My husband and I have lived in Kuala Lumpur for almost a decade. We already have a few favorite Italian restaurants (Nerovivo, Nerotecca, Sassarosso, etc. for non-hotel Italian restaurants) but we were invited to a wine pairing dinner at Ciao recently so we thought it was a good opportunity to try yet another well known in-town Italian restaurant.
The ambience both inside/outside is lovely. It's obviously a well known venue for weddings/celebrations with a separate glass room outdoors adjacent to a manmade pond; very pretty indeed. Outdoor dining is possible (with strong overhead fans I noticed as well) and there is a very nice bar inside with a large seating area to choose from. It's a combination of rustic, romantic and upscale design.
As we were part of a large group of about people, I am not sure we had the best offerings from the kitchen and later I checked and they were indeed not on the usual menu. With this in mind, the food was only average. The starter was a fresh crab salad but the crab was a bit soggy and it was nothing special. The middle course was a beef cheeks ravioli of which I found the sauce to be quite floury and the meat tasteless (the pasta itself was well made). There was a choice of fish, chicken or lamb for the main course; I had the lamb (rack of lamb) and my husband had cod. Both were nice but again nothing I would order again. Dessert was a chocolate covered mousse which was not appealing to me at all but my husband enjoyed it (tasted mass produced to me...). I see some excellent reviews so if we lived near by we might give the restaurant another try, but as we already have some superlative choices closer to where we live, I doubt we'll be coming back. I'd still say the venue would be lovely for an event but I would probably stick to the regular menu and do a full tasting ahead of time. (Wines were provided to us but also wouldn't have been ones I'd select if offered by the restaurant.)
