Bella 'mbriana - side

Great little place on the corner of Clark and Leland!

Bueno. Excellent. Found this hidden local gem before our theatre down the road. Chic. Has outside section. Plenty of viable wines and food is delicious. Authentic Italian cuisine.

Compact but excellent menu. Super polite and knowledgeable waiters. Amazing espresso and flavorful gelato.

2 stars for being non-kid friendly, having few menu options, having no standard sensible Italian options, seating us at a table too small, and not keeping better track of your thermostat. I went to this place based on the ratings and was very surprised at how much I disliked it. Went with my family, our group consisted of 3 children and 5 adults. First thing I noticed that was amiss was when they sat us they put us at a table too small for our party. They sat us at a 6 seater. Then there were no kids menus, the waiter recommended ordering a certain 2 items from the menu and combining them to make a kids friendly option which we did, however it ended up costing $16+ per kid to do this whereas most kids menus at the highest end of restaurants offer options around $6-10. They also had no kids cups so we we're constantly fending the kids away from open water glasses on a table that should have been a third bigger than it was. Over all just not a kid friendly place. If it had stopped there I could have still rated at 3 or 4 stars. However, the experience continued downhill from there. The menu is 4 pages long, however only 1/2 of a page is devoted to their food options of which they only have 5 pasta options and 5 Secondi options, which I took to be more like add-ons (2 meatballs for $10 for instance). Of the 5 options they were all fairly outlandish for someone with a fairly normal palate and menu taste. For an Italian restaurant you would have expected a few freebie options such as spaghetti and meatballs, no such luck. My wife ordered their special lobster ravioli which she did not like as most of the ingredients were raw on the plate. I ordered the beef gnocchi which I actually thought was okay and the only reason for the 2 star rating. I did not see anything else on the menu I could have liked however. Of everything the kids raw pasta and meatballs was actually the best food and the raw pasta want even on the menu. Lastly the night we were there the temperature must have been about 85-90 degrees in the restaurant which did not add to an already not so great experience. Try Calos just up the street under a mile for better Italian options at the same price.

100% legitimate neapolitan cuisine. Highly recommended.