Bettelli's Villa — Restaurant in Wilkes-Barre Township

I've eaten at Bettelli's for many years; twice this month.

Delicious homemade pasta and sauces. Yep, homemade pasta.

The cappelletti soup (put a little shake of grated cheese in it) and cappelletti with meat sauce are always great. Shrimp Fra Diavolo with chopped plum tomatoes and hand cut hot peppers over homemade pasta is a favorite of mine as well. You want it hotter, they'll make it hotter, the way I get it. Chicken Parm is awesome also.

The best pierogi in the valley. Homemade, served in butter with super thin cut onion; I assume the onion is cut on a meat slicer. I think they are only available on Friday.

Terrific pizza. Dough hand pressed into a pan. Thin crust and not greasy. Chopped plum tomatoes with the proper amount of cheese. I don't know what kind of cheese it is; it's not the usual mozz from the restaurant store. Eat your pizza fresh out of the oven, at the restaurant, where it's best, rather than taking it to go. My favorite is a simple classic pepperoni tray. They have some cool, different toppings on the menu as well. Like, a whole page of them.

Service is good. Amanda is terrific. Sometimes you wait a while. Maybe go with someone you want to talk to. Don't be in such a rush.

Everything is made to order here. You want fast microwave meals and bread sticks go to Olive Garden.

Specials are usually very good. I had a great Rhode Island Style Clam Chowder earlier in the month. I was thinking about getting a cup and then I wised up and got a bowl. Tasty.

I love that this restaurant doesn't add a ton of salt to their food, like just about everywhere else on the planet. You can't take salt out once it's in. Maybe you need to add a bit of salt to your entree at Bettelli's.

I had a guest speaker come into town Thursday March 16th for a work presentation. We went to Bettelli's for supper. He loved it.

Normally I don't get dessert. The guest speaker was buying and insisted. I got a slice of lemon cake. Delicious.

The coffee is meh. Everything else is great.

Jess, keep up the great work.

Rest in...

We made reservations for 7 pm on a Saturday night. I wanted to try the restaurant to see if I wanted to do my rehearsal dinner there. We got there a little early, but were seated right away as it was not busy. There was a smell of mold and musk when you walked in. We sat for about 15 minutes before anyone came to us. No greeting, just "Can I get you some drinks?" We then waited another 15 minutes to actually get the water. Another waitress came to take our order. Did not greet us and did not introduce herself. We ordered all our food at once. It took an hour for our appetizer to come out, crab and cheese dip. It was placed in front of us with about a cup of grease on it and a burnt layer. My fiance placed a napkin on it and it got completely soaked, but did not help. It was very salty. We waited another half hour for salad, which was thrown on a plate. The house Italian was very vinegary and sour. We asked for more water and a waitress slammed a pitcher of water down on our table. The other waitress came to tell us "we were next" for getting our food, but my mom didn't hear her. The waitress then said "yeah I know you didn't eat, I said you are next." Horrible attitude. All the other tables had bread around us, and it was finally brought to us after being in the restaurant for 1.5 hours. It was cold and served with margarine. We finally got our food after about 1 hr and 50 minutes. My gnocchi was absolutely disgusting. Claggy chunks of potato not cooked well. My mom's mashed potatoes were like paste. The spaghetti was very thick and also not cooked well. The chicken parmesan tasted like sink water. The vodka sauce was tasteless and the worst I've ever had. The decor was very old and tasteless. There was a napkin stuffed under the table to keep it from wobbling. No one asked us how the food was and no one told us to have a good night. The prices were also not accurate to the menu, we were charged more. Absolutely...

We had a reservation with other friends on Good Friday. Understanding this could be a busy night we planned ahead to reserve our table for 6. The party we were with had some order pizza and some of us ordered meals. The pizza arrived and we questioned when the dinners would be out. The server told us they would only be a couple minutes. After a few minutes maybe 15 or 20 no dinners still. We inquired again to the same response they will be out in a few minutes....after one hour they had still not arrived. We cancelled our order, and at this point, obviously quite frustrated, we requested to speak to a manager. This also took quite some time to finally get to speak with the manager/owner who again told us they would be out shortly. The salads that came with the dinners did come out, but no meals. and didn't feel we should have to pay for them. The manager told us she would not come here on Good Friday. We were also told by the waitress that they had a table of 17 in the back and they were busy with them. Apparently a table of six is not that important to them. The pizza was good unfortunately we will never know about the other meals. Customer service was nonexistent and not a high priority...