Ciao Bella

Food was excellent and the atmosphere is so romantic. It’s better to go on a week day. Valentines day is a also a very good time to go.

I was hungry for some italian food so I decided to stop in. There was literally no one in the building. No customers, no hostess, no bartender and no servers. Literally no one, I could have walked out with the cash register and nobody would’ve noticed. Going to Ciao was a complete waste of time, I’ll never return.

We made reservations here for New Year’s Eve at 7:30. We arrived shortly before and were told there would be about a ten minute wait. We didn’t end up being seated until after 8 pm. There were still people with 7:30 reservations waiting as well. Once seated, it took about ten minutes for the waitress to come over. They weren’t apologetic and the hostess was incredibly unprofessional. She was rude and acted irritated with inquiries and took to hiding in the back and avoiding customers. Everyone that came in waited 5 – 10 minutes to even be greeted. The service once seated was also bad and the food only mediocre. Very disappointing for our New Year’s Eve and evening of our engagement.

Service has really gone downhill. It’s very sad. This used to be one of our favorite places.
Tonight we went there to celebrate my son’s seventh birthday. We had a reservation for 6:30. We waited until 6:45 before a server acknowledged us. By 7:10 all we had was water and an appetizer order than never showed. They never bothered to take our order. We finally gave up and left for another restaurant.
If it was possible to give a negative star rating, I would do so.

Great food, HORRIBLE service.
We had a birthday dinner for my mom here the other night and did not have a great experience.
Our reservation was for 7:00 and we arrived at 6:50. We were told they were setting up the tables and we were seated shortly after. There was no silverware when we sat down, which was no big deal. We figured we’d ask for some when the server came to get our drink orders. 10 minutes goes by with no sign of our server. One of the people in our party had to go to the bar to ask if they could send someone over.
Once the server finally came, she took our drink and appetizer orders and we asked for silverware and bread. She said, «Bread normally comes out with the salads.» in a less than friendly tone. The bread coming out with salads may work for a party of 2, but when you have 9 people, I would think bringing bread out with drinks would be a reasonable request. Apparently not.
After the drinks came, they had filled my daughter’s cup so full that her milk spilled a little as soon as she picked it up and it spilled on the iPad she was using to play a game. Of course, since we didn’t have silverware, there were no napkins, so once again, someone in our party had to go to the bar to get napkins. The server brought a towel over and rudely said, «My kids sure didn’t have technology at the table.» We’ll, good for you, lady. It keeps my 3 year old occupied at a table full of adults, thus making it a better experience for all involved.
Once the appetizers came we STILL did not have silverware. At this point, I was completely annoyed, so I went to the bar, since our server was nowhere to be found, and told the bartender we had no silverware. They finally brought it over and all was well… for awhile.
While we waited for the food to come, we all ordered alcoholic beverages. My sister and I ordered a bottle of wine and after awhile only half the drinks had come. The bartender came over and said the bottle of wine we ordered was not at temperature, so she gave us two glasses of wine on the house, which was nice. Finally the rest of the drinks came, but the first half of our group who already had their drinks needed refills by then and, once again, we could not find our server, so my step-​dad and cousin went to the bar to order drinks. Well, our server must have heard because out she comes to tell the bartender, in front of my family, that we are her table and the bartender should not be getting their drinks. Well, if you were taking care of your table they wouldn’t need to go to the bar for refills!
Once our meals came everything was great. The food was excellent, which was the ONLY upside. Unfortunately, due to the god awful, unprofessional service we received I will not be returning to Ciao Bella.

I was visiting a friend and he brought me here as he has had pleasant experiences. Well it started off ok even thought there was a large party of getting drunk women next to us. Next I asked about the wine and the waitress didn’t know anything about the wine, she then asked someone and they recommended something that they couldn’t find a bottle of. Next up food. Ordered the spiedini which looked delicious, however after a few bites into the pasta realized it was spicy. I thought oh maybe it’s just hot but then ate some more and started to notice red pepper flakes. The menu said nothing about pepper flakes of which I can not eat. The waitress was nfriendly and then said well I guess I’ll ask if they can make it plain but only half order since you’ve already eaten some. Interesting. Next the food comes back and there is a mountain of grease I’m thinking butter. Looked nothing like my previous pasta. Tasted like excess butter so much that I couldn’t eat it. They also took out any flavors… Pretty pissed as the waitress didn’t come back to ask how it was unit, she asked if we wanted dessert. The choc cake was nice but the horrible food, lack of knowledge of the wines they carry and the unattentive waitress makes this barely two stars.

Mediocre food and slow service. I always order the chicken Caesar salad. My wife says the salads are over-​dressed but I think it’s ok. I have ordered other things such as the pasta fagioli and those dishes were not good. However, when you want a chicken Caesar salad for lunch in downtown LS, this is an adequate choice.

Sis and I were in the midst of a shopping trip to downtown Lee’s Summit today and lunch time found us right across from the train station on Main Street and looking for a cozy place for some lunch and to rest our feet.
Ciao Bella was right at hand and that turned out to be buona fortuna for us. Ciao Bella is a charming space with it’s exposed brick wall and old fashioned overhead hanging light fixtures and two-​blade fans. With racks of wine bottles decorating the wall, hanging baskets filled with greenery, black and white draped tables and real cloth napkins Ciao Bella welcomes you in and makes you feel at home.
We were quickly greeted and told to sit where ever we wished. I checked out the menu to scope out meatless selections and found, easily, a half a dozen candidates. The Pizza Margherita sounded good to me and Sis chose Cheese Ravioli with white sauce. My pizza was pretty good and heaped with so much cheese that it was almost too much of a good thing. The crust, where it wasn’t covered in cheese, had a wonderful chewy, bubbly texture that reminds me of excellent wood fired pizza. A 9 inch pie could easily feed two or more people and I gave up after three pieces but our sweet server boxed the rest for me to bring home for dinner.
Before we had quite finished our entrees, an adjoining table was delivered very tempting Cannoli. And the temptation proved irresistible. So we ended our meal with very lovely pastries. Both crispy and creamy and a perfect finish for our lunch.
After a relaxing meal, Sis and I were ready to head back to do more shopping. Ciao Bella was just what we were looking for.

Strong 4-​star. Visited this week for first time. Dinner for business. Not especially large. Small bar. Decent sized menu.
Restaurant in downtown Lee’s Summit. Older building. Seems to be in good repair, though true to older architecture — a bit of a musty funk, though.
Went with the Chicken Giorgino (sp?). I liked it a lot! Breading on chicken was delicate — nice texture, but not overwhelming. Chicken was very tender — easily cut with a fork. I have a weakness for artichokes. Sauce was good, and past bed was well proportioned for the rest of the dish. Not an overwhelmingly large serving, but ample for a meal.
If in the area, I’d go back, and explore more of the menu. The waitress seemed to favor the Pasta Carbonara. (I have an Italian brother-​in-​law who makes a mean carbonara … so, that’s a ‘no win’ to seek out a comparison as the first meal, for me. Maybe next time.)

A shout out, if I may, to Stephen H. here on Unilocal.He’ll see why in a second.
I had a g-​pon for Ciao! Bella’s, and had to use it before I left on yet another trip, this one would bring me home after the g-​pon expired. So I chose to take my 80 year old mother out tonight to Ciao! Bella’s.
First of all, Ciao! Bella doesn’t appear like it’s prices suggest. It’s in a strip mall, the same as a Thyme For Everything. The prices are a bit upscale for me, but it’s fine, I had a g-​pon. We walked in and it’s friggin dark. Maybe I need new glasses, but the dang menu, I couldn’t read it without my glasses cause the lights were too dim. It was so cold, the server had to turn the ceiling fans completely off.
My service was impeccable. No complaints there. She bought out fresh soft Italian bread and herbed butter (only I couldn’t see that it was actually herbs in the butter or spots, cause it was dark in the dining area.) The bread was the freshest I have had in a long time.
I ordered the Eggplant Tower. It had 4 layers of hand breaded egg plant with spaghetti on the side. The sauce was tomato with a sun dried tomato, making it interesting. The spaghetti was okay, the sauce though, ridiculous good. The eggplant was very good. Definitely not boring.
My mom had salmon with risotto. I’m not a risotto fan. It included shrimp, mixed with the risotto. The shrimp was slightly cold. The risotto was also slightly cold. It wasn’t that grand. I’d say this is not something I’d ever order.
At this point, when we paid, I asked the server, «Do you use local ingredients? Like use ingredients from local farms?» She actually answered me without looking odd, and said, «We do, when we can.»
I also learned that they are local and own another restaurant in Raymore. As for Ciao! Bella, I might or might not eat there again. But for the G-​pon, it was worth it to visit this location.

Ciao! Bella has been the talk of this Lee’s Summit town for quite awhile now. Some say it’s the Bravo or Brio of LS; others say it’s a way to support a local Italian eatery without handing your money over to Olive Garden. I am not sure where I stand in the middle of these two options because 1.) Bravo and Brio are in a whole different level of class and menu offerings than Ciao Bella and 2.) Olive Garden has never let me down with their food.
Went here on a cold Thursday night with some friends thanks to a recent Groupon deal. Ordered the sampler appetizer platter of Prosciutto, olives, a garlic dip, goat cheese and gouda cheese, marinated peppers, and delicious homemade bread. The plate didn’t last long on our table, especially because it took quite awhile for the rest of our meal to arrive. I ordered a cup of tomato bisque and the «House Mediterranean» salad, which — though these were my meal — were served at the same time my friends’ appetizer soup was served. This wouldn’t have been a big deal if it hadn’t taken our waitress an additional 25+ minutes to serve the rest of the main courses… which, by then, we had eaten two loaves of stale-​tasting Italian-​esk bread. My soup was lovely. My salad, however, was a pile of iceberg lettuce with far too much creamy brown colored dressing with a few onions and tomatoes on the side, wedged in between some immersed shreds of feta cheese. I like salad dressing as much as the next girl, but this was the saltiest dressing I had ever tasted — and it was all over that pile of iceberg. I tried my best to eat the majority of the plate until I realized that I had gone through 2 glasses of water and kept reaching for my chap stick while eating this mess. I hardly took more than 4 bites due to the salt, especially sad considering that was the main component of my meal.
My friends’ enjoyed their meals. They both ordered the shrimp ravioli, ate as much as they could, and left with hefty doggy bags. Since I had so much time with out food in front of me, I finally took notice of the facility — charming, though in a tired sort-​of-​way. Bathroom was just OK.
Overall, I want to reiterate that I am a huge advocate of supporting local businesses. However, I also like to be able to eat my food without needing an equivalent of insulin for a salt overdose. Maybe we caught our waitress on a bad day. Maybe I just ordered the wrong dish. Either way I left feeling disappointed and wondered if I would have done better at: gasp!: Olive Garden.

Terrible, terrible, terrible! They don’t make their own pasta. Manicotti, ravioli, & other dishes are factory purchased. They served a burnt, pre-​prepared breaded egg plant with their one trick pony red sauce. Shrimp is defrosted from frozen, the calamari is purchased frozen & breaded, & about the only thing that would require having a «chef» is … well, nothing they serve. Maybe if they changed out the oil in their fryer once on a while everything might not come out looking like the «chef» took a nap while preparing your meal. DISGRACEFUL!

Great location, nice storefront and pleasant ambiance. A restaurant that works hard to present well should probably not offer a bag of chips with it’s excellent Italian sausage sandwich, but it did. While the flavor of the sandwich did not make my eyes roll back, it was very good, and loaded with melted cheese. Service was friendly, but less than professional. I am told the desserts are fabulous, including peanut butter pie. I will be back for that!

The first time I went to Ciao! Bella, I had a great experience. We went around 5pm and it wasn’t busy at all. I ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo and it had a unique sauce that was really good! We were taken care of and I was really impressed by both food and service.
However, the second time I went I had really talked it up to my friend about how good it was. This time we went at 7pm and the place was packed. The hostess told us it would be 45 minutes, so we decided to walk down to Mingle to have a few drinks while we waited. When we came back, there was miscommunication with other groups about who should be seated before who and where other people were when their name was called. It just seemed really unorganized and I felt like the hostess could have made everyone feel more taken care of. She didn’t seem like she knew what she was doing/​Also, it looked like the bar tenders were the owners and they didn’t once try to help her or offer people waiting a drink. The two of us were then seated at a six person table and ten minutes after not being asked what we would like to drink we walked out.
The only reason this restaurant gets 3 stars from me is because the first experience was so good. I would still like to have some fettuccine sometime, but the last experience put a damper on things and I’m going to have to work up the patience to go back.
I’m concerned for their business with that kind of customer service.

The boyfriend and I decided to try something different for dinner and we really weren’t sure what to expect because we haven’t heard much of anything about Ciao Bella. We were surprised how busy it was, but we figured this would bode well for us.
The menu had a variety of dishes and everything we had was great! The butter for the bread had some seasoning which I couldn’t pinpoint, but it was awesome! I highly suggest the dessert sampler to end your meal: YUM! It doesn’t get much better than tiramisu, crème brûlée, and a canoli.
The candlelit tables gave a very nice ambiance. I kind of felt like I was in The Godfather (I opted to take the canoli instead of the gun). However, it isn’t very private and the acoustics of the room had a constant low buzzing of conversation, which I didn’t mind, but it certainly isn’t for those looking for private dining.
The only negatives were the salad, which seemed like bag lettuce, and they were little short staffed which led to some waiting. But overall, we had a great experience and now have someplace new to go for dinner!

Stopped in for dinner and were pleasantly surprised by the experience. The restaurant is a little small, so not many of the tables really feel private. The atmosphere was nice with soft lighting and candles on each table.
Now i’ll admit that when they brought out the salad and bread I was concerned. The caesar was not anything special at all. It really looked like a bag salad dumped on a plate. The bread was an Italian style loaf that was very dry.
I was kinda concerned what to expect when our meals arrived. But once we all had our first bites my opinion improved. I had the ravioli florentine, my husband had the spicy penne (w/​sausage and bell pepps) and our friend had the lasagna. All of them had flavorful sauces, and fresh tasting ingredients. We were all shared bites and were happy with our selections.
This place is certainly a great option for Italian out in Lee’s Summit. The whole experience could be improved with a better salad and bread. Also the hostess was no where to be found for more than 10 minutes when we walked in. They seemed caught off guard by the amount of business they had on a Friday night. The experience got off to a rough start but our meals were wonderful and ultimately we left satisfied.

I had been craving Cascone’s dipping service (olive oil, herbs, roasted whole cloves of garlic, parm) for days, but was too lazy to drive up north. That’s where you come in, Ciao! Bella!
I was carb-​loading for a huge ride the next day, so I hopped on their bread and special-​requested dipping oil. They brought out a loaf of what appeared to be Roma Bakery’s style. It was this kinda clover-​leaf-​ish/​flower shaped white bread with sesame seeds, and dry. To top it off, the olive oil dipping stuff was literally olive oil with dried herbs sprinkled on top. Bummer.
Here are the higher points:
–their house salad ($ 3) was awesome! It was pretty huge and really fresh.
–their homemade pizzas are TOO good. All my ingredients were fresh (shrooms, olives, spinach, marinated artichokes). Definitely one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had at an Italian place.
My only complaints were the bread (already addressed) and the hostess. She told us we had a 10 minute wait, we waited 35+ minutes. Maybe she was new or overwhelmed, but she wasn’t on top of things and not very apologetic when people were getting seated before us.
Although the food was good, I will stick to Cascone’s. Seriously, their dipping service is worth the drive, no matter where you are!

Ciao! Bella is situated in a nice storefront space across the train tracks in downtown Lee’s Summit. With the exception of one of the painted murals, I like the exposed brick, rectangular dining room. If they have candles for dinner, it might be one of the best date environments that I’ve seen in LS.
But I went for lunch.
It took a while for the noticeably sweaty, tired gentleman to bring out our fettucine and italian steak sandwich — -at least twenty minutes — and the dining room was not even half-​full.
The alfredo sauce was well seasoned and the portion was good for lunch. My italian steak sandwich had fresh mozzarella as advertised, but the overly fried breading that had a faint spent-​oil taste was not as welcome. Fortunately, the tangy red sauce masked it well.
I see promise here. I hope they use fresh ingredients and take a couple steps to improve service. Independent restaurants need all the help they can get as LS is a haven for chains

We went here for Valentine’s Day dinner, after months of walking by on daily dog walks and thinking, «We should try this place.» Not disappointed.
The restaurant was warm and cozy, and very, very cute. Two stars for the server being an absolute sweetheart… good staff will win you repeat customers! We had a mix-​up with the billing and got charged for a different «sweetheart special» than we’d ordered, but the issue was politely and pleasantly resolved with no problem whatsoever.
The warm rolls are served with a wonderful garlic herbed butter, and are generously portioned. We got the house Caesar and house tossed salad, and both were flavorful and didn’t taste at all like salads served in a snowstorm in February… bright, tasty veggies, not limp, anemic ones you can get this time of year.
BF, an Italian who can be snobby about pasta prep, was delighted with the spaghetti, perfectly al dente. I tried a veal dish, the lemonata, which is not something I’d had before, but even with nothing to compare it to, it was light, flavorful and tender. The house chianti was delicious and mellow. I was impressed by the range of items on the menu… cute little bistros often have rather sparse menus, but this place has a good variety.
Our server recommended the evening’s special dessert, a chocolate cheesecake slice with a chocolate dipped strawberry on the side, and it was huge, plenty big enough to split. Rich and tasty… only flaw was canned whipped topping, I was surprised they didn’t go with real cream, given the quality of the dishes overall. Still, a wonderful meal in a very, very cute, sweet atmosphere. We’ll definitely be back.

What a great spot for a date night! The ambiance of this restaurant just oozes romance and I love it. Dim lighting, quaint décor and delicious Italian food make this place a winner in my book.
We’ve been three times and have had an excellent meal every time. Like the previous reviewer commented, the portions are made for two. Should you not wish to share, they’ll be plenty to take home.
Service is prompt and knowledge.
Be sure to try the House Wines. They are fab!