La Bella Via — Restaurant in Phillipsburg

I highly recommend pizza for takeout at this place. It's amazing, the cheese is high quality, the sauce is homemade, the pepperoni is thick and old country style, and they really use a wood fired pizza oven, which gives the crust a smoked flavor that I have not experienced anywhere else. This place feels like it is a passion project, someone's life-long work, perfecting details right down to the type of wood they use for the pizza oven. Speaking of the wood fired pizza oven, it is a unique design which I have only seen the likes of in Naples. A big wheel which looks like it belongs on a ship, to spin a big iron disc, through a carefully crafted brick master-piece. I will never stop ordering pies and whatnot from this place on my way home from work. But we did dine in with my mom and step-momster the other day for Sam's and Clams night, and I just expected a little bit better considering my many wonderful take out experiences. The food was great, just simply marvelous, even the oil for the bread! But after that everything we ordered came out at very different and random times. Basically the timing was off, everyone ate at different times. The table was so small, once they put the bread/oil out, and 4 waters with lemon (which we didn't need cause we were all ordering drinks), we were already struggling for space! There was no way this "table of four" could fit all of the food we wanted on it. And I understand part of that is my fiancé's fault, because she couldn't figure out what she was able to eat, and that was because she had a gastro procedure earlier that day and had a very limited diet... But the same exact soup, for two different people, at different times. The personal pizza for me at the very end "because they dropped the first one on the floor", which was also the wrong topping... That was especially funny, because a few weeks prior when I was picking up a takeout pie on my commute home, I got there and had to wait, because they "burnt it". These are rookie mistakes people. Your food is sooooo good, it'd be such shame to push people away over service. And definitely don't try to blame it on the wait staff, because you have them spread thin already! You are a popular place along a major route, with some of the best food around. Staff yourselves like it. Hire a good manager. Anyway, I'll be back...

Not sure what happened to this place. Making lunch reservations here for noon on a Sunday to host family visiting from out of town for a party of seven was an EMBARASSING MISTAKE! Luckily my family was running 5 minutes behind, because I had the set the table myself...??? Upon being brought to the table by the our server, I was "greeted" by a stack of plates, pile of silverware, stack of menues, empty water glasses turned upside down on the table, and a small single carafe of ice water. The server was EXTREMELY slow, unattentive, extremely unpersonable, rude, and awkward to interact with. Once everyone finally got around to ordering, that's where the real frustation ensued. There seemed to be one guy working in the kitchen at the time, who clearly lacked any concept of timing...and there were two other tables seated with a couple of people at each. My husband's seafood penne came out, along with my starter soup and his (that came with his dish), while everyone else sat around for over half an hour to forty minutes twiddling their thumbs. Both of my grandparents ordered bowls of italian wedding soup for their meal (tasteless, extremely luke warm, barely anything in the broth, and no greens??). I ordered a chicken caeser salad (it was DRENCHED in dressing to the point of being slimy and barely edible, along with over charred wafer thin chicken). My two toddlers shared an order of chicken fingers and fries (where the hell were the fries?!?! About half of a small potatoes worth). My Aunt ordered wings and stuffed mushrooms. That whole ordeal took over an hour and forty minutes??? The bill DEFINITELY didn't justify that lousy meal. We all agreed to stick with Outback or Longhorn steakhouse moving forward. Absolutely appalling and pitiful service and meal. A place that I once enjoyed going to has gone way...

My boyfriend and I go to Bethlehem, PA every Tuesday for a GriefShare meeting after losing our daughter. Since they closed the U-turns on 22, we’ve had to take Main Street home and go the back way. We’ve always passed by this place, and have wanted to try. On our way home this evening, I looked at the site to make sure they were open, and called to place a small pizza order. Call was placed at 8:32p. A man answered and said La Bella Via, and I said I would like to place a pick up order. He then proceeded to tell me they were closed. I told him the website said 9p, and he said No Maam, we close at 8:30p. Needless to say, at 8:40p as we drove by, you could see people sitting at tables in the front of the place, with multiple cars parked in the front and the back. Hopefully the owner will see this and know that his employees didn’t want to make a small pizza order, as it was ‘almost’ closing time. Sorry to say that we didn’t get to try this place, and we won’t be trying it in the future.

Edit: I just checked the website and it does say last order will be taken at 8:30p. Don’t lie to customers and say you are closed. Just say last order was at 8:30p, and I wouldn’t have had to write a 1...