Bella Nina’s Ristorante Italiano

As others have noted the bread is warm and home baked and just incredible. A yummy way to start the meal. This is our favorite Italian restaurant hands down! Chicken Marsala, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza, chicken piccata… They do it all and do it all just right… We have been here dozens of times over the years and never had anything less than superb service and delicious food. Save room for the tiramisu. It is divine.

Very nice and quaint place to eat in Tacoma. They start with fresh baked bread and garlic butter followed with your choice of salad with Italian or gorgonzola dressing. I had the Italian it was good and the salad was a generous size, then for the main course I had chicken parmigiana which had 2 large pieces of chicken. The pasta was cooked correctly and the neat sauce was good.
The resteraunt also has a bar side and all of telp building was clean. Parking lot was very big and ample size spots for bigger cars or trucks.

This is my favorite Italian restaurant around. The bread is delicious! I usually order the chicken & prawn scampi (I think that’s what it’s called) and I love it! Bella Nina’s is a little hole-​in-​the-​wall place that is like a hidden gem. Go there and see what you e been missing!

This place is awesome! Had not even heard of it after 8 years in T-​Town but now this place is a MUST DO. Ravioli is awesome! Come have a great meal with great service!

Found this mom and pop Italian shop (er, restaurant) when looking for places to go to dinner. It’s quaint in the small-​town restaurant kind of way, and was surprisingly dead on a Friday night.
First off, the bread they bring prior to the meal is phenomenal… Per the menu, they bake it fresh in-​house, and I believe it. SO good. Sadly, the app we ordered after (stuffed mushrooms) was not nearly as good. The stuffing was an almost-​unrecognizable amalgam of bread crumbs, ground chicken, and cheese, and they were remarkably bland for how good they looked. Entrée courses were chicken parm (HUGE portion, btw) and ravioli besciamella. The chicken parm was the most juicy and perfectly fried chicken but was lacking in the parm department (see photo). The ravioli was good and a nice change from the typical meat or cheese offerings as it was stuffed with chicken, cheese, and rosemary. Overall, though, this meal was just… whelming. Neither over– nor under-​, just whelming. Three stars mostly for tasty tasty bread and that chicken breast.
I really love eating local, but I can’t say I’ll come back here again. Sorry, Bella Nina.

Very casual, family style restaurant. Great price for the amount of food you get. Juanita is the staple to this place because the majority of the clientele come back simply for her. She makes you feel like family when you come in. This is definitely a place you go to not just for a one time meal but– to return indefinitely and become part of the family.

This establishment looks a little sketchy on the outside, but don’t let that scare you away. The food is delicious and the service is fast and friendly.

We eat have been coming here for a year and a half and the quality of their service has gone to sh*t. We always come here for their pizza with meat balls, and it is absolutely the best pizza we’ve had in Washington.
Unfortunately today is the last time we will be there. They have been getting our pizzas wrong about 25−50% of the time, but we’ve put up with them because of their awesome pizzas.

The food was excellent the service lacked. My husband didn’t receive the salad that came with his meal, getting food took a long time, clearing plates, getting the bill (and processing payment) took entirely too long given that the placewasnt busy. We had a larger
Artysowewerein the back room and it felt like we were forgotten
The food saved the rating.
I’d be willing to give it another try because the food was delicious (I had pizza my husband had chicken Marsala), but if the service lacked again I wouldn’t continue to go.

This was a real «so so» experience. I got the Eggplant Parmesian and it just was blah. It was very greasy and did not have a light coating of crust which I always an excited for with the dish. It came with a side of spaghetti which wasn’t half bad. They have no beers on tap, just in bottles and the selection from that is not very good. They did have Pyramid beer which I enjoy but all the rest was like Red Hook, Coors and such. The prices were higher than it should have been in comparison to the quality of the dishes. I will continue my trek for good Italian in the area in the hopes that I can get a small list of favorable places in mind.

This was my first time here and after a 2+ hour drive from Bellevue Tacoma, I just wanted to pick up food to go.
The staff who greeted me were very friendly and helpful. The menu is extensive.
If you want glitz, go to Olive Garden, but if you want authentic Italian food, come here.
I got egg plant parmigiana with a salad with gorgonzola dressing on the side. Both were fresh and excellent. It came with ziti and a marinara sauce and the best home made bread ever.
I opted to wait in the small bar which was quaint and cozy and not crowded but full of «regulars». Everybody was friendly and when I ordered a double of my favorite adult beverage, the man sitting next to me advised that they have a heavy pour and I probably didn’t even have to make it a double. When I was served, I realized he was right. It equaled a triple at least.

The restaurant doesn’t look glamorous from the outside and the entry door faces the back parking lot. But once you’ve eaten there, that really doesn’t matter. They have wonderful food in generous portions and with reasonable prices. I’m very fond of both the sauteed and the stuffed mushrooms. I also love the chicken marsala! I would recommend this restaurant to anyone!

I have lived in the North end for 20 years and have driven by this place again and again, never really thinking much about it. A hole in the wall for sure, could use a coat of paint, an attractive sign, well, anything that would make you think about stopping by. Not at all on my list of places to eat.
After reading reviews on Unilocal,both good and bad, I decided to give it a try. I sat in the back parking lot and wondered if I really wanted to go in. I did and found the inside quite charming, yes old red leatherette booths, Italian art on the walls and Italian music playing in the background.
I found I loved this little place. The bread is amazing and everything I have ordered is absolutely delicious. Can’t carp about the service, no issues there. I personally find it very reasonably priced, always take some home.
Perhaps you could give it a try!

I love to eat dinner on Mondays. The special is «All You Can Eat SPAGHETTI». For only $ 10 WOW soup or salad too!

My husband and I love this restaurant. We are regulars and go at least one every two weeks. The younger of the two waitresses it wonderful. The older one is absolutely rude and not good at her job. She cut my husband off at drink 3… uhmmmm…there are regulars that sit and sit and sit in the bar and drink all day. Wtf?! He wasn’t loud, drunk, or making a scene. I don’t drink, so my memory isn’t distorted. The younger waitress never would have, she’s fantastic. The food is great though. I love the Tortelinni and Ham with cream sauce. So tasty. The décor is a little dated, but décor isn’t everything. Good food and service matter most.

Horrible service. Today I ordered a brushcetta pizza to go and when I got home, I saw that it had capers instead of pesto. I called and they argued with me, saying that it’s always comes with capers. I told her that I’ve been ordering this pizza for over a year and there has never been capers, and that the pesto is my favorite part of this pizza. She continued to argue but says that they would make a new one. When I arrived, she continued to argue even with their own menu in front of her. Not only was she a moron, she was completely inappropriate. Although this pizza has been my favorite in all of Washington (when made correctly), this employee’s rude and frustrating behavior is the reason this was my last visit there.

Wow. This is the best pizza that I’ve found in Tacoma. The sauce doesn’t taste like canned and the crust is baked perfectly. 10/​10, will be back.

Here it is, the year 2014, and I continue to eat here on the regular and they continue to be awesome. Three cheers for Bella Nina’s…hip, hip, hooray!

I find this place super sketchy.
The entrance isn’t even marked clearly. It looks like a side door that is somehow the entrance, but is located in the back of the restaurant. The décor is terrible, I hate the red booths, and everything looks extremely old & outdated.
I ordered a caesar salad and spaghetti with meat sauce. The caesar dressing was not good, it left a weird after taste in my mouth. The spaghetti pasta itself was overcooked and very soggy. The sauce was not seasoned at all and it was watery. My friend ordered the ravioli and it was fine, at least it was a lot better than my spaghetti. I just don’t understand how you can mess up spaghetti. It was absolute crap.
Our waitress was nice and everything, no complaints there.
I’ll never be back though.

I like this restaurant and would give it 3.5 but since we don’t have ½ — I am rounding down.
When you enter the restaurant and wait at the desk — the scent they use in the bathroom is very strong and is not what you expect from a Italian restaurant. Doesn’t make your mouth water for the anticipated dinner.
The server was longer than she should have been and did not apologize. Also in a quality restaurant they would normally take the ladies orders and then the gentlemen. She started with the youngest teenager and asked my wife last (she went around the table).
All of our meals were good and tasty and — once we received them — and we enjoyed the meals.
Overall we like this place but I think they could fix it up a little and train their waitress better. It is sort of like a old city family restaurant without the family. We will come back but hope it is better.