Went for Magical Dining and had an okay experience. The restaurant wasn’t busy at allwhen we arrived (5:45 reservation). This wouldn’t have been an issue except we were sat across from a server station and employees crowded around talking/watching while waiting for their tables to be sat. We found it extremely intrusive to our dining experience. No one wants to feel like a group of employees (3-5) is watching them while they’re eating. Once the restaurant got busier, it wasn’t an issue because the employees were busy and weren’t congregating in the area. I took off 2 stars for this because we looked over multiple times, they were standing there, backs to the computer screens. Someone could have at least been proactive and helped our server out and refilled my empty water glass. We locked eyes with multiple people hoping they would take the hint and they continued to hang out in that area staring and talking.For the meal… We ordered drinks. Hubby had the Whistle Pig Old Fashioned and I had the Bellatini. Both drinks were as expected. They did take about 10 minutes to come out so we sipped our water while waiting.We were told that the Magical Dining portions were smaller than the usual portions but we were surprised because it was a lot of food. Their normal portions must be extremely large!For our dinner my husband had:Truffle Risotto Bites- fried perfectlyFilet and added Shrimp- both grilled and seasoned nicelyCannoli (to go)- 3 small cannolis, enjoyed later that nightI had:Mozzarella Caprese- nice presentation. I found it crisp and refreshingSalmon and added mashed potatoes- enjoyed the salmon with the char. It’s served over a salad that was delicious. Side of mashed potatoes was really good.Tiramisu- served in a teacup. It was the perfect size to share b/c we were FULL. I love that it wasn’t soggy but was looking for more mascarpone/custard.We were stuffed with the portions and took most of our entrees to go. They traveled well and were great for the next days lunch. We also ordered a couple more desserts to go for our daughters. I appreciated our server taking the time to verify which contained/were made in a facility that processes nuts.If our review was purely food and server based, it would have been a 5 but dining out is a full experience and in this situation was less than comfortable.
Mario Arreola
The truffle pizza was a delight. Excellent attention.
Sarp Ozlen
An overall 5 stars. Everything is great,the food,service and atmosphere!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Penne Alla Vodka, Tiramisu
Paul Fontana
Wonderful 43rd anniversary celebration last night with terrific service and dinner. GM Eric assisted us with special Italian wine offering not currently on menu at an affordable price. Our server Frank took great care of table service. Delicious appetizer and entree served piping hot. Thanks to the entire staff!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Tony Taylor (In Phaze Electric)
Might be the best chicken parm I've ever had. Cool vibe. Even the music is interesting take on modern yet classical music. I'll definitely be back!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Daniel Dempsey
We will always hold Bella near and dear to our hearts as it's where my wife and I had our first date. We've noticed that since the new location on McGuire opened the quality of the food has slipped. Service is also slower. Notably during Eric's off days is when we see this the most. We are "regulars" and love the atmosphere....the staff....drinks and the location. We'll continue to make this our go to even after the less than stellar meal we had last night. We're fortunate enough to dine out often. It was my wife's first choice when deciding where we'd celebrate her birthday last night. Without going into great detail........service was slow.......not enough emphasis on server knowing the details on last night's specials. For instance the tuna appetizer was cold and uncooked. We've normally ordered this elsewhere and it came seared. Last night's presentation of the tuna was underwhelming.......and lacked flavor. The grilled shrimp we ordered was also char burned and dripping with oil and butter. Fortunately the chicken parm was merely a solid good....normally great....because last night it came lukewarm.!The server was a nice young man and very apologetic. He comped us some free deserts which we normally wouldn't have ordered but he insisted. His grace and kindness was humbling and he represented an authentic concern for our dining experience. We're hoping Eric reads this and knows that we love this place and want it to be like it used to be. If it's any consolation we're from a place where we waited nearly a century for our team to win a World Series.......what's a few weeks of less than perfect meals at this point!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chicken Parm
J D
Many great memories here w family and friends. Food is fantastic and good wine list. Nice beer and cocktail selection.
This place is NOT authentic Italian! The menu clearly states pappardelle pasta cooked in a garlic cream sauce with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, a wild mushroom trio, and shredded roasted chicken. I get my pasta delivered with over cooked soggy pasta with mushrooms in a bland sauce...NO roasted chicken and either sour or spoiled tasting cream. Truffle pizza has NO truffle mushrooms but shiitake and portobello mushrooms masked as truffle. They don't even know the meaning of el dente, flavorful and truthful ingredients. Never again
Food: 1
Walker Smith
Windermere Nice Italian Food. Location -Location. I bet they would have a lot of local businesses because it is like one of those ten restaurant options in the whole area with all these local residents around. We came just because it is close to the office. Food is good nothing bad. I hope they gave us better suggestions so we could order the dishes on the table next to us. But all good. Would give another try
Waited 40min for food after being told will be ready in 5min. This place doesnt have the staff/skills to fullfill busy orders. Do not offer a service you can't provide. Reported to Uber.
I had the linguine with white clam sauce and it was excellent. The wine was perfect and the service was superb compliments to Bill! I have dined here many times and it does not disappoint. The only thing I would mention is one cook in the kitchen has a short beard and no beard net. I am sure that the health department will cite that in an inspection for corrective active. I would hate to see them get an unfavorable report for something so easy to fix!
Builderman
This was a hidden Jim.My wife found this as we were new to the Wintergarden Windermere area exploring the different restaurants. This was first class service. The food was great plan to go back and get to know the menu a little bit better but I would definitely recommendtrying it out
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tiramisu
André Gianesi
Ruined my Valentine’s Day.
Leslie Reck
My husband made Valentines reservations for 8pm. We arrived and stood in line for 10 minutes just to find out that even with reservations we had a 50 minute wait. I understand that Valentines day is busy for all restaurants but that is exactly what reservations are for. Ruined our entire night. Highly disappointed.
Kat Rahmes
My worst Valentine’s Day dinner. I feel so sorry for my husband who is upset he picked this place but it’s not his fault.Appetizers started out amazing. Beautiful seared U10 scallops as well as a beef carpaccio, which came out fast, very high quality. Killer capers with the beef, we were very happy.And then we waited. And waited.It took an hour to get our dinner of lamb, duck and fish. The lamb was raw (not rare or mid rare, but cold raw) so considering it had been an hour we sent it back and asked for the check.The check never came. Nature called and I ran to the ladies’ room. The toilets were clogged and other patrons warned me they were unusable.We grew tired and left.I feel very sorry for our server. I wish him the best.
Went for Magical Dining and had an okay experience. The restaurant wasn’t busy at allwhen we arrived (5:45 reservation). This wouldn’t have been an issue except we were sat across from a server station and employees crowded around talking/watching while waiting for their tables to be sat. We found it extremely intrusive to our dining experience. No one wants to feel like a group of employees (3-5) is watching them while they’re eating. Once the restaurant got busier, it wasn’t an issue because the employees were busy and weren’t congregating in the area. I took off 2 stars for this because we looked over multiple times, they were standing there, backs to the computer screens. Someone could have at least been proactive and helped our server out and refilled my empty water glass. We locked eyes with multiple people hoping they would take the hint and they continued to hang out in that area staring and talking.For the meal… We ordered drinks. Hubby had the Whistle Pig Old Fashioned and I had the Bellatini. Both drinks were as expected. They did take about 10 minutes to come out so we sipped our water while waiting.We were told that the Magical Dining portions were smaller than the usual portions but we were surprised because it was a lot of food. Their normal portions must be extremely large!For our dinner my husband had:Truffle Risotto Bites- fried perfectlyFilet and added Shrimp- both grilled and seasoned nicelyCannoli (to go)- 3 small cannolis, enjoyed later that nightI had:Mozzarella Caprese- nice presentation. I found it crisp and refreshingSalmon and added mashed potatoes- enjoyed the salmon with the char. It’s served over a salad that was delicious. Side of mashed potatoes was really good.Tiramisu- served in a teacup. It was the perfect size to share b/c we were FULL. I love that it wasn’t soggy but was looking for more mascarpone/custard.We were stuffed with the portions and took most of our entrees to go. They traveled well and were great for the next days lunch. We also ordered a couple more desserts to go for our daughters. I appreciated our server taking the time to verify which contained/were made in a facility that processes nuts.If our review was purely food and server based, it would have been a 5 but dining out is a full experience and in this situation was less than comfortable.
The truffle pizza was a delight. Excellent attention.
An overall 5 stars. Everything is great,the food,service and atmosphere!!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Penne Alla Vodka, Tiramisu
Wonderful 43rd anniversary celebration last night with terrific service and dinner. GM Eric assisted us with special Italian wine offering not currently on menu at an affordable price. Our server Frank took great care of table service. Delicious appetizer and entree served piping hot. Thanks to the entire staff!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Might be the best chicken parm I've ever had. Cool vibe. Even the music is interesting take on modern yet classical music. I'll definitely be back!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We will always hold Bella near and dear to our hearts as it's where my wife and I had our first date. We've noticed that since the new location on McGuire opened the quality of the food has slipped. Service is also slower. Notably during Eric's off days is when we see this the most. We are "regulars" and love the atmosphere....the staff....drinks and the location. We'll continue to make this our go to even after the less than stellar meal we had last night. We're fortunate enough to dine out often. It was my wife's first choice when deciding where we'd celebrate her birthday last night. Without going into great detail........service was slow.......not enough emphasis on server knowing the details on last night's specials. For instance the tuna appetizer was cold and uncooked. We've normally ordered this elsewhere and it came seared. Last night's presentation of the tuna was underwhelming.......and lacked flavor. The grilled shrimp we ordered was also char burned and dripping with oil and butter. Fortunately the chicken parm was merely a solid good....normally great....because last night it came lukewarm.!The server was a nice young man and very apologetic. He comped us some free deserts which we normally wouldn't have ordered but he insisted. His grace and kindness was humbling and he represented an authentic concern for our dining experience. We're hoping Eric reads this and knows that we love this place and want it to be like it used to be. If it's any consolation we're from a place where we waited nearly a century for our team to win a World Series.......what's a few weeks of less than perfect meals at this point!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Chicken Parm
Many great memories here w family and friends. Food is fantastic and good wine list. Nice beer and cocktail selection.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Creme Brulee, Fried Calamari, Calamari, Chicken Parm, Tiramisu
This place is NOT authentic Italian! The menu clearly states pappardelle pasta cooked in a garlic cream sauce with Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, a wild mushroom trio, and shredded roasted chicken. I get my pasta delivered with over cooked soggy pasta with mushrooms in a bland sauce...NO roasted chicken and either sour or spoiled tasting cream. Truffle pizza has NO truffle mushrooms but shiitake and portobello mushrooms masked as truffle. They don't even know the meaning of el dente, flavorful and truthful ingredients. Never again
Food: 1
Windermere Nice Italian Food. Location -Location. I bet they would have a lot of local businesses because it is like one of those ten restaurant options in the whole area with all these local residents around. We came just because it is close to the office. Food is good nothing bad. I hope they gave us better suggestions so we could order the dishes on the table next to us. But all good. Would give another try
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Creme Brulee, Mushrooms Raviolis, Tiramisu, Lasagna, Gnocchi Bolognese
Waited 40min for food after being told will be ready in 5min. This place doesnt have the staff/skills to fullfill busy orders. Do not offer a service you can't provide. Reported to Uber.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Restaurantji Recommends
I had the linguine with white clam sauce and it was excellent. The wine was perfect and the service was superb compliments to Bill! I have dined here many times and it does not disappoint. The only thing I would mention is one cook in the kitchen has a short beard and no beard net. I am sure that the health department will cite that in an inspection for corrective active. I would hate to see them get an unfavorable report for something so easy to fix!
This was a hidden Jim.My wife found this as we were new to the Wintergarden Windermere area exploring the different restaurants. This was first class service. The food was great plan to go back and get to know the menu a little bit better but I would definitely recommendtrying it out
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tiramisu
Ruined my Valentine’s Day.
My husband made Valentines reservations for 8pm. We arrived and stood in line for 10 minutes just to find out that even with reservations we had a 50 minute wait. I understand that Valentines day is busy for all restaurants but that is exactly what reservations are for. Ruined our entire night. Highly disappointed.
My worst Valentine’s Day dinner. I feel so sorry for my husband who is upset he picked this place but it’s not his fault.Appetizers started out amazing. Beautiful seared U10 scallops as well as a beef carpaccio, which came out fast, very high quality. Killer capers with the beef, we were very happy.And then we waited. And waited.It took an hour to get our dinner of lamb, duck and fish. The lamb was raw (not rare or mid rare, but cold raw) so considering it had been an hour we sent it back and asked for the check.The check never came. Nature called and I ran to the ladies’ room. The toilets were clogged and other patrons warned me they were unusable.We grew tired and left.I feel very sorry for our server. I wish him the best.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2