Bistro Bella Vita — Restaurant in Grand Rapids

Spent $200 tonight for dinner for 4. The Bistro is beautifully decorated, offers a popular "warehouse revision" theme, and is very very noisy. I carry a sound meter app on my phone and the ambient noise level ranged from 88 dB to 94 dB. This is a sound level at which OSHA would require hearing protection.

If you are looking for a quite intimate dinner with your significant other - the Bistro is not it.

I made online dinner reservations, and requested a booth. When we arrived we were greeted politely and promptly lead to our seats right at our reservation time. We followed a nicely dressed young lady to a spot across the floor where she placed our menus on a table at the intersection of two aisles. I noticed there was a row of unoccupied booths adjacent to the table and asked her if we could have one of those instead. She glared at me, picked up the menus, and tossed them on the booth table and walked away without a further word or glance in our direction. I found this to be very annoying, but perhaps that is just me.

Our server arrived promptly to take drink orders and explain the menu. Overall, the service was very good. Our server was there when we needed him but did not hang over us. Perfect.

I had the antipasto appetizer, which was very good. In fact, all of the salads and appetizers ordered by our party were excellent.

I ordered the rib eye steak, which was over $30.00. I have to say when it arrived I was surprised to discover that the steak was between 3/8 and 1/2 inch thick. This is something I would expect to see at Denny's, not an upscale bistro. My steak was plated next to a brussel sprout mixture, and the entire plate was covered in french fries. Not the most appealing presentation I must say. My son had the duck, which was cold, but had excellent flavor. My wife had the pork loin which she enjoyed completely. My daughter ordered chicken pizza. It arrived and we discovered it was covered with onions. My daughter is allergic to onions, and we asked if they could make another one without the onions. It turned out that the onions were part of a previously prepared sauce and could not be separated. The staff was very polite and professional, and simply asked my daughter to pick out something else. She did and they had it ready in no time. I give full marks for how the staff reacted to our mistake, and made it right (we were not charged for the pizza). Class all the way.

I had an after dinner cappuccino, which was good, and we shared the gelato sampler, which was fabulous.

Pros: Good sized servings Excellent food quality Excellent table-side service Good wine list

Cons: Ambiance - our waiter had to lean across me to hear my wife over the noise. 90+ dB. Food value - tell me that a 3/8 thick steak is worth over $30.00 Attitude? - there were no condiments on the table. You eat what they bring the way they season it.

Would I take my family there again? No. But the place was absolutely crawling with people, so clearly my opinion is not a...

Last night, we had a great anniversary dinner!! We were very happy with our meal and service at BBV. For our 16th anniversary, we wanted a place that we knew would have great food, service, and vibe. BBV didn't fail us. When making our reservation, we were asked if this is for a special occasion. I shared it would be for our anniversary. She confirmed it would be noted. The hostesses wished us a happy anniversary. Our table was set with a handwritten note wishing us a happy anniversary. Our server brought complimentary champagne. He checked for any special dietary needs. Our server was FANTASTIC! So knowledgeable about all the drinks and food. He checked on us regularly and made sure we were enjoying our entire experience. (Really wish we got his name) Even the food runner wished us a happy anniversary! Everything was clean and professionally set. The kitchen and bar a managed very well. Our drinks and food arrived in a timely manner. Our tableware was cleared very promptly so we didn't have empty glasses or plates sitting around. The pacing of the entire meal was perfect. We never felt rushed and we never felt like we were just waiting for something to arrive.

The food was delicious as always. The calamari app was so flavorful, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. The cauliflower bisque was creamy and delicious. The beet salad was great mix of textures and flavors. I could have been done with just the app and salad. Our entrees were wonderful. My husband's steak was cooked EXACTLY as requested. My seafood spaghetti was so delicious! Perfect texture and flavors. I couldn't finish, so I get to enjoy again for lunch. Topped it off with the Apple Tarte. Great choice for those who don't want an overly sweet rich option. My Prickly Pear Martini was the most perfectly balanced margarita I have ever had! It was insane how the bartender got the fluid volume so perfect, the glass was perfectly full. Packed a punch too :) My husband's red wines were amazing. Our server did a fantastic job of describing and suggesting wine options.

BBV's atmosphere is sophisticated, polished, and relaxing. You can be fully dressed up or be very casual, yet completely be appropriate. Date night, special event, or family time...BBV just feels right.

Delicious meal, great service, and a relaxing enjoyable evening! Thank you BBV for a great celebration! This is why we keep coming back :)

We already booked our company's holiday dinner. We know it will be a...

My wife and I had a date night downtown before the holidays, booked dinner here and were excited for some good Italian food. I haven't eaten at Bistro Bella Vita since before the pandemic, and last time it was pretty good.

Unfortunately, not so much this time. Normally I wouldn't bother reviewing a place, I'd just not go back, but this was truly so bad I decided to share.

We arrived, ordered drinks and started looking at the menu. When the waiter returned with the drinks, we ordered an appetizer, but didn't order entrees yet since we wanted to be able to enjoy the appetizer and talk for awhile. Roughly ten minutes after ordering the appetizer it still hadn't arrived (no big deal), and our waiter came back to check on us, so we ordered our entrees.

Fast forward five more minutes, our appetizer showed up, about 90 seconds after that, boom there were our entrees. We barely had our first bites of appetizer down. What's the rush? Even my local dive bar that sells $5 onion rings and $7 burgers knows to bring out the appetizers first, give you time to eat, then bring the burger. Politely expressed my displeasure to the waiter, the response was "Yeah man that's a bummer." I don't know what result I was expecting, but being told "yeah that's a bummer" wasn't it.

So now my wife and I have to chose between enjoying our appetizer and eating a cold entree or enjoying our entree and eating a cold appetizer. I chose my entree. No reason to go into a lot of detail but my $28 gnocchi was barely mediocre. I wouldn't recommend the Parisian Gnocchi here. The spicy pork meatballs we ordered for our appetizers were pretty good but cold by the time we got back to them. Before we were halfway through with our dinner we had our waiter back asking us if we wanted to see a dessert menu. Again, I don't really understand what the rush was. It wasn't busy. We had a reservation.

All in all this wasn't an enjoyable experience. This was supposed to be a "nice" dinner before a show downtown, and we were walking out of there around 45 minutes after we walked in. If I'm going to a restaurant where I'm spending $30-$50 a plate, plus drinks, I don't want to be rushed out of there like I'm at some f*cking Applebees. We ended up walking to the Chophouse for another drink and ordered their cheesecake for dessert. I don't know what happened to this place since the last time I ate here, but the list of downtown restaurants I would recommend before Bistro Bella Vita is...