Bella Italia Ristorante — Restaurant in Kalispell

Absolutely chaotic experience. I understand Mother’s Day is busy, but I’m thankful we ordered takeout instead of dining in as a family because it was a complete mess.

We placed an order through their website, which said it would be ready in 30 minutes. My husband arrived and waited in line behind four people for 40 minutes before anyone even acknowledged him. Meanwhile, I called the restaurant four times trying to get any sort of update... no one ever answered.

After finally receiving a bag of food, he brought it home only to find it wasn’t even our order. He was understandably frustrated, so I went back to the restaurant myself with a fresh perspective hoping they would right it. Inside I saw tables full of people looking around confused, clearly waiting for service. A hostess pointed her finger as to say "one moment" at me while saying nothing, and then ignored me for 10 minutes while chatting with multiple employees. A gentleman eventually came out & started doing the hostess' job in front of her seating guests himself, and only then addressed me.

I was told it would now be another 30 minutes for the correct food even though our order was placed over an hour ago. When I asked for a refund I was told no it would be 30 minutes for food. I explained that I'm not waiting even longer and that we've wasted two separate trips at this point and it would take less time for a refund. After going back and forth he responded saying a manager wouldn’t be available for 20 minutes. No one EVER asked for my order confirmation or tried to verify anything. When he finally agreed to give a refund, I was handed $60 for an $81.40 order. After pointing out the mistake I got $20 more, then watched as he grabbed coins for the rest. I left before getting the rest because I was reasonably frustrated at the level of "service" provided over the last 1.5-2 hours & I'd rather leave with no food and be out $1.40 and two drives than wait any longer.

I’ve since heard from others who know the owners that the hostess doesn’t speak English, which explains the lack of communication. But why is she the first point of contact? Also, as someone who has managed a high-volume kitchen before, turning off online orders or pausing DoorDash isn’t rocket science.

Completely disorganized and poorly managed for handling a busy day. Can't even review the food so maybe it's good, but unfortunately I didn't get the chance to taste it....

My party of three was in Kalispell for only one evening, this past week Saturday 8/12. We agreed that for dinner we wanted good Italian and were quite pleased to find Bella Italia just a few blocks from our hotel. What a surprising and disappointing experience. First, let me say the food was very good. I had the penne ala vodka with a caesar salad and was pleased. However, the overall level of service and attitude of the staff was unacceptable. When we first walked in, a large man sitting on a bar stool near the door looked up and without rising said, "Yeah, what do you want?" I was a little stunned by this "greeting" but decided to overlook it as we all wanted a pleasant meal after 350 miles on our motorcycles that day. Once at our table we were asked for our drink order and along with our drinks asked for three glasses of water. We also asked for a basket of bread. We then ordered our entrees. As our waitress passed by a few minutes later we again reminded her about both the bread and water. She seemed to acknowldege but there was no hint of warmth or kindness coming from her. Finally our entrees came and we still did not have the water or the bread. One more reminder, three in total, and our bread came with one glass of water for the one in our party who had been most insistent. Two of us never did get a glass of water. Oh how thirsty we were after those miles in the heat on our bikes. So we paid our bill and left so we could get some cold water somewhere. (Fortunately, there was a Walgreens close to this restaurant and we got our water.) The attitude of everyone on the wait staff seemed surly. I think they must model the tone set by the male greeter. Seems like he might have been the owner or at least the onsite manager. What a disappointing aspect of what might have been a great evening in Kalispell. Would never walk through their door...

I was torn as to how to review this restaurant as there were some good things and some not so good. We were visiting from Canada and had decided to check this place out. Given that we did not have any reservations, we were seated fairly quickly which was a pleasant surprise. The first thing i noticed was that we were never offered anything to drink orher than water which i felt was odd. One of our party ordered a gluten free pasta dish as we were told by the hostess that they could accommodate her gluten allergy. When the food arrived, the "gluten free" pasta didn't look right so we flagged down our server who looked into it. It turns out that there was only one order of that pasta left so it went to a larger table and they sent us the regular pasta. Another dish was ordered but took an abnormally long time to come out and we now had to leave. I explained the situation to the manager who turned out to not be the manager but the former owner. Our server told us that she would speak to the actual owner and hopefully remedy the situation. Ultimately, we ended up not having to pay for the two meals.

Let me say, the food that did come out was fantastic and was probably some of the best Italian food that I have tasted. Our server was very good and Apologized for the mix up although it sound like it was more of a kitchen issue. It was confusing as to who the manager was as the former owner was going in behind the bar and even offering a remedy to my problem. I understand that they were in the midst of their grand opening so I can understand some confusion. Hopefully the new owners can sort out some of these issues. I would go back if that...