I must admit that I am a hard to please patron and the kind of customer that wait staff dread. I am more than happy to point out sloppy service, cold food, rudeness or just plain old crappy offerings. There are several restaurants in Dallas that I will never again pass over their threshold simply because the service was poor, even if the food was excellent.
Ciao Chicago opened their doors recently in the space just south of Buttons on Addison Road (just north of Beltline just in case you don't know where Buttons is) in a space that has had more restaurants that I have had haircuts. The owners come from a long line of Chicago restauranteurs .... OK, would you believe that they lived all their lives in Chicago ... Ok, actually, she is from Turkey and he is from Russia and they lived for a while in Chicago, but that is not a negative because we have some wonderful ethnic additions that we would not get in a straight Chicago pizza joint. Like Pide. How do you pronounce that? No effing clue. But it is a kind of boat shaped flat bread pizza with some recognizable ingredients and some that are only vaguely familiar. Lahmacun. No, that is not a South American Leprecan, it is a extra thin flat bread ground beef, pepper paste and tomatoes and some really interesting spice combinations and no, I have no frigging clue how to pronounce that either, but it is really delicious.The decor is ok, exposed brick walls and a former wine room from one of the earlier incarnations that is now used to store booze and warm beer. The service was, well, really bad. Not that they didn't try, but I am quite sure that the young lady that was our server has never worked in a restaurant in her life. Very sweet, but very incompetent. She managed to somehow get every single part of our order incorrect. We ordered Chicken Parmigiano and 2 stuffed pies.
Now if you know anything about Chicago stuffed pies you know that they take a very long time to prepare .... 45 minutes to an hour. 10 minutes after ordering the Chicken Parm arrived. I suggested to our server that perhaps it would be better to wait until the pies were almost done before submitting the Chicken Parm order to which she thanked me for my advice and walked away. So we got to watch one of our group eat their superb Chicken Parm, which we all tasted, while we continued to wait.
30 minutes later the pies arrived, and instead of two stuffed pies we received one stuffed and one deep dish pie. The one stuffed pie, at first thought to be the only correct item, contained incorrect ingredients. "Yes, pineapple and pepperoni both start with P, so perhaps you should write down at least part of the ingredient so that you order the correct one when you punch it in." "Thanks again." *Sigh* Really, really incompetent.Now here is the odd part. Even though the service was horrible and the Russian beer was warm, I would seriously consider going back, because that meal was absolutely terrific. Perfectly prepared with fresh ingredients and utterly delicious. I would suggest you give it a try, but just be aware that there is a pretty good chance the order that you receive will be a surprise to you and your server.
Ciao Chicago
15107 Addison Road
Addison, TX 75001
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