La Bella Pizza Bistro — Restaurant in Town of New Paltz

Tl;dr: Waited 45 minutes for 2 pizzas, the cheese was disgusting, there was a passive aggressive note in the ladies' room, and the true prices of their menu items were not listed anywhere with no warning until receiving the bill.

If I could rate 0 stars, I would. At first, it seemed pretty nice. The place was packed because there had just been a graduation at the local college, so when the waitress gave us menus, she told us that there were only the older menus left which hadn't been updated. When we tried to order (a large cheese pizza and a specialty pizza), another waitress told us that the specialty pizza was no longer available and gave us newer menus. She had 4 in her hand, but only handed out 3 for some reason so I had to look off of my friend. Once we ordered, we waited. And waited. Half an hour passed and they gave us each a complimentary garlic knot for waiting so long, which were pretty good. An additional 15 minutes passed and we finally got our two pizzas. I'm pretty picky when it comes to cheese so I can't speak for everyone, but I honestly thought it was revolting. Even my wife, who LOVES cheese, felt queasy after eating it. Then, when we went to the bathroom, there was a very passive aggressive sign about "Toily". It went into detail about how the septic can't handle feminine hygiene products, and it'll backup into the owner's personal basement and cost a lot of money. I don't know why it was necessary to word it the way that it was, but it definitely rubbed me the wrong way. Then, when we got the bill, for some reason each pizza cost an extra $2 each-- so our bill was $4 more than expected. I wasn't mad at first because it could've been a mistake. When we went to question it though, apparently the prices for things had gone up and NONE of the menus were updated. So, even the second "updated" menus we received weren't current with the prices, and the current prices were nowhere to be seen.

None of us will be...

11/20/24, 1522 Hours

On November 20th, my 3rd of 4th time ordering from La Bella's, I observed an unwelcoming environment by staff with the types of conversations they were having behind the counter, unsanitary food prep conditions (big blonde woman licked her fingers after preparing my food, not even trying to hide it); food that wasn't even tasty at that because of the rushed manner in which it was prepared, and poor choice of packaging which left my food seemingly smashed up. My original review as of that day was 2 stars overall, 2 stars in food, 2 stars in service, and 1 star in atmosphere.

11/21/24, 1715 hours, revised review I tried ordering again at this restaurant because of the reason of needing food in a pinch, which I mentioned was a redeeming quality of La Bella's in my original review. From my original review, I did mention that the speed and convenience in which the food is prepared is a double-edged sword when you realize that their whole business model revolves around the speed of which the food is prepared and served versus the quality of it. However, the staff wanted to improve their standing and seemed apologetic. During this visit, when I'd mentioned my experience ordering the day before, they were enthusiastic to reconsider the way they chose to package my food and its quality on top of being more friendly and welcoming! I also noted the diversity of the staff in the restaurant that day, and their whole "family-esque" picture they had been trying to paint with their kitchen and Italian general eatery displayed a good image. Overall, the concerns had been addressed and the staff was much more considerate towards food prep and quality this time around! It deserves some attention (see additional photos in comparison to my review from the 20th). With this update in my review, I will grant 1 additional star of rating to...

On a night where you are looking for a place to enjoy a meal, do yourself a favor, DO NOT EAT AT LA BELLA'S!!!!!! Unless of course you enjoy overly expensive, burnt, tasteless, dry, undercooked food. We waited over an hour for food that we were beyond dissatisfied with. By the way, we are Italian so in case you were wondering who this review was done by, know we are aware of what good Italian food should in fact taste like. The adult Mac and Cheese tasted like a cross between expired sour cream and spoiled milk. Delicious. The salad pizza, was somehow both undercooked and burnt. How the hell does that happen?!!! The calzone was made with barely any cheese, hmmm forget an ingredient? And of course the Pasta Fresca didn't include ingredients listed on the menu. What a surprise. Like sweets? Well guess what, those suck even more. Don't you dare try a cannoli or a fried oreo unless you don't have taste buds, then you'll be fine. But on a more positive note, the bottle of Sierra Mist...