Bella’s Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Junction City

I've been to this restaurant twice within the past two weeks. The first time I went, I was with a friend. Walking into the place, the first thing I noticed was the incredible smell. Fresh baked bread. Yum, right? The waitress brings out a platter of bread and the piece on top was burnt. Where was the fresh bread? I didn’t want to make a fuss. I ordered the Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken. The chicken tasted like it had been boiled and thrown in at the last minute. It was not good. The Alfredo was great though! Our waitress was awesome, even though my friend asked for no ice and her drink came with ice anyway. The atmosphere was very nice. The bathroom was clean. I wasn’t charged for my sweet tea so I thought it must come with our meal. So, even though there were a few mishaps, I didn’t let that stop me from going back. I wanted my family to try the food. Any restaurant can have an off day.

Last night, my family and I went to eat there. There were four of us. Once we were seated, the waitress brought out three pieces of bread. She said there was more on the way. Fine with us. We ordered an app of Calamari. Even I wasn’t brave enough to touch that. My husband and son love calamari and they both said it was the worst they’d ever eaten. Our waitress finally came back to the table to inform us that there was no more bread for the night. They were out. Instead of bringing us bread like she’d said she would, she had given it to the next several groups who had arrived. Still, fine. My husband was ok with no bread. She asked if there was a different bread on the menu we’d want instead. We said yes, we’d take the Bruschetta. That stuff didn’t look like Bruschetta. It looked like French Bread soaked in olive oil. It just didn’t taste good. I decided to order the Chicken Parmigiana. The chicken was a lump of chicken, like the size of a fist, not flattened at all. My son ordered the same and his chicken was also a lump of chicken breast that had not been flattened. It tasted ok. I was just disappointed.

What did taste great was the Spaghetti that came with it. My husband ordered the Chicken Marsala and he said his chicken tasted like the chef had opened the freezer, opened up a boxed meal, microwaved it, and put it on fresh pasta. My son’s girlfriend ordered the Hawaiian Chicken pizza which she LOVES to eat. She managed to get through one piece and the rest was boxed and is still sitting in our fridge. The bill came to over a hundred dollars. We were charged for our drinks (sweet tea and soda) and also charged for the bread. Had I known the Bruschetta was not free, I would’ve told our waitress not to bring any. There were hits and there were misses. I hope this review doesn’t discourage the people who own the restaurant because is not my intention to hurt their business. I hope that people will eat there and think, that woman is crazy, this food is great! It just wasn’t great for us.

There is a reason why people will go spend their hard-earned money at places like Olive Garden instead of mom-and-pop restaurants. I’m all for the mom and pops, which is why I returned and brought my family. If you’re going to charge the same prices as the chain restaurants, at least offer something like a soup or a salad with your meal. You don’t even have to offer both. Be consistent. Do you charge for drinks or not? Will I go back? Yes. I believe in giving places more chances to get better. I didn’t hate the place. I will just order something else and hope for the best. Would I recommend this place? Yes. How can a restaurant get better unless it has constructive honest reviews? I have high hopes for...

Overall: I would not recommend this location to anyone given that the servers had no idea what was on the menu and the quality of the food was lacking.

Details: I decided to give a local Junction City establishment a chance and since Bellas was under new management and I have not experienced it I decided to gamble (I lost).

I walked in and was greeted by a young hostess who was polite and professional. As she started to seat me in the middle of some booth style seats, I requested to be seated in the back corner. She said that she could not seat me where I wanted to be seated. I followed her to a middle booth in which I was surrounded by people shortly.

Our waitress greeted us and asked if we wanted drinks or appitizzers and being that wanted to get the whole experience, I decided to order a drink and the spiniach artichoke dip ($7.99). Approximately 15 minutes later it came out with my budd'y garlic bread. The overall appearance of the dip looked good. I was kind of disappointed with the amount of bread you received in relation to the amount of dip. You were given six small slices of bread and a heaping bowl of dip. However, the dip wasn't that pleasant. It tasted bitter like it was made with frozen veggies. I can't say it was rancid but the flavor wasn't pleasant. Not worth the expense of this.

The main orders came out about another 15 minutes later, the timing wasn't bad. There was a mix up with the waitress, and she had no idea what the dishes were and who ordered what exactly. When this was complete, and we actually got the right plates, I looked at mine with disappointment.

I ordered the Chicken Sicilian ($13.99)which was pasta noodles, mushrooms, two chicken breasts and some other veggies. What I received on my plate were two pieces of chicken breasts that were beaten so thin they could have been mistaken for a piece of bacan. They looked like they were grilled with the markings but almost tasted as though they were just warmed up in the microwave. The chicken was dry and bland, nothing stood out. The rest of the plate was noodles and what seemed to be canned mushrooms, nothing great.

After completing the two small pieces of chicken bacon, we were approached by what I assumed was the manager on shift. She asked what I thought and stated that I wasn't impressed, she shrugged it off like it was nothing. Honestly she should have taken some advice.

I closed out the bill and they did not track the dip and garlic bread on our bill, I did bring that up to the cashier and paid for it but for what I paid for I did not receive in quality of food or service.

It would take a lot for me to return to this establishment, I hate to say it, but I would save your money and get a decent meal in Manhattan at the...

First time eating here tonight, and definitely will not be going back, my husband had eaten here before management changed and liked it so we went for me to try and him to have again. Everything was fine until the main dish came, i got a pasta sampler and the manicotti was good so was the lasagna was very impressed but then there was a cannelloni it has beef, spinach and ricotta cheese in it i notice it had a smell to it so i tasted a piece of the meat and it definitely did not taste right. I had my husband smell it and he also agreed it smelt either like freezer burnt meat or spoiled. I am a very easy going person and rarely ever complain or say anything negative about a restaurant but with this i wanted to bring it to there attention Incase it was spoiled and someone got sick so our waitress came over i informed her she said she would get the manager. Manager came over and she asked what was wrong i informed her the meat seemed off she then said everything is made fresh so there is no way it’s spoiled(with a lot of attitude also) i told her i understand but maybe to double check i was just letting them know she just kept repeating herself that everything is fresh, so she took my plate and went to the back with it she came back saying she checked the meat and it is fine and she and other workers smelt the meat on my plate and it smelt fine. I told her well maybe different opinions on how it smells she proceed to tell me again it’s not spoiled and everything is fresh and she smelt it and it’s fine and maybe i am smelling the spinach in it i told her i know how spinach smells and that’s not usually how it smells. (Also when i first brought it up to her she would look away and roll her eyes) i finally had to tell her i was not arguing with her i had a concern and wanted to let them know. our waitress did bring over a cheesecake but from the manager she did not once apologized for anything basically just kept saying it is fine and no possible way it’s spoiled so made me feel like a liar. A manager of a restaurant should never tell a customer they are wrong or what the customer is saying is not right she could of just said “i am so sorry i will double check the meat thank you for informing us” instead i got attitude and telling me i am wrong and it’s fine. My other 2 items were good but with how i was treated by the management i will not be returning, worst customer service i have ever received at...