Bella Sera Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Universal City

My husband and I went here last night. We had hoped to find a good and simple Italian restaurant - nothing fancy but we were looking for a decent meal. I was hopeful as the restaurant had many 5 star reviews. We were sadly let down: Service - The service was very good and the wait staff were friendly. Ambience - Clean and pleasant. Nothing fancy. Food - Terrible. We ordered two entrees. My husband ordered the tortellini in cream sauce. The tortellini were so over-cooked that the dish presented and tasted like a mushy mess rather than the satisfying bite of a well-prepared al dente. The sauce was OK. I ordered the eggplant parmesan. The red sauce was just terrible. It tasted like somebody dumped a can of plain Hunt's crushed tomatoes with some sugar ( I guess an attempt to tamp down the acidity of the uncooked tomatoes) on top of overcooked pasta. The eggplant was so stringy and tough that I had to hack away at it with a knife to get a piece to bite. Luckily, the dish was so bad that I stopped at the first bite so I didn't have to wrestle the eggplant for the entire meal. The house salads that accompanied the entrees had the most flavorless romaine I have encountered and the dressings were so watered down that the overall effect was the blandest salad ever conceived. We did order the bruschetta alla fetta and the topping was quite good but the toast served with it was thin and had no gluten formation that distinguishes a nice italian bread from what tasted like melba toast.

The search continues for a good mom and pop italian joint. We will not be returning here. No Italians were harmed (or consulted) in the making...

I visited and reviewed Bella Sera shortly after they opened in New Braunfels. It has taken time for me to want to visit again, but I felt like a real Italian meal tonight and didn't want to make the drive out to the excellent Italian Garden restaurant in Canyon Lake. So I committed to give Bella Sera a good shake and not write a negative review unless there was something really awful about my meal. Well... I gotta say there have been some big improvements since the first time I ate at Bella Sera. The food was tasty and piping hot. The salad was very good. And the service was good. I was seated in a nice booth close to the front door and considered myself lucky. Then I heard the sound of a car warming it's engine outside the window. I thought, "How rude? Your car is loud! Why don't you pull out and leave?" Then they seemed to leave and the sound stopped. But it came back in a few minutes. I sat there trying to enjoy my food and looked around for where the noise was coming from. Finally I figured it out. There is a large soft drink cooler next to the takeout station. I was seated next to this cooler and the sound would come and go. Honestly, I'm not claiming the noise was deafening, but I think the person at the takeout station would have trouble hearing most people talk when the cooler is running. I was by myself, but if I'd brought a date, then I would've needed to move to a different table in order to have a conversation. Sometimes I wonder if the owner/managers actually eat a meal in the restaurant to experience these easily correctable irritations...

It’s ok. You sit “wherever you’d like”… We made a “mistake” and brought our own wine as we were told we were allowed because they don’t have liquor license yet. I don’t understand why establishments do this. I get it and I don’t. Anyhow, everyone kept starring at us asking about wine and they seemed confused. Finally the lady told the one couple we brought our own. Then another lady seemed confused after another table got a beer. Just seems inconsistent in service. If people ask for wine and you say no; offer a beer like the one waitress did; I think she was the female owner. Appetizers sure did seem microwaved honestly. We got fried mozzarella and calamari. Used to crispy calamari, this was still chewy. People say olive garden is all microwaved, well heck that’s amazing if anyone can microwave pasta and have it come out like this. I don’t think the pasta is microwaved lol. My frute de marre was VERY soupy, not what I envisioned pasta to be, but it does state “wine sauce”. It has scallops mussels and shrimp. My husbands lobster ravioli was good, some of the raviolis were a but hard on the edges. Garlic knots are not so garlicky; even domino’s knots are more flavorful. Guess we are just americanized. Tiramisu was good; it is bought from elsewhere as it is in those personal size to go containers I see at some mexican establishments. It was pricey $122 for 2 adults and 2 children entrees of 9.99 each, but we dis get TWO appetizers and my entree alone was $27.99. I would go back to try again, but I don’t think I would be a regular. I was excited but...