Arella Pizzeria — Restaurant in West Bountiful

I attended a wedding luncheon at Arella's pizzeria in Bountiful recently. Here is what happened: The bride's grandparents were the first to arrive at Arella. They informed the waiter (there was only one there) that they were there for the wedding luncheon. The waiter had no idea what they were talking about so he called his manager. When the manager arrived she said that she recalled speaking to the grooms grandfather who had been the one to book the entire restaurant but "forgot to write it down". To be clear the grandfather and restaurant manager had spoken on the phone a number of times and she accepted his deposit. Also, the groom's grandmother had called the week before to confirm the booking, so the manager had ample opportunity to "write it down". Do to the manager's incompetence everything was almost an hour late. There wasn't enough wait staff , I had to find a waiter ( I literally got up out of my seat to go look for a waiter) to get refills at our table, I did this twice. When the pizzas finally started coming out of the oven, 45 minutes late, I was starving. I also had to wait in a long slow line because they could only bake a few pizzas at a time and there were about 80 people there waiting to eat. When I got to the front of the line there wasn't much to choose from. :( Another thing that was very disappointing was that there was no PA system available as promised. There were no toasts, speeches, well wishes... because all of that was impossible without a PA system. There was no rearrangement of the tables so the bridal party could sit together. We were told "we don't usually do that ". So the whole event didn't feel special the way it should have. It was more like an afternoon at a loud, busy restaurant that had a limited selection of food, bad service and long wait times. I must say the staff was friendly and worked as hard as they could under the circumstances. The pizza, once it was prepared was tasty. I love thin crust, fire baked pizza. However, it didn't make up for the manager's incompetence. Order a pizza from Arella's it's good, but don't book events at this venue. Their manager cannot be relied upon and a wedding luncheon should be given extra care and...

Do not waste your time or money at this restaurant. Used to love this place been coming for years, but will genuinely say I nor my family will ever be back. We wanted to walk out before the food even came. For starters restaurant had very few customers, yet no one came to sit us for far too long, walking to to be sat the restaurant was dirty and gross, once sat our service was horrible truly so horrible he was nice but very unprofessional, server was cussing and didn’t even write down our order then had to come back and ask us what we all ordered and apologized saying he forgot because he was hungover? Two host stood in the walk ways in their belly shirts talking so loud instead of cleaning a disgusting tables or floors. We wanted to cancel the food and leave but felt rude so we stayed.. They were out of so many menu items we tried to order, we got sodas that were flat we asked them to be changed and they told us oh sorry both our soda machines are broken and “no one here ever fixes shit”. The food was not good especially for the price truly a waste of money would have rather saved $100 and ate at little caesar’s, not sure how there’s 2 tables in a restaurant and the food comes out slow , not hot nor good again should have canceled our order and left. All of the workers were sitting in the booths on their phones and chatting, cussing, giggling. Front of house was all sitting down hanging out in a booth and then kitchen staff in another, I watched 2 guests walk in and not be helped. I’ve been in the service industry for years, you really have to drop the ball for me to care, this is my first bad review i’ve ever written that’s how awful this experience was. This place used to be busy and now I can see why it was dead. Good luck keeping your doors open in this economy when you can have a better experience...

OVERVIEW: I highly recommend the pastas. Priced better for double dates or couples; larger families will get very expensive (our family of 7 was $159.57 pre-tip).

WHAT WE LIKED: The mac and cheese ($14) was excellent. It's a fusilli pasta with a very delicious cheese sauce. The five cheese ravioli (~$18) was very delicious as well. Their pasta dishes are top notch. The pizza crust (including the gluten-free crust) is excellent with a light and crispy texture and a slight char that was very flavorful. Sweet and spicy wings ($14.00) were quite good too.

Ambience is very nice. The place was empty (at ~2:00 pm in the afternoon), and the attendant seated seven of us very quickly. The waitress was friendly, kind, and attentive.

WHAT WE DIDN'T LIKE: Everything was delicious, but the pizzas are too expensive for what you get (a large pizza is ~$40). The pizzas had fresh basil, fresh ingredients, and good flavor, but nothing too praiseworthy. Garlic bread and garlic cheese bread lacked garlic flavor and seemed to be pieces of baguettes, buttered and seasoned with a little garlic salt/powder, topped with cheese (garlic cheese bread),...