Bella Sera New Braunfels — Restaurant in New Braunfels

First let me say that I love Italian food. I worked as a cook and delivery driver for a family owned Italian restaurant from age 17 to age 19. My friends would say, "You must be sick of Italian food." But not me...I love it! Three years ago, I moved here to New Braunfels when I retired and I can't believe how good the BBQ is. It's like nothing I've ever had before. And the Mexican food is good, though not as good as the Tijuana influenced food that I'm used to. But the biggest thing I have missed since moving here, is the excellent SoCal Italian food. Don't get me wrong. I am not a snob who is too proud to scarf down a "Tour of Italy" at Olive Garden. Far from it! But the only really good Mom & Pop Italian I've found out here is the fantastic Italian Garden out in Canyon Lake. Closer to home, I'm super fond of the spaghetti and meatballs at Inferno's in Gruene. And the pizza at Bootlegger's downtown is outstanding. I even stop at Giuseppe's whenever I'm in Seguin. But not one of these places, even the otherwise excellent Italian Garden, has a decent antipasto salad. Yes, Bootlegger's has an antipasto salad on the menu, but it's not like any antipasto I've ever had before. I mean...it's a freakin' pasta salad. What part of ANTI-pasto do they not understand? So when I saw that Bella Sera was opening on the 337 loop, I got my hopes up for something special. Today for lunch, I met my sister and her husband there to try it out. First the good...the meatballs were very tasty, but very tiny. The senior lasagna was very tasty, but very tiny (notice the trend). The alfredo was just average, but at least it was a good portion. Before leaving, I ordered an antipasto salad with their house dressing and an order of meatballs to take home. I went home and fed my two Labradors the meatballs. They agreed that they were very tasty. They didn't say anything, but I think secretly they felt they were tiny too. Then I took a nap to work up an appetite for the antipasto. About 7:00pm, I was ready and pulled the container out of the bag. My initial impression was that the salad looked pretty good, but I could easily see that the container was less than half full. And I'm thinking, "What's up with this?" I mean, lettuce is cheap and this salad cost me $13. The salad seemed even skimpier after flipping it onto a plate. There was a good amount of salami and provolone, so I was hopeful, but not much else. And aside from the lack of lettuce, the house dressing I was wishing for - was still a wish. No dressing of any kind was on the salad. I even fished the take home bag out of the trash to double check that I hadn't missed it. But no, there was no dressing on the salad or on the side. I spent $13 for a dry salad with a small handful of lettuce. I guess I should be happy that the salami and provolone were good, but there was nothing else to recommend it. So I guess I'm still searching for a decent antipasto in New Braunfels. Frankly, I'm bummed. And I'm hoping this was just a new restaurant teething problem that will be fixed by training and experience. But the prices I paid were not training prices. I mean, I get my haircut at Seguin Beauty School and I don't expect perfection for $8. But if I was paying $25 or $30, I'd expect better. So honestly, I want a good Italian restaurant in my new home town. I hope Bella Sera will...

Responding to your reply:

It wasn’t my error that your employee gave my order to someone else. That customer that you gave my order to called me personally after I left your restaurant (they got my number from the receipt that was taped to their to-go bag) asking where their order was and they were given mine and your restaurant was giving them a run around and wasn’t friendly about the situation either. So, “despite the confusion, we prepared a second order at NO EXTRA COST,” isn’t a very appropriate way to treat a customer that shouldn’t have even had to pay for YOUR error twice. Not once did any of your employees apologize about your error, a guy I believed named Alex (assuming was the owner/manager) never apologize, no one took the time to explain how exactly to get a refund back. I was told by your waitress to “figure it out online.”

And since you continue to say my feedback helps, I would tell your employees to remove their vapes off your register because that is very unsanitary and beyond unprofessional.

I hate leaving reviews but with my recent experience today with this restaurant I felt the need to.

I ordered through their online website and when I got the text that my order was ready I went inside and asked for my order. I was told it wasn’t ready. After waiting another 5 minutes, I checked their system and it said it was ready for pick up. I went inside and asked for it and they couldn’t find my food. The lady was going back and forth with another waitress asking if she gave my food to anybody else and she said she gave it to a customer named “Cassandra.” I had to continue to wait without any communication on how they were going to fix this issue. After a few minutes I asked for a refund, the hostess or waitress informed me that I can’t get a refund through them I had to “figure it out” online. Her customer service was terrible and made it known she wasn’t going to help me out in any way. After a few more minutes she informed me it would take them 5-10 minutes to remake the order. She eventually talked to the owner, or manager (never introduced himself to me,) and said they are making the order and I requested AGAIN a refund and he informed me I couldn’t get one from their restaurant directly but through an app called “Slice.” I’ve never used Slice before so at this point I rather just get my food and go. But my food should have been done by then but was told that it would be an additional 15-20 minutes.

After waiting 30 minutes I was never approached by anyone with an apology. No one took the time to explain how to request a refund. I felt extremely disrespected and felt that their customer service was beyond rude and unprofessional. I will never go...

I'm giving a 2 star because the manager was extremely accommodating and made things right. We arrived and were seated. The atmosphere was a really bad disappointment. It was super bright. We were seated by the windows so every car that pulled in, we got blinded by headlights. When I think of an authentic Italian food restraunt, I envision a dimmed light atmosphere with candles on the table and nice table cloths. So right from the start it was disappointing. The waitress was no where to be found. We sat for atleast 15 min until a manager walked over and had to retrieve the waitress. We finally got our drinks. The garlic knots tasted like over cooked frozen bread. The salad came out and she left the croutons off, and when I mentioned she left the off, she argued that they came with it at all until I asked her to get the menu. The cheese sticks looked and tasted like frozen food. When our food finally decided to come out the back staff brought it out, slid it on the table and walked off without a word. My child burned himself on the scalding hot plate before I could even say be careful. That's the 1st thing they should of said before dropping the plate and running off. The spaghetti was a 2/10. I could of made it better at home. I understand this is a new restraunt and kinks need to be worked out. But was the staff even trained at all? This restraunt was not ready to open. There is no vibe. There is no decoration anywhere, especially the walls. The staff obviously isn't trained properly, and the most important issue is saftey. You just simply can't let staff bring out scalding hot plates and sit them in front of a child without saying. Please don't touch the plate, it extremely hot. Childrens dishes should be transferred to a child safe plate before it's brought out. Yall should of waited for your liquor license to come in and took that time to spruce the place up and train yoir staff correctly. Managers running around stressed out and having to fix everyone's mistakes is not a good way to start a business. I do hope that it works out for you all. And thank you to the manager for stepping in and taking care of our bill. I would of walked out completely. But i also had my child with me and didn't want to upset him by leaving. He did say the Raviolis were okay. 5/5 and he's super picky, so that's a 10 for him lol. If your untrained staff doesn't run off all the business, we would consider coming back next year to try again. Not sure if cooks from your other restaurant have come in to train but they need to do that. A trained wait staff needs to train the staff. Good luck to you all! Yall jumped the gun opening when you weren't...