Ciao Cielo has been around for eight years serving up amazing Italian food and has recently relocated to a bigger more breathtaking venue. The building is heritage listed and used to be an old courthouse. After renovations, the place looks like a dining hall of dreams. High ceilings, rendered walls, stunning bar, fireplace, big arched windows. The food to follow was just as stunning.
Next door is their sibling restaurant Ciao Cucina which has a more casual style dining area serving up tasty pizzas. The outdoor area is a lovely place to have a casual food and beverage session.
The carbonara pizza had a creamy base with salty pancetta and egg, it was delicious.
After some casual drinks at Ciao Cucina we moved next door to Ciao Cielo for our sit down dinner.
They had a gorgeous bar with a good wine menu.
We started with the confit duck arancini which was super crunchy on the outside, had a rice and duck filling in the middle and a centre of molten mozzarella. Delicious.
The wagyu bresaola was delicately sliced and was accompanied by artichoke, endive, horseradish and gnocci fritti which were like little pillows of crunchy bread.
Then the Mozzarella board came out and jaws dropped. There was creamy burrata, smoked mozzarella, deep fried mozzarella and more.
The prawn risotto had a creamy bisque and big chunks of prawn scattered throughout. There were two very large grilled Spencer Gulf King prawns sitting on top and there was a majoram gremolata (zesty herb sauce) dotted around the plate for extra flavour.
Next up was a whole rainbow trout wrapped in pancetta and cooked with thyme and lemon. It was cooked to perfection, melts in your mouth.
The Bistecca alla Florentina was a 1kg t-bone. It was one big steak. We had a dollop of truffle mustard to go with it. I loved that it was cut into easy to eat pieces.
The fagiolini was delicious, it was braised green beans cooked in tomato, garlic, olive oil.
The wood roasted sage mushrooms were roasted and juicy with creamy goats curd and puffed wild rice for texture.
The Sardinian style goat leg was super tender and was cooked with wild olives, fennel, lemon, chilli and majoram and was packed with flavour. It had deep-fried polenta dumplings on top which were creamy and soft when you bit into them. So good.
For dessert we had the canolli filled with ricotta. The shell was a thin caramelised crisp rather than the pastry shell and it was delicious. It came with a fennel and almond crumb, a wonderfully fresh blood orange sorbet over chocolate snow and candied almonds.
Nonna’s tiramisu had a beautiful coffee flavour and had a good ratio of sponge to cream.
The Amaretto bomb was ameretto gelato with an orange centre wrapped in toasted Italian meringue. This looked amazing with some citrus segments and an ameretti crumb.
I heart Ciao Cielo!
Olives x
Ciao Cielo
Address: 115 Bay St, Port Melbourne VIC 3207
Website: ciaocielo.com.au
Phone: (03) 9646 7697
Trading Hours: Mon-Sun: 12pm-3pm (lunch), 6pm-10pm (dinner)
