Bell's Tavern — Restaurant in Lambertville

We have looked forward to visiting this restaurant since the beginning of summer. We passed it by chance one day driving home from New Hope months ago. It is neatly nestled on a quaint little residential street which made us all the more excited to visit. Anyway, we have personally heard good things from people who have eaten there however we nonetheless found the food horrible. ...like, beyond horrible! Maybe it's buyers remorse but its the next day yet it still bothers me that we spent $60.00 on food that we absolutely hated to the point of not eating it. I mean there was nothing they brought out to us that we enjoyed aside from the bread. However, the most disappointing as well as surprising thing was not the caliber of the food but that the waiter carried away a plate of calamari barely eaten and had to notice the plate of oysters were barely touched yet he never asked us, " Was anything wrong?" For the record, the calamari was rubbery, not fully coated with and served in a basic marinara. The oysters looked, smelled and tasted like they came frozen out of a bag. The hamburger my husband ordered tasted overcooked and dry. (By the way, my husband is from Pittsburg. All he eats is meat yet he didn't finish it) I mean, we have gone to restaurants before where maybe one or two dishes were not great but still 'something' was always salvageable from the meal that made up for whatever it was that we did not like. However, not this place. That said, the waiter was great. His customer service was welcoming and pleasant additionally the outdoor seating on cushions was really nice but we honestly cannot say anything positive about the food at this restaurant aside from again mentioning that the bread was good. Anyway, I don't understand the rave reviews. Maybe the locals have a strong sense of loyalty to this restaurant or maybe the problem is something as simple as the chef being recently hired or perhaps having an 'off' day but nonetheless our experience of eating there was terrible. Needless to say, we will never visit this restaurant again. ...which is a shame because I really loved the way its nestled on that...

Tuesday nights/Local night at Bells Tavern is always enjoyable. From the local crowd to the specials, the wine and service. My friend JB and I enjoy sitting at the bar engaging with the local crowd. We are both life long residents of Lambertville.

I felt compelled to write this review after reading many of the negative reviews. Working in the food and wine industry most of my life you see it all. One of the sad things about social media is that in a nanosecond some unhappy, miserable person can damage a business. Why not just talk to the manager? Most establishments always aim to please and will make it right. Bells is a Tavern people! It’s not a fine dining establishment. Bells has been a fixture of the local crowd of Lambertville since 1938. I am a foodie and have been to some of the very Best Italian restaurants in NYC and North Jersey and around the country. My Italian grandmother was one of the Best! Is Bells the best Italian food ever? No! But it is good and you can tell it’s home cooked! The service on Tuesdays is wonderful. The wine prices are outstanding for a bottle of decent wine and I worked for 12 years in the heart of California Wine Country. Bells has a great vibe and you get a great deal for for what you pay. The owner aims to please! I feel as Anthony Bourdain so wonderfully stated...“There’s really no worse, or lower human being than an elite Yelper,” he said. “They’re universally loathed by chefs everywhere. They are the very picture of entitled, negative energy. They’re bad for chefs, they’re bad for restaurants. You know, you open a restaurant, you struggle for a year to put together the money, you work your heart out, and then 10 minutes after opening, some miserable b-stard is tweeting or Yelping, ‘Worst. Dinner. Ever.'” Thank you Bells Tavern for taking care of your locals! And for good food and service. See...

We made a reservation for 7pm on Friday night, so we sat in the back area. 15 minutes went by before a waitress, or anyone showed up at our table. And when she did show up, she tossed a bottle of water on the table and walked away. She did not pour us the water. It was obvious that they needed more wait staff for the back room. She took our drink order at the same time as our food order. She was not friendly at all and was obviously overworked. My husband ordered soup and a burger. We were waiting for the soup for a long time then all of a sudden, a young woman came over with our entrées. I told her that my husband had ordered a soup and she didn’t really have any comment on that. In the meantime, my husband was served a bottle of beer. He was asked if he wanted a glass and he said yes, and the glass never came! No one asked if We wanted additional drinks. We had to flag someone down for that. The food was just good, not amazing. It was extremely loud in the back room Which did not make for nice ambience. We ordered dessert one for there and then one to go. The waitress brought out the dessert to go immediately even though it had Ice cream with it! So by the time we got home, that ice cream was very melted.

All in all not a great experience. My advice to owners is to hire additional wait staff And give the current weight staff some training in customer experience and customer service. And somehow put in some kind of noise...