Bello Cucina — Restaurant in St. Joseph

Disappointing! Pointed out all concerns in a nice and polite manner to assist, not to harm, but to improve and offer some constructive, honest feedback. The owner was upset and responded by insinuating I was a Political-Hack Democrat and was simply attacking him based upon my unknown political affiliation. (Not a Dem, BTW!)

We all want the best, and I'm sure the Owner is a proud, strong, and dedicated person with talent and an awesome opportunity to share these talents within the community. What he doesn't seem to grasp or care about is the honesty and professional manner in which the review was given.

It was my parents' 59th wedding anniversary and my birthday celebration that night. My parents are hard-core Democrats and absolutely LOVE this place, obviously not politically motivated. I, however, have worked and voted for both Dem. and Rep. President's during my Federal Govt. career here in DC. I'm also a service-connected disabled veteran. (Suggesting I unquestionably love my country). All President's are country-loving, honorable, and giving people.

I'm a supporter of local businesses rather than national chain restaurants. So, whether you're a Dem., Ind. or Rep, this has nothing to do with the food!

After some research, I've come to learn that there have been some past partisan issues with signage of one-sided political campaigns. I never attacked his restaurant based upon a political agenda, only the actual delivered food to our table. Now, I will add that my mother's meal was outstanding, and I recommended it on the original review. Balanced, if you will. So my folks know the Owners' political affiliation, and as they are hard-core Democrats they LOVE this place and frequent it often! 2 of the 3 meals were bad. My folks eat there 1 to 2 times a month. I've been there maybe 4-5 times over the past few years, and I've had EXCELLENT food in the past. This time, it was poorly executed with little love or attention given to the basics: burned and overcooked meatballs, overcooked, and super dry chicken.

To respond with accusations and no facts, in my opinion, is silly, irrational, and doesn't help anyone. Owning my own business in MN for 10 years before moving to DC for work. This owner should know better than to intentionally irritate people while working hard to make a living and support himself and his staff with paying, happy, returning customers. You NEVER EVER attack criticism; rather, thank them for caring enough to send him a message trying to help. Reputation is everything for small business owners.

The competition in town (the other nice place to have a fantastic meal) is Krewe. He should be happy for this new business owners' contributions to the local economy and plenty of paid taxes. I don't believe Krewe has an Italian-styled menu choice. It's totally different, and therefore, a non-competing business; simply a different choice and, may I add, more expensive too. But to be honest, their food has always been excellent and amazing at Krewe the 4-5 times I've eaten there since they opened.

The Staff at Bello Cucina were busy but at all times were helpful, welcoming, kind, and super polite! MN Nice!

In closing, I'll share a Pentagon phrase we use often: BLUF = "Bottom Line Up Front." This restaurant was not up to par with their food. Food also makes a restaurant successful, regardless of poor service or not! The food was very disappointing. If you go; I highly suggest you Tip-toe in and DON'T criticize or suggest anything from your travels, education, local, state, or global experiences you dummies and...

We booked a medium-sized event with Bello Cucina almost one year in advance. This event involved providing a menu in advance for our guests to make a selection and purchase a ticket. The venue was described to us as a full room to accommodate our medium-sized event with a cash bar available for refreshments. The event required a $400 deposit which we paid immediately to secure a space on our requested date. We found out two month's in advance of the event that the "deposit" was actually a "room fee" for tables and linens and setup (even though we still did not confirm the number of guests). We also found out that they had passed the responsibilities of the space to another company. We were not going to be seeing our $400 deposit back. Today there was a closed sign on their front door. They literally shut down their business 6 weeks before our event. The phone is shut down. There is no contact information and their only other location left (in St. Joseph, MN) is closed today, and also not answering their phone. This was never communicated to us by Bello Cucina in any way (we talked one week ago!) and they have made no attempt since their public announcement to contact us. We needed to chase down information through the city's Chamber of Commerce and the new owners of the space, who were extremely accommodating and understanding of the terrible position Bello Cucina left us in. We will now need to completely revamp our menu options, refund tickets to our attendees and communicate all of these changes in a little over a month. We had a previously poor experience when they opened this restaurant and booked our space in advance with a comparable deposit only to find out it was completely unfinished. We entertained on scraped concrete floors with exposed stud walls and completely exposed ceilings. Picture an unfinished basement with a buffet and a garage door. I would not recommend working with this business or owner in any professional capacity, as they did not show a single courtesy to those they contracted with. Business owners should value and cultivate their community and patron relationships and I would not recommend doing any business with Bello Cucina or its ownership. If you were offered gift cards to compensate for commitments they made at their closed location, I would demand cash back. No one should be required to reward this behavior by driving to St. Joseph, MN and providing patronage.

Edit: As evidenced in the rest of this owner's responses (including this one), the professionalism and simple courtesy exemplified by this establishment and, specifically, the owner is nothing short of abysmal. Please read this owner's responses to legitimate feedback before engaging him. Avoid this...

Super bummed about our experience today (10/13/19). I had been to Bello Cucina a couple of years ago and was excited to be back for a second time. After my suggestion, a group of four of us arrived at about 12:45pm for lunch. We waited by the hostess stand and a server from behind the bar area shouted that she would be with us in a second. We waited a tad longer and a lady (seemed to be an employee) who was seated at the bar offered to seat us. We were seated and after a few minutes the same server who shouted from behind the bar walked by and said she would be with us in a few seconds. She seemed to be the only one serving. Besides us, there were 4 other tables occupied in the whole restaurant. She finally came by and took our drink order and returned with our drinks. While we were deciding what to order, we saw the server walk by carrying food for another table. As she was carrying the food on her arm, her ponytail was falling right into one of the plates of food. Two of us ordered side caesar salads to go with our meals. We waited and waited and finally got the salads. About 5 minutes later, our dishes were delivered. We all took a bite and realized our dishes were luke warm, at best. One of us ordered the special which was salmon and risotto. The risotto was super undercooked- basically crunchy. Our server came back and asked how everything tasted. We told her that everything tasted great but that none of our dishes were hot, barely even warm. She offered to bring our plates back to "warm them up" but we declined. She came back a bit later and apologized about our meals and said she usually checks to make sure the dishes are warm before she brings them out. How does a server check that a dish is warm before they bring it out? We were all puzzled by what she meant- joking around that we hope she didn't check the warmth of dishes with her finger before she brought them out.

We also saw the server drop a napkin out of one of the bread baskets onto the floor and put it back into the basket. The men's bathroom was completely out of soap. We also heard another table ask two times where their mushroom appetizer was- the second time they asked was when their side salads were already being delivered.

I would love to come back and try more of the menu items and some of the fun drinks on the drink menu but after today, I am not sure I...