Ciao Baby — Restaurant in Bolton

Booked for Saturday June 14th, 7 pm. Day before father's Day, not the best decision I've ever made Lovely place, lovely setting but totally full, as was the car park. Way too many people inside, lots of families, kids running around unwatched. Noisiest restaurant I've ever been in! Italian restaurants normally have a good atmosphere, people chatting etc, but this was on a totally different level. My brother, who's birthday it was, said it looked like total chaos, and he was right! Weren't received by anyone when we arrived, simply told buy a passing waitress to go to the bar without having our reservation checked. Bar area totally rammed, 30 plus people all waiting for tables. Waited half an hour, nobody from the bar was called to be seated. We returned to the reception to enquire how long it would be, then we're taken to a table but it was in the process of being cleaned. Not set with anything and still wet from the cloth they had wiped it with! Waitresses tried their best but they were absolutely rushed off their feet. Too many bookings I'm afraid for the staff to manage.

Food was good, nothing special though. Had better at San Merino for example. When it arrived, staff, due to being rushed, forgot to bring our vegetables. Only brought them once reminded ten minutes later! We had already eaten some of our food by this point though. Not good service. Bottle of house red, merlot, cost more than 22 pounds was the worst bottle of house wine I've ever had at a good quality restaurant. Sour, bitter, acidic... Everything you don't want in a red!

Restaurant atmosphere was horrible, so loud, no music either, couldn't hear ourselves talking. Finally calmed down at around 9, once the bulk of the people from earlier had left. Too late to save the evening unfortunately.

In conclusion, beautiful location, lovely place, average food, horrible wine, noisy atmosphere.

Unlikely to visit again...

Thanks for your response to my negative review. I feel I need to respond to your comments. I would like to clarify that we didn’t ask for anything for free, we paid for the dish and were simply asking for value for money. There was a very small amount of the key ingredient and when my sister asked for this to be rectified she had a very positive expectation that her concerns would be listened to, because service has always been so considerate. (We don’t generally ask for extra by the way, there has never been a need to!) The waiter who initially took the request is a good member of staff and I suspect he was simply upholding the restaurant’s (new?) policy. We bought prosecco, wine, beers, starters, mains, etc. We certainly didn’t expect anything for free – I didn’t realise king prawns were such a restricted ingredient! We have been coming for years. My other sister’s 50th birthday party lunch was held here – on that occasion we put hundreds of pounds your way and I personally paid the tip of 10%– because your service was great. I don’t expect to be remembered in a big and busy restaurant but customer loyalty was not even considered. You have clearly just assumed we were greedy customers wanting something we weren’t entitled to. Nothing could be further from the truth and it’s a shame you hold your customers in such regard. I didn’t personally speak to the manager on duty - my friend did and she said she found him arrogant. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of that, he didn’t rectify my sister’s concerns – something he could have done very easily. It’s very rare for her to have any complaint so we were angry on her behalf that she was treated this way. I apologise if you feel my comments are unfair but we were made to pretty unappreciated on Saturday night despite many years of friends and family coming to...

Recently visited Ciao Baby after hearing good things, an honneslty couldn't agree more after our visit.!! 🤩🤩

It's probably a few years since I've last been, and this place has certainly changed!! Upon walking in, you are met with a rather modern theme interior with hanging vines/ trellises, modern lighting, and live fires, giving the place rather interment an cosy vibe. Giving the feeling you're on an Italian terrace🇮🇹🪴🍃

The staff are amazing!! We were met at reception by a bubble team and were quickly seated at our table.

The staff were great in taking our drinks & food orders and helped explain a couple of things we were unsure about!! Was a little spoiled for choice as they have a great selection of classic Italian dishes on offer with some rather nice sessional specials. Too many choose from!!

Food arrived fast and was really nice!! 😋.. Didn't order anything flash or overly fancy, just a classic simple carbonara with some focaccia bread, oils / balsamic.. Was rely rely good!! Wolfed the lot!! 🤤🤤🤤.. the bread was warm and fresh with a good balance of Rosmary & sea salt. The Carbonara was rich and creamy and well balanced 🍝 .. Complemented with a Crisp glass white wine, I could happily of sat there all afternoon getting pissed 😆!!...

Least to say was left feeling stuff and satisfied an will deffently be returning!!

Highly recommended giving this place a try!!

10/10 from...