Bella's Wood Fire Pizza — Restaurant in Algonquin

Went for a casual dinner for my wife’s birthday. Should have left minutes after arriving. The bartender was rude, saying we couldn’t have our 8 year old daughter with us at the bar while we waited, even though they didn’t have a table for us and the bar was empty. She went so far as to say “I’m not trying to be an expletive deleted about it but it’s the owners rule”, to which I replied , “well maybe you shouldn’t curse in front of my child.” So yeah, she sucks. Ask to speak to owner, told owner is not there. Fine, we’ll stand in the doorway while waiting for a table. I must stress that we had to wait even though there were at least 3 open tables upstairs. “Owner” magically comes up and confirms after “running a business for 18 years” they don’t let kids sit or be near the bar. Please keep in mind this is a restaurant, not a “bar”. and According to the Illinois Liquor Control Act (235 ILCS 5/6-16 and 235 ILCS 5/6-16.2), the minimum age is set at 21 years for entering a bar but restaurants that serve alcohol are exempt from this law. For example, Applebees restaurants have bars but they have restaurant alcohol licenses so they can permit minors to sit at the bar. We didn’t want to stay at the bar, but my mother in law wanted to sit down while we waited. Owner also sucks. We say, just get us a table. 30 seconds later a table is ready. Weird.

The food was terrible, pizza was soggy, garlic was burnt, 4 cheese pizza was like eating a mouthful of Kraft Parmesan cheese after walking through the desert. I’ve had gas station pizza that was better. We boxed up almost 3 full pizzas not to be rude and then tossed in the dumpster. The owner was terrible. The bartender was terrible. The saving grace for them that even kept us there was our server Presley. She was kind, accommodating, attentive and seemed to really take pride in her service. She, not the owner, was the one to apologize for our bad experience. The owners were too busy dipping out at 7:30 telling everyone how much they love them while being questioned by staff about not receiving their pay from the previous week. Presley let us know she works Friday thru Sunday and if we want to give them another try to request her upon arrival. My wife forgot her cell phone on the table and Presley grabbed it and ran into the parking lot to try and find us to return it. The one star I’m giving is for Presley. She deserves to be running the place. Maybe then it...

This wood fired pizza restaurant has a nice appearance and comfortable setting. Food quality is okay - nothing special. Service was lacking. Overall it's an okay place and it gave us a chance to try something new. I do not expect to return. We were seated immediately on a Saturday evening which was nice, but we weren't approached by a server for over ten minutes. We did get a beer and a glass of wine once approached but never received water. My wife was able to get a glass of water during our meal by approaching the bar directly to request one. We shared a Goat Cheese Arugula salad which was good. I recommend it. We also shared a Cappricciosa pizza. We had requested to have pepperoni added and it was but the Prosciutto was left off which was not what we wanted. We expected it to be on the pizza with the pepperoni added as additional. We were charged $3.50 for the pepperoni but lack of Prosciutto only earned a "Hmm. not sure what happened there". The Cappricciosa pizza was decent. The outer crust was good. Similar to others' comments, the crust in the center of the pizza was soggy. Other ingredients all tasted good and...

I hate leaving bad reviews, but after being 15-year regulars at Cucina Bella, this place fell far short of our most basic expectations. We are big wood fired neopolitan pizza fans, frequenting other regional alternatives, excited about trying Bellas take on this simple and satisfying dish. We had a Pepperoni Cup pizza and a Diavolo pizza. Both were burnt black on the bottom, which can be great in the right kitchen, but both were COMPLETELY soggy to the point where a piece couldn't be picked up, let alone eaten without using two equally soggy hands attempting to prevent the toppings from falling off of the disintegrating 'crust'. Despite only half of the tables being occupied, the service was extremely slow with LONG waits between visits. I hope we had an isolated experience, but after seeing another table return their pizza, I am less...