well made cocktail. Try the Old Fashioned or in the winter, the Hot Toddy. They also change up the wine and beer selection often with boutique wines and microbrews.
Finally, a really enjoy the jazzy musicians who perform on weekends. Take a date to this place. It’s really charming and laid back.

Cute place to rent for an intimate celebration. They do rent it out for parties but it is a small place. Might seat about 30 people. The bartenders and owner were very welcoming when I was there for a private party. Great food. Good wine selection. My husband fell in love with their St. Thomas Aquinas red wine and has even ordered 3 bottles online. We had never had that wine before. Fun, quiet place.

As West Loopers my gf and I always walked by this place and wondered how the food was and why nobody ever seemed to be inside. It always looked so quaint and cozy that it reminded me of the tiny italian resturants that line the streets of the West Village in NY. My gf, from NY, thinks the comparison is abstract and makes me promise never to bring it up.
So we decided tonight was the night, googled the name, found some coupons on
and started strolling over. Upon walking in and presenting the coupon to the owner/​manager. I’m such a rookie. What appeared to be a good deal, wasn’t. Burned by the terms and conditions, again.
No more than 20 seats in total, only two tables of two were seated when we walked in. Bored games (pun intended) and what looks to be a karaōke system makes the place look like it could be fun however the ambiance makes you feel confused as to its identity.
They had half price wine night, usually a win but couldn’t take advantage of it due to the choice of using the coupon or getting the wine deal. We both ordered the angel hair pasta, substitute wheat pasta, with meatballs and shrimp and shared a caprese salad to start. We were annoyed and went No vino.
Maybe our hopes for this cute little cuddly Italian Sinatra wine bar were too high?
The food was so underwhelming. The marinara sauce had little taste and the staff couldn’t care less that we were there. We played the game «would you ever» as the food took a little too long for the lack of patrons.
So disappointed, there was so much potential.
I would’ve loved a local spot like this if the food were good.

Had a lovely dinner date with my lady here on a Thursday in March. We enjoyed the Aquinas Red paired with a flat bread, the mac & cheese, and an appetizer that I cant (for the life of me) remember but it was a spicy cheese with a jam-​like substance on bread. All were very satisfying and we dined by the fire for a good couple hours.
Love to see the west loop building traction. We will be back in the summer for the live music and wine/​beer tasting sessions they host.

Unilocal led me to Café Ciao on a recent trip to Chicago. The restaurant is a quaint little gem seating around 20. I went with my sister, but this would be a perfect date spot too. The ambiance is romantic and it looks as though they have music on certain nights too.
We started off with a delicious sangria full of fruit and brandy. For the apps we went with the bacon wrapped dates and they were the perfect combination of sweet and salty. We split the Rigatoni Alla Rigo rigatoni with spicy italian sausage in a tomato cream sauce) and the Empanadas with both spinach and beef. The portions were huge and the prices were on point.
Everything we had was great and the server was awesome. If I lived close to the west loop this would be in my regular rotation.