The food here is impressive. Bella is a perfect find here in KC. It’s simple, authentic Italian food without pretense. The staff here is excellent. Makaila is fast, responsive, attentive, and a perfect server. Suppose it’s the sandwiches (Il Saro) for lunch or the dinner pasta (Ragu di Manzo), or even dessert (Tiramisu). There is something here for everyone to enjoy. It was a warm vibe with a great date night atmosphere.
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GREAT place for lunch. Incredible sandwiches. Dinner is pretty good. Cannot beat the atmosphere, but they’re reaching a bit with the food. Better than your run-of-the-mill local Italian restaurant, but lacking a few things. For example they give you bread with no butter or oil & vinegar. Just raw dog a bunch of bread. The menu is a bit limited - it’s a small kitchen, but still the dishes and portions are a bit outdated. Still recommend, but it’s not top-tier. (Carmen’s down the street is probably a step higher for dinner.)
The fresh and authentic Italian sandwiches are underappreciated and very affordable, whether you do counter service to go or get a table. It reminded me of homemade lunches with our Italian host family. Fresh vegetables. Delicious meats (optional) and cheeses.So many other wonderful menu options for a proper meal of course, but I will keep this at the top of my list for a fast lunch option too, especially on a nice day to enjoy the patio. ?
If it was based on food I would give this place a 3. The pizza tasted like it was cooked on low heat for too long. The cacio e pepe barely had black pepper where the pecorino romano was the predominant taste. The carbonara was pretty good and the tiramusu amazing. However, the wait staff was extremely kind.
Ragu is so good. Love the spices. Sandwiches are always amazing. Drinks are SO good. I also think the pricing is great for the quality. I see a lot of comments about price but the dishes are cheaper than a pasta dish at something mass produced like an..Olive Garden or Cheesecake Factory? Anyway, great restaurant. Great ambience to have lunch or dinner.
I've not been to this restaurant in many years but I loved it then and I love it now. Comfortable and authentic feel. Great Italian market within. Superb pasta. The service is a tad slow on a busy evening. Overall a longtime gem in Brookside.
It's definitely Italian pizza! 3 very thin slices of prosciutto, 5 mushrooms and that was it on a $14 pizza!!!!! The pasta looked good however. The waiters accent was turning my date on! I guess you can call it good service
Service was good, and the atmosphere is nice. It's small so a reservation may be best. I ate the hamburger pizza and had a Old Fashioned. Both were good. I'd recommend it and will be back.
Luca and I stopped by bella napoli Italian Restaurant in Brookside Kansas City Missouri today. I have heard a lot of good things about this resturant so I thought we would give it a try. I was raised in a Sicilian family and I am pretty particular about Italian food. Napoli is in Naples Italy. If you look at a map of Italy it looks like a boot. Naples is the ankle. Each region of Italy has different flavors.The resturant has a deli, they sell Italian food products etc. When you walk in there are three rooms with tables. To the right is a dining area with regular wood small four tops. To the left there is a dining room with white table cloths and in the middle where we were seated a few tables in the middle of food racks.A young man by the name of Mike Carullo was our waiter. Mike is the nephew of the owner of Carullos at The City Market Kansas City Missouri. Mike was fantastic.I had an espresso and we had Bruschetta. The Bruschetta was really hard. Like had to cut with a steak knife struggling hard. The topping was great just a little to long in the toaster for the bread.I ordered lasagna with red sauce, "Sugo", a side of meatballs in sauce and a link of Italian sausage. Luca had a pasta dish and we ordered two margarita personal pizzas to go. One coke, one coffee.The reason I mentioned the different regions of Italy earlier is each region has its own flavor. Sicily has more of a sweet Sugo which I prefer. The sauce on the lasagna was ok. The spices in the sauce not so profound. It wasn't bland but felt like it was lacking something. But thats my taste. Overall it wasn't bad.Luca was happy with his pasta. My meatballs ok, not great, not bad. The italian sausage was burnt and then covered in sauce. The pizza crust was hard.I talked with the manager and asked if I could take pictures inside the restaurant. She agreed.Our bill $81.00. I left the waiter a $19.00 tip. Mike our waiter was worth it. They had an ample amount of wait staff on hand. The restaurant was moderately busy.I have eaten at hundreds of restaurants all over the USA. I have to give bella napoli a 2.5 star.$81.00 for two people with no cocktails and no desserts with ok food is not good. I have had much worse food, I just expected much better.
We love this place! The food is always great and the atmosphere is also great. I haven't been to Italy so I can't compare it to neighborhood restaurants there, but it reminds me a lot of the South Beach area ofSan Francisco.