Style Weekly dines at Ciao Capri

Reviewer Karen Newton says the restaurant brings authentic flavor and doesn’t compromise on ingredients.

November 4, 2015; 11:19 AM • by Trevor Dickerson

Chances are, whether or not you’ve visited, you’ve eaten the namesake dish of Capri.

Situated along Italy’s Amalfi Coast, the island is known for growing plump tomatoes and fragrant basil while producing some of the finest olive oil in Italy, making the creation of caprese salad more of an inevitability than a stroke of genius.

Closer to home, Ciao Capri sits not beside a brilliant blue sea, but in a West End strip mall. Inside, the brothers Mastromano — Alberto, who cheerfully runs the front of the house, and Peppino, the bustling chef — are on a mission to transport guests to their homeland. Colorful photographs of the island adorn walls, European music in a variety of genres plays overhead and, for those requiring moving visual stimulation, a screen displays an endless slide show of Capri’s colorful assets.