Mr. Ciao is where "East meets West."
That's the motto of one of Charleston's newest eateries.
“We consider ourselves dining done differently. It’s different flavor profiles different ingredients stuff you don’t see every day,” said Steve Perez.
Perez is one of the co-owners of Mr. Ciao, an Asian/Italian fusion restaurant that opened in January. The Staten Island native and Executive Chef Frank Bilotti are the brains behind the unique menu.
“Everybody is like Asian, Italian, that doesn’t go together well they kind of have very similar ingredients where you can play with them, just people don’t have the gall to do it,” said Bilotti.
Another popular dish is the cauliflower fried rice -- Bilotti's take on traditional pork fried rice.
"I rice down cauliflower, add garlic, ginger, traditional mirepoix, baby corn, scallions, a little bit of sake, tamari. I also add pancetta in there, instead of roast pork fried rice this is a pancetta cauliflower fried rice,” said Bilotti.
Chef Bilotti says he's always experimenting with new flavors.
Next week, this pan-seared Peking Duck dish will be added to the menu.
“I’m doing a Peking-style duck breast going to sear that off slow and low and that’s going with a blueberry chianti reduction. It’s pretty much a simple dish with so many different flavors going on,” said Bilotti.
They're also shaking things up behind the bar with a full line-up of hand-crafted cocktails. Mr. Ciao is open Tuesday through Sunday with live entertainment all weekend-long.
For more information, visit https://www.mrciaosiny.com/.