Bella Bleu’s

The Sunday brunch was fantastic and we are returning this week. Ashland is a bit devoid of good food so this place is a welcome addition. Lasagnas were on point, the breads were delicious, and the breakfast casseroles were tasty. The food was a bit on the cooler side and the service was slow but Rita goes above and beyond to make your experience worth it. I am definitely going back.

Fabulous Sunday brunch! The waitstaff even brought us out a huge plate of brisket & gravy, not on the menu! Just simply fabulous brunch with great selections! Everyone we met was personable, welcoming, and justly proud of their establishment!

My first advice is go with REALLY good friends… those that you enjoy spending a lot of time with… because a dinner here takes about 3 hours. Our reservation was for 645 pm… we waited in the lobby for about 5 min with no staff interaction what so ever, when we got it, the host was not exactly welcoming. no concern what so ever that guest were left in the lobby unattended. Upon being seated, there were 6 of us, we found out that they had no Merlot… at all, who does that on a Sat dinner? So each couple ordered a bottle of wine. and after about 30 min, we finally got our wine… we never did get out waters we ordered… we had to self serve those from the waitress station. Our salads arrived at 8:08pm…yes, that is over an hour after we arrived… like I said. make sure your with people you like hanging with! Fortunately, we were with people we really like because our main courses came 30 min later. so we are now almost 2 hours from our arrival. Despite the long ridiculous wait, the food was good. The salads were fresh… some blue berries mixed in, nice contrast. The main courses were hot and very good. Three of us ordered prime rib-​med rare… they were not rare… barely any pink at all… and extremely salty… the meat was tender and had good flavor. Two ordered Chicken Marsala. the pasta was very good… the chicken was good but not extraordinary. One ordered Seafood Pasta and said it was really good. One noted plus was the shrimp did not have the tails on… we like that as we find it a bit of a nuisance to have to pick off the tails amid the sauce. All in all the food was good, the server was very nice… but the delay was ridiculous. There were empty tables so the place was not extremely busy. There was an event in the front… but it is an event center… so should not have had a bearing on our service. A table of 8 came in after us, from the time they were seated, they were served all courses and were done before our bills even came. the inconsistently is inexcusable.

The ambiance, service, and food were outstanding! I was blown away that a broccoli salad could be so yummy! The only side note is that I wouldn’t come here if you are in a rush. I have not experienced it but I hear that the kitchen can get a little backed up. I can appreciate that because they put out such amazing food! There is love in this grub!

The ambiance and view for this place alone deserves 5 stars. It is set alongside a small lake with grass and pine trees and several geese you could just spend time looking outside. The restaurant on the inside had several windows that allow you to look outside and it also has an outdoor patio which would be great in the warmer months. They are only open for lunch and in the evenings it’s reserved for events which could be great and unique.
The food would probably be about 4 stars. They are limited on veg options but can try to make something else. However, it is still limited. The food was very different which is nice and they did accommodate us by making a vegetarian lasagna and a vegetarian stir fry. The stir fry was unique and did not taste like your typical as l Chinese stir fry. Some of the items brought out like the grilled chicken breast sandwich seemed to not have been cooked thoroughly and others like the tomato basil pie seemed to have been sitting out for awhile as it was lukewarm. Their side pasta salad is yummy so I would recommend getting that as your side.
Service however was not great and I would give this place 2 stars if I was only rating on that. Our waitress was extremely slow and barely came by to check on us. When she brought our drinks out, she forgot the cream for the coffee and there wasn’t enough sugar on our table. After waiting about five minutes I ended up getting a couple packets from another table. She finally came about fifteen minutes later to take our food order which is when we were finally able to get cream, more sugar and a refill on the coke. We asked for some bread when we ordered. We ended up waiting for another 40 minutes with her never coming by to give the bread, to see if we wanted anymore drinks, or to let us know why it was taking so long. The crazy thing is another large group that came in a few minutes before us got their food and were done within 30 minutes. My cousin finally got up to go find out what was taking so long. When the waitress finally came back to the table we asked her about the bread and the starter salad that one of us ordered she said she was going to bring that with the meal and was a bit rude about it. She did bring it out before the main courses and our food finally came out. I would recommend that you train your wait staff to come by every 10 minutes to check on their tables and also let them know why the food might take so long. Had we known that some of the items may take a long time, gotten our drinks refilled, and gotten the bread earlier it may have helped a bit.