La Fontanella

Came here for a quick lunch. The food was okay– nothing extraordinary. The service and décor was nice.

I went out to celebrate my birthday last night. I have eaten at La Fontanella once before and I thought the food was good. The place is small and we were seated in the back of a long narrow diningroom. I notice they put more tables in the restaurant and the sitting was very tight.
I enjoy eating out on Thursday to avoid the weekend crowds. As I began my apetizers, I noticed a large number of people entering the restaurant. I believe it was some type of business presentation. They had a small area reserved in the back right of the restaurant, however, the presentation was overbooked and the people spilled out in the general dining area. These people were very demanding and the wait staff was spread thin., leaving us with horrible service and long waits for food. The presentation people were loud and inconsiderate of the other diners. People were bumping into me and my wife and it made for a horrible experience. I decided to eat my main dish quickly and leave. When I went out to the parking lot there were cars all over the place blocking all of the cars that were properl parked. Two of the waiters had to run out in the cold with a handful of keys and begin moving cars. A horrible end to a miserable dining experience. I think if Fontanella wants to keep their reputation as an upscale classic Italian restaurant, they have to rethink these presentation groups.

Old school Italian eatery replete with white table cloths, tuxedoed waiters in a classic setting made my lunch with Rand Commercial’s Super-​Agent Ann Silver all the more terrific today.
The hushed tones of the waited harken to a bye gone day when excellent service went hand in hand with superb cuisine. Never rushed because only a fool would rush through this culinary experience.
The food was cooked to perfection and with care. Flavors were pronounced, portions appropriate, and this Hudson Valley Epicurean will be back for more.

La Fontanella is a classic experience, great for a date night or nice occasion.
The food is on the fancier side of Italian. In other words, it is not a chicken parm and paper napkin kind of place, but the dishes are still familiar and hearty.
From the wood décor and white linen tablecloths to the excellent maitre d and attentive wait staff, La Fontanella feels like a blast from the past, but in the best of ways.
The food itself is delicious, I recommend ordering off of the specials menu, they are always excellent.

So I honestly am struggling to give this place as much time as it will take to write this review.

It is rare that you can say that you’ve never had a bad meal at a restaurant, especially one that you frequent often, but this is the case at La Fontanella. We go at least once a month, and we always have an incredible meal. As others have mentioned, the grilled calamari appertizer is one of the best things on the menu. It was a special last night when we went, with white beans and broccoli rabe, and it was amazing! While I love their menu items, I almost always go with their specials, especially their fish specials. Last night, I had the monk fish, and it was cooked perfectly. it was moist and very flavorful. My husband strayed from his usual chicken scapriello, and had a different chicken dish, which he loved. My daughter had the rack of veal special. The first one came out way overdone, but they happily took it back. The new one came out quickly, and was delicious. I think there are new owners, because we didn’t see any of the usual people who have been there in the past, but the quality of the food was still outstanding. Service is always first class. This is a Manhattan quality restaurant (with the Manhattan prices that go with it), in Pelham.

Good Fellas gone wrong!!!
Nothing Italian about this place except the wording on the menu…
Food, service and hospitality was not equivalent to my bill…

Came here for a birthday dinner. Was impressed by the impeccable service (wait staff in tuxes/​suits) and delicious food.
Loved the appetizers (seafood crêpe, avocado stuffed w crabmeat, prosciutto) and the entrees were excellent. Each in our party had fish or fowl, enjoying all dishes. The shrimp scampi dish was phenomenal.
This is a real, traditional, classic restaurant. It’s not your pizza shop with restaurant Italian joint. It is unapologetically not trendy but is rather true to classic ideals of serving the customer with great food & service (& we all noted with appreciation they didn’t push the tables– very relaxed!). This is true, classic Italian, truly something special in a class by itself.
We will be back, for sure.

My son’s daycare gave us a holiday gift and kept him until 9pm (!) so my husband and I, new arrivals to Pelham, decided to check out this spot for a somewhat impromptu date night. Earlier in the day, he made a reservation via OpenTable. We arrived early, and were not seated promptly. My husband is a touch impatient and the staff sensed that so we were shuffled into the bar for a cocktail on the house. I didn’t have anything but my husband said his rusty nail was fine. We sat down and in addition to bread and butter were given tasty olives that i loved and some kind of sliced salami situation that my hubby enjoyed. The waiter came over to tell us the long list of specials while our waters were filled. Each dish sounded better than the last! My husband ordered an artichoke appetizer which he said was incredible. Given the clean plate by the end of the course I think this was a solid choice! :) I had the gnocchi with veal ragu and it was terrific. My husband had some special involving angel hair and lots of seafood and he was sad when it was gone. We were clear with the staff that we had to be out in time to get our son and they accommodated us. I think it was a really great experience and I would love to go back, and will probably take my mom when she visits us. Excited to have found a yummy spot in our new digs!

This was our first time to La Fontanella and we really enjoyed ourselves. We ordered the Lobster Ravioli and Pollo ala Nonna and each plate was delicious. The service was outstanding as the staff checked with us continuously throughout the evening. While we don’t go out and eat Italian often, La Fontanella will be on our list for special occasions.

The food here is great and the service is Excellent!!! They have great lunch specials that are a full meal!!! When you walk out of here you are feeling full and relaxed.

The location is good and I love visiting the Wolfs lane in Pelham.
We liked the restaurant, they tried to give you a classy feel.
The food there is pricey and average in taste.
The waiter there is truly condescending. We went there asked that we would like to try something vegetarian today, and he looked really down on us and told there is pretty much nothing. I looked at the menu and found five vegetarian dishes and confirmed and then he said. yea. you can have those.
Forgiven this, we went again and same experience of awful attitude of hosts.
You lost customers guys, we are never coming there again.

So I found this restaurant on open table. It was about 10pm and we were looking for a nice place to eat without having to go to the city. The moment I arrived I felt something off about this place. Upon entering I saw a man smoking behind some bushes staring out into the street at us as we came into the building. His demeanor was very alarming and I found his behavior to be off.
Upon entering we were greeted and sat at a nice table. We open our menus and it was ironic that the same creepy man in the bushes actually happened to be our waiter. His energy was very condescending and just down right strange. My husband and I got the vongole a mi piacere for the appetizer. It was very good but by now we were the only people in the restaurant. The music had been cut and the atmosphere was sad to say the least. We were frequently greeted by random people throughout our meal taking care of us. We continued our dining experience with pesce di mari and vitello something. I forgot. I usually love veal but I did not like my food at all. My husband enjoyed his seafood dish. No one even came to ask us how our food was. The servers only seemed to care about closing down the restaurant. We were continued to be rushed through our meal, as things began to be taken away from us by multiple people. To say the place felt uncomfortable and stuffy would be an understatement. We ordered desert, which was, chocolate suoffle cake and pistachio spumoni a type of Italian ice cream. The spumoni was really great. It was served with strawberries, chocolate sauce, and whip cream. The chocolate suoffle cake was a mild step up from a domino’s molten cake so I wasn’t impressed. Overall, the meal was overpriced by the bad service and stuffy unwelcoming environment. I would never go or recommend this place to anyone.

Great food & romantic atmosphere. Most definitely the best Italian restaurant in this part of town!

Great food — almost always order specials and sit at the bar for a date night or night out with the girls. One of the reliables in Pelham — and there aren’t many I’d say that about.

Great service, food and atmosphere. Florio is second to none when making you feel like family.

The best Pelham has to offer…
Recently renovated this place never fails to deliver. Authentic Italian cuisine with modern presentation and excellent service.
If you are craving traditional «old school» Italian food than this is your place… plenty of items to choose from but I recommend their pastas and/​or ossobuco which are cooked to perfection always @ La Fontanella.
Excellent attentive service all the waiters dressed professionally and very friendly and helpful.
Highly recommended.

Based on my two or three experiences here, I never really understood all the plaudits.
Service is competent and professional, but by no means exceptional. Food was fine, but nothing to write home about.

Again, a great dining experience. Attentive old-​fashioned service in a kinda old-​fashioned atmosphere.
Before we placed our order, we were served a basket of warm bread with butter and a plate of olives, cheese, and sliced sausage. Our table enjoyed: carpacio appetizer, Caesar salad for the first course. Our entrees: gnocchi in a tomato basil sauce, seafood risotto, sea bass on mashed potatoes special, pappardelle with prosciutto. Everything was excellent! Even the mashed potatoes had me making happy food noises. Dessert was tiramisu — the only thing that wasn’t exceptional, just okay.
We’ll return.

My girlfriend and I went here for a romantic dinner and were underwhelmed to say the least. To start with, the ambiance is reminiscent of a pizza place rather than a high end restaurant.
The service hit on many of my pet peeves. They didn’t seat us with a menu and left us. A waiter then came over and asked us if we wanted drinks I responded that I would like to see a menu and wine list before I decided what I wanted.
During the meal, the waiters were obtrusive. They etiquette was terrible interrupting us mid conversation.
At one point our waiter reached over the table and my wine glass to put cheese on my girlfriends plate. I watched as he did this to another couple and proceeded to knock over a vase onto a gentleman’s lap.
Waiters came to another table to sing happy birthday?! I started to wonder, why I shouldn’t have expected the TGIF Fridays’ experience. Oh wait, because I was dropping 200 dollars in the place. It was just insane.
The food, while decent, used lower end products to cut costs. The «Oso bucco» was a lamb shank. I had a 30 second conversation with our waiter trying to explain that he must be mistaken because Oso bucco is veal. The Shiitake mushroom ravioli came with strips of shiitake mushrooms, but the plate was predominantly filled with button mushrooms.
These types of short cuts just made me feel as though I was being taken advantage of. We both came to the conclusion that if this is the best Pelham has to offer, we would rather spend our money elsewhere.