My partner and I eat out a lot, and enjoy that Portland has so many wonderful restaurants to choose from. Ciao Vito is not one of them, unfortunately. We are down to earth people who enjoy friendly service. It doesn't have to be perfect, but we feel that good service should be inviting, warm and friendly. The overwhelming majority of restaurants we visit offer exactly what we consider friendly service. From the very start at Ciao Vito we encountered a holier than thou kind of attitude... a server brought water and glasses to our table right away, but didn't even acknowledge our presence -- no hello, no smile, nothing. I made a point of saying ""hello, how are you?"" to try to help get her started and she barely answered back. Another server came to take our order, and she was a little bit friendlier, but only because she was being compared to the first server. She told us of the specials with no enthusiasm at all, then took our order. Server #1 came back and put down bread and oil, again saying absolutely nothing to us. Still yet another server brought my salad, a bland and boring butterleaf lettuce salad with oil and vinegar. A fourth server brought us our entrees. The entrees were no better than what we prepare at home, and we are not great cooks. Very disappointing. Before my partner could finish her meal (she hadn't even put her fork down), server #1 was attempting (without asking first) to take her dish away. We were never offered more water or a refill on beverages. After finishing our entrees, dessert menus were plopped down in front of us without explanation or presentation. After declining dessert, our bill was brought to us. Not once did we feel that anyone who worked at Ciao Vito cared whether or not we were enjoying ourselves. And the food wasn't nearly good enough to make up for the very unfriendly servers and atmosphere we encountered during our visit. We will not be visiting Ciao Vito again.
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