Bella Notte Ristorante — Restaurant in Whitby

Bella Notte is a very cute restaurant. It is clean and the service is great. We sat on the patio and were welcomed warmly. The atmosphere was lovely.

However, we were shocked at the quality of food.

It is important to note that although we had issues with our food, the staff resolved everything promptly and gave us no issues at all.

It is also important to note that I would not be making this review had the price of the food been equal to its quality. However, I felt it was important to write this because the menu is wildly overpriced for the quality of the food provided.

First of all, the ceaser salad was very inconvenient to eat. They plate it as full slices of lettuce instead of chopping it up, leaving the customer to cut it up themselves. The dressing is drizzled on without mixing, which for it's thick consistency, doesn't mix too easily. For a $19 salad, this felt ridiculous to have to cut up and mix our own salads.

Next, the fresh oysters were improperly shucked. There were broken pieces of shell in the oyster. To offer oysters, a restaurant needs to hire professionals shuckers. It is not an easy task and not everyone can do it.

My mom ordered the short ribs and received what looked like roast beef. There was no bone-in, which is not typical for a menu item described as braised. It was cold and flavorless. She had to return it and ordered the chicken instead, which was $40 for three pieces of small chicken breast that costs $20 at even the most expensive butcher.

I ordered a piece of steak which was probably the worst quality steak I've ever had, and I eat a lot of steak. For $50, I was shocked. If it was priced lower, I would have known what to expect, but this was absurd. The fat in the steak was gummy; high quality steak has fat that's easy to cut through.

My dad ordered the pasta, which was clearly not cooked fresh. The pasta itself was soggy and the tomato sauce was chunky and looked like it came out of a sauce jar that you buy at the grocery store.

My family and I are serious foodies and we will definitely never go back to this restaurant. If you are a foodie, don't go here because it will be a...

Our visit to Bella Notte began by walking in to see several staff but not a single one saying hello. Perhaps 3 minutes later we were greeted and then brought to a table that was very wobbly. Our attendant noticed this and spent time "fixing" it while we awkwardly stood watching. Not a good first impression for what was supposed to be a fine dining experience.

We thought it strange that the menus were printed on paper and were dirty.

We ordered two appetizers. The meat and cheese tray came and had a balsamic glaze drizzled across everything which was unnecessary and not mentioned at all in the menu. The Nonna's polpete, meatballs in tomato basil sauce, was cool in the centre and were not tender.

Shortly after a young person, not our server, brought us our entrees. They were quickly dropped off and we were not offered parm or pepper. My girlfriend was also missing a fork so we had to wait until I was able to flag down a server (not our server) to ask for cutlery. When he returned with a fork he asked if anyone had offered us cheese and pepper. He brought us both.

Overall the entrees were enjoyable. The braised beef ravioli was pleasant and flavorful. The pasta bolognese was tasty but oily. The description said braised meat but was no more than ground beef. We were hoping for actual pieces of braised meat.

Dessert was called the bombe which were mini donuts filled with Nutella. They were good. Similar to timbits. We also had the apple pie Bella Notte which has a good flavour however was served cold and topped with icecream. A very strange choice. Flavour was there but just wasn't right.

The ambience was mediocre at best. If you're looking for a romantic restaurant this is not it. Service was poor. Not attentive whatsoever especially considering the prices associated with the food.

Overall a disappointment. A costly dinner that didn't deliver and I wouldn't recommend this...

First time visiting this restaurant, took friends out for fine dining and called ahead to make reservations. Upon arriving, we were greeted and seated in a timely manner. However, after arriving at our table, all service went downhill. We waited a good 15 minutes before someone noticed that we had been seated for quite some time. No water was offered at all. When we finally flagged someone down to assist, someone finally arrived, apologizing that they did not realize ours was their table to serve. When they came back to take our order, I had to request water. When our food finally arrived, the younger waitstaff literally dropped it on the table in front of us, zero presentation for what was supposed to be a notable fine dining establishment. When bread arrived, the waitstaff cleared a spot by shoving the opened wine bottle towards one of our diners using the wooden paddle board. This would have resulted in a red wine disaster had the bottle not been grabbed by the diner before tipping onto her.

Our experience became even worse, as my chair was bumped repeatedly throughout the meal until finally I loudly mentioned it to one of the waitstaff.

Closer to the end of our meal, it was noticed that another diner was severely intoxicated and stumbled to the bathroom. When one of our diners entered the bathroom, they heard the person vomiting in the stall. Staff should be properly trained to not over-serve a diner to the point of vomiting. It was an unappetizing experience for the diner as you can imagine.

One thing I can say is the food itself was delicious and portions were appropriately small. The wine list was also quite decent.

BellaNotte waitstaff requires additional training. What should have been an enjoyable, higher end, dining experience, turn out to be atrocious. I would not recommend...