Santo Cielo — Restaurant in Naperville

I hate to give a restaurant a bad review, especially when so many restaurants are faced with so many challenges, but I think my experience bears some value for both restaurateur and patron alike. All reviews are temporary and a glimpse of one individuals experience, so your mileage may vary. That being said, I like to eat and do so frequently.

The TLDR version: This place is a bad restaurant masquerading as a good restaurant. A good example is the "avocado pizza" which is basically like a pita with a glob of guacamole on top? There is a taco spot across the street that has better guac + chips for half the price.

Longer Version I like to eat, especially when I see an ambitious menu. I had the Saffron Campanelle with bay scallops, shrimp, and Manilla clams for my entree, which was very, very bad. The dish was so heavily oversalted that it basically inedible, the campanelle itself was far past al dente, and the fish was NOT FRESH nor cleaned to a professional standard. It seemed that the shellfish had been precooked. I may be wrong here, but I actually think that the whole dish had been precooked, and that they may have just like tossed it with butter in the BOH. I took it home in a box because I hate to waste, but ended up slam dunking it into the trash can when I tried it the next day.

I also had the salmon poke, which was basically mayonnaise soup. There is no reason to have these fish items on your menu; there is a sushi restaurant downstairs, and clearly Santo Cielo is having trouble sourcing quality fish / not worth the cost.

The frites were EXCELLENT, but like...they are frites and this is place is trying to be fancy. I say just double down on pizzettas, vegetable forward tapas / entrees e.g. the rainbow carrots which were actually not that bad, though somewhat bland, and your awesome frites and you will have yourself an incredible restaurant.

Kudos goes to the aesthetic / interior designers and the builders as this place is really beautiful, but the food and drinks were just not there. Someone needs to manage with a closer eye on the customer experience.

I'd be willing to bet that there is some tension with FOH / BOH, I was definitely picking up on a vibe with the hosts / servers.

All restaurants can improve, and I hope this one does. I will definitely try it again in like 6 months, hopefully with better...

I had seen glowing reviews of this restaurant on TikTok and was genuinely excited to try it. Due to a work emergency on my birthday (July 11), my brother made a thoughtful gesture by booking a reservation for the three of us on July 19 to celebrate belatedly.

Our reservation was originally for four people at 5 PM, but one guest couldn't make it. We arrived 15 minutes early and kindly let the hostess know about the change, even offering to wait if needed. Instead of understanding, she rolled her eyes, looked us up and down, and sharply said, “Well, you know we won’t serve food before 5 PM, right?” I responded politely, saying we were happy to wait. She seemed annoyed, walked away, then returned and asked rudely, “So when is your fourth guest arriving?” We repeated that it was just three of us now. She didn’t respond—just stared at us and finally said, “Follow me,” before seating us with a cold attitude.

We tried to brush it off, thinking maybe she was having a rough day. But moments later, she greeted other (non-Hispanic) guests with warmth and friendliness—smiling, laughing, and being attentive. It was hard not to notice the difference in treatment, especially when we seemed to be the only Hispanic guests in the restaurant.

Once seated, we waited over 10 minutes without any attention from a server, even as others who arrived later were promptly helped. When our server finally came, she seemed visibly irritated by our questions about the menu. The restaurant wasn’t busy, so her impatience felt unnecessary. Despite noting on the reservation that this was a birthday celebration—and my brother even mentioning it again in person—there was no acknowledgment at all. He even offered to pay for any celebration but was ignored.

The food was unfortunately underwhelming. The Caesar salad and drinks were decent (7/10), but our main dishes lacked flavor and didn’t live up to the hype. The one bright spot was the kind woman who brought our entrees from the kitchen—she was warm, considerate, and more attentive than our actual server.

Overall, the experience was disappointing and uncomfortable. Sadly, we left feeling unwelcome and overlooked. I wouldn’t recommend this place, and I won’t...

I typically don't have too high of expectations for restaurants in the suburbs because so often they are just 'ok'. Santo Cielo was a pleasant surprise! What I was most impressed with were the appetizers and overall atmosphere. The service was great as well. Regarding the appetizers, or 'small' plates, we ordered the Brussels sprouts, shrimp and jicama, and the tiradito. All were beyond delicious and way better than I expected. The tiradito was so fresh, bursting with citrus flavor- do not skip out on this dish. Shrimp and jicama was also so flavorful and I love how it was prepared almost as little tacos but the taco shells were thinly sliced jicama. SO good and had a nice kick. The Brussels were great as well. I probably should have ordered from the cocktail menu, given that I'm not a big white wine fan and the fact that we were eating such bright and light seafood items for apps, however I planned on also getting the bolognese for my main, so red wine it was. By the glass red wine selection could have been a little better, but was fine. Bolognese was al dente but the meat sauce left much to be desired. I think this dish is more along the lines of what I would expect at a suburban restaurant, but my expectations had already gone up a few notches after the small plates. I will say though that our waiter told us the best mains would be the sea bass and the gnocchi, so perhaps I should have listened. I will definitely be coming back for more of that shrimp jicama and tiradito, so next time I think I will try the sea bass and get a fun cocktail instead. My only other complaint was that we were sitting by a window (not riverside) and the windows were SUPER filthy. The rest of the restaurant was really beautifully designed and seemed clean but yeah, looking out of a dirty window was kind of ick. As I mentioned, our server was really great, and very attentive, which seems to not be the norm anymore. My friend and I were chatting away and realized we were the only table left in the restaurant. Nobody urged us to leave or made us feel bad about it, we basically just realized it on our own that we closed the place down. Overall, 4.5 stars, one of my best restaurant experiences...