Bella Cena

One of my favorite places to eat in the city. Reminds me of the Italian restaurants in Italy. Great homemade Italian food. I highly recommend this place to anyone and everyone.

Here on business trip and decided to get Italian food since it was right across the street from Rita’s! Not disappointed in the least. The server was very friendly, the food was fresh and delicious. We got complimentary bread with the vinegar and olive oil, and complimentary dessert at the end of our meals. I got the eggplant parm; amazing. Not over breaded like so, e places. My coworker got the mixed seafood pasta dish, lots of calamari and oysters! Not over priced either, very affordable Italian cuisine. If I lived in the area I’d definitely come again!

If you want authentic Italian food this is the place. Good food, Good Service, and connected to the Restaurant right next door is Giancarlos Lounge so right after you can go get an after dinner drink and have some great conversation with the bartender.

We came here for an Italian dessert and had a grea time. The service was perfect and the price was average. Next door at the lounge is a nice escape and good for private parties.

Ah, romance.
For Valentine’s Day, we thought we were making reservations at the Italian restaurant that used to be across the street. We were wrong.
We were greeted immediately by a young man who showed us to one of the many empty tables toward the rear of the restaurant, until we asked to be seated at one of the empty tables near the window.
A pleasant waiter with halting knowledge of English was there immediately regarding beverages – full bar service. We both had a martini.
The server brought cold, unappetizing bread with prepackaged butter.
For an appetizer, we ordered calamari.
My partner ordered cannelloni.
I ordered the ravioli in Alfredo sauce.
Although the restaurant was fairly empty, it took quite a while for food to arrive.
The Olive Garden has better calamari.
The pasta dishes were tasty and the portions were generous.
When the bill finally came after we asked, the addition was wrong, charging us $ 113 for a dinner that was subsequently correctly calculated to be $ 69.
Later that night, at another establishment, my stomach hurt, I got lightheaded, and we had to leave. It is 3AM, my stomach pain woke me, my partner just threw up, and we’re both waiting for what will undoubtedly purge our systems of our recent food/​drink intake.

I went here for a friend’s birthday with a party of 14 people. The meal here was an experience, one that none of us will ever forget because the service was so bad. We opted for the prix fixe meal, which was to include 4 courses — salad, pasta, entrée, and dessert with coffee.
All courses aside from the dessert were great. The food was delicious, but the service was horrible. We waited roughly 30 – 45 between each course, meaning we finished the course, our plates were cleared and then the wait began. It seemed we had no one server assigned to our table. Various staff members –hosts, managers, servers – stopped by our table when they noticed us. Service was inconsistent and incomplete with each visit to the table.
At the end of the meal, a host asked us if anyone was interested in dessert or coffee unaware that both were included with our meal. The tiramisu came out in small pieces, looking as if someone had spooned it out of a pan instead of slicing it neatly. It looked like mush on most plates. The tiramisu was much too soggy, tasting of strong espresso in some spots and like water in others.
Overall, we all had several laughs. One incident after another, this was a hilariously disasterous night. There was a rehearsal dinner going on in a private room as the same time. My guess is that party was the focus of the evening. If you’re patient and warm spirited, give it a try. If you want your money’s worth, go someplace else.

We brought a big group here for my friend’s birthday and had a blast. The food was excellent! Not huge portions but really high quality food, which is how I’d prefer it. I had the penne vodka and tiramisu. The service was very friendly and helpful, but rather slow (that’s why it got bumped to 4 stars). In there defense though, we were a group of like 16 people.
Note: It is BYOB which is awesome and saved our group a lot of money.

I don’t write many two star reviews, but I guess my Italian BYO bar is pretty high, and Bella Cena failed to meet my expectations. I was there with a big group. The couple that chose it are regulars there. There was cold sesame bread on the table with butter, had to request olive oil. A few of us were going to share the bruschetta, but it never arrived. I had the bucatini triciana. Everyone else was served their food, but I had to wait another 5 minutes, not sure what happened, but I’ll overlook that. The dish just wasn’t that good. It was pasta with tomato sauce and some pancetta thrown on top. It was very easily something I could make at home. The pancetta tasted like a piece of canadian bacon that was cut up. It’s possible I just ordered the wrong thing. The bolognese was enjoyed, as well as the lamb shank, but overall I just don’t think Bella Cena rises to the level of the other Italian restaurants just a few blocks away.
We waited forever to get the bill, and even after requesting it, waited another 15 minutes or so. Also, the bruschetta we never got was on there, so then we had to wait some more for it to be removed. I would only come back if I was part of a group that chose this place, otherwise there are better options.

I thought about giving this place two stars, because it wasn’t a complete disaster. But for an Italian place in this city, the bar is set pretty high.
Blow by blow:
Entered and stood there with my friend for then minutes before we were even acknowledged for a seat. It wasn’t crowded either, just busy. Usually that’s a good sign of things to come-​reason to leave itself!
Ordered the pasta with sausage and scallops. No scallops available so i went to a shrimp dish. The shrimp was basically pick and peel quality. The sauce tasted congealed, like it had just been warmed up. Gross.
Bread came, which was stale. Accompanied by pre-​wrapped dabs of butter. Stale bread-​cold at that-​at an Italian restaurant?
Pasta came. Sausage was decent (hard to mess that up) but the pasta was overcooked and the broccoli rabe was so overcooked that it was mushy. All soaked in oil; and not in a good way. Bland, too.
Ordered a coffee that never came. They were out of all desserts but three.
So yeah, don’t go here. The food is quite poor and the service spotty. I think the place appeals to out-​of-​towners going to the Kimmel Center and what not. Look, out-​of-​towner friends-​we have some great restaurants in Philly, so set your standards really high, do a little research, and go to them! Places like this give Philly restaurants a bad name.

I always wondered why I never came here even though it’s only 2 blocks away from me, now I know why. The food sucks.
I went recently for my birthday with a party of 17 people for a pre-​fixed dinner of $ 37 per person. We had shared appetizers of mussels, eggplant, caprese salad and fried calamari. For 17 people there were only 2 portions of each appetizers which was not nearly enough. The mussels tasted gritty, and most of the shells were empty, the calamari was overly breaded and chewy, the eggplant and caprese were okay but I got a tiny bite of each.
The pasta appetizer was gnocchi in a marinara sauce and penne w/​pancetta in a cream sauce. These were okay, but again the portions were small.
Next came the main entrée which was probably the worst part of the meal. The tilapia I got tasted super fishy and had this mushy breading on it. I really coudln’t eat more than a few bites. The restaurant also told us the espresso machine was broken (I think they were just too lazy to make espresso for 17 people) and gave us regular coffee instead which was ¼ of the way filled for each cup. The tiramasu dessert was also really mushy and overly coffee tasting. My boyfriend’s veal that I tried was really dry and thin and was equivocal to airplane food. The chicken marsala I tried was also dry and OVERLY sweet.
After drinking and going to a few bars I was still hungry again after a few hours and wound up at Little Pete’s, where I enjoyed my meal 1000x more. I am never returning to this place again. If I could give this place negative stars, I would.

Went here on Friday night with a large group for my friend’s birthday. We had the back room to ourselves and the service was fine, but the food was awful.
We started out with salad and an eggplant & goat cheese appetizer. The salad was fine and the appetizer was ok. It basically just tasted like goat cheese. Next was fried calamari. It was dry, bland and chewy. Mussels in red sauce came out next. Ugh… they tasted old and not fresh at all. I tried to eat one of them but the taste was so bad and it was SO gritty that I actually spit it out. They tasted like poo. The taste lingered in my mouth till the next course despite how much wine I downed to try & mask it.
Next was the pasta: gnocchi (average) and ziti with a pancetta vodka sauce. The pancetta flavor was good but that’s about it. I’ve made gnocchi from scratch a total of 3 times in my life, and mine is better than the one they serve here. I had eggplant parm for my entrée. It tasted like cafeteria food. I had a few bites and had no desire to finish it. My friends who got the talapia said it tasted fishy.
The tiramisu for dessert was really watery. We asked for coffee and got about a shot of it. And no, it wasn’t espresso. It was a regular sized coffee cup about ¼ of the way full.
With all the great Italian restaurants in the city (Modo Mio, Mercato) — and even with the mediocre ones (La Fontana Della Citta) — there is just no reason for me to ever return to this place.

I’m really surprised by the poor reviews on here. I had 2 friends in from out of town this weekend, and decided it was a good time to try a new place. The food was delicious and inexpensive, and the waitstaff was so friendly and helpful.
Rather than cruising the menu, I asked the waiter to bring me the best pasta they had and pair it with a great bottle of wine. He didn’t disappoint! I had a shrimp pasta with artichoke hearts that was delicious and a not-​too-​dry, not-​too-​sweet red wine. Best of all, he didn’t take advantage of my trust. The pasta ended up being only $ 15 and the bottle of wine (which was huge — the 3 of us had a hard time finishing) was a very reasonable $ 34. He whipped up a pasta dish for my friend that wasn’t on the menu after he realized that the petso she ordered wasn’t available. It was fantastic!
The atmosphere here was great too — we sat outside and that area of the city is just busy enough that you don’t feel like you’re being too loud, but also not so busy that you feel like people are watching you eat.
I feel like I’m stumbled upon a hidden gem, and I can’t wait for my boyfriend to come back to town so I can take him here.

Headed over to Bella Cena with a big group of friends — we had a reservation, but it wasn’t super packed anyway.
We all liked what we got, but nothing stood out as being fantastic. I asked what type of pasta one of the specials was, and the waiter said «very similar to angel hair.» I immediately ordered it (I LOVE angel hair), but was very disappointed to find it was actually long, flat noodles, almost like fettuccine. How could the waiter have so grossly misinformed me?
Service was spotty, most times great but other times difficult to come by. It all did taste fine though, and being a BYO was very convenient. I would come again if a group wanted to go, but personally prefer other Italian BYOs.

Bella Cena is the type of classic Italian restaurant that Billy Joel harped about years ago; atmospheric, relatively inexpensive, and straightforward. Expect big helpings of well-​done favorites, without the «infusions» we have come to expect from trendier establishments.
As others have observed, the service is neither speedy nor exceptionally apologetic. However, anyone who grew up going to the phenomenal, now nearly-​obliterated family-​style Italian restaurants of the 1970s, where WASPs congregated around checkered table cloths and downed Chianti while awaiting greedy helpings of meatballs, knows that the heart and not the service is what made the experience.
A tip: don’t make reservations online… it’s just as easy to call the restaurant directly, and harder to screw up on either end. Also, ask if the owner Giancarlo is there, and ask him to tell you a bit about Italy and his mother, a pioneer in popularizing Italian cooking in America, whose recipes are featured on the menu. He will appreciate the attention, and you will appreciate the attention returned by him and the staff.

Went here for a first date. It’s a quaint little Italian Restaurant that doesn’t seem to have any real frills, in fact it almost reminded me of a pizza place I used to go to in college. Unfortunately, even though the food was ok, the service was terrible. We stood at the door for a good 5 minutes before anyone even acknowledged we were there. Once we were seated they had table that were literally 6 inches apart, so we felt a little close to the coupe sitting next to us. Service and waitstaff will get, let’s say a 2 out of 5 stars.
It took a good 20 minutes before we were asked about our order (which was fine because the conversation was very good!). The food was just ok, I’d give that a 3 out of 5 stars.
The décor and ambiance of the place is what kept me from giving it 2 out of 5 overall. It is definitely someplace I would go back to!
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, after we had paid our bill, we noticed one of the waitstaff (who tried to give us more bread even though we had already eaten!), actually lick her fingers where she had accidentally touched some of the roasted pepper spread… that didn’t leave us feeling to happy.

If I could give zero stars, I would.
My boyfriend and I made reservations for Valentine’s Day on ¹⁄₁₃ this year. We wanted to go to Bella Cena because its where we went last year and thought it would be cute to return. I got the open table confirmation for 7:30 and thought we were good to go, yay to being early planners!
Yesterday (two weeks after we made the reservation) I received a call from a man at Bella Cena and he left a voice mail letting us know that we would have to change our reservation to 6 or 8:30 (we had made 7:30 reservations). There was no apology and his tone was horrible. We attempted to call back all afternoon and evening but no one ever picked up the phone (it was Friday so they were definitely open). We picked a new restaurant and made reservations but still wanted to call Bella Cena to let them know we were canceling and to complain about their handling of the situation. We left a message for them and they called back about 2 hours later, still COMPLETELY unapologetic. It is amazing to me that they were unable to even say they were sorry for the inconvenience. The man on the phone basically said it wasn’t their problem and we said we would go elsewhere.

One word: meh. Another word: disappointing.
I took my boyfriend here for his birthday dinner and I was very disappointed as I was told by a friend that the food is «amazing.» I should have kept in mind that said friend only eats bagels, plain chicken, and pizza.
The food wasn’t bad but it just wasn’t great. The grilled calamari was chewy, the gnocchi was too soft, and I definitely think that «chicken filled with prosciutto and smoked mozz» means that the chicken is going to be STUFFED with those delicious ingredients. I was wrong.
Service, however, was very good and our waiter Billy put a candle on my boyfriend’s crème brûlée for his birthday and I didn’t even have to ask. If I lived at 15^th and spruce maybe I would go back again but there are a million other great italian places in the city.

I went here with a small group of friends for someone’s birthday. I wasn’t impressed by the faux crumbling-​ruins décor. The wait staff was somewhat inexperienced seemingly rushed at times and practically dropping plates onto the table on top of silverware, other dishes, and fingers if you weren’t careful. I had the stripped sea bass special which was good but certainly nothing special and definitely not worth the inflated price. The sides were green beans and potatoes prepared generically and in mass flavored with boat loads of salt to hide any true flavor. The desert was blah and the coffee was cold. Then I think they must have turned the heat off in the back room as a suggestion that we get our asses in gear.
Overall, not impressed and definitely won’t be making a destination of this place anytime soon.

I went here for resturant week so I don’t know if there regular menu would have impressed me. I started with the mussels in red sauce which was on the cold side and almost flavorless. I tried my fiancé’s scallops and they were chocolaty. Next was the pasta course and despite the menu’s recommendations, I decided to try the cannelloni. It was over cooked. My fiancé tried their famous Bolognese and it was sweet with too little focus on the meat. Next was my lamb shank which was exceptionally tender but cooked pot roast style with potatoes and carrots. Finally, I had what they called a gelato infused with espresso beans dipped in chocolate. It was a glorified Klondike bar. My fiancée had the tiramisu and it was frozen and watery.
By the way the service was extremely awkward. Probably never go back.

Ah, the work holiday party. This year, ours was in the back room, which has sponge painting, Romanesque murals and a rustic chandelier, just in case you happen to forget what kind of restaurant you’re in at any point during the meal. (I wonder if there is some kind of secret Italian restaurant painting kit that comes with warm gold paint, column stencils and a sponge.)
Although the restaurant is BYO, there’s a bar. My office opted to bring beer and wine, perhaps in an effort to quell the embarrassing drunken shenanigans that have either marred or improved holiday parties past, depending on how you look at it. Alas, the failure of this strategy became apparent to all when, towards the end of the meal, a coworker loudly declared herself the «Mayor of Pussytown.»
But I digress.
Thick, crusty, chewy bread kicked things off well. The pasta course was a highlight — light, fluffy gnocchi in a rich cheese sauce, and homemade linguine in Bolognese, which my coworkers reported to be chewy, tender and delicious. I would go back for those gnocchi again.
The main course dishes all seemed to have caught an attack of the salts. My eggplant, sliced super thin and cooked well, could have been stellar. Unfortunately, a few bites left me with the same feeling that you get when you accidentally swallow a mouthful of ocean water. My friend described her veal piccata as salty, winey and not so great, and another coworker’s salmon needed more time in the oven.
I love tiramisu, but this dessert left me lukewarm. Soaked too long, the ladyfingers were mush, and the drizzle of Hershey’s didn’t help. On the other hand, the Mayor said hers was great.