La Casa Bella — Restaurant in New York

This place is a perfect example of how service suffers when a business gets busy. I’ve been going there for about 15 years and I can’t remember how many people my husband and I have brought with us to eat there. Many of my friends go back on their own and some are now regulars there. A couple of years ago we went there for dinner and brought one of my friends/coworkers with us. We raved about the food there. We work in the city and now live on Staten Island so The restaurant is really not on our way. I had a terrible experience that day. The waitress made a mistake on both my husband and friend’s orders and instead of just apologizing and fixing it she gave us an attitude and went behind the counter to complain to the guys who make the pizza. It was loud enough for me to hear it otherwise I wouldn’t know. She said that that’s how the food comes and that I didn’t ask for it the way I wanted it, and as I explained that I was going there for so long her response to me was “well I’m friends with the owners.” Really not called for. I went back a few days later to the owner and complained and his response to me was well she works every other Thursday so just avoid coming here on her days. REALLY!!! We continued to go there because we like the food and managed to somehow not deal with her again. Last Thursday we were there with a couple of our friends and gave her our orders, she obviously forgot them because she came back to confirm what they were, even after we watched her write them down. She repeated the other 3 people’s orders and then I told her what mine was. I ordered a penne chicken vodka (this is how it is listed on the menu). The food came out and I had no chicken in my plate so I nicely said mine was with chicken. She turned her face to me gave me pretty much a death stare and said I repeated it. Um no she did not repeat it and the proof is she couldn’t remember what it was 5 minutes after we ordered. She said she would remake it and I said ok. She walked to the back where the kitchen is and was whining about what happened to another employee so I walked up to the owner and said do you remember what happened a couple of years ago and he said it’s ok I’ll make it for you! My friends saw her say loudly “really, really” then She came running to the counter and kept saying she apologized and said she would make it. No, I did not get an apology, neither did I really care for one. Once again lady I don’t care, I just wanted my right dish and no attitude. While we were sitting there I also watched her argue with another customer at the counter while the owner watched. I’m not sure about anyone else but I run a business myself, and I don’t care if my own mother worked there, I would not let here be rude to my customers and just stand and watch. I would at the very least apologize and speak to my employee about her attitude. No, I’m not going back and I’m sure they don’t need my business, they might have needed it 15 years ago but I’m sure they don’t today, but if they keep this up they’re going to lose a lot of people’s business. Good food, Service and word of mouth is how people go back to a business, and I am one for sure not saying anything good about them from now on. I guess my advice is: Don’t go there on Thursdays, and avoid at any cost dealing with the short blonde with...

Their regular press are the best in the area. Sure, there is a ton of competition, but the combination of their perfectly flavored sauce and balance of cheese to bread ratio is unrivaled. I grew up in Brooklyn, and have tried a bunch of the smaller pizzerias and even the more well known ones, but La Casa Bella has yet to fail me.

The reason it only received an average rating is because of the other food served, namely the dine-in options. I've eaten here with a small group before. Trying to get seating on a Friday night without prior reservations is brutal- it was a minimum 45 minutes that I waited.

The pasta options are your standard Italian fare, but the execution is lacking. The meats that accompanied the pasta were overcooked and had little to no seasoning. It's kind of a travesty to taste bland Italian food. I have also ordered takeout on several occasions.

The baked clams had a grittiness from residual sand, and the bread crumbs needed salt/(insert condiment). The calamari had two options for sauce- either spicy or sweet. I opted for the sweet version which was decent, but I would have preferred it somewhere between the two. The calamari texture was nicely crisped; however, it was also missing salt. I actually reheated it the next day and had to drop some iodine down while hailing Emeril Lagasse's "Bam!"

There's a lot of potential at La Casa Bella, but because it's one of the few Italian sit-down restaurants in the area, it's suffering from the lack of attention paid to the individual flavor profiles. It's almost always packed, and the wait times for pick-up can be extended because they're so backed up. For now, I'd only recommend sticking to the pizza portion of the menu until they step up their game...

Waitress was extremely rude, I can deal with a few mishaps but damn. Didn’t even stay to eat and that’s the first time we ever got up to leave after sitting with the intention of eating in. It was like she was inconvenienced to be assisting us. It started with her getting down between me and the chair next to me and pushed her hand between to fix something meant to level the table and I’m just confused as to what she was doing at first because she gave no explanation, just got in my space and was reaching for it, then she says “can you move?” okay????? Held my breath on that. The list goes on during our short lived interactions with her afterward, she seemed genuinely agitated to be there. In a rush to take our orders, completely serious and snapping at us the whole time. Was nasty to my dad and I almost lost it. Asked for seltzer with lime and she just flat out said no. I said no what, no to the lime? She says right we don’t have lime. Okay, do you have lemon? Yes we do. Okay. Why wouldn’t you just offer that instead of flat out telling me no. I understand having a bad day or being in a bad mood but if you’re in the service industry you should hold that in for when you step away from customers instead of being nasty af to them. My dad ordered to go because he didn’t want to be rude but me and my man didn’t even feel like ordering at all. Mind you, once she came back and seen me standing to leave and realized that we were no longer staying to eat, was the first time she switched up her tone, assuming it’s because she probably thought we’d complain. We really looked forward to eating there too after having a nice...