Bella Luna Cafe West — Restaurant in Wichita

What happened? Any Wichitan who has lived here awhile knows the high quality of Cafe Bella Luna, but from 6-8 months ago to now, something happened. On Oct. 8th 2022, I went there with my boyfriend, my sister and her husband (who live in WI and were visiting me). They really looked forward to their meal, as out-of-towners. The hummus was great as were the first round of drinks but it was downhill from there. The pumpkin kibbeh special was partially frozen inside (microwaved?), my spinach salad had virtually no garnish, and the salmon was bland, my second drink was warm, my cup of lentil soup was so salty, I couldn't drink it. My sister's first Bloody Mary was in a tall glass with garnish. Her second one came without garnish in a martini glass. Her steak sandwich had a little chopped steak in mostly bun. My boyfriend 's salad was wilted without much garnish, and his gumbo was cold. We were served by a very confused, spacey man who never took dishes away. We built a leaning tower of Pisa out of them on the edge of the table. The prices were higher than I remembered, but that's fine if the meal is exceptional. Sadly, that was not the case. My sister was so disappointed as we all were. I will never come here again. For $147 for four you can go to Wine Dive or Vora. For those of us who over the years have loved Cafe Bella Luna, if my experience is any indication, it won't survive the competitive restaurant market with this food...

Excellent waiter, Hunter answered our questions courteously (our 1st time there) and expertly. I had read online that their Hummus was voted best in Wichita and now we know why - it was so DELICIOUS! I was so glad they gave us so much as I ate it at home for 2 more days. 😜 Our WOE (way of eating) is Keto so we were so happy they brought us veggies for dipping. We also ordered the 5-layer chicken Lasagna (which I'm thinking means I'm going to cheat a little, not so). As we are eating this I took notice that the crust was Baked Cheese - no noodles - 🙌. So everything we had was Keto. 😄 I asked for hot tea and they brought out a little dish with about 6-7 Premium teas to choose from. He also brought me a glass of water with lemon. Now how did he know I was going to ask for that too?! Hunter was right there continuously checking on us, making sure the food was and good and the drinks stayed full and that everyrhing was going well for us. The only drawback was having to wait a little bit, but a little part was my fault because we needed a booth (back problems). All in all I couldn't give them high enough reviews (they don't go that high). We will definitely be back. As a matter of fact we are taking my friend there tonight so she can experience some place different too. I know she...

Had an interesting encounter with the owner. Ordered a filet steak/ surf and turf from the special menu and requested to upsize the steak. Waitress agreed and said it would be a $2-$4 up charge. Unfortunately, the owner rang up our bill and doubled the price to $50. He came by our table to to justify it, which was completely absurd! We went back and forth and he agreed to reduce it, but not to our liking. Unfortunately it put the waitress in a bad spot, which It wasn’t her fault. Just an unprofessional owner.

We eat at this restaurant on a regular basis, have seen him at least 20 times, and not once has he spoken to us, until this time, as he attempted to justify doubling the cost of my meal.

To provide more insight, I’ve talked with two former servers from this restaurant, now working at other establishments that said he’s a difficult owner/manager to work for and so it should be no surprise that we’ve noticed consistent turnover.

The food is good, atmosphere is usually good, service is good, but unfortunately, ownership isn’t very good.

We may go back because we do like the food and price but an honest review of the owner and the way he runs his business and treats his customers and servers...