La Bella Vita - Harborside Hotel — Restaurant in Bar Harbor

My wife and I have been staying at the Harborside Hotel for the past 3 nights. On our last night, we decided to try La Bella Vita as others on this website had highly rated the restaurant. Unfortunately, that was a bad decision. To start, the waiter was not helpful in evaluating wine or dinner choices. After some back and forth on wine choices (and no assistance from the waiter) we ordered a bottle based on the summaries provided in the menu. I have a fairly broad palate for wine, but in the end, the wine we were served was quite harsh and not consistent with the description in the menu. My wife could not drink it. In spite of that, we forged on and ordered dinner in the hope that things would improve as we moved to the food. At first, we thought the bad wine start was an anomaly as we really enjoyed our starters. My wife and I shared the rustic italian soup and the pompeii wedge salad. Both were very good. Our hopes rose for the dinner to come, but were quickly and decisively crushed when the meatball and 3 cheese sandwich on crusty bread with pomodoro dipping sauce and the rosemary chicken, rosemary oil, garden pesto on grilled ciabatta sandwich arrived. The meatball sandwich was really a 1/8 inch thin-sliced part of a meatball sandwich with melted cheese. I’ve never seen a meatball sandwich that thin. No oversize sandwich here! Also, no pomodoro dipping sauce to be found on the bread or otherwise. The rosemary chicken (again 1/8 inch chicken breast slice) was dry, bread was not grilled and no pesto or rosemary oil that I could see or taste. This sandwich was beyond dry, but it did have razor thin slices of zucchini and tomato. Staff listened to our complaints and said they never received complaints from diners (really???!?!) but these problems would be addressed. We won’t be visiting the restaurant again to see if they...

To say this was a disappointment was an understatement. We came here 3 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, so it was our designated spot for our honeymoon dinner. We saved one night for a formal dinner since we brought our dog on the trip with us and don't want to leave her in unfamiliar home too long. We are vegetarians and this pasta selection is much more limited than it used to be, so I went with the spaghetti pomodoro, albeit hesitantly. Pomodoro with basil is a Favorite sauce of mine and being Italian and from the tri state area. IVE had some delicious ones both at my own hands and also local restaurants . When I read the chef's intro and the description using San marzano tomatoes, I decided to give it a try. Big mistake. I haven't eaten in an olive garden in 25 years, but I do not think it is unfair to say I cannot imagine this was much better.

My husband got the plant based burger which was a beyond burger but not noted as such. It was fine, except he prefers fresh plant based burgers like the black bean and spinach one he had at Thirsty Whale, Villa did not specify beyond burger. He at least got through half. I could not eat more than 3 bites of mine..I.sent it back

The Ceasars salad, garlic knots and 13.50 drinks with great descriptions were nediocre at best. The sole shining star was the crispy Brussels sprouts, as good as last time.

If you must go for the pretty view and location, stick to lunch where perhaps the high prices for so so food does not hurt as much. Or at least stay away from the Italian selections. My standards may be high with Italian, but my non Italuan husband found it just...

Thanksgiving dinner was a disappointment, and not even because of the food, which was actually very good. The disappointment was caused by the overall ambience. Terrible. For one thing, it was just too cold in the space! My feet and hands were cold! And a woman sitting at an adjacent table saw me warming my hands and she nodded in agreement and mouthed “I know!”. Also it was so dark, but not in a cozy dim lit ambience kind of way… it was just getting dark outside and it felt like no one noticed. THE WORST PART: Whoever is in charge of choosing the dining music should be fired. It was the absolute worst station or playlist I have ever heard while eating out with my husband. WHAT THE HECK. For 2 hours we listened to a very sad, moaning and BROKENHEARTED saxophone. It was like music that would be intentionally chosen for a scene set in an insane asylum rec room piped through the intercom speaker to drooling numb patients staring at TVs, or maybe music played during an exaggerated rainy night scene in a1940s film about a P.I. who is lost in his bottle brooding over a woman he can never have. SAD SOLO SAX. Everyone knows that music is hugely important to vibe! My husband and I were so turned off. The room was full of people of all ages and no joy. How about some cool new jazz, laid back lounge, modern crooners or a hint of holiday?? It should mean something to staff and management that the whole room was cold, dark and depressed, no laughter. No holiday cheer. Not the dining experience I had hoped for, being away from both of our families. I couldn’t wait to get...