Bella Costa — Restaurant in Framingham

Food So Bad it Makes You Want to Write a Review

I honestly have no idea how this place has more than 3 stars. Maybe pre-covid they had a different chef or source for ingredients? Not sure.

My husband and I LOVE trying new restaurants and foods. You can check my post history- I’m not a chronic complainer or reviewer. But this food was so terrible I really needed to spare the rest of you from attempting to eat it until they get a chef that doesn’t know what a microwave is or better ingredients.

This restaurant is desperately trying to be a nice, fancy restaurant while completely neglecting the quality of ingredients and recipes of their food. Some of the worst food I’ve had in a sit down restaurant in Framingham and for sure in the Boston area.

Firstly, the ambiance was fine. Pleasant environment, lovely background music. A nicely decorated space. Service was also fine, no issues there. Surprisingly crowded for a Monday night but many of the restaurants around here are closed Mondays so maybe that’s it. Partner got a delicious hibiscus mint cocktail thing that was actually quite good.

To start out with they brought us bread. The bread was clearly not made in house. Reminded me of a sliced subway baguette. It came on a plate with pre-packaged butter. Not the worst, but it was served on a plate with specific partitions for butter! If you’re going to serve bread before the meal, at least make it nice with a spoonful of actual butter and not pre-packaged stuff.

We ordered two appetizers: calamari and French onion soup. The calamari was made from extremely poor quality squid, very thin and rubbery. And the breading had the consistency of sand somehow? The tartar dipping sauce was good. The French onion soup was quite delicious, definitely made from a mix but whatever. The cheese was browned nicely.

For entrees, we ordered crab stuffed shrimp with a side of vegetables and mashed potatoes, and a lemon shrimp linguini. Where to start. My entrée was the baked shrimp. It came with a container of melted butter which was nice. The shrimp was fine. The “crab” stuffing was approximately 90% breading and 10% crab if I’m being generous. It was completely mushy. No crispiness from baking or anything. Tasted microwaved. Relatively inedible. And I put some butter, salt, and lemon on them in order to even eat the first two. Very poorly seasoned and the texture was just gross. Mashed potatoes were pretty good, hard to screw those up.

But the vegetables- I didn’t even attempt to eat them. There were carrots and zucchini, two veggies with wildly different cooking times and textures, mixed together with absolutely no signs that they had been baked, sautéed, or anything other than dumped out of a can and microwaved/boiled. I have no idea how that happed. They looked entirely unappetizing and slimy? Ugh.

The shrimp pasta had almost no sauce. And the pasta was wayyy overcooked. Like by at least five minutes. Or it was microwaved too, I don’t know. Tasted a bit like a lean Cuisine. Shrimp was very overcooked too.

We decided to try to salvage the evening by ordering the lava cake for desert. The one thing that honestly I don’t care if it’s microwaved. AND IT CAME OUT COLD. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. No melted center, nothing. Cold lava cake. Seriously.

Needless to say, we won’t be back. I’m so disappointed. This meal cost us about $100, not including a $20 tip which I left because it’s not the waiter’s fault that the food was horrible. We couldn’t even ask for something different because everything we tried was so bad. Anyway, tl;dr nice atmosphere, trying to be fancy. Awful ingredients and everything tasted microwaved and canned. Poor seasoning and just yucky. Don’t waste your time or money. Maybe come here for cocktails. But skip...

This is a local diner. Do not expect more.

The wife and I had not been here before. We were in the area, hoped for a nice dinner. We surfed and found this, the pictures looked good and the reviews seemed solid. I disagree.

We had 8 PM reservations. This got us the 4 top that was the table nearest to the kitchen and bathrooms. Ugh. It is in a highway of wait-people. The place was crowded, it seemed like a popular spot with the locals. Ok.

So, keeping it short: ordered drinks and dinner. Erica brought me cabernet savignon instead of the savignon blanc. Ok, came back. The wine glass she put down was visibly filthy. Ok, came back. Her mimosa was weak and flat.

Dinner: my scampi barely tasted of garlic. It was "creamy" with 5 shrimp. Huh???? Erica did warn me, but I didn't see anything else that was particularly intriguing, so I went with it anyway. The shrimp were big - too big for scampi - but cooked well. Her dinner - a chicken dish that was a chef's specialty - ostensibly included a lot of fresh vegetables. Uh uh. More like mixed frozen vegetables from BirdsEye. The chicken tenders they use were a little overdone. The tough portions of the asparagus you don't use, or just use for soup? Got those in there too.

The pasta was actually perfect, but I don't make such a fuss over that, so,... not too important to me.

The food was not very flavorful. Not a lot going on with any herbs or spices. It wasn't poisonous, but this was diner food.

At one point, while I was eating dinner, a waitress bumped - HARD - into my elbow as she charged by with dishes, heading to the kitchen. Just in case I thought I was going to extend my elbow a little while I was eating, she persuaded me otherwise and gave it back to me. She just looked at me and kept going. Not a word.

As for ambiance? Well, they have a piano player, but let's keep the TVs on with the game too. The lady behind me blasting noise on You Tube for her friends was not enjoyable either.

In short, this is a local diner with restaurant prices. Don't expect anything more. I was very annoyed, because I did. The bill was high for a diner experience.

Of all the places in the area, we hit this one. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. NOT GOING...

Went to Belcosta this evening, We haven’t been for awhile and in the past always warm and friendly atmosphere and food was always good . Evidently a new owner , “The Boss “ Greeted Us do you have a reservation? We almost left then but figured we stay and enjoy a nice meal . There we five tables with people and at least 40 empty and the waitstaff standing at the a bar I guess waiting for the rush . We were served dry bread and butter and proceeded to order two cocktails and an appetizer of arancini . Two cocktails my wife was good mine was fair , the the arancini was the size of meatballs that you get in a Spaghettios Can and tasted about the same , Then the meal, my wife had salmon which was prepared perfectly and nice size , I ordered the rack of lamb special which in the past has been fantastic but I must of ordered wrong because I got rack of fat , The waitress was very nice and pleasant , I told her she should tell the owner if then a special that should serve an edible entree , I saw her speak to “ the boss “ and pointed to our table and he proceeded to avoid us at all cost . We paid the bill a left a generous tip to the waitress because she did a fine job and didn’t prepare of cook the meal . Upon our departure in the past always greeted with have a great night or cordial goodbye , but “the boss “ and the other woman being the desk couldn’t be bothered to even acknowledge we existed. It’s sad that someone buys a restaurant on a local family oriented place that always served a decent meal and decent place to go. They have managed to destroy that . I highly recommend you don’t waste your money your better off going to Taco Bell/KFC across the parking lot . Never ever again...