Bellissimo

Stay away! I used to frequent this place weekly a few years ago, the food was always great and so was the service. A month ago our friends asked us if we had ever been there because they wanted to try it and I said yep, we never had a bad meal there. WELL, I don’t know what happened to the place in the past 2 years but what an awful experience.
Our server had on a see through (literally sheer) black shirt and we could see her bra. We ordered apps and dinners and pizza. Waited 45 minutes for the calamari appetizer, which was $ 10 and there were maybe 8 pieces. The server didn’t see anything wrong with the fact that it took almost an hour for appetizers, among other things. The manager came out and gave us attitude because we complained. We paid for our drinks told them to cancel the rest of our meal because we didn’t want to wait another hour for dinner, and went to JJ Bridges because we knew we would get decent food there.
Horrible horrible, I’m embarrassed I told my friends the place was good.

I visited Bellissimo on a Friday night to see my friend’s band play. The show was in the bar area. I was not impressed by the drinks, prices or décor. Ordered Ketel One and club soda for the first round and was shocked by the $ 7.50 price tag. It was a single shot of ketel and quite a bit of club soda in a small glass. Could not even taste the vodka. My friend ordered Pinnacle whipped vodka and club which was tasty but also over priced at $ 5.50. When other bars are offering ²⁴⁄₇ specials of $ 1 – 2 any pinnacle mixed drink, this is highway robbery. A 750 mL bottle of Pinnacle retails for $ 12 – 15 dollars so how can anyone justify charging $ 5.50/drink. Last time I checked, Bellissimo was not located in NYC, LA or Vegas.
Décor was dated and the crowd was substantially older than the normal Friday night bar crowd. Lots of old Italian guys in oversized tan sport coats with far too much gold jewelry on. Not my scene.

When one of our favorite restaurants for pizza was busier than expected, we thought we’d try something new. While the pizza was alright — we originally came for Brick Oven Pizza, which was advertised on their website and their menu — only to find out they no longer made it.
The prices didn’t seem unreasonable — but the reason we won’t likely return was the poor service. While I respect a busy night at a restaurant — you can’t ignore your customer. While trying to order food, we were unable to get a word in as our waitress just wanted to get away, instead of taking our order.
At the end of the evening, we waited over 30 minutes to get our check paid. Also, it’s worth noting that they do have a bar that allows smoking — but the smell of smoke gets through the doors and you can smell it in the non-​smoking dining rooms. This may be me as I’m a little more sensitive to the smell of cigarette smoke — but it was annoying nonetheless.
Overall, I’d like to say I’d give the restaurant another shot — but with the wealth of great pizza in the Scranton/​Wilkes-​Barre area, it’s highly unlikely. It’s a shame since when the restaurant located there was Amores (a very different menu/​price from my memory), we loved it.

This place is a solid choice for Italian if you are in the area. Their pizza’s are relatively authentic and the Calamari Bellissimo is excellent. They use quality ingredients (Kalamata olives, fresh basil, ect), except the mushrooms come from a can for some reason, and the service is also great. My girlfriend and I are regulars and Bellissimos has satisfied us on every occasion.

I’ve eaten here twice. The first time the service and food was outstanding. The next time we were there it was pretty empty compared to the first time. The service was incredibly slow and the food was terrible. Even the beer was warm. It seems to be very inconsistent in my opinion. On a positive note the décor on the inside is very nice.

Checked out the Bellissimo’s on a Friday after work…
Same building as Amore’s which closed down.
It markets itself as a Pizzeria but it’s a full scale Italian restaurant. The place was packed but the service was great… The owner/​manager really seemed to bend over backwards to make the experience great for the patrons.
The food was OK… I’ve had better chicken cacciatore but it was edible.
Word of mouth must have been good as there were no empty seats here.
I’ll definitely go back, but next time I;d really like to check the pizza.