Ciro's Italian Bistro; They aren't afraid of flavor!

So... at the last possible minute, Himself and I changed dinner plans. It was 5pm on Saturday evening. We were supposed to go see a friends band play and grab a late dinner... and review a new restaurant. He decided he didn't want to go to the original place, and instead wanted to try a restaurant his eldest man-child recommended.  

Ciro's Italian Bistro, 605 Richmond Square (Off Fruitville Pike above Lancaster). They advertise as family owned, Authentic Italian food with heart. Everything is made in house, and 'Mama' makes a limited variety of homemade desserts each day. They also make Gelato in house.

We found the restaurant easily. They are located in one of those cute "old-fashioned" style planned communities that have become popular locally, with businesses on the bottom and apartments on the upper floors.

We got to the restaurant at 6pm on the nose and the place was noisy, bustling, and busy. Fortunately, there was no line. There was, however, a small kerfluffle at the greeters station when we first arrived. An older (but not quite elderly) woman was shrieking at the greeters that she "Could not sit where they had seated her because there were wretched children making sounds at the table behind her and she has sat there before and knows how dreadful that spot is and they have to fix her seat, NOW, NOW, NOW."  It was a disturbing and unbecoming scene for sure. I was concerned it would set the tone for our meal, but I'm pleased to report it did not. Frankly I hoped they sat the unpleasant woman outside, so other diners did not have to listen to her shrill voice. It was far worse than a family with kids would have been! 

The slightly embarrassed hostess offered us a seat at the bar or at the bistro table closest to the door. We chose the table by the door instead of the bar and we were seated almost immediately. (Given their wait list for reservations was 3 hours in, I was happy). There were two disadvantages to where we sat. 1) They do not have a waiting area, so as they got busier and the wait list grew, people were basically milling around our table while we were trying to  eat. 2) I HATE high top bistro stools. I max out at 5 foot 3 inches (Maybe ( I might have been being generous!).  Herself is a short bit of cuteness). I sit on those things and my legs dangle. This particular one had no mid-height foot rest, so my legs just dangled the entire meal. By the end of the meal, my feet were asleep and my butt hurt. ( Cute butt that it is).

Himself here.  One thing I really like to see is an open air kitchen,

where diners can see the food being prepared.  I know some folks want that to be out of sight, but I'm fascinated to watch a well run commercial kitchen in operation.  A place that can maintain the cleanliness and professionalism to pull that off is already WAY ahead of the game in my view.   Ciro's not only has the kitchen, but the pizza prep/oven area and bar right out there for the world to see.  My respect for that.

We were almost immediately greeted by our waiter, Robert. He was quite friendly and got our drink and appetizer order and left us with the menus to peruse. For drinks, Himself had the Sam Adam's Winter Lager on tap ($5.00), and I had an unsweetened ice tea ($2.25). For an appetizer we ordered the Antipasto Rustica ($11). It was a delicious blend of prosciutto, sharp provolone, marinated artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, and an olive blend (with spicy cornichon pickles). It was pretty amazing. We were also served warm herbed bread with olive oil for dipping. 

On the subject of drinks.... they serve city water, with lemon to hide the chemicals.  Blech.  I asked him to just take mine away.

A good antipasto is an open canvas for a chef.  Wide open for wonderful tastes, or crashing failure.  Ciro's chef managed to put some excellent flavors on the plate, and keep it tightly pulled

Antipasto Rustico

together in a way that made sense.  The flavor range was wide enough to challenge the palate, and incite interest in the meal to come.  Exactly what an Appy should do.

Herself took great pleasure in arranging the treasures in various ways assured to assault her taste buds.  A bit of toasted bread, a sliver of Prosciutto, several bits of artichoke, a bit of red pepper....   pile it on and drool. 

When Robert came back to get our order, we asked for the Grilled Romaine and Prosciutto Salad ($11)  to share, and a dish of Beef Tips Gorgonzola with Penne ($24 We thought, and this is where it got strange, and we are stupid).  See.... here is where our idiocy comes to sit with us at the table. We saw at the top of the menu that you could order meals "family style" So we, as a team, decided to do that and share the dish. So I say to Robert, "We would like the Beef Tips Gorgonzola, family style for 2 with two plates, so we can share it."  I apparently sounded very confident because darling Robert never questioned my sanity. We will get back to this. (The man never even cracked a smirk... dammit....).

Half the salad, as we shared.

We enjoyed our salad. It's essentially a wedge salad with a twist. Grilled romaine with chopped (and sauteed) thick prosciutto chunks slathered on top, with a lemon Gorgonzola vinaigrette. Very tasty! With grilled chicken it could easily have been a meal, but we were smart (ish) and shared the salad sans chicken.  A point.... the salad dishes were chilled.  Nice touch... nice touch indeed.

Robert brought to the table a dish of (Fresh grated... and large) parmigiano-reggiano cheese. I'm excited, because I think thats a very generous gesture. He must have gotten the "Carolyn likes cheese memo." 

Robert brings out our entree, with a straight face. It is an enormous tureen, a trough if you will, of pasta and beef tips in a Gorgonzola demi sauce. It had roasted red peppers, sauteed onions, and mushrooms in it. 

Rich and flavorful, and enough to feed FOUR TO SIX PEOPLE with healthy sized portions. It came in at $72! Apparently in this instance "family-style" doesn't just mean plated so you can share. It means enough to feed a family. We are idiots and brought home two full containers of leftovers. We did ask Robert how much is in a regular sized serving, and he said about half 1/3 of what we got. So the "regular" portion sizes are fair.

When Robert carefully levered this huge pile of tasty steak and pasta onto our little table, I actually asked him how he managed to do that with a straight face.   There was honestly enough food for four people to feast, and six to make a decent meal.  Try as we did, we barely put a dent into it.

The steak was nicely done, to medium.  The pasta was done with a deft hand, and nicely al dente. Red peppers and mushroom rounded out the plate, but the sauce is what made it.  Gorgonzola cheese left it very, very rich.    The kind of sauce one likes to clean up with leftover bread..... if there was belly room left.

After the main, I perused the dessert display case, and chose mint chocolate chip gelato for myself, and Art had a cannoli. The cannoli was delicious (I snagged a bite!). The shell was perfect and fresh. The cream filling creamy and rich. My gelato was very tasty as well, a nice refreshing mint flavour. All of these items are made in house, and that is very impressive to me.

An expensive mistake, ordering 'family style', but all-in-all a fantastic meal at a restaurant that will become a go to for us.

Overall I give Ciro's Italian Bistro:
4.85 out of 5 forks for flavor
4 out of 5 forks for atmosphere
5 out of 5 forks for location (plenty of parking, and easy to get to!)
4.95 out of 5 forks for service 
4.7 forks overall