My husband and I ate at Bella on Saturday thinking it would be like its counter-part Bella-Sera in Minneapolis. I've been to Bella-Sera and was very impressed. They had great food, great service and terrific ambiance. Bella in Blaine put their name to shame. \r
We arrived and were attended to quickly. We asked to be seated at the bar outside. We were shown the patio, but not seated, apparently that was up to us. We noticed that there were only three stools at the bar and they were all taken. They also looked like they had been brought from inside and didn't even match the decor. Also, it looked like up to 10 seats could have been at the bar, like I said, there were only three. So we sit, we were not given menus either. A bartender or waiter gave us menus (a big bald guy). Menus, and NO WATER. The entire time we were there we were never given or offered water. To me, that's inexcuseable. My husband had a gin and sprite and I had a glass of wine. I will say they were reasonably priced. That's the last good thing about Bella.\r
As for the food, which took some time considering the place was half empty, was mediocere at best. We ordered their sausage and mushroom pizza and the crab dip. The pizza was no good. It seemed to be a premade crust, nearly no sauce, PRESHREADED Kraft cheese (which tastes awful), nasty cubic cut sausage that tasted worse than Dominos, and tasteless mushrooms. The artichokecrab dip was also subpar. I tasted almost no crab. It tasted like pasta filling, which is not what I want to dip dry grill bread. The bread was thick cut and there was not enough for the volume of dip.\r
As for the service during the meal. We were never checked on after recieving the food. What if it was the wrong thing or something? We couldn't have had a substitute, we would have been stuck with it. And still, no water, not offer to refil our beverages. We left less than a 10% tip. And our server blatantly looked down my top several times\r
Bella in Blaine is worth missing
Pros: Quickly seated, drink prices, abiance was pleasant
Cons: No water given, slow service, No checking after the food came
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