Cucina Ciano

I really wanted this place to be good. It’s close to my house and it’s very cute!
The food was average. I had the Bronzino, and my husband had the gnocchi.
The waiter was nice and attentive. The owner is a different story. I visited the website and saw that reservations should be made by email. I did so, and the owner that responded was a pitiful communicator. Short, incomplete answers. My husband called to confirm our reservation and to let them know we had a voucher. They said we were all set. We got there & there was no reservation. They seated us because the place was nearly empty on a Sat at 8. My husband ordered gin & tonic, and they had no tonic. We had the wrong food delivered to our table twice.
At the conclusion of the meal, my husband pulled out his phone with the e-​voucher that he mentioned on the phone & when we ordered at which time the waiter had inspected it and assured us that the check would reflect the discounted amount which it didn’t. The waiter took down the number again, walked away & returned saying that «the big boss, the owner, said we cannot honor it because it’s not printed.» We asked for the owner. He said it had to be printed which was not consistent with the wording on the e-​voucher. After we questioned this, he took the phone and discounted the ticket.
We could not wait to get out of there. Frustrating experience.

My boyfriend and I live right around the corner and have tried this place three separate times: weekday dinner, weekend pre-​dinner cocktails and most recently Sunday brunch.
The experience has only gotten progressively worse each time — and the one constant is that management/​ownership is just inappropriate and sleazy, thus making the whole place a compete turnoff.
********************
Weekday dinner: We had dinner within the first month of opening.
Décor — nice.
Food — just okay, slightly overpriced.
Waitstaff — just okay, but they hadn’t been open long, so we were willing to overlook it.
Weekend cocktails: We stopped by before heading out to meet friends for dinner.
The restaurant wasn’t very busy and we sat at the bar since we were just having cocktails.
There was a man and a woman at one end of the bar; we originally thought they were customers because they each had a drink.
The bartender was a little slow, but not a big deal … until the woman at the bar started chastising him for being too slow with our drinks, not putting out napkins with our cocktails and not putting out the bar apps [nuts or something]. Management training /​providing feedback to their employees is great; management condescendingly criticizing their employees is inappropriate. The man and woman continued to call over employees to tell them what they were doing wrong and then discuss how awful said employee was after he/​she walked away. It was awkward and uncomfortable. My boyfriend and I left after one cocktail, and were pretty bummed when we realized that we had just bought a Gilt brunch voucher that we would either have to use or waste after that experience.
Sunday brunch: 6÷8÷2014.
We were headed out of town and realized that our Gilt voucher was due to expire ⁶⁄₅. I’ve often had restaurant vouchers that were due to expire and called the restaurant to ask if they could extend it — the reply has been «Sure, no problem» 100% of the time. We called over Memorial Day weekend to ask if we could use the Gilt voucher on ⁶⁄₈ even thought it was expiring 6/​5, and were told yes and that they would notate the reservation; sounded great. Fast forward to this past Sunday: we give the voucher to the waiter and explain that it’s expired, but we called and it should be on our reservation. All he says is okay. Midway through our meal, I notice another customer arguing with an manager/​owner of the restaurant because his Gilt deal is expired but he called ahead of time, etc — basically, the same scenario as us. My boyfriend goes over to explain that we did the same. The manager/​owner claims that he knows nothing about it, but can’t accept expired vouchers because ‘the restaurant won’t get paid’, and ‘how does he know it’s not a photo copy’, and ‘you have to take that up with Gilt’. In total, this same scenario happened with 3 tables of customers. And each time, instead of making any attempt to accommodate the customers or deal with the mishap in a professional, service industry appropriate manner, the manager/​owner made a dramatic scene in explaining to the waitstaff loudly how ‘it’s not his problem, he can’t be out the money, people have to use their vouchers before they expire’, etc — it was so dramatic. On top of that, again management was inappropriately discussing issues with the waitstaff — the same guy was telling them that one employee was getting fired and another needed to train his team better.
Finally, the thing that upset so much that I wrote this review: my boyfriend called Gilt to see what they can do, and their first response was «Well, that’s a blatant breach of our contract; they are supposed to take expired vouchers because they are still worth the dollar amount that was paid.» Gilt has kindly offered to investigate the complaint and contact the restaurant to at least get back the portion of the bill that we should not have had to pay.

Hostess like a cop. Waiters not professional at all. Salad and meatballs average. Waited so long for everything. Bad attitude. Place will close sooner then later. Too bad need good Resturant in that spot. Stay away.

This restaurant is fearly new to the neighborhood, but is good addition. I’ve been here a couple of times before tonight and the food and service are always great. A little noisy I have to say if you get a table around eight during weekends, but worth the effort. The staff is well trained and ready to answer your questions and tonight we had an italian waiter that took us throught the menu and a wine expert for our wine and they both excelled in their suggestions, thanks guys. Food as usual was great; we strarted with the burrata and we ended up sharing our mains, papardele with duck and pan seared snapper. Both great dishes. I would give this place five stars if it wasn’t for two things: 1: somebody screwed up our reservation and they refused to honour our voucher, and 2: the owner (that by the way instead of letting the staff do their job, gets in the middle of their already busy way barking orders with no rispect for them at all), whom apparently cared more of saving $ 60 than accomodate returning customers.
To the owner: you are an incompetent ass, you don’t know how to talk to customers and even less to your employees, that apparently know about the business a lot more than you do. You are rude and unprofessional, and you shouldn’t be in the restaurant if don’t know how to behave in it. For the rest: keep up the good work guys.

intimate dining experience and nice décor. food is very tasty… perfect spot for the neighborhood– spent many dinners here during this brutal NY winter– im so looking forward to spring time and dining outside, true gem!!!

Wonderful atmosphere, friendly staff. Love the duck Bolognese!

The place gets quite busy — — so make sure you make a reservation — — definitely go for the pastas. They are great. Especially the ravioli.
Salads are simple and dressed well.
Service was good –
all in all a good neighborhood place.

I wish there was a way to give less than one star. I’m not one to review often, but I was so disgusted that I just had to warn others. The food was not terrible, nothing special, but not terrible. The staff, however, were rude, grouchy and downright awful. I’m not exactly sure why, since it could not have been a reflection of my party — their demeanor was horrific from the moment we walked in. I would love to chalk it up to fatigue, but it was just past noon. STAY AWAY!!!

This place is a nightmare. The ambiance lures you in and the staff and owner are as loco as they come! I could write more about our awful experience but it’s not worth my time.

A group of nine of us had misjudged how long a concert in the neighborhood would last and so were ready for dinner much earlier than our reservation at another restaurant. We went searching for a place that could take us at 9pm on a Friday night and Cucina Ciano was extremely accommodating and though it was crowded, set up a table for us while we enjoyed some wine at the bar.
The food was delicious, the ambiance was beautiful and comfortable. Their sommelier was very helpful and attentive (we love our wine!). I had the diver scallops which were perfectly pan-​seared and delicious followed by the tre formaggi raviolo which was delightfully scrumptious.
The only issue was our waiter. Not sure whether he was having a bad night or something about our party offended him, but we were being fairly easy patrons and he gave us attitude at every turn. Luckily, the rest of the staff made up for his attitude and we ended up having a lovely evening catching up over delicious food.
I’ll definitely be back!

Food was great! Saturday night is very crowded, be prepared to elbow someone here & there. But the food and service is A+. LOVED the rainbow beet salad, really delicious. Also the pastas and chicken is delicious, too. Will be back.

Cucina Ciano is «As good as it gets!!!» Being in the restaurant business myself for over 20 years, & specializing in fine Italian cuisine, i must say «My compliments go to the Chef!!!». The food is just OUTSTANDING & the Wine List is equally impressive as well. The Balsamic-​Glazed Octupus & the Whole Branzino took me back to the Italian Iolian Islands. The Papardelle Duck Bolognese was the BEST i ever had…& the Chicken Meatballs are what can i say… simply out of this world!!! I loved the white mediterranean décor & enjoyed the music vibe as well. The staff is very lively, friendly & the owner was an absolute pleasure who aims to please all his customers. Again, I give the chef a standing ovation & I’m ecstatic to say this italian restaurant is by far the best, most-​chic, newest «gem» on the upper-​east side. Bravo Cucina Ciano!!!***

I am an old school, classic Italian food lover. I like it simple and like my grandma used to make, but when I hear farm to fork… I have to stop in. And I was impressed! My friend and I enjoyed the Branzino, which was absolutely amazing, even the vegetables on the side I could not get enough of. I also loved the arugula salad with burrata (love) that took me back to Sicily. And they offered a half bottle wine selection which was great so we could try a few different varietals with each course. Needless to say I will be back again… soon.

Great service. Be sure to reserve early because there’s always a long wait. I ordered the glazed short ribs, best choice ever. In terms of pasta, I liked the Mancini with meatballs. The portions were reasonable. I would definitely go back to try more.

My daughter and I had the misfortune of eating here this past week. The food was ghastly. Everything served was substandard and terrible, even the bread served was bad. The bread came without any butter or olive oil but one piece came smeared with thick tomato sauce. It tasted like it was directly out of the can.
I ordered Chicken Meatballs with sauteed spinach. It came room temperature, not even warm. The two meatballs came with two tiny little pieces of spinach and the plate was covered with a thin white sauce. The food was tasted like something from a public school lunchroom but the lunchroom food would have been slightly better.
My daughter ordered The Gionnone Chicken Breast with cauliflower purée, orzo and sauteed mix mushrooms. Four small stips of chicken, rice and canned button mushrooms all swimming in the same thin white sauce as mine arrived. The food was cold and my daughter sent it back to heat it up.
The presentation of the food was non existent. It looked terrible.
We only ate this swill because it was seven degrees outside and it was too cold to leave and find another restaurant to eat in and also we were starving.
We also ordered two sides, spinach and fingerling potatoes. The spinach portion was tiny and it also tasted and looked like it had been re-​heated a number of times and the fingerling potatoes were greasy and had no taste.
We ordered a tiramisu for desert. What a joke, it wasn’t tiramisu at all. It came in a cup with a dissolved chocolate cookie on the bottom of the cup and it was covered in a poor quality whipped cream with shaved chocolate on top, w. a hard biscuit stuck in it. After two bites we sent the foul tasting desert back.
We ordered cappucino and an espresso coffee. The coffee was good.
We spent over $ 100. for this disaster of a meal. It was really terrible. It is a shame as the restaurant itself is nicely decorated and has a nice ambiance.
I doubt they have a chef. It seemed like all the food was preprepared somewhere and just re-​heated to be served.
The quality of the food is very bad and poor ingredients, not fresh, are used. Stay away from this restaurant.

this might be one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had at a restaurant. waited for 1 hour for a reservation and watched people sit as they came in. I finally spoke to the manager who gave the «treatment» and got cheap champagne and a desert (AFTER WE ALREADY ORDERED A DESERT!). the veal chop was burnt and i will be sure to never go back to this place.

My date ordered a bottle of wine and the snippy server asked if he wanted one glass (as if I didn’t exist. He then carded me and said I looked 20 (I was elegantly attired and I’m a woman in my late 20s). The tables are close together so everyone around was keen to watch the awkward moment.
I told him it was unnacceptable to card someone in a restaurant filled with clientele older than me. This is not a Murray Hill frat bar. The snippy server than examined my ID and loudly declared «Oh my God, you’re my age!» Neighboring tables looked at us sympathetically. I thought it was rude to publically discuss a woman’s age? If he needed to ID me, fine but why so loudly, so indiscreetly and rudely? (Probably because he was a horrible waiter). Anyway…
The snippy server then tried to rationalize his poor judgement by relating a story about how a restaurant he worked at in Alaska once had a problem because of serving under age patrons. (They have grizzly bears and oil there too!)
I should have left but I was trapped in my table without easy access to leave so we graciously sucked it up and perservered through a decent meal. The chef is clearly more skilled than the Anchorage transplant. I spoke to the manager/​owner and he was mortified. He sent over some champagne or proseco as a good will gesture but who wants a sparkling spirit after dinner?

The service is haphazard. The noise is ear splitting. Not only is there noise from the patrons but then there is the thrum from piped in disco.
The bread service consisted if one stale bread stick, a roll and a piece of baguette. No olive oil. No butter. We asked twice for a refill without success. We finally got two more stale bread sticks.
The caesar salad was the outer, old romaine leaves with one, yes one single anchovy and a very few croutons which tasted like Pepperidge Farms.
In all fairness, the branzino was well done however it was accompanied by two oily, limp pieces of summer squash.
The clientele is rich, socialite upper east side.
The waiter was clueless as was the circulating maitre d. So, if you would like to have a relaxing evening with good friends and careful service, go elsewhere .
This place was not worth it.

Checked this place out because my boyfriend’s favorite dish is Lobster Fra Diavolo and I saw they had it on their menu. It was ENORMOUS — 3.5 lbs — definitely enough for two people, and it came with some pasta on the side. We also had the Balsamic Glazed Octopus to start, which was perfectly cooked and soft with crispy tentacles. Not chewy at all, and a considerably large portion.
They just opened a couple of weeks ago (mid Nov 2013) so they’re having a few growing pains — the service was a bit slow, but it was great overall. The restaurant is very loud, in fact some people were literally yelling. not sure if there’s anything that can be done about that.
Otherwise, the ambience is very nice. Dimly lit and intimate. I will say the crowd is on the older side — my bf and I were probably the only ones without our AARP card (by a large margin, and it was also a Monday night). But it is still lively and the food is spot on, so definitely worth a visit if you’re craving Italian.

Went on a wed night and the restaurant was very crowded. We were seated immediately. My friend and I shared chicken meatballs and grilled octopus. Both were delicious. We then shared the veal (on a bone) parmigiana and the pasta pappardelle. Both were excellent. Dessert was a shared blood orange sorbet which was also excellent. After dinner the owner took me downstairs through the kitchen to a private room which seats 18. Very cool. The only reason I did not give the restaurant 5 stars is because it was very noisy. That said I was very happy to have another cool trendy restaurant on the upper east side.