Bella Vista Restaurant — Restaurant in District of Belconnen

After checking into my air bnb in Kaleen I decided to head over to Belconnen to get dinner. I tend to gravitate towards Italian as I feel it's healthier and less spicy than that foreign muck. My initial impression is that the place is a little tired and can I say chintzy? Yes of course I can it's my review... Carpet tiles, Neon lights and mirrors abound,a bit naff and the place could use a spruce up, I actually didn't mind it though, it seemed friendly. The service was friendly though my impressively bemulleted waiter described me as "My good man". I want sure how I felt about that and eventually settled on 'ok, but mildly patronised'. The menu contained the usual Italian restaurant fare of pasta and main courses. Being hungry but 42 I decided on a main course rather than pasta and was torn between the chicken and salmon (I NEVER order chicken in restaurants, ask my wife). Naturally I went with the chicken and a glass of local Riesling which I was told thewould be 20 minutes (as long as the Riesling doesn't take that long we're fine Manuel). The wine was local and fun, fresh, with bright acidity and sherbety. The meal arrived in no more than 20 minutes and I was impressed. Number 1 it had the skin on, number 2 it actually had flavour. It had green beans (not overcooked) and lovely roasted baby potatoes. The sauce I would describe as garlic forward but I liked it. Overall the place was fun and functional and far less pretentious than many of the Italians in Canberra (I'm looking at you Molto, La Rustica) I'd happily recommend the joint and I'll go back. Ohhhh and the view of the...

Atrocious service. Resturant was packed full for valentines day so we were being very patient. We arrived 15 minutes earlier than our 6pm booking and the resteraunt was mostly empty at that point. It still took 30 minutes for them to take our order and required flagging the wandering staff (who could not take orders) twice. It was a set menu but they still failed to deliver the final course to our table. After flagging down the wandering staff, who couldn't take orders or deliver food, our table waiter threw one desert onto our table quite abruptly and rudely. Still didn't deliver my wife's or kids deserts so 20 minutes later we flagged another wandering staff member. That got my wife's desert delivered 5 minutes later, but still no sign of the kids ice cream. How hard is it to scoop out two scoops of ice cream from the cheap bucket of Coles no brand ice cream they have in the freezer. It took three more attempts of talking to staff and finally escalating to the manager to get the ice cream - 1 hour after we finished our main course! Even paying was a chore. It took 20 minutes waiting at the counter to pay and 4 staff members to work out how to process payment as this year for the first time they required prepayed deposits for Valentines Day. Inexperienced staff and a hopeless manager for their busiest day of the year. Bella Vista has fallen a long way over the years and changes...

Food quality & customer service is top notch here. Today went for dinner with family. Enjoyed the entrees and drinks, but wait for mains seemed a bit long. Checked after waiting and the waiter advised he missed placing our order, but has got it in and food should arrive in 15 mins max. Not ideal, but was no big issue for us as we were having a great time. Another waitress soon came and apologized again & offered us complimentary drinks while we waited. So we ordered few drinks, and soon mains arrived. Everything was awesome as usual. We ordered some desserts, again great. After a full tummy and great eve after enjoying delicious meals I went to counter to pay the bill, which was around $140. To my surprise staff told me everything was on the house, due to the delay in getting the main course. It didnt feel right to me, and we didnt even complain, and I asked 3 x times. They quite happily let it all go.

While the food was awesome as usual, their gesture again proved how much customer satisfaction means to them. I would have happily paid the full bill had honestly wasnt a big deal today, and everything was awesome. But for them to not only verbally apologize, but to waive all charges, about $165 with those extra drinks was just outstanding.

Thank you to the team. Highly recommend, coz food and service is...