Bella's — Restaurant in Town of Clayton

[ ] HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! On Tuesday, September 6th my husband and I ate at Bella's in Clayton for dinner. We have been vacationing in this region for the past 13 years. When we first starting going to Bella's in 2007, it was amazing! It was a destination for us for breakfast, lunch and dinner while on vacation. Along with the many pastries and bread purchases. We recommended Bella's to many of our friends and family. It was a dining experience, including meeting the executive chef and developing a rapport with the owner. Two years ago we began to notice a decline in the food quality, baked goods and overall customer service. Last night was the last straw. It saddens me to say that we will never go back. From the time we arrived to meet a couple that in front of us that had been waiting for 20 minutes without even being acknowledged. When the hostess did finally come over, she was flustered after dealing with a gift card purchase. She explained to the couple in front of us that she couldn't seat them because they were backed up. She rudely said, would you rather stand here or sit there. The customer simply said, I would just like to be kept informed. She then proceeded to seat us in front of them because we had a reservation. My husband insisted that she seat them first. When we sat down, we were greeted by an extremely sweaty, disheveled waiter. He started by making excuses and basically told us not to expect much. We placed a salad and app order and he took our menus???? He never told us about the specials, which we overheard from another table. We were never offered, or received bread....from a bakery!!!!! The food came out really fast which was unusual to us because typically everything is made to order. I ordered the ratatouille ravioli which was drowned in olive oil to the extent that I could not even eat it. My husband got the pork loin which was about 1/2 in thick and about 1/3 fat. The cous cous was cold and sticky. The roasted potatoes looked like shriveled up breakfast potatoes. Everything tasted like it was put in the microwave. We were never offered dessert or another glass of wine. We were abruptly given the check. If you can't staff and provide quality food and service then close at Labor Day! I tried to give this this feedback to the manager, Alta, personally but I was left on hold for 15 minutes. I have an extensive background in food service and I believe in giving face to face feedback, but when an establishment can't even give me that opportunity, they have gotten too comfortable and lost their appeal, vision and values. After talking to some locals when we returned to our cottage, apparently we are not alone in our opinion of the service and food quality decline at...

My family and I love going to Bella's but today wasn't an ideal situation. We were seated at 10:15 and ordered drinks for the 3 of us, which only partly made it to our table. We ordered simple, 3 onion bagels, an order of eggs, order of hash browns. Then our server disappeared. Finally the food comes, we have 2 regular bagels, eggs, and raw potatoes. We wait for the server to come back to let him know what's wrong, instead I end up having to find him, after 5 minutes. He said he would get the correct bagels and new hash browns out, he was sorry etc. He was nice and sincere about it, and offered to bring us something while we waited. He brings us a cookie and a pastry to have in the mean time, which were delicious by the way. Finally the onion bagels and hash browns come out. The remaining drinks come (waters we were waiting on to go with mimosas) and the hash browns are still undercooked. Bagels were the bomb, that's what always brings us back. So we finish eating and again it's a long waiting game to be seen or checked on. I find our server and just ask if we can get the check. He brings it back, and says "don't worry about the cookie and pastry, I took those off the check, thanks for being so patient with us today" So I'm doing 2/5 stars simply for service and food quality. Maybe switch to shredded potatoes rather than has browns. The restaurant is great we love the view. And I want to reiterate, he was a nice guy, just a...

Clayton is evidently a small, rapidly gentrifying town along the St. Lawrence. Bella’s has a great view of the water, several elevations of outdoor dining. Fortunately we were in a covered section, as the weather soon turned on us. Overall atmosphere was really excellent. The food was excellent, the Crab Cake BLT was outstanding, hot, lightly toasted exterior, lots and lots of crab meat, and the bacon added a wonderful flavor. The Chicken Panini was also very good, although very similar to other panini that I’ve had. The service, however, was lacking throughout the experience. Hostess was polite enough, but distracted and didn’t seem to be paying much attention. When she told me the table was ready she immediately turned and walked away, without looking to see if we were all there. By the time I caught up with her to tell her we had a handicapped person with us, she was in the middle of the restaurant. She quickly found us another table, but I felt like I had to chase her down. Our server was either “in the weeds” or just not very good—took him a while to arrive, took a while for drinks, took a while for food, and he didn’t check back after he dropped the food until we were done. A brief mention of dessert, and then here’s the check. Must have been ready to go home. Overall, a nice experience, the food was worth the moderate pricing, hopefully the service was...