Ciao Bella

This place is so packed even 10pm. Service is a little slow but the foods were good. Definitely enjoyed our dinner.

Good food in a popular spot. Bruschetta, Moretti, a pizza & spaghetti alla carbonara were more than enough for the 2 of us & price came out to under 30 GBP. Good service, although this place was so popular, it took a while to order dessert, which turned into ordering the check instead when we were able to ask someone.

Food was excellent. We all had great food and the ambiance was great. One of the waiters was a bit terse, but it was clear that he was very stressed so it’s water under the bridge. I would definitely recommend this place.

I always try to steer clear of simple meals like spaghetti bolognese or carbonara as I like to try new meals that require some difficulty in cooking when dining out, but Ciao Bella’s carbonara is so tasty that I never have to spend time browsing the menu as it’s such an easy choice. Their portions are generous, and I really love that all the waiters and staff are italian which gives the place a nice authentic vibe. I would recommend booking a table upstairs as the downstairs area is very squeezed for space in comparison to the more spacious and lively top floor.

Ciao Bella is a solid option for Italian in a city not exactly swimming in options.
It is family-​style: you sit at long, barely separate tables. Everyone can hear your conversation, but that matter little when so much of it is about how good the food is.
Let’s be clear: Ciao Bella isn’t setting the high-​bar for Italian worldwide, but it is in the top 10% of London. It full deserve four stars. No more, no less since you can find better here and can certainly find worse. You can tell right from the olives they give you that there is something special, but not sublime going on here. The wine list, with many capable options, isn’t going to blow any sommelier’s mind, but he wouldn’t scoff either.
The food is served in healthy portions, is super tasty, and filling. There’s lots of variety. The staff are prompt and courteous. Given the decent size of the place and it’s more neighborhoody location, you’re likely to get a table quickly at all but the busiest hours.
All-​in-​all, a solid option I will be definitely returning for several times.

Excellent service and great brick oven pizza! Brought my parents here from NY and they agree the American hot pizza is something they will crave when they go back!

We went on a Saturday night and this place was heaving! Total mental! We got a table, just about, but the seating is too cramped and so the waiters accidentally were knocking my coat off the chair!
Food wise, I went for the lobster spaghetti and it was just average. The lobster was fresh and tasted good, but the spaghetti massively lacked flavour! A case of pass me the garlic ASAP! My dad loved his lasagne, so maybe it was just a case of me ordering the wrong thing. At £17 for the dish though, I was expecting it to be like the crem de crem of dishes…
I got a glass of the house red and it wasn’t bad. Nothing special, but for £4, it hardly blows the budget!
All in all, I left feeling rather let down. Maybe because I heard so many good things about this place, but I certainly won’t be running back.

This place is everything you want from an Italian restaurant: great staff (mainly Italian), buzzing atmosphere and over 50 menu choices including about 14 different pastas. AND most importantly on busier nights someone bashes out tunes on the grand piano.
All the food is pretty authentically Italian however they do let you put Parmesan on fish based pastas (punishable by lynching in Italy). There are wood oven pizzas, antipasto starters, mains and pasta (obviously). Not too many surprises here just really well done classics with a heap of garlic and flavour. There’s no wonder that on Friday you often have to line.
We shared three pastas: a salmon and broccoli cream base linguini, ricotta ravioli with a safe butter sauce and lastly, broccoli, anchovies and chilli spaghetti. All excellent. Big but not too huge that you feel guilty about wasting half the plate.
We also shared a tiramisu which could have used a dash more coffee but was a nice way to finish.
The restaurant had some nice little touches with Parmesan, olives and bread sticks give to you as you sit down and all the staff had personality.
Wine list was pretty reasonable and featured all the Italian comfort wines for decent prices.
Next time I’ll get into the grappa.

Make a reservation, especially if you’re a group. This place was packed on a random Wed night at 9pm. Seems to be run by old school Italians. They must have an arrangement with the pub next door, because the nice host managing the wait list encourages you to have a drink there while you wait and explains that he will come find you in the pub once your table is ready.
Two drinks and 45 min later we were in.
We sat downstairs at this bi-​level establishment. Not fancy. Felt very family style. But in a fun and boisterous, not cozy and quaint, way. Once seated, we had to beg them to take our order (granted they are always very busy and customer service in London seems to be driven by the customer being proactive). But beyond worth it once the food arrives.
I had the pesto. Portions are large, reasonably priced and of impeccable quality. We also downed 2 extremely reasonably priced bottles of above average house red. And all those amazing desserts in the pic? All mine! I wish…
At least I got to sample them all. I prob could have devoured them all, but my friends would have killed me.

A very friendly, cozy place for dinner. We came here on a Friday night to start the weekend. The restaurant has two levels. The upstairs is entertained by a pianist while the downstairs seem a bit rowdier by comparison. We were seated downstairs but apart from being a bit loud, it was actually quite festive and upbeat.
For starters, we shared a Margarita pizza that actually reminded me a bit of traditional New York pizza. My entrée was the veal marsala, which I enjoyed very much. I was also happy that they were able to substitute the potatoes with garlic spinach. Just an extra note to the spinach — really loved the strong olive oil and garlic taste. For drinks, we had the house red. It was very good and at a great price. Finally, the desserts did not disappoint.
The service was prompt and very friendly. I especially enjoyed the family feel of the restaurant.

Cute little Italian place that is a little pricey but still good. They provide free cheese, olives, and bread sticks (like the hard, crunchy snack kinds) to munch on while you decide on your order. We all orders pastas, which tasted pretty good, and their garlic bread is literally a pizza that is enough to share and oh so very delicious. The staff was very friendly, and our waiter was wonderful. We topped off the meal with ice cream in a Tom cat mug.

I tried the Bocconcini con Pollo and it was fantastic. The chicken was grilled well and the sauce that was drizzled over the chicken was on point. The dish came with a side of steamed/​boiled vegetables and grilled potatoes. The dish is quite healthy, flavorful, and the portion size is perfect for a hungry lunch.
My friend got the tagliatelle which had pieces of salmon in it. Also an fantastic and fresh fish.
The prices are appropriate and service is good. Check it out!

Nice food and friendly staff. Had a great time dining out in Ciao Bella. As soon as we got into the restaurant, they provided us with their wifi password, which was so considerate.

I highly recommend this place if you’re ever in the Russell Square district in London. ‘Nuf said!!!

The food here is great! My husband and I have been here twice and both times we got pizza (first margarita, then mushroom pizza) and pasta (first penne with eggplant, then pesto linguine). Both times we were very happy with our choices! They also provide olives and cheese as starter for all their guests that is pretty awesome.
Also, great customer service!

This is the best Italian in London I’ve know so far! It’s actually a really famous place among Japanese in London.
The place is not that small and filled with table and seats (only a little space between tables/​seats) but it’s always crowded with people. The foods are tasty and offered at very reasonable price for London!
I don’t remember exactly what we ordered but I do remember that their veal steak and tiramisu were really good!

With all of this restaurant’s good reviews, I was expecting better. I knew that service would be rushed, since I came in without a reservation, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad. I came in and they wanted to seat me right next to the door on a cold night. I declined politely, so they seated me farther in the entry room, and warned me that I had to be out within an hour. They then proceeded to open the door (presumably to air the place out) — it got cold! Worse yet, we got wafts of cigarette smoke coming from outside. They finally closed it when asked, but seriously???
During this full process, service was not friendly or warm at all. It was efficient enough, but they barely said a word when serving the food. The most I heard from the waiters was when they were standing around laughing boisterously at a YouTube video. Unprofessional!
I ordered the onion soup (mediocre) and the seafood spaghetti in a bag. The latter was disappointing as well. The pasta was fresh, but the white sauce was oily and watery. I wasn’t impressed particularly.
I wouldn’t recommend this place, although perhaps I just caught them on a bad day.

Food — ⁸⁄₁₀
Ambience — (when we arrived) 6/​10, (when we left) ⁴⁄₁₀
Rupert Everett eating directly behind me — allofthecoolpoints!
This place is pretty great. A definite family feel with a great ring of authenticity throughout. The well-​painted, but also kitschy murals; the piano man who started playing singing out of nowhere (most of us thought that was a bar — nope, a piano!); the fast-​talking no-​nonense wait staff — it’s all quite nice.
I was there with a large party of about 15 – 20 people for a birthday and they went out of their way to make sure we were all taken care of. 3 people arrived really late (as the rest were beginning to get main courses served) and the kitchen rushed their orders so that the late arrivals still got their main courses before the rest of us had finished. They made a beautiful chocolate birthday cake for our friend who was celebrating.
The buffalo mozzarella starter is amazing and every one liked their pizzas and pastas for mains — even if we were all shocked by the portion size! I had pesto linguine and the pesto was really lovely.
My only complaint is that by 9:30 or so it was packed and insanely loud. Shouting to the person next to you at dinner is less than ideal.
Bonus: actor spotting. That was just something fun.

When I first moved to London as a student WAY BACK AS MANY YEARS AGO AS IT TAKES TWO HANDS TO COUNT Ciao Bella was the «fancy, celebration» restaurant we’d go to. Post-​exams. Final goodbye at the end of the year. Ciao Bella was the ticket. It was great, and we’d sit outside as a loud group of students, smoking cigarettes and eating massive pizzas and sipping wine and feeling very smug and sophisticated.
Power forward ahead: I love Lambs Conduit and many of the new incarnations along the strip, but just have never had a recent opportunity to revisit Ciao Bella. Until I recognized the same Italian man outside and decided to, well… pop in. And make a reservation. And… it was lovely.
The service — which several reviews mention as brusque — is. It is, totally, brusque. But not in a harsh way, and certainly not in a targeted way: that’s just how they operate. Equal opportunity brusqueness! Also: don’t go here to break up with someone. Or to tell them a secret. YOU WILL BE PACKED IN TIGHT WITH YOUR NEIGHBOUR. Especially if you sit out on the patio under the heat lamps (which you should).
Food is hearty, good, not fancy Italian fare. For the portion sizes, I think totally affordable (I always have leftovers or — pro tip — go for ½ portions of pasta, which they are happy to do for all but the seafood options). Veal meatballs? Delish. Pizzas topped with an egg or, perhaps, with pear and blue cheese? Yep, sure. They also do more traditional mains like veal cutlet, or stuffed chicken breast… I’ve only nicked some of both from friends’ plates and they were good (special shout-​out to the veg which are never mushy or overcooked) but I always stick to a pizza /​pasta option. Oh, and the tricolore salad with mozzarella, tomatoes and avocado, a spritz of lemon, some pepper and lashings of olive oil. That PLUS the freebie olives, hunks of parmesan and breadsticks and, well… prepare to roll home.
Unilocal note: reservations highly recommended (though if you have a wee wait, The Lamb and The Perserverance are both good bets)

This is an unassuming neighbourhood restaurant, that just happens to be in the heart of town. The food is fabulous, including the olives and cheese whisked over to you as appetisers within moments of sitting down. We had a single course of pasta (spaghetti with tapenade, beef ravioli) and glass of a lovely montepulciano from an adorable half-​bottle.
We had swift service in the early evening, great food and lovely staff (who know some of their customers by name — the sign of a great restaurant). There were some seats outside, and the quiet Lamb’s Conduit Street provided a more than adequate backdrop for our bites to eat. Heartily recommended, especially for the reasonable price and great location.