Luna Bella — Restaurant in Hot Springs

This establishment could stand to learn a LOT about customer service from other restaurants in town such as Via Roma and Jahnas. The manner and tone in which Luna Bella management speaks to potential and actual customers is simply unacceptable. When the concerns about customer service and lack of friendly service are escalated to a higher level, the concerns are met with dismissal and more rudeness. It has been my experience on two separate occasions that the owners believe there is an acceptable reason for poor customer service. Today I (again) personally experienced this poor level of follow up and customer service.

I would like to say today was the first time, I've experience subpar customer service from this establishment, but it is not. My last visit to this establishment was 2-3 years ago with seven business guests. The customer service at that time by management was extremely poor. All seven of my guests vowed to never return to the restaurant because they felt so disrespected.

Because of my previous experience, It took me three years to reach out to Luna Bella again at the request of two different wonderful customers. I was promised a private room on Monday by Dick. I explained that a third party company would reach out within 24 hours to solidify the details. Dick provided a cell number and let me know Kelly would be expecting the call. However, Luna Bella failed to answer communication to the cell number and restaurant number all week for an upcoming event from both the third party company and myself regarding details. I honestly thought until today that my third party company had failed to do the job of reaching out, even though they expressed throughout the week they tried multiple times. Today when Kelly finally spoke with the third party company, she expressed they had no interest in this reservation and asked to be removed from the contact list!! I thought clearly there must be confusion. I called to speak with Kelly myself afterwards and was told in an extremely unfriendly voice she had no knowledge of my conversation with Dick, and I would have to wait until she spoke with him. I then called Dick and explained the situation. I told Dick that his manager was very unfriendly. I was offered no apology. Instead I was told that he knew she probably was because he and his wife had not told Kelly of our conversation on Monday. It's Friday!!! Again I was offered no apology. He stated they have been unable to answer or return calls in five days because they work at night and get up late. His tone wasn't much better than Kelly's. Dick proceeded to tell me he was reluctant to reserve the room in the first place and was really doing a favor for me because one of my customers is his friend. He said he was making an exception by even doing this dinner for someone in my particular corporate industry because they are such a hassle. He then stated they would return the third party company call Monday and abruptly ended the call. After a few minutes of processing this information, I decided to reach out to a friend who lives in town about this situation thinking maybe I was being irrational. I was told her and her husband went to the restaurant for dinner and also felt the customer service was subpar on their private couple dinner visit. I now have no interest in ever doing business with Luna Bella. My business and money will go to establishments who truly value my business, not one that considers it an exception or a favor.

Unfortunately, this business treats corporate customers as more of a burden, annoyance, and hinderance than as true customers with several thousands of dollars worth of years of potential repeat & referral business. It's very unfortunate that the establishment may not realize that many of the corporate customers they treat poorly also live in the area and have friends, family, and customers in the area. If you like great food and customer service, go to Via Roma or Jahnas. If you like good food but don't really care that much about customer service, then Luna Bella...

We were in town for the weekend celebrating my friends birthday. She wanted fine dining for our first night there, it was narrowed down to 2 restaurants but ultimately she selected Luna Bella. We had a reservation a week in advance for 8pm on a Friday night for 12 and the day before we added 4 more with no problem. On the actual day we ended up with 9 due to everyone’s travel/arrival times. Once arrived we were greeted with smiles from the door until the end of the evening! We were seated and greeted by our server Jaslin (I think that’s correct & who was amazing by the way)! Everything on their menu soon sounded appealing, I ended up with the scallops although I couldn’t decide between that and the salmon (which I was told was delicious as well)! I did order the Marilyn martini (wasn’t a huge fan) partly why only 4 stars. My scallops were delivered as well as 2 others at the table. I will say I would have liked for them to be more seared as was one of the plates, but presentation was spot on, couscous and asparagus and the sauce around the plate! First bite, again delicious! I chose to save a small portion to take in order to get dessert. My friend was getting a free one because it was her birthday, and one other friend ordered all strawberry shortcake (my very favorite dessert)! Wow! It was crumbled warm shortcake mixed in with strawberries and whipped cream! Finished it! I have a few pictures to share some of our experience. I will say that the owner was very actively visiting each table and conversating to make sure everyone’s needs were met! After he visited our table, I did ask him if we could take a picture with him prior to leaving as a thank you for our evening and to help promote their restaurant as well! All of us were visiting from Memphis except one was from Alabama, we throughly enjoyed it, but most importantly our friends birthday had the best start to an amazing weekend and we thank...

This was the meal we were looking for! Our entire experience, from my call to make a reservation to when we walked out the door with full bellies was wonderful. Our server was very knowledgeable about the menu and the specials and was very attentive without hovering. Great service! The bread and herbed butter they bring to the table was so yummy. Then we ordered the crabcakes, which were exactly that- CRABcakes. Sooo good. The seasoning was perfect and they were full of lump crabmeat. We also got the Caprese salad special. The tomatoes were giant and beautiful. Very good dish. Our entrees were the veal scallopini with shrimp and the pan seared scallops with risotto. I have been craving scallops and these did not disappoint! Perfectly cooked and the risotto was delicious. The veal and shrimp were just as delicious. For dessert we had the heath bar creme brulee and the limoncello and blueberry bread pudding. The bread pudding was surprisingly light. Everything was so very good! The owner checked on us once early on and then came back as we were finishing our entrees. We had a very nice conversation with him. You can tell he loves what he does and takes pride in it. He was actually cleaning the menus as we left. My husband grew up in his grandparents' Italian restaurant in upstate New York and he said as soon as we sat down it felt like home to him. We spent the majority of our dinner talking about his grandparents' place and reminiscing and, really, the entire evening was just the best date night we've had in a long time. We will definitely be back when we visit Hot Springs again! Thank you, Luna Bella for a...