La Cucina Di Ciro — Restaurant in Gauteng

This owner run restaurant is truly excellent. We were among around 20 guests who attended a close friend's birthday supper on a Saturday evening. The restaurant, which is situated in a traditional South African house, was already busy by 6pm, so our host's choice to book the private outside room, under the trees was a great call.

To start, the table was served a splendid antipasto selection; platters of both delicious cured meats and assorted roasted vegetables for the whole table. These were accompanied with freshly baked, tasty focaccia and parmesan-topped salad. There was ample of everything to satisfy all the guests.

For our main course we were presented with a 1-page menu which offered plenty of choice, ranging from Pizza, Pasta, meat and vegetarian dishes. Vegetables are ordered and charged separately. The waitress mentioned daily specials but, understandably, not all were still available at the time of ordering.

All the main courses arrived pretty much simultaneously, on piping hot plates, not an easy feat for a table of 20.

Everyone appeared to enjoy their food, but I need to mention two outstanding dishes. Several guests seated near near me chose the slow-cooked lamb, off the bone and they raved about how good it was.

I chose the calves' liver, sauted with sweet red onion and red pepper. I absolutely love liver, but it's rarely on the menu. The calves' liver dish served to me at Ciro's was possibly the best I've tasted anywhere in the world, I could not fault it, served with crispy roast potato wedges.

For dessert we were served a rich, moist chocolate birthday gateau for the table. A great way to celebrate our friend's special day.

We all celebrated from 6pm to well after 11pm and were the last to leave the restaurant. Uber service was good, with no one waiting for more than a few minutes for a ride home.

All-in-all a terrific...

The best calf liver in the whole of Joburg. We come back here time and time again and never leave out the liver. Ciro, the owner is popular with his patrons as he goes around the restaurant, there is familiarity and warmth.

This is what we had.

Thinly sliced calves liver with Spanish onions served with mash potato and mixed veggies. Home away from home - cooked with love.

Marinated artichokes with Parmesan & fontina cheese. Great potion.

Decadent double chocolate brownies with vanilla ice cream

Chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream. Delicious. You can taste that they used dark chocolate and the sweetness is just right.

The restaurant had to add revenue streams due to COVID so now Ciro has added a small Deli with take away and frozen meals...

Dined there with a friend for Saturday lunch. Starters were the signature dish of pate with fig and the Portuguese sardines. The sardines were well cooked if a little bland. The pate was rather dense but otherwise tasty. Mains were two of the day's specials being baked salmon and roast duck in pomegranate sauce. The salmon was perfectly delicately seasoned and cooked to perfection. The duck was rather rare and thus difficult to cut into and to eat. We were looking forward to some nice crispy skin but the pomegranate sauce made the skin soggy and did not add to the taste at all. We did not manage to finish the duck. Finished off with some good coffee. On balance we felt the meal was a little overpriced for what...