Bell's Mansion — Restaurant in Stanhope

You guys ready for a story? So I begged them to not make the reservations here, it’s the kind of place that relies heavily on the decor and ambiance and doesn’t pay attention to much else. The penne vodka was good but a monkey can manage to not screw that up so we don’t hinge a review on that. Now let’s start with how they robbed us blind. The lady that checked me in was beyond rude, when I said reservation for blah blah she replied saying oh the blah blah party amd she said my daughter in laws name with such an angry hateful voice i was confused as to whether she was slow. Unbelievably unprofessional. So we had a reservation for 8-12 at 45$ a head and ages 2-13 were supposed to be half. 100$ deposit. 5 adults show up with three children between that age range and an infant under one year. Later another adult shows up because they decided to feed us family style like animals at a trough for some reason instead of the prefix menu that was decided beforehand, i was told beef short ribs were on to e menu as an option amd we were served something along the lines of a beef stew that some swear had pork in it. The chicken you couldn’t even eat it tasted like ammonia. The place was virtually empty and there was no reason to charge us for 10 adults when there were 5. So when we arrived they said we didn’t have enough people and they had to change the menu amd feed us family style. Ok. So we were given bread, with a trio of butters, then three plates of salad to share, three portions of penne vodka, and three portions of beef stew and potatoes, and three portions of chicken franchaise, and coffee, no cappuccino amd no dessert. The original menu that was agreed upon had an option for each individual to choose their own plate and I believe because when we arrived they weren’t able to count they decided to breach an agreed upon contract and do whatever they chose and they did it rudely. Oh and we all got food poisoning. It was like I ate off the floor in a bankok alley, the unbelievable cherry on top of it all 3 confirmed cases so far, y’all are actually special. I know sometimes the wait staff like to play with checks and money when the boss is away or perhaps this is behavior sanctioned by the owner, I really don’t know but I saw not one friendly helpful face in there. So let’s continue with the math shall we. At 45 a head with 5 adults we’re at 225$. When you hear what these people had the audacity to hand us for the check. I feel going to cops and filing charges for the remaining balance. They literally robbed us a cool 3 bills, for no dessert amd not even a cappuccino. So even if you count the adult that showed up when coffee was being served amd picked at the ammonia chicken we should have been presented with a bill in the realm of 350$ and we were presented with a bill for 600$ roughly double. Oh and it was a dry table just ice water one guest had a soda. No dessert either. 600$… I am frankly appalled at the way my mother and daughter in law were hustled by these people. I arrived a few minutes late and they had already changed the menu and breached the contract. The food is mediocre at best, the pinch faced rude women that work there should learn some manners and maybe only try and rob the drunk people, the two bit hustlers, im actually appalled at whomever really though they were going to get away with whatever they pulled on us yesterday. The food needs to be exquisite to tolerate those prices and that rudeness. You all doubled our check lol. How embarrassing for you. I wouldn’t eat here if I was starving to death. Watch your checks everyone and make sure you don’t get food poisoning, I really don’t know if there was someone on staff with a personal vendetta against someone in our party because I can’t imagine treating people like this for any other reason. Is this standard behavior for the staff?edit, your response is a lie, you confirmed nothing of the sort with the host, they told you about the food poisoning,you gave us pork with the beef, you essentially hustled the host &I have the screenshots to...

I been wanting to come here for quite sometime now. Everyone talked up their Beef Wellington as the best around. It was our Anniversary so we decided to take the 1 hr drive to Bell’s Mansion. My boyfriend made a reservation for 7:30p on a Saturday night. We arrived 20 mins early so we sat at the bar first, and had a couple of their signature cocktails. We both ordered their FRENCH MARTINI-Grey Goose Vodka, Chambord, and a Splash of Pineapple Juice. They were excellent. The two lady bartenders were so sweet, friendly and nice. They made excellent drinks. We wound up being seated at 8:40p even with our reservation. We were very surprised that we were seated outside. We figured since it was our anniversary we’d be seated in their dining room. We were both dressed up thinking this was a dressier place. On their web page they say their business casual. People walked in wearing very casual shorts and tees, like they were hanging in their local bar.This is not what I was expecting. The hostess seated us. Our table outside was lopsided. My boyfriend had to get on his hands and knees and put napkins underneath the legs because our drinks kept sliding down the table. All the servers were busy and there weren’t any busboys to help. It just seemed like they had too many people and not enough servers. To make matters worse they had a big party going on inside in their dining room. This set everyone’s reservation back. Two ladies came in after us, and they were immediately seated.The two of them were immediately given water and their homemade bread. We continue to wait for another 20 mins before our server Christina came over.She was very friendly and nice, she did the best she could.We were told everything was backed up in the kitchen, too many people and a party going on inside. I placed our order for APPETIZER - SATAY TRIO- Marinated Chicken,Shrimp, and Beef in a Salsa Verde Sauce. It was good except it wasn’t hot. I also placed my order with the appetizer for two BEEF WELLINGTON DINNERS.(By the way, the Beef Wellington’s are $42 not $26.) I ordered both Beef Wellington’s med- rare more to the rare side instead of medium. We finally got bread and water, then waited another 20 minutes for appetizer, and another 30 minutes for our Beef Wellingtons. By this time we were starving. The presentation of my Beef Wellington was lovely. My only issue with my Beef Wellington was it was completely overcooked to Medium and my food wasn’t hot it was barely room temp. I’m not a fan of cold unseasoned mashed potatoes,they needed salt and pepper. My boyfriend’s beef Wellington was fine.I kept quiet because I didn’t want to ruin our Anniversary dinner. I knew if I sent it back it would probably be another 20 to 30 minutes and by that time I was done. After dinner Christina gave us a house shot of Polish Nalewka Driadka. The servers walk around with it and give out shots. It had a very interesting taste, like nothing I’ve ever tasted. We asked for more bread but they ran out. Their bread is all homemade and it was delicious. There wasn’t much ambience. Outside is a long L shaped bar and a bunch of wooden tables and chairs. There was a hillside garden but not a lot was in bloom. I got a bit cold, because I didn’t know I’d be sitting outside, and I didn’t have a jacket. I don’t know if I would return.If I did it would be for one of their sandwiches on their homemade bread. Their Beef Wellington for me was a bust! I wouldn’t waste the money on it. If I came here I’d get one of their huge sandwiches instead. We did not order dessert because it was already 10:30p and I was pretty...

A hidden Gem.

Portions A+ Service A+++ Prices A++ Atmosphere 🤯🤯🤯

Moved here from just outside NYC in 2016, searched for restaurants thousands of times- not once has Bells come up in google results. Found it a month ago, been there 3 times already. Love this place.

Kielbasa; the best I've ever had. Anywhere. Grew up surrounded by polish meat markets in Clifton's Athenia section.

Stuffed Cabbage; you know this came from someone's grandma. But its been refined so much that it's different from what you typically imagine. It's a very clean, light, pleasant dish.

Meatballs. They're done right. Meatloaf mix, taste like theres some sear, but light, tender, and finished in a homemade marinara (Lil sweet).

Satay; too sweet for me. Sauce overpowers everything. (But the sauce ain't bad..)

Coconut shrimp; very mild pleasant flavor, left tails on before battering and couldn't tell what's what after frying- had to spit'em out. Could do better. Coconut sauce is very delicate, too much shredded coconut texture in dish as whole.

BBQ ribs; tomato based sauce. The execution is good, but not for you if expecting traditional American BBQ. I would not order them.

Bells Ribeye; freakin huge. If your expectations are in line- its awesome. But dont expect a NYC style steak- salted & seared. This is unseasoned and grilled with a little grill/flame flavor and no heavy sear. It was cooked BEAUTIFULLY though. However, carrot side was pretty boring.

Chicken joshua; this is a big no-go. Waitress said it was most popular out of the teo options I asked about, but it was a whole Thick ch8cken breastfeeding thst I'd impossible to cook evenly without turning to shoe leather, and that is exactly why my steak knife had met its ma5ch here. Side salad was just like that container of greens from shoprite, mostly looked good but had lots of totally pushed out rotten leaves mixed in and was in no way getting eaten. Overall, not their strong suit- avoid.

Cheesecake; mom's a French culinary pastry arts grad, and she loved it.

Flourish choc cake; not bad. They use Hershey's syrup- thats gotta go & get replaced with ganache, passionfruit coulis or somethin to match thr rest of the restaurant. Its not doing the...