Bella Luna Ristorante and Pizzeria — Restaurant in Providenciales

This place makes the Olive Garden look like fine dining in a Tuscan villa.

I am astonished by all of the great reviews for this restaurant. (There are two separate establishments; one for just pizza and one for Italian dishes—maybe most are referring to the pizza, which we didn’t have?) This was the worst meal we had during our entire vacation in Provo, the absolute worst Italian I’ve ever had, and one of the worst meals I’ve ever had in any restaurant, period.

I ordered the Pollo alla Mugnaia. The chicken was dry, tough, and smothered in a thick, green/gray sauce. Unappetizing to look at and nauseating to eat. Like trying to cut a knife through the sole of your sneaker after having stepped in a mud puddle. I’ve had this dish hundreds of times elsewhere and couldn’t even get past a few bites at Bella Luna. Pricing was competitive with other restaurants in this area, which was particularly offensive , since it tasted like hospital food. Chicken came with a side of spaghetti that was over-cooked into mush, with an absolutely flavorless marinara sauce. No amount of salt helped. You truly could make a better pasta dish with jarred sauce from a grocery store. And I love a fresh, homemade marinara sauce. Such a disappointment.

My dining companion got the Pasta Primavera. It was likewise mush, flavorless, and included canned corn. We were actually laughing because our meals were so disgusting. I went home and ate half a box of crackers to supplement the 3 bites of dinner I was able to stomach at Bella Luna.

Service was fine. Wine was fine. Food was atrocious. Lots of stern messages and rules in the menu about not splitting food and not asking for any pasta substitutions—things they must get asked to do fairly frequently since these are basic, standard courtesies at any other restaurant. We went to Lupo down the street for Italian a few nights later and it was everything we had hoped Bella Luna would be. Delicious, fresh, and flavorful....

We went here based on the positive reviews. My wife was craving some seafood pasta and I was craving an Italian pizza, so we went, along with another couple for dinner. I was alittle upset that I couldn't order a pizza as the pizza restaurant is a separate restaurant downstairs. So pasta it was. We started off with some appetizers along with our pasta entrees. Having been a number of Italian restaurants, imagine our suprise when after the first basket of complimentary bread, our entrees came, we asked for another basket of bread to go with our pasta....and the waiter proceeds to tell us that they will have to charge $6 for the additional bread basket. I'm sorry...did I hear you right? $6 USD for a basket of some toasted bread? Are you kidding me!! Needless to say we had no bread to dip in our pasta sauce. And we don't ask for exceptional service, but a smile would have been nice. That ruined a perfectly anticipated dinner, and I will not recommend this...

Let's start with the good. The Caesar was nice, as was the sauce on the voldastano. Ok now that that's out of the way. They give you focaccia that may be homemade, but isn't very good, with cold marinara. The chicken was over cooked. The waiter didn't know the menu, so we had to point out what we were ordering. Even then, he couldn't get my wife's order right. She ordered a dish with lobster and shrimp. They only brought her shrimp, with no comment, but charged us for the full meal. They also charge the additional 10% service fee which appears to be optional. I do wonder if that's being reported or just a rip off. We've been here several days and at this point, we're used to prices being high, but this was the first time we felt ripped off. A salad, a chicken dish, a pasta dish, one cocktail and a bottle of water came out to $106. But it took us about 20 minutes of begging for the bill to find that out. There are lots of great places to eat in Provo. This was not...