La Bella Vita Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Richland

I really wanted to love this restaurant, however it's not likely that I'll return. We were brought to a booth after a short wait. The booth seat and backrest create a 90° angle and they're not comfortable. We were served a cheesy at bread type of starter right away, which was ok. The server was very nice, she was an appropriate level of attentive, and I am grateful for it. I ordered the linguine with clams and had the choice of alfredo or marinara sacues. I went with the alfredo. My husband had the fettuccine la bella. When our entres arrived, mine seemed very off. It tasted terrible. It did not seem fresh at all. Also, the alfredo sauce looked watery and when I took a bite, it was very bland, yet still had an overwhelming, 'sat too long' fish taste. To clarify, it didn't have a shellfish flavor, it had a fish that's possibly gone off taste. I immediately sent it back. Our server was kind and gracious, and asked if I would like something else. I ordered the spaghetti with marinara and meatballs. The marinara was very sweet, and possibly from a jar. The meatball texture was very dense and hard. They were not house made, they seemed like they were brought in frozen. The whole dish gave Chef Boyardee vibes. My husband said it was ok. My husband said his dish had a watery sauce, there was not enough protein, and the pasta was overcooked, but frankly he will eat almost anything. Finally, the bathrooms.. the ladies room had 4 stalls, and there was not a clean toilet seat to be found. There were used paper towels on the floor. I tried the family restoom, and while the seat was clean, the room was basically unfinished. There were splashes of what looked like mortar left over from the tile installation, nail or screw holes in the wall and door frame, missed spots where the paint wasn't cut in, a really poorly repaired hole in the celing, and when I washed my hands, the whole faucet shifted forward on the sink. Based on other's reviews I expect the manager or owner to reply to this and try to drag me, make excuses, which is a terrible practice. They should instead be accountable for their shortcomings. -fix the seating, the food, and clean and finish...

We were looking forward to checking this place out after reading positive reviews (in hindsight, let's face it, there aren't that many equivalent dining options in Richland, so our bar is set pretty low). Our waiter was kind and considerate, if somewhat absent throughout dinner (not many water refills, etc.), the booth was comfortable, and the decor was nice and casual. My steak salad was perfectly adequate, nothing fancy or complicated. We also enjoyed the pizza. Another person in my party ordered the shrimp linguine. When it was brought out, I noticed that some of the shrimp were still translucent in the body, possibly indicating lack of doneness. When the individual started eating her meal, she noticed the same thing and put the rare shrimp off to the side on a small appetizer plate. When the waiter came around to ask how dinner was going, she told him that the 4 shrimp she had set aside (which were indeed translucent and apparently not cooked to the point where they curled up) were a little undercooked, so she asked nicely if he could bring them back to the kitchen to cook a little more. A couple of minutes later, the manager (Jazz, as we learned later) approached our table and proceeded to condescendingly educate the other person in my party (who has been cooking seafood for a half century) about how shrimp is prepared, and how his kitchen has preset cooking times and temps for all the shrimp that go into the linguine, so he was sure that her shrimp were all fully cooked at the same exact times. We didn't understand his purpose of coming to speak to us, as it evidently wasn't to apologize in acknowledgement of a gentle request for something to be cooked more. We weren't actually even seeking an apology; she just wanted the 4 measly shrimp back after cooking longer so she could have her full dinner. All in all, an unsolicited and needless interaction with the manager that led to no resolution...and an utterly pointless engagement and wasted opportunity to gain repeat customers. Sadly, after all that, the shrimp that the waiter had taken back to the kitchen never returned. And...

La Bella Vita is essentially a sports bar that is showing signs of expanding beyond its capacity.

I would recommend it for bar food, game day viewings, and beers, but wouldn’t go as far as to recommend their main courses and restaurant experience. Most of the food is overly salty, as if they were trying to push the concept of “more salty food = more beer sales” from bar snacks to dinner entrees.

The entree portions at La Bella Vita are very large, but they don’t necessarily feel worth upwards of $20 per plate, considering that most of the food doesn’t taste very fresh. However, with Big Mac meals teetering on $17 a piece these days, it could be worth the cash, especially if you’re not already concerned about your sodium intake for the day.

The service at La Bella Vita is incredibly slow. While I’m generally empathetic to the low staffing that has plagued most restaurants in the area, I don’t think the extensive 4-6 page menu is providing them much assistance. Given that the food quality isn’t much of an improvement from what you’d expect at Olive Garden, I would hope they’d focus their efforts on creating a more… welcoming atmosphere instead of trying to reinvent the wheel by offering three options of pasta sides with Parmesan, or providing random slices of cheese melted on bread instead of the drinks we had yet to be able to order 10 minutes after being seated.

Therefore, based on my experience, I’d say that on the unlikely occasion that La Bella Vita is filled to over half its capacity, one would probably have a more expedited, yet similar culinary experience by turning around, grabbing frozen chicken Parmesan, frozen vegetables, a pack of spaghetti, and a pound of salt from the Safeway on GWay and making the food themselves.

But that’s just my...