Bella Vino

What a fabulous FIND this was! Server TJ, food, atmosphere was wonderful. He made great suggestions for our tapas! My personal fave were the Calamari. Wine selection was also very good.

I went here a few weeks ago with my wife for a date night as this had very good reviews and overall I was not disappointed. The food was very good with a decent selection of menu items to choose from. Their specialty cocktails were very good. The service and cleanliness overall was great. The one bad remark I have is when we went the main dining area which is small to begin with was all occupied so they stuck my wife and I at a couch with a table in front of us. This wouldn’t be so bad, especially for a small group of people except it was right next to and facing the bathrooms. Luckily, it was a very nice night for middle of January and we sat outside instead on the patio next to one of their fire pits. I would certainly recommend this place for a date night or any occasion when you want to eat at a nicer place. I would recommend getting reservations if you do come here. I will certainly be coming back here again.

Customer service was iffy and then Anthony saved the day! He is the absolute best & really gives this place the charm needed! As for the food, seriously ridiculously good. The tilapia is amazing as is the shrimp & grapefruit salad and calamari… and I never order calamari, but it was crazy good! Don’t miss it & ask for Anthony!

This is my go to «date night» restaurant! My husband and I both love the food and the service. Everything is always 100% amazing! HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!

I’m here for my 2^nd visit and I’ll be back tomorrow as well. Great little place and they have half off on wines by the glass until 6:00 during the week!!! I just had their tilapia risotto special. It was truly, one of the best meals of my life! It was so good that I’m going back tomorrow. Alex, the bartender said it was a favorite of his. Then I got the ooey gooey butter cake, which was also wonderful. I’m upset that I didn’t come here last night!!!

The food was great, the ambience was great, the staff was amazing. How I ever felt the prices were too high for the small tapas plates. For a $ 50 meal I should not have left hungry!

Good food, great staff, decent wine list. Could be good for a romantic night out. Not really a place for kids. Reservations suggested on weekend. We had quinoa strawberry salad, risotto of theming and Venison Mac and cheese. Desert was dark chocolate gelato. There should be a powerball star for gelato.

From the minute we parked the car in front of Bella Vino I knew that we were in for a treat! We were a large group, but were treated extremely well and seated at a wonderful long table inside.
The staff was absolutely fantastic and helped us pick all the right dishes and combinations to make the most of our experience. And what an amazing night! That’s sometimes the benefit of going out with a lot of people — you get to order the entire menu! Everything was outstanding, but perhaps the most memorable items were the pizzas on naan and the gooey butter cake for dessert. Don’t miss those if you’re at Bella Vino!

Excellent food! The 5 of us had the Artichoke dip, Hummus, Calamari, Spicy Meatballs, Stuffed Mushrooms, Risotto, and Flatbread Pizza. We shall return!!!

I wanted to update after we returned here the day after Thanksgiving. A larger place down the road was too busy to accommodate us. My mom is undergoing chemo and has a sensitive stomach right now so I figured a larger menu would serve her more justice. We went into Bella Vino, which I LOVE, and I worried about what she would eat. The menu here is flavorful but small. The staff was very very accommodating for her and created a bland pasta dish for her and brought out bread for the table so she could munch while she waited. We didn’t explain to staff any background, and I was so relieved with their accommodations and generosity. Again, my choices from the menu wow-​ed me. I had the strawberry quinoa salad (which I can’t wait to go back for) and the spicy shrimp pasta.

Some places are worth a second chance.
After a previous experience during which we were seated but never served, my wife and I decided to give Bella Vino another shot given all the glowing reviews we had heard and read.
Great joy the second time around.
Chorizo stuffed dates– Mmm!
Bella Bonfire, a cheesey delight– Opalicious!
Duck prosciutto flatbread– Gaga!
The charcuterie tray could benefit from an upgrade to both the cheese and meat selections, but still nice.
Staff was helpful and friendly for the most part. I would recommend however some sort of sign or signal as to reception and seating. There are, at times, confusion in this regard.
Other than that, I’d say Bella Vino is the tapas!

Good food, good portion sizes. I know it’s meant to be shared around the table but with 2 vegetarians and 2 omnivores, it was just easier to order our own and that made portions ideal. I had a spicy shrimp pasta with what appeared to be homemade noodles. I had a hot chocolate martini which wasn’t bad, I’m always up for some rum and chocolate. My dad ordered the asparagus salad whose asparagus was fried and it WAS DELICIOUS. Overall, $ 130 for four people each with a main course, 3 desserts, 2 beers, 2 martinis, and a virgin bloody Mary (horribly spicy, it’ll clear your sinuses) isn’t bad. The waiter was knowledgeable and friendly and overall it was a good experience. Will be back.

This place is beautiful inside and out. If you come by on a pleasant evening, you can enjoy their beautiful patio. But the exposed brick and the way the inside is decorated is delightful as well!
After wandering around Oktoberfest and not finding any food that we were crazy about, my friend and I decided to go a completely different direction! My friend ordered a salad and I had the meat and cheese plate. The plate included three different salamis, two cheeses, dried fruit, mustard and nuts. The mustard was particularly delicious — I think it might have been a honey mustard.
Our server was interesting… when my friend asked that her salad was served with the dressing on the side, he strongly advised her against it. She said that’s was simply her preference. And he responded, «Well, it’s your life.» That seemed pretty weird to us…

First time having Gooey Butter Cake. and it was transcendent! The texture, the taste, I couldn’t stop eating it. And this was after our large group ordered almost everything else on the menu! I would come back to St. Louis just to have this dessert again. Our server was even kind enough to give a history lesson on how this dessert was «invented».
The entire meal was top notch. Excellent wines with everything available by the glass, most from small producers I had not sampled before. The chorizo stuffed dates are a MUST try (order more than one plate, trust me on this one) as are the flatbread pizzas served on Naan. The menu is designed for dishes to be shared, which means more opportunity to try some of the inventive dishes and cuisine.
Ambience is also great, right in historic St. Charles with plenty of both indoor and outdoor seating. Would be a great place for a date night or to take friends. Can’t wait to return! Now I just need that gooey butter cake recipe…

Not often is an experience so bad that I write a review on the way home.
Food was fine, wine selection decent, service horrible. After we sat down it took 25 minutes to get a flight of wine. We then ordered a bottle of wine and finished our flatbread before we got it… a bottle of wine served without glasses.,.another 10 minutes and 2 requests later… we finally got glasses. I was just about to go to the bar and get them myself when they finally arrived. The waiter asked if we wanted to order anything else… and we reminded him that we ordered meatballs that we never got. We had been sitting there for an hour and 15 minutes and all we had gotten was our wine and one tapa.
Owners you should be embarrassed. We tried to remember when we have had such horrible service and there is no comparison. We are guessing that family members must have flooded Unilocal with good reviews.
Our first time here and soooo disappointed. We felt deceived by all of the good reviews. We won’t be back.

Been dying to try this place for quite some time now. Sadly, seemed every time I tried to come here they were either closed, booked solid, or hosting a private party. Luckily I was able to drop in on a weekday without needing a reservation or waiting.
Overall, the atmosphere is very nice. Great ambiance, loved the music, not too noisy, though a tad crowded. Some might call it «intimate» though. Didn’t even realize there’s a mini lounge area in the back (could totally see myself sitting and knitting back there some evening and enjoying a glass of wine solo) plus an upstairs & a back patio thingy plus dining room and front patio. Wow!
Unfortunately my experience was somewhere between «just OK» and «horribly awkward.» In fact, this may have been one of the most awkward dining experiences I’ve had in a long time. Our server wasn’t bad per se, just… I don’t even know how to describe it. But basically, let’s start with the wine samples here. Holy fuck. They are BIG. Like, damn. I wasn’t expecting how big of a pour you get just to try something. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted (I kinda have wine ADD, & will try damn near anything as long as it’s not «Manischewitz sweet.») I asked the server questions about certain wines and he clearly had no idea. He even admitted he isn’t a wine drinker. Hey, that’s fine, I have nothing against him for not being into wine… but you’d think they’d want servers who can at least study the different wines on their menu, even if they don’t personally partake (?) so this led me to more or less «guessing & hoping» on various wines.
He brought out a sample which I did not like so much, and another sample… I really honestly did not like any of these. Around the 2^nd or 3^rd sample I asked if he could just ask the bartender for info or to come over and assist. Instead he brought me another sample that I did not like and very awkwardly told me «sorry but that’s the last one I can bring you.» I was stunned. I even told him upfront I didn’t want a lot! Just wanted a splash. Wasn’t trying to be a cheap-​ass wanting to get shitwasted on wine samples, dammit. I even offered TO PAY for ALL the samples I got. Had my wallet in my hand. He just laughed awkwardly and shook his head and walked away.
They really should reconsider the amount of wine they pour as samples in the event the customer really dislikes what they try, they won’t feel awkward as if they are perceived to be «gaming the system.» Or better yet, charge for X samples… I know some wineries off 94 do that… and I am gladly willing to pay. I think it amounts to $ 1 /​pour at one of my favorites. Or it’s $ ⁵⁄₅ samples and if you only end up getting 4 they only charge you 4 bucks. It’s not that complicated. But man… I just felt horrible the entire time and really wanted to pay & leave. But I was starved!
Menu was surprisingly large (yay!) and there were numerous options. I went with the cheese & bread and it was pretty good except for one point I would like to mention in hope that the owners/​chef sees it:
Coagulation.
Basically, the cheese — despite being lit on fire as it arrived at our table — was cooling at what seemed to be an exponential rate. Before I was half-​way done eating it, it was congealed in rather large, nasty clumps. It was really unappetizing and I choked down the rest of what was otherwise a tasty dish. sad face! :(They really need to either re-​light it periodically on request, or perhaps include a candle or burner underneath to maintain a homogeneous heat distribution throughout.
My companion ordered a pizza. He specified plain cheese pizza with pepperoni. Nothing fancy or out of the ordinary. They decided to douse it in pesto (which I would have loved, admittedly, but we’re talking about someone who routinely orders off the kid’s menu at fancy restaurants, here. I wanted to convey that to the server but I know I would have greatly offended my partner so I said nothing.) He begrudgingly scraped off the pesto and didn’t utter a complaint. Of course, however, I had to deal with his bitching the rest of the meal.
When I ordered my food, I explained to the server I could NOT have anything spicy. I asked for a rec among the things he liked. He suggested things that had spicy ingredients listed. The salmon sounded good. But it came with an orange chili sauce. He said it «wasn’t really spicy.» I asked for it on the side & glad I did, because it was unbearably hot. Brutal, actually. Had to guzzle down the water to get the burn out of my mouth. If I hadn’t asked for it on the side, the entire dish would have been inedible. Salmon wasn’t bad though did not care for the charred top. Next time I’d ask them to cook it medium rare. The grits were AMAZING! Truly the star of the meal.
Would I return? Maybe. Probably solo, but IDK how I’d manage to get home since I don’t drink & drive. If you see a drunk crazy person with blue hair staggering down Main Street, it’s probably me. :-P

Great service, never waited longer than 5 mins for a plate. Highly recommend the Bold or a Spicy Red Wine Flights. Great historical area and building. Reservations are recommended! Amazing dishes!

Bella vino is a great escape from ‘the craziness that is MAIN STREET’ This is currently the BEST restaurant on main– had dinner outside next to the fire–
The owner was extremely professional and knowledgeable. You could really tell she loves what she does and wanted to share it with us. There is nothing better than that.
Never had dates made this way! enjoyed everything — wine cheese and great service #winning

Are there more stars than 5? Holy moly this place is great! Our group of 9 from California ordered 11 tapas and 3 desserts! Not one bad dish! All dishes were great! Great prices and wonderful service!

Situated in a charming old house on Main Street in Old Town St. Charles this little wine bar is just teeming with allure. My husband and I came in on a week night and the place was empty… until we arrived… then in started to fill up. I walked around just to check the place out 1) because I love restaurants that are in old houses and 2) I was curious about the décor. This wine bar was really nicely decorated with a little couch/​sitting area in the back, contemporary wall hangings and lovely dark wood throughout. They also have those high bistro style tables available as well as low tables. The service was quite good with several young waiters teaming up to take care of us.
Bella Vino is a tapas style menu which allows you to try many different things off the menu and to share with another person. We were able to try about 5 – 6 things including a Mozzarella Tomato Flat Bread Pizza (yummy), calamari (Amazing), Bella Bonfire (delish), Pig & Fig Salad (nom nom), and BREAD PUDDING (drool).
Everything we tasted here was great.
Now…the wine. I LOVE wine flights. Why you may ask? It gives you the opportunity to try 3 wines side by side so you can compare & contrast them. Bella Vino offers several flights for your wine drinking pleasure. Their wine list is heavier toward red wines with some interesting choices with about half the number of whites to choose from and a few sparkling wines as well.
My only problem with this charming wine bar is that its not closer to my house!
I will definitely be coming back and look forward to trying the outside patio in the warmer months.