Che Bello — Restaurant in Bloomington

We chose this restaurant to have dinner at on the first night of our weekend stay in Bloomington. We were sat at a round table near the front window and the place did seem very busy as it was a Friday night. Our server took a very long time to greet us. He seemed like he was in a hurry and he spoke very fast that we never caught his name. We ordered appetizers and half of our drinks and he walked away before we were finished ordering.

We had appetizers, salads, and entrees during our visit. This restaurant calls itself "Italian cuisine" and it was far from it. The stuffed mushrooms were very tiny and covered in so much cheese that you couldn't taste anything but cheese. The entrees were not edible. The pizza had so much sauce on it that we couldn't even eat it. The chicken parmesan had no sauce on it and the chicken was so overdone. All pasta dishes are noted to come with house garlic bread. What we received was toasted plain white bread. No garlic or butter was on it at all. There was no flavor and the inconsistency of the dishes was ridiculous.

We hardly ever saw our server. He seemed like he was stretched very thin as no other tables around us were in his section and was coming from the other end of the restaurant waiting on tables in the back also. When he finally checked on us and offered boxes for the dishes we hadn't touched we told him no because they were not enjoyable. He was gone for over 30 minutes!

This is not an exaggeration either. I stayed at the table while the remaining guests in my party left the restaurant to walk a few blocks over to get dessert from another business. They then enjoyed those desserts and came back as I was still sitting at the table waiting to be acknowledged by any member of their staff at this point. I asked for a manager twice and no one ever came to our table to address the many many issues we encountered during this dinner.

I would strongly recommend not dining here. So many things went wrong and there was no manager presence even after asking twice. The restaurant also deleted our reservation on Open Table and marked us as a "no...

Went here for the first time and it was pretty disappointing.

For a Saturday night, it wasn't very busy; realizing now, this was probably a bad sign.

Right when we walked in, we noticed the scent was a weird combination of must and espresso and the furniture looked like cheap, Ikea, furniture.

Although not busy, we stood at the hostess stand for several minutes with many employees just walking by. One even came up to the hostess stand to get something, didn't say anything to us, then walked away.

We were finally seated, though it was right by the door, even though there were plenty of other warmer table options. We were also sat right next to some sort of oil scent diffuser and are 99% sure that is what was giving off the musty/old scent. It was extremely unappetizing.

After about 10-15 minutes, the waitress finally took our drink order. By that time, we were ready with our food order and put that in also.

We then sat there for over an hour waiting on our food before the waitress finally came back around and we asked the status of our order. She went and checked then came back and said "Two large parties put their orders in right before you. It should be just a few more minutes." I don't claim to know everything about restaurant management, but I feel it would be common sense to complete the very basic order for 2 of spaghetti and meatballs and mushroom fettuccini, prior to the "two large parties", who should be anticipating a wait anyways, and again, would not take long as our order was extremely simple.

The food was fine, though nothing to rave about, nothing you would "crave". Also, the "garlic bread" you get with your meal is a thin slice of loaf bread that has maybe been buttered.

This ended up being very long winded, but I feel it most accurately depicts our entire visit. Annoyed that we wasted our entire evening just trying to have dinner. Would not go back, would...

Che Bello.

In Italian Che Bello literally translates as how beautiful. So it will come as no surprise to hear that phrase is used a lot in Italy. In Italy, the term is generally appropriate but not so much for the Che Bello located on the square in the heart of downtown Bloomington.

In fact, this Che Bello is non così buono, not so good.

What kind of Italian restaurant is out of Chianti? Non cosi buono. Then, I suppose he was the night manager, did give us a modest discount on a nice $90 bottle of Amarone. As an added bonus, the night manager was training two employees on how to open, serve and pour the wine. We were the guinea pigs. Good training as neither put the bottle between their legs while removing the cork. The entertainment value of watching wine serving 101 is not very high.

Our first course. Caprese salad is an Italian salad, made of sliced fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and sweet basil, seasoned with salt, and olive oil. Credit where due. The mozzarella was fresh and was tasty. The tomatoes, however, were non cosi buono, almost as flavorful as hot house tomatoes grown in the cold winter month of February.

Penne vodka sauce with what were supposed to be meatballs was our main course. Non cosi buono. Dry, dark colored, almost tasteless meatballs that were fresh sometime (just not today) ended our not so Che Bello experience.

To give credit where due, the bread and olive oil were tasty. The in training staff were polite and attentive. And, the restaurant is Che Bello, with fixtures and design that are very pleasing.

The night manager did apologize for the food, however, did nothing to assuage the assault on our palettes.

This was out third and final attempt for this restaurant. First time was pretty good, second and third not so much. There are better places to eat Italian food in...