Dan Pastor

Review of Bistro Bella Vita

Spent $200 tonight for dinner for 4. The Bistro is...

Spent $200 tonight for dinner for 4. The Bistro is beautifully decorated, offers a popular "warehouse revision" theme, and is very very noisy. I carry a sound meter app on my phone and the ambient noise level ranged from 88 dB to 94 dB. This is a sound level at which OSHA would require hearing protection.

If you are looking for a quite intimate dinner with your significant other - the Bistro is not it.

I made online dinner reservations, and requested a booth. When we arrived we were greeted politely and promptly lead to our seats right at our reservation time. We followed a nicely dressed young lady to a spot across the floor where she placed our menus on a table at the intersection of two aisles. I noticed there was a row of unoccupied booths adjacent to the table and asked her if we could have one of those instead. She glared at me, picked up the menus, and tossed them on the booth table and walked away without a further word or glance in our direction. I found this to be very annoying, but perhaps that is just me.

Our server arrived promptly to take drink orders and explain the menu. Overall, the service was very good. Our server was there when we needed him but did not hang over us. Perfect.

I had the antipasto appetizer, which was very good. In fact, all of the salads and appetizers ordered by our party were excellent.

I ordered the rib eye steak, which was over $30.00. I have to say when it arrived I was surprised to discover that the steak was between 3/8 and 1/2 inch thick. This is something I would expect to see at Denny's, not an upscale bistro. My steak was plated next to a brussel sprout mixture, and the entire plate was covered in french fries. Not the most appealing presentation I must say.
My son had the duck, which was cold, but had excellent flavor.
My wife had the pork loin which she enjoyed completely.
My daughter ordered chicken pizza. It arrived and we discovered it was covered with onions. My daughter is allergic to onions, and we asked if they could make another one without the onions. It turned out that the onions were part of a previously prepared sauce and could not be separated. The staff was very polite and professional, and simply asked my daughter to pick out something else. She did and they had it ready in no time. I give full marks for how the staff reacted to our mistake, and made it right (we were not charged for the pizza). Class all the way.

I had an after dinner cappuccino, which was good, and we shared the gelato sampler, which was fabulous.

Pros:
Good sized servings
Excellent food quality
Excellent table-side service
Good wine list

Cons:
Ambiance - our waiter had to lean across me to hear my wife over the noise. 90+ dB.
Food value - tell me that a 3/8 thick steak is worth over $30.00
Attitude? - there were no condiments on the table. You eat what they bring the way they season it.

Would I take my family there again? No. But the place was absolutely crawling with people, so clearly my opinion is not a commonly shared one.