La Stella — Restaurant in Norwich

Take a step back in time when you walk into La Stella, Norwich’s premier Italian restaurant located in a grand and stately landmark building, the original 1850’s Otis Library, directly across from the iconic Norwich City Hall on Union Square. The original building was gifted to the City by Joseph Otis a member of Norwich’s bygone merchant class back in the city’s heyday. Five stars for service, ambiance and quality.

La Stella takes you back in time to when service and quality really mattered. Their expansive menu covers all the bases from pizza and salad to all of the classic authentic Italian dishes you know and love. The interior of the building was recently refreshed with a stylish look that beautifully incorporates both old and new. There is a bar near the entrance with adjacent marble tables and there is also a larger open dining space where you can watch your meal being expertly prepared by the kitchen staff.

The oversized windows look out on the timeless streetscape of City Hall and the nearby United Congregational Church as well as the street-side balcony for al fresco dining nestled along the East side of the building on Broadway. Inside, the background music of Frank Sinatra is the perfect complement to your night out. You’ll have to remind yourself that you’re not in New York’s Little Italy or Providence as you take all of this in.

On the midweek night we visited, our server par excellence was Kelly, who went above and beyond with helpful suggestions and ensured everything was expertly presented along with helping package our leftovers from the generous portions of our dinners. The staff was welcoming and attentive without being overbearing or intrusive. The manager was on hand and briefly checked in to ensure everything was up to our expectations.

For your next special occasion or just a night out for drinks and appetizers, head on over to La Stella. You won’t be...

Went here with my children, and here’s a recap. I sat at the far end table closest to the restroom since I have a stroller and my children might want to use the restroom. I sat there for a good while before I was even offered water. They had a bigger party to attend to so I was probably not high on the list. I finally got my water and the sweet waitress asked if my children would like a cup of water with a lid. Awesome. Then the children decided to go to the bathroom and when I went back there there was this weird smell I can’t quite put my finger on it. The bathroom looked clean but an air freshener might honestly help. In the bathroom I notice quickly that the toilet didn’t have a handle but a button that you press on the top to help save water which is a nice feature but since this is a public restroom I honestly thought that was gross. They also had a changing table which is great for having small children to change. Anyways, I’m here for the food so I can over look little details. I was very happy to know that they were able to customize my order because I wanted spaghetti but when i asked if they put sugar in their marinara I decided that I would prefer a vodka sauce. We also added a salad, and the ranch was great. So anyways, the food came out quickly, the spaghetti was delicious. I was also happy when the waitress asked if we would like two plates for the children. That was awesome because most places just assume that my children will eat off of my plate. My children will 100% be having food from my plate but not eating off my plate. So her asking if they wanted additional plates to place their food on...

Normally I have decent pizza and timely deliveries from La Stella Pizzeria however my most recent delivery order arrived with Ice Cold Pizza, Buffalo wings that seemed to have been either tossed hard or dropped. After speaking with the owner he arranged to send a new pizza and complimentary Canoli's however that also became an issue as the pizza arrived yet again ice cold and the deliver woman was very rude and happened to be the delivery person that made the previous delivery, it was overall a very bad experience in customer service, we sent the new pizza and canoli's back. We'll be ordering elsewhere from now on.

Addition: The female delivery driver that first delivered our ice cold pizza and gave the order to our daughter, later was the same woman that delivered the second also cold pizza and canoli's, she tried to play dumb and pretend like she had not delivered the pizza originally and attempted to manipulation the situation as if we were attempting to "hoodwink" for a free pizza which between both the yet again cold pizza and poor attitude of the delivery driver we sent back to the pizza and canoli's because it's not the matter of the pizza at this point. It's the lack of customer service and lack of honestly on the delivery driver that again pretended as if they hadn't delivered the first order where the pizza arrived ice cold and the Buffalo wings arrived as if they had been dropped or...