Ciao Balla Restaurant   

236 S High St
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-685-7733
www.cbella.com

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Restaurants like Ciao Bella preserve Little Italy's reputation for pleasant dining. Rather than taking the overblown, rope-in-the-tourists route, it maintains a steady, gracious course. The kitchen turns out good food at reasonable prices for a dedicated crowd of local regulars in winter and boaters from area marinas in summer. It is not inexpensive, but it does offer value. The dining rooms are handsome, with framed paintings and crisp white linens. And the menu rounds up all those favorites we've come to know and love from the Italian-American lexicon -- like chicken parmigiana and fettuccine Alfredo -- punctuated by such creations as veal Ciao Bella (involtini of veal with prosciutto and provolone, capped by a mushroom-sherry sauce) and shrimp Ricardo (plump shrimp in a cream sauce spiked with orange and jalapeno peppers). The restaurant is widely known for its signature crab toast, a mountain of crab Imperial topped with provolone and cognac cream sauce. -- Cynthia Glover