Ciao Ciao Gelato & Cafe — Restaurant in Jefferson Township

They have a lot of room to grow. They’ve only been open a couple days and it’s glaringly obvious the kinks have not been worked out. There were two employees scooping and two employees at the register. The scooping employees must be new to gelato because they were struggling and taking a long time to take and fulfill orders. Why didn’t either of the employees on POS help? They also had a hard time keeping track of who was next in the line, a line that kept getting longer the whole time I was waiting. A group of people actually left while I was there the line was so long and unmoving. The flavors are confusingly organized, between the two cases some are dupes and some are not. There needs to be a board with the flavors listed because the line all got stuck behind a person placing a big order and couldn’t see all the flavors.

All this I can forgive, they are employees and new to their jobs because the entire business is new. My last critique however is for management. The prices are insane. Twice what you’d pay for an equivalent cone in Italy. But ok, we’re not in Italy. However, the small size is a full two dollars more than a kids cone at Jeni’s and HALF the amount of ice cream. It’s about the same price as a regular size at black dog gelato, and they let you get two flavors so it’s two big scoops. $7 for a small, single flavor cone is highway robbery. It’s also a bold, hubristic pricing scheme for a location that is one block from a Dairy Queen and two blocks from a Culver’s.

I will return in a few weeks and see if service has improved but with those prices gotta go down (or the quality must massively improve) for me to become a regular. Which bothers me because I live a 5 minute walk and...

Went here on a Tuesday night and there was a good number of people inside meaning that I knew I was walking into something good!

Tried a few samples and they were all really great. Usually pretty picky but they all stand on their own. There are so many flavors that you'll definitely need to make a few trips throughout the year to try them all.

Also tried two of their donuts and wow, they were pretty amazing as well. I'm a donut guy so really happy there are some quality donuts in the area now.

The ambiance is also super family friendly. Can see people hanging out here in the morning waiting for the bus, after school relaxing after the park, or just a chill date night. Lots of fun decor and personality by the owner. Nice touch and makes it feel homey.

Lastly, the customer service was top notch The person attending to us serving up our dessert were all smiles and answered some of our questions we had about their menu. The owner was also fantastic. You can tell he's very passionate about this place and you definitely love to see that in a business.

Really excited this has opened up!

Usually not a dessert guy so this is a lot...

I visited this business on 10 Aug 2023. It is very strange that the owner and the employee are both very secretive about their prices. They have a web site with menu that does not have any price, they have social media photos with no prices. What is the secrecy for? I went into the cafe, took photos of the prices and asked for them; and then the employee asked me if i was a rival cafe owner and spying on their prices...seriously? This message is for the paranoid owner and the employees: it is a shady practice to not to post your prices anywhere. There are some families who have multiple kids so it is very normal for them to want to know the prices of a business before they go somewhere. It is called budgeting in 2023:) The other issue was when i asked if they have pints and quartz, the employee said yes and showed me their to go boxes of 6&8 flavors. I did not feel like educating them on what is an ice cream pint and quartz that are being used by every single ice cream/gelato shop...