Ciao Bella Restaurant, Pizzeria, Martini Bar Charlston SC — Restaurant in Charleston

This is not a rebrand of La Fontana! This is a new restaurant! La Fontana was so dark it was creepy. This is our opinion and an opinion of four of our friends. (There are two other restaurants owned by the same family in New Smyrna Beach, FL- Dad owns those. The daughters own this restaurant.)

Ciao Bella is a wonderful West Ashley addition! The hostess (Sara/Sarah) turned out to be our server. She was a delight! She cared so much about our experience and was invested in our eveningWe honestly can't remember the last time we had such a personable, pleasant, and accommodating server.We made several special requests and she (and the kitchen) accomodated us without a problem

Our water glasses were filled immediately and we no more got settled in and we received bread service with a delicious mix of herbs and oil. My wife ordered two glasses of California Sauvignon Blanc and I ordered their strawberry martini special. It was wonderful and creative - it appeared to be strawberry puree with vodka or gin with a rim of Chili powder. I also had their peach martini from their drink menu. Both were garnished very creatively. We had the Caesar salad (we chose no anchovies) as an appetizer and it was delicious.

My wife ordered the Penne Alfredo with Chicken and like most pasta dishes her order was huge with a tremendous amount of chicken. I had the Chicken Marsala. Instead of pasta tossed in Marsala sauce I asked for penne tossed in garlic and olive oil Sara/Sarah took my request in stride and said it would not be a problem. The piece of chicken I received was dinner plate sized and the bowl of pasta I received was huge! My wife and I could not finish our meals and Sara/Sarah graciously, without asking, offered to fix to-go boxes for us (we had the leftovers the next day and they were delicious!)

As we were celebrating our anniversary we decided to share the limoncello cake. Like everything, the cake was very good.

Without knowing, Ciao Bella made our 36th annivery very special. The quality of the food was only exceeded by the quality of the service. Sara/Sarah was so personable and contributed to our special evening.

West Ashley needs more restaurants like Ciao Bella. We look forward to returning very soon and making it one of our very few regular restaurants. We already have our next meal picked out - share a Caesar salad, 10" pizza, and share cake for dessert. I am not sure we could make this meal at home for cheaper. Ciao Bella is a very affordable alternative for dinner or can be that special...

We had family visit and took them out for Italian. The restaurant was cute and we were seated immediately. Tight quarters for sure and Only gave an 3 for atmosphere due to tightness and also noise level. Everything started well. The menu had many dishes we liked. I lived in Italy for 4 years. Southern Italy. And I traveled all over Italy and have eaten in back yard trattorias and fine dining restaurants. I was excited to see a couple dishes I particularly liked. We ordered appetizers to share. The Mozzarella was premade and frozen. The calamari was as tough as shoe leather and had no flavor. Premade and frozen. I called over the server and told her the calamari wasn’t good. She explained to me “ oh a lot of people say that. You probably are going to say it’s you that. It’s not tough. We hand cut it fresh and it’s different than a lot of other restaurants because of that. I started to say I have watched many chefs prepare fresh calamari and hand cut does not produce exactly the same thickness of each slice. Only a machine does that. And there were no tentacles or other parts that come with fresh And properly cooked and prepared calamari is as tender as butter. Much better then frozen. But I realized that it would fall on deaf ears. Service started to decline immediately after that. DIL ordered spaghetti and meatballs. The driest meatballs I have ever tasted. Served over noodles and hated sauce that was mediocre. Husbands veal parm was the driest, thinnest piece of some unrecognizable meat. And the same tomatoe sauce over it and spaghetti. My husband NEVER complains and will eat anything. He didn’t eat half and said he will never go back. My Carbonara was so over loaded with onions that that is all I tasted. I tried removing a lot of them but the taste was overwhelming. I cannot recall what my son ordered. But he also did not eat much of his. I know that they will say it was all fresh made. I don’t care. I can cook Italian better than anything we were served and I am not a chef. I do have a food background and can recognize premade frozen food. To be honest, it was the worst meal I have eaten in Charleston. And actually maybe anywhere except maybe McDonalds or 7-11! We all have different tastes and I am aware that I simply may not care for this food. But 4 of us, All from different states and different taste all agreed that this restaurant was not a place we would want...

I am not sure where to start. The menu was lovely, everything was described well, a plethora of things for my palate to choose from. I was exceedingly excited to see Osso Bucco on the menu, especially paired with Risotto. Husband ordered Antipasto, Eggplant Rolitini and garlic oil noodles. We live less than a minute drive away, placed the order for pick up, received confirmation, and anticipated completion time window. Arrived just as the time window commenced. Parking lot was full, attributed this to a better possible outcome than the previous tenants of the building. Notification comes on the phone, "Your order is ready for pick-up!" Great! Staff was kind and attentive, but my cuisine was still in preparation, with a 15 minute delay, so back to my warm vehicle I went.

15 minutes later and back inside I ventured to collect my repast, which was fortuitous, as they were just boxing the last item.

For what reason do I offer all of this information, you may ask? Why to illustrate my vast vexation upon arrival at my abode to find my Osso Bucco had spaghetti. I so was looking forward to the risotto. Now you may wonder if this was enough vexation to earn such a low rating? Alas, nay, this would have been a minor inconvenience had the Osso Bucco been fall of the bone tender, or dare I say, warm even. Or had the Antipasto been plated and not just layered into the tin like a lettuce-lacking salad that had been soaked in gobs of vinegar. Maybe the eggplant would be a redeeming element you ask? Perhaps, should anyone enjoy chilled eggplant, and generic tub ricotta, covered in jarred red sauce. And I would rather not talk about the spaghetti side that recalled memories of highschool lunchroom meals.

2 stars for the mushroom red-wine reduction sauce with the Osso Bucco and the realization that absent risotto was better than abhorent risotto.

In short, the food did not outweight the...