Bella — Restaurant in Maryville

I had a horrible experience here last night 7/31/23. My wife and I were there for our anniversary and right off the bat we had issues. First it started with the host taking us to our table, the seats were absolutely filthy. I mentioned it right away so they went to find someone to clean them. After a few mins the host comes back and does it themselves. Up to this point, no worries, I get that things happen. Well we continue on and things are going fine. We place our orders: I get the Bella burger and my wife gets some pasta dish that she really enjoys. After a lengthy wait, our food finally comes. Still, that wasn’t an issue because we were in no rush and just trying to have a good time. Well the food gets there and thankfully everything is ok with my wife’s food but my burger was severely undercooked. I asked for medium well and it was definitely medium rare or rarer. I spend a little while trying to flag down our waitress and after finally getting a hold of her she says they would just throw it back on the grill. I had already taken a bite of the burger at that point. I’m not a fan of that option so I apologized for the inconvenience but asked that they remake the meal. She said no problem and went back to get it done. Well the burger finally comes out, at this point my wife is done eating and I’ve got a cold plate of fries and that older burger with one bite taken out of it. They only brought the burger and expected me to eat cold fries with it. I asked the waitress to get me some fresh fries. She apologized and went to out them in. While she was doing that I started looking at the burger. There was barely 1 piece of bacon all broken up on this new burger. I looked at the old burger to compare and saw there were like 4 pieces on the original one. I mentioned it to the server and said I just wanted to point it out and I’d just transfer the bacon from the old burger to the new. She said sorry because she made a mistake on the first burger and put extra bacon on accident. Ok, I can understand that. No worries. Well after the fries finally show up I eat my burger and fries. It was a good burger but the whole dining experience was absolutely ruined at that point. Well the bill finally comes after a significant wait, and after all that, I figured they would try to do something to fix the absolutely horrible experience we had had up until that point, but no. They did nothing. I gave the sever my card without looking too much into it because I was pretty upset by that point. When she came back my wife noticed that they charged me for the extra bacon! So on top of the absolutely horrendous experience we had, the waitress literally CHARGED ME FOR HER MISTAKE. One of the worst dining experiences of my life and will absolutely not be...

This is a Resy affiliated restaurant. Because of this, I was expecting great things. I have been mixed about this review. But after having read reviews left by several others, I realize that my opinions were justified. For context, we had a reservation and was celebrating a birthday. (The hostess acknowledged that to us). The restaurant was not busy.

First - the food is outstanding. Everything was delicious. Kudos to the kitchen staff! However, if this is a three-plus star restaurant, there are too many other things that made you forget about the great food. Second - the atmosphere was kinda strange. The music that was playing was everything except Italian. It didn't match the mood. Third - they have a decent liquor selection. But the servers don't know it and there is neither a digital or hard copy. (Their menu is already available online). Makes it difficult to choose. Fourth - our server had two large tables in addition to us - one of which was in a different part of the dining room and upstairs. The second one was a walk-in that arrived after us. They could have been given the walk-in to another server considering she was having to go back and forth, up and down stairs to cover us and the large table upstairs. We felt like our little table of two was not important to her; the other two large tables had the majority of her time and attention. Case in point - she removed our appetizer forks. When our salads came we're had nothing to eat them with. It was almost ten minutes before she returned to the table. Also both of the large tables were celebrating something was well. The reason that I know they were is because they both had a 'sparkler ' brought to their tables. However we did not receive one.

After speaking to the server supervisor - (there was no manager) - I spoke to her about the liquor list and the fact that we felt neglected by our server, she told me that in addition to letting the restaurant know we were celebrating a special occasion (which I put online when I made the reservation) and any additional information that I listed online - which included a food allergy - I was suppose to also tell our server! That is 100% wrong. What's the point of having a place to let the restaurant know important information when you make you're reservation if you have to tell them again when you get there? It is ABSOLUTELY the hostess' responsibility to convey that information to the server. Either that or everyone needs to have access to the online information.

I came to the realization, as others have also posted, that this location being away from the other restaurants that are owned by the same people - is being overlooked and neglected. How can the GM properly run and correct problems when they're only there two...

The ambiance/atmosphere was incredible and set the mood for a nice, fine dining meal. I was pleased that the hostess acknowledged it was my birthday and there was a "Happy Birthday" card on the table, as well as free dessert, both nice touches.

Unfortunately the service and food were both severely lacking in comparison with the fine dining atmosphere and prices.

After taking our drink and appetizer order, our waitress seemingly forgot to come back and take our entrée orders for quite some time (we had finished our appetizer before we had to flag her down to ask if we could order). Then, I asked for a couple lemon slices that I never received. My husband ordered a second cocktail that never came until he reminded her, and when it finally arrived, it was not the correct Old Fashioned (it was another one on the menu).

The alfredo cheese wheel dish was bland and almost inedible. The primary flavor was the alcohol. I had to douse the pasta in salt and pepper to make it taste like anything else (I avoid asking for salt unless absolutely necessary, especially in a fine dining restaurant). It seemed as though not even the pasta water had been salted.

The shortrib and polenta/grits were perfectly cooked, but needed more acid/sweetness in the demi glace. Flavor profile of the dish was pretty flat overall.

The brussels sprout appetizer was perfect and we devoured it. Best thing we ate all night. I do think at an Italian restaurant the bread service should be complimentary. The pesto that came with it was excellent; the roasted garlic was pretty, but very messy to try and use/eat with the bread and somehow also flavorless?

The Aviation and Old Fashioned my husband drank received glowing reviews, so the bartender knows what they're doing.

I ordered from the Mocktail menu (can't remember the name--had peach and basil or rosemary..?) and my drink was too sweet and needed acid/citrus (which is why I had asked for the lemon slices).

The tiramisu seemed to be lacking an espresso/coffee component, which I found odd. It was still good and a huge generous portion with cocoa powder on top, I just don't know you can call it tiramisu without the coffee.

Additionally, our server asked if we needed boxes, and brought them out to the table, and then offered to box them up for us and left a bag. This is just me being picky, but if you are going to provide that service, have the server take the dishes back to the kitchen to package them.

Overall, for a nearly $200 bill, there are several other restaurants I would recommend to people before recommending Bella at this price point. (Foothills Milling never...