Bettola Bistro — Restaurant in Aurora

My original review is below. This place went downhill FAST.

My wife and I have been back twice since the original review.

The second time, service was very slow, and a couple other tables came and went while we waited for our service to complete. In fact, a couple friends happened to come in about halfway through our meal and sat next to us. Even they got dinner service from start to finish and left before us even though we had the SAME WAITER! How clueless can the waitstaff be? We were about to find out on our next (and final) visit.

The last time we were in, service was practically nonexistent despite the small restaurant being maybe half full. This time we saw nearly half of the tables turn while we waited for service. Firstly, we waited about 15 minutes just for someone to acknowledge us after we were seated. Finally we were able to order, and we asked for bread for the table as well. The waiter had to ask me to repeat my order TWICE. And guess what? 20 minutes later, no bread. We had to flag down our waiter to get bread and the drinks we had ordered 20 minutes prior, and even then it was another 10 minutes.

Finally our food arrived about an hour into our visit. My meal was fine if a bit salty, but my wife's cacio e pepe seemed to lack both cacio and pepe. It tasted like salted, buttered noodles. Awesome, way to mess up a three ingredient dish.

By the end of this debacle we were so sick of this place that we just wanted to pay up, leave, and never come back. I was excited about this restaurant when we first visited, but they have since shown an utter lack of concern for their clientele.

Don't let it's proximity to a Big 5 Sporting Goods fool you; this is the real deal. It's always a scary proposition to try something new in Aurora, and even scarier when the rating hovers close to 5 stars. "How terrible must they be if they need all of these fake reviews?" Luckily it seems all of the reviews are authentic based on the enormous amounts of food my wife and I stuffed our faces with this past week at Bettola Bistro.

We split a couple appetizers, I had the shrimp scampi (yeah, that was another scary moment ordering shrimp in Aurora), she had house wine, and I had a couple cocktails. Someone next to us ordered the pound cake with strawberries, so we figured what's another 5,000 calories and ordered our own. Oh, and to top it off we felt it necessary to try their homemade limoncello as a digestivo to help get our digestion started.

Everything was fantastic. Fresh and delicious with some creative twists here and there. And the place is small enough that service is quick and attentive even when they're filled to capacity (which they were for a while).

Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend this place if you want some great Italian food. I want to see Bettola become a mainstay because pickings are slim down in old south Aurora, and we're desperate for more hidden gems...

I’m writing this with the caveat that we never actually ate the food, which, judging by the rest of the reviews, sounds exceptional. My review is simply based on the way we were treated. We were in Denver for a quick trip and decided we wanted some great Italian. A Quick Google search and a few minutes of narrowing down lead us here. Seemed to check all the boxes. We made online reservations, got ready, and headed out.

Upon arrival, we were seated and given the QR menu, which revealed a very different and less varied one than what we had skimmed online. It consisted mostly of seafood which isn’t my fave.

Now, this wasn’t the restaurants fault - I totally realize that Google reviews and menus aren’t always up to date or accurate. However, after just a minute, and before our waiter even returned to ask any questions, we decided that maybe this wasn’t the best place for us. (Keep in mind, this was a Tuesday evening, we were the only ones there, so we weren’t holding a table.)

However, when we, as politely as possible, apologized to the waiter and told him we must have been mistaken by the online menu choices, he sighed and asked us what was wrong with the selections. I admitted that I didn’t adore seafood, and the other employee there (who I now assume was the manager/head chef), very condescendingly asked me which menu I had looked at. I told him we had simply googled Italian restaurants and seen one there. He informed me that he had changed the menu that very day to reflect current dishes so I was clearly wrong. I admitted that possibility, apologized again, and tried to make a graceful exit. But both he and the waiter kept asking questions about what we didn’t like and what we thought we wanted that was no longer available and pointing out again how we were wrong. NOW, this may be true, perhaps I SHOULD have ensured I was looking at a current menu, but still. We were nothing but polite, apologetic for our mistake, and just wanted to have a good meal. I wasn’t upset at Betolla’s for having a predominantly seafood menu, but knew that I wouldn’t enjoy my meal. Our attempt to simply excuse ourselves was met with contempt and belittling remarks that made both me and my partner feel even better about spending our money elsewhere.

Bonus? That elsewhere ended up being a fantastic meal with exceptional service and was an absolute highlight of the...

When we first stepped inside I was expecting exactly the name Bettola in Italian suggests “shady, trashy joint or hole” because of the location. However, walking in we were greeted by the bar manager and immediately felt how cozy and warm the place was with very few seating options which lured us to the bar as reservations filled the rest of the tables.

I am so happy we did stay. You will not get a better experience if you don’t pick the barkeeps brain a little. Johnson is very experienced in his field and has incredible knowledge about so much in the industry. Just listen a while.

Drinks that were recommended given our taste were hand crafted to perfection and never had I had such refreshing and delicate drinks that paired exceptionally with our meals. To start I ordered a Red 75 and with dessert a Lime Cello. The freshest bread at the perfect temperature was set in front of us alongside oil with balsamic vinegar. That alone felt like a delicacy. I requested the short rib lasagna special and the nostalgia in me was so happy I did. It truly felt like the moment the critic from ratatouille bit into the ratatouille and I was flooded with warm memories of my grandmother’s lasagna growing up. Chef is truly exceptional and has won me over the most upscale experience. Every single dish is hand crafted on order not scooped from a pan sitting under warmers. Dessert was an 8 layer honey cake that I have yet to stop thinking about, so much that they did say an entire cake can be prepared for sale if given a 3 day notice. Imagine cheesecake and honey teddy grahams it the most decadent way.

I will be ordering a cake and I will be going back to just have that experience of a ‘welcome back’ conversation in a low lit, quaint, little hole-in-the-wall that makes me feel like I can lose track of time and escape away from the mundane the...