THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Ciao Lavanderia

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Ciao Lavanderia Restaurant Review:

The married couple who owns and runs cozy Ciao has the right formula on paper: one half has C.I.A. training; the other has serious wine credentials. Surely the recipe for a successful enterprise, right? Eventually, perhaps. The wine list has certainly expanded and improved, though it can’t yet be considered great. The menu hasn’t quite followed suit, however. Both a simple bruschetta and a more complex risotto passed muster, but pastas have been more problematic. The hot “salad” sampler doesn’t inspire one to explore further, with only the shrimp sauté al limon of interest. Sauces tend to overwhelm pastas. From the wood-burning oven, the pizza Ciao, with arugula, prosciutto, fried egg and truffle oil, is quite good, but its price has risen to $18, emblematic of a subtle upward shift in pricing in general. Yet we like the house-made sorbets, a step in the right direction.