La Bella Vita at Bar Harbor Regency — Restaurant in Bar Harbor

Ah, a true American surprise. Coming from Slovenia, I decide to dine at this establishment on my journey to see the Acadia National Park and kayak in its pristine waters, the Devil’s Oven cave in particular. It was actually quite an easy quest, despite its ghoulish title. Lamenting the admittedly slow Wi-Fi (I was not able to call Bernadine in a timely manner), I went down to the in-house Italian restaurant for a hearty meal. To start off the meal, I decided to order a beverage. Being a Brit, I’m quite fond of Pinot Noir (wine), typically at every other restaurant I’ve been to in the whole world, they simply give me the ordinary sort. Nothing too special, just the works. HOWEVER, at this location, the waitress, while not only beautiful, took great care to ensure that I would receive EXACTLY what I needed by asking “which one?” In her husky sultry beautiful American voice which had a rich timbre. I quietly sang native Slovenian folk tunes to myself as I reveled in the unparalleled levels of American service.The next miracle I bore witness to, my dinner mate, ordered a simple glass of water (nothing compared to Pinot Noir), while a different (and significantly less beautiful) waitress, poured him a fresh cup of H20, we both witnessed the liquid pour down violently, unabashedly toward the carpet. While I had a quick chuckle in my napkin, my dinner mate nearly wet my trousers. He looked down at the ground. It was dry? VHAT? “Holy Slovenia!” It was miraculously dry, almost as if sorcery. Weeeeird. Typical America. The restaurant was so peaceful nobody even looked up from their entree. Everyone’s entrees tasted wonderful. The best entree of all though, was my dinner mate’s. I ate the lot. He was given a delightful red sauce, which is our surprise, a dollop of crème, a typical European delicacy. I started to cry in front of all American. “They have this in US of A?” I dipped my tongue into the white and let the smooth texture envelop my taste buds, and I swirled it around as if it were a candy gumdrop lolli. Bernadine didn’t even mind that I didn’t call. She was sitting at home. She had taken another lover. Best restaurant ever. AMERICAN...

The grounds were beautiful and seating area has an amazing view. BUT…the service is HORRIBLE! I noticed when we sat down that there was a serious conversation with a family a couple of tables over from where we were seated…the server (possibly manager) was apologizing to the table and explaining that whatever happened was unacceptable. Things happen, so I thought maybe someone had a bad night. We sat there for close to 20 minutes and no one ever came to our table. We were a table of 4 that came in@8:45pm (closing time listed for the restaurant was 10pm) for an appetizer and dessert..2 other tables were seated while we waited for someone to at least say hi. When the other table had drinks and appetizers served, I went to find someone who ended up being our server “who didn’t see us”; although 1 of the 2 tables next to us was HER table. She took our drink and appetizer order, never brought us water, so empty water glasses remained on our table during the entire horrible experience. The coffee drink I ordered was cold…COLD. No, it was not an iced coffee. I, again hunted her down, and asked if my drink should be cold. She went to the bartender who told her due to the liquor in the coffee it would be cold. 🤷‍♀️ Our appetizer was decent and we ordered desserts which were good. No one received a refill on drinks so by the time we were halfway finished with dessert…no one had drinks…AGAIN, I have to flag down the waitress to ask for refills, which at that time I also asked for the check. She brought the check I immediately paid and DO NOT recommend this place. Total waste of $90.82 for 2 ok appetizers and 4 desserts and...

I'd skip going to this place, for sure. If you're staying at the hotel, then sure this is a great but expensive breakfast. But for dinner - nah. Hard pass. The make your own pasta is good but nothing to rave over and the pizza options were nice but we got a soggy crust (gross). As of June 2023 the seasonal foreign intern Denislav was super kind and noteworthy to say on this review. That was the only good thing about our dinner here (and yes we were hotel guests). Such a shame, place had potential. Lastly we had to speak to the restaurant manager because they told us they couldn't sub an item on a dish (something about the executive chef has strict rules on not changing anything but you can take off an item). We had dietary restrictions so we were accommodated, but the manager was a complete B word. Wow. So when I said hard pass, I mean it. Get your Italian elsewhere if you must, there's plenty of better options in the area like The Chart Room. If we even decide to revisit the Regency as hotel guests we certainly would NOT go to La...