Bella's Cafe — Restaurant in New Haven

One of the worst lunch experiences I/we've had in a long time.

Highly disappointing, because there's always been a fond place in my heart for Bella's, having loved their weekend brunches for the ten years I've lived in CT. This review comes after two bad lunch experiences. The last in July I would have given maybe a 3/5 and the 3 was because the food was still pretty tasty.Service is where the fail came, and the seriously long time from ordering to receiving-maybe 45 minutes.

I snapped up the recent Living Social deal, and bought one as a gift.

Since the LS is only valid T-F, I left work early and brought my husband for a lunch date. The waiter, a gentleman, was irritated that we wanted a different table (there were only 3 other tables occupied when we arrived-on the tail end of lunch); Apparently they don't offer seltzer, and asking for water with just a little cranberry juice was too hard to accommodate- he kept insisting I needed to pay for the juice. I insisted that was FINE, I just only wanted a little for taste. Instead I got a huge glass each of juice and water. OK.. well.

On to ordering lunch. When our server brought our drinks over we asked if we could order with which we received a curt "Yeah, yeah, wait." and he proceeded to seat another table. OK, I'm all about prompt seating, but being courteous goes a long way.

When he finally came over to place our order-a good 10 minutes later, I asked for the turkey burger, but with a side of salad instead of the bun. Nope. They don't offer side salads. Even if you are willing to pay for it. If you want salad, you need to purchase their entree salad, which runs about $11-12. What about a few extra leaves of lettuce and tomato, I'll PAY for it. Yeah, nope.

Well, OK. I'll have the side of Tabouli. "We're out of it."

OK, do you think, maybe you could just tell me what items listed on the menu aren't available? He then apologized with "I'm sorry, I don't make those decisions" and nodded his head towards the kitchen. He apologized a few more times before our lunch came out and each time nodded his head toward the kitchen. It was then I saw the owner (Rose) was there cooking that day, with someone else.

So, after this we waited a solid 45 minutes before our lunch came out during which there was some sort of terse altercation between the staff and owner-completely visible and partly audible to customers. Also equally visible was the smirking and eye rolling of her staff in response, behind her back. Both situations: uncomfortable and completely unprofessional. Rose, if you're reading this: before you confront staff for this behavior, know that your their (lack of) professionalism and decorum falls largely on your shoulders/influence as their leader. This isn't an episode of Hell's Kitchen, and there are ways to correct behavior that would elicit a much better response,that doesn't affect your diners.

The food this time, burger with truffle fries (which really didn't taste of truffle at all.) and my turkey burger were just OK-with a single leaf of lettuce and slice of tomato. So, the food couldn't even be the saving grace. What was actually good was the truffle aioli, which we had to pay extra for, of course, but I digress.

Soup to nuts "lunch" took 75 minutes and everything from the experience, atmosphere, and food failed. Very disappointed. And sad. I've always RAVED about Bella's, to anyone visiting the area, and to my friends and co-workers.

What has happened?

I have a living social voucher to give as a gift, but how can I give it to someone after an experience...

I arrived at this restaurant at about 1:30, I was dying for a high end sandwich. I told the waitress I will sit in or outside. She takes me to an empty room. I asked if anyone will wait on me back here and her pug remark was “probably not?” I said I will then sit outside and I go outside and take a small table. She then comes up to me and says that the people who cane after me wanted the table. I said I arrived before them and should have first choice. She then tells me they are closing soon at 3:00 and I say “eh?” I stood my ground in stayed in the outside seat. I then finally got a menu from a different waitress. As I said I was dying for a great restaurant type of sandwich after not having one for months due to COVID so I immediately go to the sandwich part of the menu. I picked out a steak sandwich type of sandwich that costs $14.00. Then the third bomb drops, we are not serving lunch though the lunch pages in the menu are removable. That broke the camels back when this waitress said if I don’t like it I can leave. I said great idea and stood up and left.

Most restaurants are financially in trouble and I am sure this one is no exception. They lost $14 for lunch for no reason but their own intolerance to give normal unbiased service. These poorly managed restaurants deserve to fail which would better allow those restaurants who care about service to better survive. Do not go here if you care about being treated like a normal person. By the way I enjoyed a very good Thai restaurant with an appreciative waiter at half the price.

I have to respond to this response from this restaurant's owner because it is so poor. Not once do you apologize for your employees' terrible behavior, instead you place the blame on me by doubting what I said happen. I asked for a manager and they said there was not one there. I do very few reviews unless things are so bad that I think I have to warn others, my experience at your restaurant comes under that need. As a business person myself I think you should fess up to that you have employee problems, and I suggest you nip it at the bud because you are in a very competitive business and people will not return if they experience such poor service. No I will not return because I have many other choices, the Thai restaurant I went to after I walked out was very good, it cost half the amount and it was appreciated that I chose them and would return. I suggest one of your first simple tasks is to have a menu that lists items that you...

While we had hoped this would be the perfect LOCAL spot to celebrate a Birthday Brunch, unfortunately it became quite clear early on that was NOT the case.

Timelines for both Drinks and Food were excessive. Our Drinks were ordered with our waitress, specifying that the Birthday Girl had an almond allergy and the non-dairy milk should be Oat Milk. The Drinks took over 20 minutes for the drinks be be brought back to the table, with one cocktail being served incorrectly. When I finally asked for a plain cup of ice to pour my cocktail over as it was initially ordered "iced", I was called a "Troublemaker" by the waiter who delivered the cup of ice. This was after we had informed them of the allergy oversight and felt like an additional attack on our table.

We had to request for water and once the water was placed on the table, there weren't enough glasses for our whole party. We then had to ask another server to assist with more water and glasses.

Food was ordered at the same time as our drinks. It took well over 40 mins for anything to be brought out. Once the food was finally brought out and the Birthday Girl served, there were shaved almonds COVERING her entire dish. Please scroll up to reference that we had already informed the Waitress of the allergy at the time of ordering the drinks. We immediately sent the dish back re-clarifying that there was an almond ALLERGY. She tried to re-order multiple options off their menu, but apparently 80% of the menu is dipped in Almond Extract - which is not listed anywhere on their menu. Once there was finally a dish she was able to order, the blueberry pancakes took an ADDITIONAL 30+ mins to come out, meanwhile the entire party has been served and is eating their meal.

The waitress happened to also be the manager and denied any acknowledgment of knowing of the allergy. The entire table disagreed and we asked to speak with the Owner. The Waitress/Manager informed us that the Owner was unavailable and the only thing she could do was comp the Birthday Girl's Meal and (1) Drink (she ordered 2 as she was left sitting there with nothing to eat).

I asked a separate waiter to see the Owner and she immediately came out from the kitchen. After expressing our disappointment in the comments made and concerns regarding the allergy being dismissed, she agreed to comp the 2nd drink.

While we were grateful for the compensation, the overall experience was beyond frustrating and ultimately could've had a VERY different outcome and landed our...