Bella’s Restaurant

Best food in C’Ville. Best experience in C’Ville. Price is a bargain for all the food your getting. Got a pasta dish with tons of seafood for only $ 25 (and it was for two people!!). Great for groups since you share the dishes. Best tiramisu I’ve had in the area. Can’t wait to come back!

This is hands down my favorite Italian restaurant on Charlottesville. My family has been here for numerous times for three years for their Zuppa di Pesce and tiramisu.
However, recently I tried their Chicken Marsala and sausage rigatoni which are both exceptional! The sauce for both is absolutely mouth watering. We also usually get the calamari appetizer but this time we tried the mussels which were absolutely delicious.
The atmosphere is great for family and friends. Every time I’ve been here the service is attentive and very friendly. Overall, ah-​mazing food for a great price.

My boyfriend, my parents and I ended up here for drinks as we arrived in Charlottesvillle a little too early for our 5 o’clock reservation down the street. We were greeted with a smile by the hostess and restaurant namesake, Bella. As we bellied up to the bar, we were greeted with smiles from the bartender and later the owner, who also happens to be a UVA professor. As it was early, we were able to chat it up with everyone. Great drinks and conversation. Will we be back for a meal? Absolutely. Next time we’re in C’ville.

This place was amazing!!! We were greeted very friendly and sat promptly! Our waitress Rachel went above and beyond to make us feel great! I have never been to a family style restaurant and it was very different! Food was the best Italian I’ve had in VA! There was one thing I didn’t really like… the Italian flag in the window made this place from the outside look kinda tacky! It’s definitely 5 star on the inside! Thank you Rachel for your bright and friendly service!

Excellent food and service. A great addition to Charlottesville on main street. Great Italian food.

I went two weeks ago and LOVED it! We were seated at the bar, which I was skeptical about, but was served so well and promptly by the bartender Bryan. The food was amazing– huge family style portions. I also had some fantastic wine and limoncello pound cake. The bartender was great and made small talk with us all night. Friendly and good food!

Love this place. Great Italian food served family style in a nice little place with a good atmosphere for dates and parties alike.
I have never eaten anything bad here. The stacked bread, mozzerella, sauce appetizer thing is AMAZING!

It’s a cold windy December evening. We are hungry travelers looking for a bite to eat in an unfamiliar land. As we walked the streets, Bella’s was by far the place with the most activity. We walk in and are told it’s a 50 min wait… Unless, we don’t mind eating at the bar… and of course, we don’t. As we sat on our stools, Bryan wasted no time in setting up cutlery and asking for drinks and making recommendations. We took him up on everything. Be aware: the portions are PLENTIFUL. Dishes are family style and offered in 2or 4 serving options. Trust me when I say the 2serving portion is probably good enough for 3 and like I always say, you can always order more. We are planning to do more sightseeing, but I think this was an excellent way to restart our travels.

Good, hearty Italian meal. Was here on a Friday and made reservations to make sure we got in. Wine list was decent but not extensive. Portions are huge– when it says it serves two, it means it, so only order more if you want leftovers. We were duly warned. Started with gorgonzola grilled salad which was my favorite part of the meal. Delicious. Ragu bolognese was quite good– parpadelle pasta was perfectly done. Veal marsala was a bit heavy-​handed– more gravy-​ish than wine/​lemon sauce. Good if you’re looking for comfort food.

We were in Charlottesville to celebrate a birthday, and finished a day full of wine tasting with a dinner at Bella’s. I had read the reviews, and I was excited to try the food and experience the restaurant.
Ambiance:
The place is very cute with great lighting, linen table cloths, and ample seating. The parking is on street, so good luck when it is busy.
Food:
AMAZING! We started with the grilled Gorgonzola salad. This is a must have and I could eat this for an entrée. For the main course, we ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and the grilled sausage and peppers. Both of these dishes were amazing. Good portion size and excellent favors. The dishes fed two, and the cost was $ 21 and $ 19 respectfully.
Service:
This is where it fell apart. If our service was remotely ok, then we would have given Bella’s five stars. From the moment we were greeted by our server, he was pushy. He was pushy with trying to get drink orders, pushy taking food orders, pushy collecting the bill, and pushy when attempting to coax us to leave. We were asked if we were ready for the bill before I finished my first beer.
Our entire party noticed that the service (or lack of) seemed to be a restaurant standard. The tables around us experienced the same pushy standard and it seems like the management is encouraging this. If you are going to Bella’s on a first date, good luck! You might not learn her first name before you are given the check!
I would like to say we will return, but we will not. There is such a great restaurant scene in Charlottesville, I would rather go somewhere that has the service I expect.

This place service amazing Italian food family style. I recently returned from Italy and was craving more authentic Italian food. Fairly close. Wine was good food was great will go back.

I love Bella’s. They have some pretty outstanding Italian food in my opinion. We had the Gorgonzola salad, fried Calamari, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Tiramisu as well as a couple cocktails called a Cucumber Collins. The atmosphere was wonderful too it was just a little loud but if you can’t handle that… then don’t go out to eat. Make sure you call ahead for a reservation or use OpenTable where I believe you can rack up points. Street parking can be a problem but there is an affordable lot right across the street. The only reason I didn’t give 5 stars was because I couldn’t get a server when I needed one at times due to being very busy but they were incredibly nice.

Amazing. Romantic. Tasty. Great service. Very fast. The grilled Gorgonzola salad was the best ever. Had the lasagna and it was delicious. My husband had the spaghetti and meatballs– he loved it. Great atmosphere. We will definitely be back. Really impressed with the service and quality of Italian food.

While on vacation, the family and I chose Bella’s for our last-​evening meal. After checking the reviews, I felt good about making a reservation, and off we went!
We were greeted by Bella herself! A lovely woman, she welcomed us warmly, and sat us at a table near the open-​air kitchen, which was great for us, as we love to watch things going on! After giving us our menus, she wished us a great meal, and then we met Lindsey, our awesome food ambassador! She was bubbly, fun, and made amazing recommendations on the family-​style menu, and eased my son into his first experience with a Shirley Temple!
The menu isn’t super-​vast, but it does have some amazing dishes, including the normal, roman-​style staples. We chose the arancini, and caprese salad as our appetizers, and the rigatoni al forno, and the sausage and peppers, and a contori of spaghetti and meatballs for the boy. When the food started coming, my mouth literally dropped, given that the portion sizes for two could have fed a family of 8 successfully. I do recall seeing a dish of porqetta for 4 leave the kitchen, and it was GINORMOUS!!!
The rigatoni was amazing. The bolognese sauce was one of the best I’ve EVER had, and it was cheesy, and the pasta was perfect! The sausage and peppers was also fabulous, and my husband couldn’t believe how awesome the sausage was, and the sweet peppers and onions just made it all the more enjoyable. The side of spaghetti and meatballs, let’s just say my son killed it… leaving absolutely nothing on his plate. He even commented how there was just the right amount of parmesan on his dish! We couldn’t get thru more than half of the two dishes, and struggled over whether or not to take the rest back to our hotel with us, but given that it was the last evening of our trip, we chose to leave it behind. :(
Lindsey offered dessert, which we laughingly declined, being full from the meal, but I did see a couple sharing a cannoli, and I would have loved to have tried their tiramisu if I hadn’t been so full. They both looked amazing.
This place has it all; amazing food, a cozy atmosphere, some of the best service I’ve EVER encountered, and a terrific vibe. It was busy on a Tuesday evening, and rightfully so.
I hope that the next time we come back to Charlottesville, we find Bella’s still open and thriving. This establishment deserves it’s success, and we hope they continue to rock it out!
If you haven’t, then you must. Bella’s is wonderful.

Delicious Italian food! The family style format makes this a great place to go with a group, ideally more than 4 people in my opinion.

Charlottesville has a noticeable dearth of good Italian restaurants. Bella’s is my current favorite, though I haven’t been enough to really judge the consistency.
Recommended starters:
Grilled romaine hearts with gorgonzola: Excellent. Everybody loves it.
Arincini: Very good, nice and light. I’m not a huge fan of arincini in general, but these are among the best I’ve tried.
Recommended entrees:
Pasta al forno (lasagna with bechamel): Outstanding! Crowd favorite. Possibly the best of this style of lasagna I’ve had.
Carbonara: Excellent. I often find carbonara too heavy and greasy, but this was velvety and clean.
Not recommended entrees:
Porchetta: I actually thought this was decent, but I seem to be an anomaly. Everyone else thought it was too fatty.
Eggplant Parmigiana: Fine, just kind of gloppy and boring.
Other notes:
The portions are large, family-​style. So, expect to share, and order accordingly.
I’ve been disappointed with every wine I’ve ordered — though I’ve only tried 3 so far. They haven’t been terrible, just not as good as I’d expect, e.g., from a $ 70 Barolo.

Had dinner with a crew of 8 on Saturday night — 18 July 2015 — met the owners, and truly enjoyed very authentic Italian food. Having visited Italy a few times, this was a treat to taste food that truly brings the taste of Italy to America.
I live in the DC area but am here visiting Charlottesville for business… I plan to intentionally bring my wife here from DC to enjoy another wonderful meal.

Overall, the dining experience at Bella’s was «pretty good.» We were seated quickly, and our waitress was friendly and helpful. Despite her and the menu’s recommendations, my girlfriend and I ordered two appetizers and two entrees. We devoured the Gorgonzola salad and Calamari, which were excellent — especially the Gorgonzola salad, which was the best Gorgonzola I’ve ever had.
However, when the entrees arrived, we realized we were in over our heads. They tasted fine, but the portions were HUGE, especially the rigatoni. We made a meager attempt at putting a dent in the two pastas, but were forced to sheepishly ask for two carry-​out boxes after eating what we could.

This was my 4^th time coming back to this restaurant. I always forget that the portions for food is huge! We were two guys and one girl and we had leftovers from 2 entrees and 1 appetizer. We got gorgonzola grilled as an appetizer and it was so good! I highly recommend this. You can eat it as an appetizer salad or even a meal. The small size comes with 2 half romaines. As entrees, we ordered primavera and chicken marsala. the two guys really liked the chicken marsala but my favorite is always the primavera. Marsala is sweet and dark sause whereas primavera is tomato-​based sause. One disappointment was that I wished they’d put more veggies in primavera. Other than that, I like it here!

Would definitely return! Fun place, but very small. You could comfortably go either way between casual and dressy, I think.
Came here with my boyfriend for a date night and were seated at the bar since they had no more tables left. Our server/​the bartender was very courteous and was good at balancing being attentive and giving us time/​room to enjoy our food.
Honestly, the «two person» portions could easily have served three. They give you a whole lot of food, and the prices are very reasonable for the amount! We ordered calamari for two to start, and they did not skimp or disappoint. A fairly large platter that could easily have been shared as an appetizer between four people, light and flavorful batter, served with marinara sauce on the side. Excellent. :)
We shared an Alla Carbonara, which didn’t look like a lot but ended up being a lot. It was pretty good carbonara, but they were a little heavy-​handed with the garlic. And I could have used more pancetta. But then again, I can always use more pancetta. Still yummy, but I might try the Rigatoni al Forno or the Marsala next time.
Worth visiting! All in all a fun, family-​style restaurant.
EDIT:
Went again with family and got to try a couple more dishes! If you go for the multiple-​courses route (like the servers will encourage you to do), it makes for a really fun meal. Gorgozola grilled salad was great and super flavorful. The veal marsala was very good but the noodles felt a bit flimsy and overcooked. I might just be being picky about egg noodles though. The Sausage and Peppers dish was delicious, and I loved the blush sauce! This was more of a splurge day, since it was my brother’s birthday, so with a 2 person app, a 2 person salad, and 2 different 2 person pastas (plenty of food with still some pasta left over), the bill came out to a little under $ 100 with tip and tax.