Bella-Italia-Ristorante-&-Pizzeria — Restaurant in Andover Township

I'm getting married in November, and was on the search for a spot for our rehearsal dinner. We have been to Bella Italia before, I have not been a huge fan of their food but my fiance likes it. We thought it would be a nice spot for the dinner because they advertise a "private party room." So in June, we booked this place and put down a $200 deposit to hold the DATE and ROOM. I called back in September to ask a couple questions about the room and when we should set our menu. After talking to Filipo on the phone, I did not have much confidence because it seemed disorganized and as if they didn't realize we booked because at the end of the call, he asked me if we put our deposit down for that date. Fast forward to the beginning of October, we decide to go in-person again because of our suspicions, only to meet with Kathy and find out that they lost our paperwork, double-booked another party for that same day and we didn't get the private room, as promised. Despite us booking before the other group (which booked 3 months after us), because they lost our paperwork, they decided to give us the consolation of a party in the "back room" which is simply the back of their restaurant, where nobody needs a deposit to eat and any other patron would walk through our party area to use the bathrooms. After our shock subsided, we scrambled looking for another spot to have our rehearsal dinner at because we were now only a month out from the date. Thankfully, we were able to secure another spot and decided to cancel at Bellas because of their disorganization and not fulfilling their promises. Of course at this point, we decided to call and request our $200 deposit back given that they don't have our paperwork and aren't able to fully provide the service that the deposit was supposed to secure. We tried to reach out for almost an entire week before getting a hold of them. When my non-confrontational fiance spoke to Kathy for the first time about the situation and asked for our money back, she played the victim as if we were doing them wrong because they supposedly ordered the food an entire month in advance. My fiance's father has worked as a food salesman for 30+ years and restaurants never order food a month in advance for their events. They not only lied about that but they did not take any other ownership of what they did wrong: losing our paperwork and double-booking. Kathy kept on claiming that this has never happened in the 23 years (which she repeated throughout every conversation as if that has anything to do with us and the situation at hand). After my fiance talked to her for a while, the only reconciliation she said she could even consider would be a gift card to their restaurant. Almost another entire week went by, not hearing anything back from them, I finally got a hold of her again. This time around she was much more combative. She complained that we called her on a Friday (I called every day that week and left a message with no call back) and it was 4:30, well before the dinner rush time. She then proceeded to tell us that this whole situation is our fault, still not taking any accountability for doing a lousy job and potentially worsening our wedding weekend. I told her that she was not taking any accountability and how I don't think a gift card suffices because after this, why would we want to be patrons at their restaurant? She had a hissy fit and handed the phone to her husband as I hear her yelling in the background. Filipo then tells me we shouldn't have booked with another restaurant and hung up. When I call back, the woman that answers the phone tells me they are unavailable as I still hear them yelling and hangs up the phone again. This is not how someone should run a business. They clearly think they are above the...

Sooo...I giving them a 3 star and I think that's generous...the service was good...the atmosphere fine...the food not very good...I ordered the Jack Daniel's ribeye with gorgonzola cheese portobella mushroom and the Jack sauce...it literally was a fatty ribeye with brown almost meatloaf gravy dumped on top.. almost no gorgonzola or mushroom...and again I expected a sweet glaze maybe...it wasn't very good. The vegetable was a mix of corn, peas, cauliflower zucchini and carrots...too much going on...plain broccoli..or just a plain veg would be better...the potatoes...soggy roasted potatoes drenched in the brown gravy....mashed would be better... would not come again, but we are from out of state so I won't be back anyway...my bf had the veal parm sanðwhich which he said was ok....I just don't think they should sell it as a Jack daniels steak...very deceiving...the steak was cooked to temperature, but fatty...i regret not trying the filet...if your turn between the 2...go with the filet...it can't be worse...I also tried the garlic soup...aside from some garlic slices...not garlic & pretty bland. Expensive...

To be fair, it was Mother's Day and we didn't have a reservation but we're able to get seated. We were told that water and bread was on the way but we needed to be patient because the servers were all busy. No bread or water came and we just sat there completely ignored for 15 minutes.

But then why did I give it a high rating? All because of a wonderful server named Susan. She passed us a few times while serving others and noticed that no one was assigned to us. Neither she nor any other server were aware that a new table had been seated. POOR COMMUNICATION! But Susan noticed and came to our rescue!

She was kind, prompt, efficient in spite of being over-the-top busy with other tables.

She brought our drinks and salads and made sure hit bread was on the way. She was attentive and had impeccable timing for bringing our main course. She made certain we were done with our salads before having the main course delivered. When it was, it was piping hot and super delicious!

Our evening was great all because of Susan. She deserves high praise!

By the way, the salmon filet with mushrooms in cognac sauce...