Bella Sera Trattoria

Came here on a Saturday night and it was great! Made a reservation just in case and glad I did because it was busy. We sat in the patio area. It’s a lot more quiet and also have live music on Friday and Saturday.
We had spare ribs pasta and spaghetti Bolognese. Both were very good! Prices are real reasonable compared to other places. I.e. Old town Pasadena.
Would def come again!

I cannot recommend Bella Sera highly enough. The quality and freshness is spot on. The service has been friendly and professional everytime we have eaten there. I also recommend the Carbanara. It is rich and amazing, although I haven’t had a bad meal there yet.
Great place to bring your date or another couple for a nice casual but upscale meal.

Excellent food and service. The ambience and menu is a delight. Highly recommend this place.

I came here with my family on Sunday and I really liked it. The food was so delicious, the service was great & I love the fact that kids can make their own pizza. I will be back for sure!

Enjoyed a nice dinner here recently. Would recommend the patio outside for a more romantic setting– I promise it’s not cold– they have a lot of heaters there.
They give some free house bread with balsamic oil. That and their bruschetta appetizer were both okay, but nothing special.
The great parts of the meal were the main dishes. The Short Rib Ragu had the meat melt in your mouth, with its tenderness. The flavoring was spot on, and I wish I could have had more (on top of their generous portions). The scallops with Angel hair pasta was also very nice. It would have been great to have more scallops, but at least the ones they give are huge.
Would love to come back and try more of their dishes. Great choice for Italian food.

My sister wanted to have a fancy lunch date — which basically meant «so you’ll pay for me, right?» — and since dineLA was also taking place, I decided to take advantage of the deal that Bella Sera Trattoria had to offer. The friends who have dined here all had good things to say about the food, so my sister and I were more than sold.
Bella Sera is located in Monrovia by the Krikorian theater. There are plenty of parking spots in the lot by the theater as well as street parking if you don’t mind walking. Even with all the parking spots, we had difficulty finding an available spot on a Saturday afternoon. The restaurant is quite fancy, with a classic yet warm ambience. We were a little surprised at how empty the restaurant was! There were only three other tables, all of whom where finishing up, and nobody came in after us so we were the only table left. Quite a unique experience to be the only party dining in a pretty big restaurant.
Appetizers:
–Antipasta Salad: Eh, I’m not too big on Italian salads, so I wasn’t used to all the artichoke hearts and whatnot inside my salad. However, the taste was good and I loved that there was banana peppers inside! I couldn’t finish the salad since my sister shook her head after seeing the ingredients, so we took it home for leftovers. It was a bit oily, but overall a good appetizer dish.
–Bruschetta: LOVED this appetizer! Probably super easy to make, but it was really tasty. Tomatoes, some onions, cheese on top of a crispy sourdough bread with a slightly sweet, slightly tangy sauce drizzled on top. Really refreshing and not too heavy of an appetizer.
–Complimentary bread: Don’t forget to ask for complimentary bread if they forget to bring you some. Warm sourdough bread fresh from the oven with their special herb butter. The bread was super soft, but the crust of the sourdough was flaky and firm. Adding on that herb butter — saltier thereby tastier than regular butter — gave that entire slice of bread extra flavor.
Entrées:
–Spaghetti Bolognese: My sister is a picky eater, but loves spaghetti. This was definitely the perfect dish for her. The spaghetti managed to pull off that authentic home-​style cooking yet still have an elevated quality to the dish to set it apart from something you’d make yourself at home. The taste was more on the tangy side (more tomato-​y), but the pasta was cooked well and there was a good amount of meat inside.
–Angel hair pasta: I think I ordered some sort of angel hair pasta tomato dish. This dish was similar to the spaghetti except that it did not contain any meat. Instead, it was loaded with tomatoes and herbs. It was really tasty and I definitely do like angel hair pasta more than spaghetti. This dish was also a bit more sour-​y than I expected, but the flavors worked. Cooked well and tasted delicious.
Dessert:
–Gelato: This was just a meh. They had a limited selection of flavors, so we went with salted caramel and vanilla. When it came, it was already pretty melted. Usually gelato is creamier and tastier than regular ice cream, but this gelato didn’t have much taste. I think I tried doing a blind taste test to see if I could tell the two apart … and had a difficult time.
tl;dr — Overall, a good dineLA experience if you’re looking for a nice lunch/​dinner restaurant for a date or get together. Service was good and quite attentive although we were the only ones in the restaurant. At $ 25 per person, I think it was a decent price to pay for the meal. I wouldn’t mind coming back and trying different things on their menu.

We found this lil gem through Unilocal and i tried to make a reservation but they were booked for the night. I asked how long the wait would be for a party of 5 and they said roughly 20 min. I tried to ask them to put me on their waiting list as i was driving there (5 min away) but they had to see me in person first to do so.
Got there and the wait was estimated to be 20 min even though they were 2 – 3 tables of 4 vacant. Guess they have a strict rule about combining the tables so the customers can be served faster.
Hosts were not super friendly like most places. After all, they’re the FIRST impression of the business, they should try to crack a smile.
Anyway it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Within 15 min, a patio seating opened up and we were pleasantly surprised on how nice it was with the fire and live music from this amazing singer and his guitar. I highly recommend the patio seating at night on the weekends! He had such a beautiful voice and so friendly!
Service was good from our waitress but she was quite busy. We ordered the charcuterie (not authentic but perfect for us with kids) $ 25 (5 stars), antipasti salad (5 stars), salmon (4 stars), carbonara pasta (3 stars, heavy), kids got to make their own pizza for $ 5 (cool factor 5 stars, taste 3.5 stars), peach moscato (5 stars but small lean cup), and tiramisu (3 stars, not so great). Overall, it was the highlight of our day. The ambience was amazing.

Awesome! I have had the pasta carbonara here (w/​egg and pancetta), which was very good and interesting with the egg. On this visit I had the Penne a La Vodka. It was amazing! I have traveled to Italy and the Italian food here honestly rivals food from Rome, Florence, Venice, etc. I also had a doppio espresso (not nearly as good as my Peet’s, but good) and my wife had the Pizza Monrovia Margherita. The pizza was awesome too (yes, I had to steal a piece). The Penne a La Vodka was packed with perfectly cooked penne, homemade sausage and a nice red sauce. It was perfect. I selected this choice from some of the Unilocal photos.
I love the ambience at this restaurant. It’s a friendly little place in downtown Monrovia, which in itself is a nice little place. It has a great selection of appetizers, drinks, salads and entrees.
What a nice Saturday lunch! This is becoming one of my favorite Italian restaurants. I’ll be back. See my photos as well. FIVE stars!!!

Came here for a small bite and an early dinner before a movie and was lucky enough to catch happy hour, so this review is only on their happy hour which is only at the bar (ends at 6pm on weekdays, I believe.)
Price: Look to spend about $ 5 per glass of wine and probably $ 8 per happy hour dish.
Parking: Street + some lots DT.
Food:
Fried Calamari: Actually pretty good and not too bready. We used the lemons on the entire plate so the calamari got soggy and unappetizing fast.
Brussel Sprouts: Tasty, but a tad too oily.
House Wine: Not too shabby.
Notes: Family friendly vibe, awesome service. Cheers to the bartender!

We had a wonderful birthday lunch here at Bella Sera (4 adults, 2 kids) the day before Christmas. The restaurant is warm, classy, and charming inside, with dark wood and elegant hanging lights. There was some tasteful Christmas holiday décor, and gorgeous Italian-​themed wall art. We ate in the front main restaurant area, although there’s also a heated patio option at the back of the restaurant that seems very good for larger groups.
The service was excellent throughout the entire meal, and our waiter was especially considerate and made us feel very welcome and at home. He took our kids orders in to the kitchen early and brought food out immediately so they wouldn’t be waiting. He also brought out water and, later, milk in child-​safe plastic cups with straws. And one fun thing they do is allow kids to make their own pizza at the table. Wow, we didn’t expect such family-​friendly touches at such a nice restaurant!
We let our waiter know it was our first time there and asked for his suggestions. He suggested we consider the salmon, linguine with clams, cioppino, and short rib ragu. We wound up ordering the first three of these, and they were all excellent. We also ordered bruschetta, caprese salad, and bacon wrapped dates as appetizers, and each was superb.
At the end of the meal, our waiter served the birthday girl a complimentary (and generous) slice of tiremisu with a lit candle. The tiremisu was delicious. We were all stuffed from the meal so we shared that one piece before paying our check.
We didn’t drink or order bar service, so can’t comment on that aspect of the restaurant. I though the food was decently priced.
Bottom line: Highly recommended. We’d definitely return again.

Some of the best Italian food I’ve had, and the head chef truly knows what he’s doing. On a side note, if there was a movie made about this restaurant, I could totally see Chris Pratt playing the head chef (random, sorry). Tucked away on a busy street of downtown Monrovia, we decided that we wanted some Italian food while we were in Monrovia, and we were so glad to have tried this place.
Although we didn’t have a reservation, we were seated right away. I would suggest though that a reservation be made as it got busy shortly after we arrived. The ambience was great, the service was very friendly, and the food was phenomenal. This is coming from someone that does not normally gravitate toward Italian food on a normal basis. I also appreciated that the server was honest about what entrée would be the best among the choices I asked about, rather than simply picking the most expensive choice. I also appreciate the open kitchen layout, allowing the patrons to see the head chef coordinating and executing orders with his sous chef, line cooks, and servers to get the food out in a timely and coordinated fashion. You could tell he puts a lot of attention to detail to his work, and that made me appreciate the food that much more.
We ordered the short rib ragu with the handmade pasta and penne a la vodka. Both were amazing and would definitely order again. If we lived closer, we would also want to come for their happy hour as their happy hour menu offers a good variety as well.

Bella Sorry.
2 stars for the service and the food.
The majority of our party needed their cocktails refreshed for quite some time. This was a pattern that continued for our entire stay.
The restaurant was empty, so I’m not quite sure why the service was so lacking. We had to ask for items multiple times as the servers kept forgetting our requests.
The short rib ragu left a lot to be desired. The pasta itself was decent, but the short rib was so incredibly dry. The texture reminded me of strands of rope.

At first I was worried of having dinner outside with the weather being chilly lately. We had about 15 people in our group. They assured us that the heat lamps would keep us warm. I checked out the place the night before to find it was more than just okay. The large curtains sealed off any chance of being cold. The staff was very accommodating.
Service throughout dinner was super friendly and efficient. The waitress was most hospitable despite the busy dinner hour. Our food came out perfectly and most delicious! One of the high points was not restricting large group to a fixed menu.
I loved my grapefruit gimlet cocktail. Highly recommend the portobello appetizer; the light batter made it crispy and I didn’t even need the aioli sauce. The bruschetta also good. I ordered the short rib with homemade pasta. The waitress was so right about this dish and I see why it’s a favorite. Being busy chatting, I just finished the leftover in my hotel room lol.
They must have seen or heard me almost fall the night before and placed floor mats in the hallway to the outside area. The place is very comfy cozy too.
Thank you Bella Serra for an awesome evening. We didn’t feel rushed and appreciated the great atmosphere!

I have always loved Old Town Monrovia, Bella Sera made me love it even more!
We visited the trattoria on one of the busiest day in Old Town, Halloween! Our receptionist and servers are all clad in their adorable costumes in the spirit of the occasion! We immediately got seated and greeted by our very nice server — with a server dressed like a monkey I can’t help but pay attention haha — he was so cool and really explained us the specials and suggestions for appetizers and meals that we might enjoy! Instead of an appetizer plate, we decided on a very nice, hot and gooey Zio Bob pizza, AMAZING! I loved how gooey and flavorful this pizza was! Sausage, cheese, garlic and ricotta cheese! Yummmm! Great alternative for a group appetizer!
We started our dinner with Caesar salad, though not my preferred preparation, this bowl of chopped romaine packs a delicious pow of flavor from the dressing — Anchovy caesar dressing of-​course!
For my main course, I had Bella Sera’s Ciopino! What a delicious bowl of seafood goodness!!! Clams, squid, shrimp, mussels in a wonderful tomato and seafood broth! combine that with generous sausage chunks and you got yourself a wonderful burst of flavor in every delicious spoonful! My sister had the Angel hair pasta with the scallops which she said was wonderful! Generous amount of scallops topped her meal the pasta was drenched in a flavorful lobster sauce! It looked really appetizing!
For dessert we had the Tiramisu and cappuccino, the Tiramisu was okay, nothing special as it wasn’t prepared in the traditional layered ladyfingers and marscapone… think of it as a well prepared Tiramisu flavored cake. The cappuccino is well done though, I always enjoy a good cup of this frothy beverage.
Overall, We really enjoyed our dinner at Bella Sera, the place is very chic, nice and inviting, the servers are cool and very friendly, the main dish — delicious and worth coming back for.
Enjoy!

Located in downtown Monrovia if you past the movie theater than you have gone too far.
Restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating on the back.
The complimentary bread with the garlic butter is really yummy!
Portobello fries is lightly breaded is really good with or without the garlic aioli dressing.
Short rib ragu pasta– noodles tasted undercook and a bit hard, meat was very tender and good. If the noodles were cooked longer I think this dish would of been great.
Service was a bit slow towards the end, more people came in, therefore service slowed down a bit.
Everyone was very nice and professional. Overall an ok experience.
Free parking in the back area or on the streets

I came here during DineLA last year. It was super hot that time over 90 degree at dinner time and only table that fit our group of 16 peoples is outdoor seating which was crazy hot.
It was a three course meal, very good value that time. Most food came out quite good and definite get our money worth. The service was slow, but isn’t too bad. This place is recommend if you wanted to eat traditional Italian food.

From the hostesses to Daydra (?) our waitress this restaurant has an impeccable staff. Daydra was incredible in her service and if I was to truly rate this restaurant base solely on service, friendliness of the host/​waitress, and overall atmosphere of the restaurant.
However, sadly restaurants are not based solely on service.
Let me start off with the appetizers:
Meatballs: I asked Daydra if the meatballs were good and she gave her seal of approval. Regardless it was my choice and my friend’s in choosing the meatballs. The meatballs were dry. The marinara sauce was simply okay. The meatballs features 0 breading (according to Daydra) and according to my friend this is what causes meatballs to be fluffy and delicious. The meatballs were also $ 8 for 4 meatballs, if you break that down to $ 2 a meatball, you’ve successfully purchase a dish that sells ground meat (the cheapest kind of meat available) for a price none other than $ 16 dollar a pound (that is assuming that I even got half a pound of meat). Holy heck! Doesn’t that sound like the price you can purchase a nice lamb chops or a nice steak?
Prosciutto: This dish was served on a plate with 6 slices of bread with prosciutto topped with tomato, raw garlic, and some sort of balsamic vinaigrette. This was the best dish of the night and it was delicious.
Angel Hair with Meatballs: So I didn’t learn my lesson and ordered the classic spaghetti and meatballs but substituted with meatballs. Whatever they did to my meatballs this time, it was much better. The meatballs were not dry! I reckon they overcooked the first one.
Bianca: The bianca had goat cheese in it and a interesting weird game taste. I kind of appreciated it, but my friend did not.
Short Rib Ragu: The short rib was cooked pretty well. I’m not a fan of ragu or noodles so this dish was not for me. This was my friend’s order but he seemed to be so-​so with the dish and upon tasting it, that was my reaction too.
Overall the food did not meet up to my expectations, but the service was phenomenal.

Found this restaurant on Unilocal so had to try it while in Pasadena.
Waiter was friendly and knowledgeable, flexible with editing menu items.
Food was very good (their salad dressings are homemade).
Wine list could improve with higher end CA wines as well as tends to be lots of Chianti’s for Italian– we were able to pick their one of two Barolos. However, they do not have decanter– definitely shame when you have $ 90 bottle you cannot carry $ 20 decanter.
The start of service was bit slow as took forever to get water– seems need to have more staff as our waiter catered to half or more the tables on Saturday night. However, he was very responsive. Main course took way too long so we ended up speeding too much time that made us miss the concert.
The space is nicely decorated, food solid and service good. However, I was going to take additional star away for horrible ending to our experience. When we were walking out, there were two girls and a tall guy at the front hostess stand– we said thank you– not only they did not thank us for visiting and even said good bye, they were too busy chatting with each other to even notice us. After spending over $ 200 for couple on dinner– I think the least you could do is acknowledge your customers to hope they will return.
Since I was pleased with the food I decided not to give them 3 stars for this so leaving 4, however, the management shoudl definitly sharpen their staff customer service skills (especially if this is the last impression your client is leaving with).

I’m going to start off this review by saying that my experience here was a bit mixed, and despite the 4 star review I have given this restaurant, I *definitely* see 5 star potential here.
Despite having stopped here during peak lunch hour on a weekend, I was able to obtain a parking spot less than a block away on Lime Ave. It was not too crowded inside, and we were seated within about a minute.
The level of service provided here is decent, overall. My dining companion had noticed that a fruit fly had made its way into (and drowned in) her mug of beer, and brought it to the attention of one of our servers (Rachel K, if I’m not mistaken). Said server promptly addressed the matter by replacing the tainted beer with a fresh replacement at no extra charge (with a friendly smile, to boot!). Like I said, it’s really hard for me to find fault with the staff here.
The complimentary bread served here is wonderful (excellent texture and taste), but what really helps make it even better (and sets it apart from competitors) is the delicious butter that it is accompanied by (it seems to be laden with herbs). Combined, they are possibly the best I’ve ever had. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other Italian restaurant that offers better bread than Bella Sera Trattoria. So here, they get an A+ from me.
Always ardent champions of fried cephalopods, we ordered a plate of Tuscan Style Calamari Fritti. I’m sorry to say this, but we were slightly disappointed by it. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was «bad», but the batter coating separated a little too easily for our liking, and I’m not sure that I cared for the texture of the flesh within (it’s hard to put my finger on it, but it seemed a little *too* chewy/​rubbery, or something along those lines).
So yeah, not a total disaster, but I’ve definitely had better (alarmingly, from literally everywhere else I’ve ever had the dish), and I recommend trying a different appetizer. I personally would not order it again.
For our entrees, we ordered Shrimp Diablo (Spaghetti, Jump Shrimp, Tomatoes, Yellow Peppers, Spicy Red Sauce) and Short Rib Ragu. I found them to be satisfactory, but unfortunately not phenomenal, and not worthy of a 5-​star rating. As with the calamari, I would suggest passing on them, and selecting a different menu item for your main course.
Now, to alternate back to good news … my companion and I selected an order of Warm Butter Cake with Toasted Almond Gelato for our dessert. It was the best part of our dining experience here, and it was perfect and amazing in every way that you could imagine: pleasing to the eye, completely worth the $ 7 price tag, combining sugar decadence for the palate with tantalizing contrast in temperature.
The men’s lavatory is extremely clean, so top marks to Bella Sera Trattoria in that *always-​critical* area of review consideration.
As I mentioned at the beginning of my review, this place deserves no less than 4 stars, and can definitely earn that coveted 5^th star. I am extremely likely to revisit this diner, and sample different appetizers/​entrees during my 2^nd visit. I am confident that I will find something that makes a more profound impression than my choices of my 1^st visit. (I also hope I don’t get presented with the check before request this next time around, which is admittedly a pet peeve of mine.)

How Joseph A. aka Ninong Jojo to me, & I ended up in Monrovia idk. Oh yes. I had an appt at the Infiniti dealership to pick up my new ride=) So I had time to grab a quick bite with Ninong.
He was running late. So I decided to order a mid day drink. Goose on the rocks. What else, riight? I figured he chose the place since it had a full bar. Hahaha
The hostess was pleasant. And our server was courteous. The cozy restaurant reminds me of little Italian restaurants in Santa Barbara with the dark wood furnishings with white table cloth and white linen napkins.
We had calamari, margherita pizza, and good conversation.
I’d like to go back to explore more of their menu.
Thank you Ninong for the laughs!