Bella Vita Ristorante — Restaurant in Arizona

If I could give no stars on service and atmosphere and management I would, but unfortunately you have to at-least out 1. So the food, was great, that’s the only thing that was good with our experience. Our reservation, service, treatment on the other hand, awful!! First of all we show up for the reservation , that we made days and days ahead of time and even called the day before to double check the reservation and request a certain table; we had went and checked out the place to see as the evening was very important to us it was our bridal party dinner after the wedding. We requested this middle very long table as we were accommodating many guests, they said, sure of coarse, it was front and center in front of the stage we were looking forward to for entertainment. So we show up and, suprisingly they all looked very surprised to see us, long story short our table was NOT set up, and not only that but they gave away our table, to another wedding party. There’s had a few more guests so I’m thinking maybe that was a higher priority to them and said screw our party lol. So yes they threw together some tables at the far end of the patio, uneven tables, I mean it was awful. There was a dj and all that who was acknowledging the other wedding party alllll evening and eventually at the end of our time there a few of our guests were upset and went and said something so then they acknowledged my new husband and I and did a shout out; what felt more like a pity shout lol it was actually embarrassing. Also it was told to me they have cake service they would keep out cake in a cooler and all this good stuff, none of that was done either it sat out and was warm and very soft frosting. So needless to say our experience was not good, we did not let that ruin our time though with our family and friends WE made the best out of what we had with no help from the restaurant, my husband went and spoke to the owner about our experience and he literally offered nothing, no apologies no nothing. So if it’s just a dinner outing, sure go, the foods great, but we f it’s an important special day, do NOT be to dependent on their services. And our bill was well over a thousand, you’d think that would count for something!! Even the DJ came over and apologized to us, and said if he would have known he was so sorry blah blah, the owner, crickets lol, I really would never recommend this place for a...

We loved Bella Vita!

We were looking for an Italian restaurant in or near Sedona. What we found in town were primarily were pizza / pasta places. We were looking for a more traditional Italian restaurant I guess. We’d driven past Bella Vita a couple of times during our sightseeing. We looked it up, looked at their menu and decided to try it out.

It was a 20 minute easy drive from our hotel in Sedona. Bella Vita is part of a resort which I suppose account for much of their in-season business. This Saturday night, out-of-season visit, the place was not busy.

We had reservations, walked in and were seated right away. Water was brought out right away. Gail, our server popped by and was pleasant. We had already decided what we were going to order so we placed our order with Gail.

Gail brought us out a basket of bread and a plate of herb seasoned oil. The oil was SO good! The bread was a single slice of crusty bread, cut into 3 small cubes. We asked Gail to bring more, and she brought another basket (same, 3 cubes).

We ordered: Italian Wedding Soup (1 each) Lasagna (shared) Cannoli (took away)

My wife also had a glass of red wine - which she enjoyed.

Our soups came and were small bowls - a real nice size. The soup had one large meatball in it. We cut them up. Bella Vita’s version doesn’t have any pasta in it. It was a tasty soup. I also spooned a small amount of the bread dip into my soup. Yum!

Our Lasagna came out right after we finished our soups. I would say the portion size was not large, but quite adequate. We’re smaller eaters, we shared the Lasagna and the size was just right for us. That said, let me tell you about this lasagna. It was SO GOOD!. Homemade noodles and homemade bolognese gravy. So rich and tasty.

For dessert, we took a Cannoli to go and ate it back in our hotel room. It was good.

I would say, based on my travels, the meals here are a bit on the pricier side. The lasagna was $34. But man, the flavor - it was worth the price.

A nearby table had Ossobuco and it looked amazing.

I can recommend Bella Vita to anyone who love’s homemade...

First of all, the food was great. Unfortunately, that was about the only good thing about this place. When we first started to be served (bread and water), the waitress was not friendly and gave short, clipped answers.

And that is not even the worst part.

Oh no. The worst part was toward the end. We had a large party (which they knew about beforehand because you have to make reservations), and they were severely understaffed. Our waiter knew from the beginning that we were all paying separately (in small groups), but for some reason he just could not get our totals right. Someone in my group (there were four of us in total in this group) was responsible for paying for our group, including one other person's food. The waiter said that was fine and said that he would put it on the bill. He came back with another receipt that was higher than the original receipt (keep in mind that this new receipt had the added meals on there), and they paid it (almost two hundred dollars in total). At this point, everyone else paid for their meals too.

Then this waiter comes back saying that we still owe them money for other meals, telling us that we didn't pay for everything (which we did, this guy just didn't add it up right). Then another waiter came out and was arguing with us about it for at least twenty minutes. And then this guy had the nerve to say, and I quote, "Well, you guys can't just eat and not pay." AFTER WE ALL PAID FOR OUR MEALS. In addition to that, this guy proceeds to yell at the other waiter (our waiter), which was extremely unprofessional.

Also, there is a twenty-five dollar CAKE CUTTING FEE that they told us nothing about until AFTER they cut the cake. So, if you're looking to get your birthday cake cut...you'll have to pay twenty-five dollars.

And one of them (another waitress off to the side) said, and I quote, "From now on, no more separate checks." She said it as if WE were the ones at fault. If you can't handle a large party, and if you definitely can't handle them splitting bills, then you probably shouldn't offer it.

We are NEVER eating here again. Eat here at...