Ciao Italia

The storefront on Somerset Street West is narrow, tucked into the Chinatown blocks where most of the signage points toward other cuisines. The kitchen inside runs a full Italian dinner, and the first surprise is its reach: a menu that moves from antipasti and house pasta through veal, grilled mains, and pizza, with a seafood lane deeper than the address would lead you to expect. Ciao Italia is a compact independent, and it cooks like a place with something to prove on a block where most diners assume the good Italian cooking is happening somewhere else.

Pasta is where most tables will start. Gorgonzola Gnocchi arrives as house-made gnocchi under a Gorgonzola cream with sun-dried tomatoes; Carbonara leans on pancetta, egg yolk, and parmesan; Bolognese is a slow-cooked house meat sauce over spaghetti. The baked options run to lasagna and a ricotta-and-spinach manicotti in rosé, and there is an Alessandro pasta of meat tortellini with prosciutto cotto, peas, and mushrooms. Sauced mains hold the centre alongside them — Chicken Parmigiana built as a complete plate with spaghetti and meat sauce, and veal scallopini turned into Marsala, Piccata, or a Saltimbocca Romana wrapped in prosciutto and sage. Funghi, Arrabbiata, and a Ciao Pasta of grilled chicken, spinach, and red pepper round out the everyday orders.