Mark and Isabella

Great happy hour and a super nice bar staff!!! Great deals and a good time in the Bel Mar area!

Not bad. Jared and I decided to check this place out after we went to the movies because they have weekend HH. How can I refuse HH? We came in here thinking HH, cheap drinks. Well, they have cheap drinks but the options are limited. I wasn’t totally impressed with their options but they did have $ 2 Fat Tires or the NB seasonal so we had a few of those and left. I like the name but the inside sort of reminded me of Bucca Di Beppo — full of commercialized charm.

I am giving this place 4 stars based on happy hour only. A friend and I went for drinks and appetizers last night and had a very nice time despite the fact that the restaurant only had a few people in it. We were sure it must’ve been the weather. We sat the bar which is very comfortable and has 2 large TVs for watching the game or the old movies. The happy hours specials are divided into 3 categories — $ 1, $ 2, $ 3 specials. The pinot grigio was a good deal for $ 3 and you can’t be $ 2 Fat Tires :)
We shared the parmesan garlic fries which were shoe-​string like and pretty tasty. I also had the chicken noodle soup which came out only luke-​warm. It had nice flavor despite the chicken being a little dry. I also tried the spinach salad which had a surprisingly good combination of orange slices and kalamata olives with the vinaigrette.
Great place for happy hour … I would return to try dinner next time I’m in the area.

5 stars for their happy hour– EVERYDAY from 4 – 7 two selections of appetizers and Beer or wine for $ 1, $ 2, or $ 3… great deal! The $ 3 chicken and meatball sliders are awesome and I love the $ 2 Italian hummus.
3 stars for dinner… although I enjoyed my gazpacho and chocolate raspberry sorbet, my entrée (House-​Made Chicken or Italian Sausage with crispy polenta, sautéed spinach and onion — 13.95) was okay… I liked the sausage but the goat cheese polenta it came with was a bit overpowering. Overall, I wasn’t ‘wowed’.
The space is open and relaxed and our server is always polite and efficient.

Went with a friend after reading about this place. Décor was contemporary cool, but not inviting. Food was hit or miss. Restaurant temperature was cold. We moved tables due to a draft and even out of the draft, it was still cold.
Grilled Lettuce Salads = yum
Garlic Bread = meh… nothing special whatsoever
My friend ordered the Chicken Parm, and since it didn’t come with pasta, ordered a side of penne with red sauce. Seems unbalanced…3 huge cutlets of chicken (delicious!) with a small sprinkling of greens on the side, but no pasta. How about 2 medium chicken pieces and include the side, whether pasta or veggies, whatever. I hate being nickled and dimed at a restaurant.
I ordered the home-​made tagliatelle with roasted vegetables and velvet garlic sauce. This was in desperate need of flavor, as it didn’t have any. The «velvet garlic» sauce tasted like somebody poured hot cream over pasta. I went so far as to mix in the left over marinara from the garlic bread and salt it… still mediocre at best.
Service was overly solicitous, pushing appetizers way too hard…3 times probably in the first 5 — 7 minutes we sat down, and when we asked about the salads ($ 7-​$ 9), whether they were entrée sized or meant to have before an entrée, as ($ 9 seems excessive for a dinner salad), and also asked about half portions. We were told that the salads are appetizer sized and meant for 1 person, and aren’t too big to have before your meal, but that a lot of people share them b/​c they are big enough to share… whah? Figure it out and get your story straight.
So, pleasant enough, but I won’t be rushing back any time soon.

I went here on a date night and had a lovely time. Our server was very good and did a nice job of making sure to check on us (without being back every 1.5 minutes, you know?) and bring whatever we needed/​requested. So the service I would give 4.5 stars.
The décor I would give 4 stars… lots of mood lighting action (it’s a dinner-​only restaurant, after all) and wine glasses set up on every table… also the big onyx piece in the center of the restaurant (a relic from the Chama days) serves as a sort-​of «server station» with stacks of plates and extra utensils and water there. I think that’s helpful so servers, should a guest need something (water especially), can go right to the center of the restaurant instead of the kitchen and risk getting distracted or called to run food, etc.
As for the food, the Dude and I ordered an appetizer, the Fritto Misto (tempura-​like veggies) and it was pretty good. The spicy tomato dipping sauce was the best part IMO. For dinner I ordered the Romaine salad with garlic vinaigrette and it was pretty fantastic. I normally like the dressing on the side, but the amount was just right and the flavor really mellow yet tasty (for lack of a better word). I also ordered a $ 6 side of spaghetti with marinara. The Dude had Creamy Polenta.
Sadly, the salad was the best part of the meal, I thought. The spaghetti with red sauce was disappointing at best, and worse than jarred sauce at worst. That is, it needed something. I NEVER salt my food (after it’s prepared), yet I found myself salting this, and longing for that parmesan cheese you find in the green canisters at the grocery store. The sauce needed GARLIC, which surprised me. The Polenta had the *most* subtle hint of parmesan cheese, but overall was pretty bland as well. It was lined with the red sauce, which unsurprisingly couldn’t save it.
I suppose I might go back here to sit at the bar for a glass of Prosecco and the fried veggies, but the dishes we tried vs. price paid… next time I reckon I’ll just stay home and make my own.

Hmmm, I could really use ½ stars for this review. I am torn between 2 and 3 stars. I was excited about this because it is the same owner as The Oven. So I had set the bar pretty high since I love the Oven. Also I thought it would be a cool laid back atmosphere because of this connection. It isn’t. I thought it was trying too hard to be posh. Just because you charge too much money for average food doesn’t make it high class. Plus we had kids with us 3 in all and it is not very kid friendly. I doubt I will be back. I mean the food was ok. But just ok, one person at our table even sent a dish back.
My other beef about it was the service. Our server was sweet and nice and tried to be helpful. But when we had questions about wine, she told us she was only 18 so she didn’t know. When we had questions about food she said she was vegetarian so didn’t really know… Sweet girl but she should find someone who knows, quote what someone else has said or out and out lie. I don’t know isn’t an adequate answer.
Oh and one more thing. Food took a really long time, like we were there almost 2 hours. The place was FAR from busy, like 4 or 5 tables maybe. This is pasta people! It shouldn’t take all night.

I had dinner at Mark and Isabella in Belmar last night. It was good.
The atmosphere is nice — trendy, but not too trendy.
The service was not perfect, but okay.
Most of the food was great. I had the Tuscan bread salad and the eggplant Parmesan, both of which I loved. I tasted my friend’s sausage lasagna (loved). The only thing I didn’t think was good was the garlic bread. It was nothing special. I did not like that they didn’t serve bread unless you ordered garlic bread, and then it was like pulling teeth to get it.
The bottom line is that I liked the restaurant but didn’t come home and put in on my list of favorite restaurants.

This is the same owner as The Oven in Belmar.
The space is warm and comfortable. The bar is beautiful and they have old movies playing on their flat-​screen TVs when a game isn’t on.
The service in the bar area was amazing, the bartender was knowledgeable about their wines, beers and all of their food.
We split the house soup, chicken and rice in a tomato broth — it is exactly what you want your mom to feed you after you’ve run in from the playground with a scraped knee. Very comforting.
The grilled lettuce salad was okay. Bitter greens grilled and made more bitter by the red-​wine vinaigrette. A little too charred for my taste.
Main course was house made tagliatelle with grilled vegetables in a «velvety garlic sauce.» The homemade pasta was great, though the sauce was a little gluey. Still has potential to be a great dish.
Dessert consisted of a flour-​less chocolate cake with vanilla gelato. All I have to say is, divine. We actually contemplated ordering a second one, but good sense won out and we refrained.
There is also tremendous pride in ownership of this place. The gentleman that was running the show (GM I think?) was helping to bus tables, serve food and talk to customers. My fiancé even saw him in the men’s bathroom scrubbing under a urinal. Kind of gross but also impressive.
This is the first restaurant I’m excited about in Belmar.