Bella Luna Restaurant

A couple weeks ago went to Bella Luna for my mother’s birthday dinner. She loves Italian and wanted to try someplace new. I’d heard good things about it (plus sampled it at Taste of Cincinnati) so we chose there.
When we arrived the place was packed, unable to find a parking spot in the lot I dropped my folks off at the door and was able to find one just up the street. Once inside the hostess promptly showed us to our booth and as we passed some really cool décor, a live jazz band played.
Bella Luna already got an A for ambiance!
As we sat down I noticed the booths had high backs on them giving each table a greater sense of privacy and cut off a lot of the noise that you’d expect to have bandied about in a full restaurant. Honestly, I was surprised by the number of kids there. It was a Friday night and we had a 7:30 reservation, so I’m not really sure why it surprised me. It wasn’t in a bad, «Chuck E. Cheese» way — actually if anything it made the place feel less like a restaurant and more like one big Italian family dinner.
Our server came over and I could tell she was still pretty new, she had her spiel down but she was easily flummoxed by questions she wasn’t prepared for like, «What beers do you have on draft?» But she quickly came back with an answers and was otherwise excellent.
We ordered some drinks and appetizers. We ordered the bruschetta plate, with three different kinds of bruschetta but one of the three was anchovies, I don’t eat fish and neither of my parents were too keen on anchovies so we asked if instead of two of each of the three, could we have three each of the artichoke and the pesto bruschetta. Our server checked with the kitchen and they said it was fine.
As we waited for the appetizers we were treated to a basket of bread. With the butter that came with it and a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar to dip it in, I confess I could have sat there all night and just eaten bread and been totally content. Their bread is definitely not something to be missed!
Perusing the menu I found myself in strange waters, as a vegetarian you quickly become accustomed to only having one choice of entrée but at Bella Luna I had several. I ended up going with the tried-​and-​true Eggplant Parmesan. My mother ordered the Pappardelle Pasta with Wild Boar Ragu and my father the Veal Parmesan.
Our appetizers arrived and we dug in. They were exceptional! I loved the artichoke bruschetta and then I tried the pesto one and loved it even more! Do not miss these appetizers!
After some perfunctory salads our entrees arrived. I dug in eagerly to the Eggplant Parmesan, the eggplant was perfectly cooked, rendering it this almost meat like texture. The sauce with it was good, made from the traditional family recipe that the original owners of the restaurant brought with them from Italy. Though one thing that did bother me was the bed of spaghetti noodles it was served on. I don’t know why but I was expecting homemade, but these appeared to be out of a box. They just didn’t have any excitement, they weren’t in any way bad — I just didn’t get the flavor response I expected when I twirled them on my fork and ate them. Perhaps that’s on me.
My mother really enjoyed her Pappardelle Pasta, however my father did not in any way care for the Veal Parmesan. He just picked at it and said it was overcooked and one of the toughest pieces of meat he’d ever had. My mother took a bite and confirmed it wasn’t very good. My father ended up just eating the remainder of my mother’s pasta instead. When the server asked about the veal he told them it wasn’t very good in no uncertain terms and to their credit the manager took the cost off the check.
With the palpable awkwardness of complaining about a meal still lingering in the air I was ready to go, but since it was my mother’s birthday she wanted a dessert so she ordered a slice of their chocolate cake. And when I say, «slice» I’m stretching the bounds of the definition of that word. The wedge of chocolate cake looks like it could be used as a wheel chalk for a 747, it’s so huge. It was delicious and took all three of us to eat it, but it really put the mood of the evening back on kilter.
I really enjoyed my meal, I know my father did not his, but my mother gave passing marks to her dinner. I don’t know if they’d ever go back but I certainly would!

I must say my experience at Bella Luna was one I will never forget! To start, I loved that the server (who was amazing, by the way) gave us the background story of the restaurant. We went to celebrate my friends birthday and they were so kind. ¾ of us got gnocchi and loved it. At the end, they came out with a $ 10 gift certificate and handwritten birthday card for my friend. We were so shocked. They truly put their customers first. Will be going back!

Bella Luna is a solid Italian spot. We have been several times! The atmosphere is very quaint, very comfy/​cozy. Nothing really matches, all the plates are different, it’s kind of like a pieced together masterpiece. Service is amazing. Everyone you come into contact with is so happy you’re there. If the owner is present, you can guarantee he’ll be stopping at your table. One thing I don’t like is that they only play music every once in a while. Sometimes it gets a little too quiet or it’s a little too easy to ease drop on the table next to you.
You’ll get a bread basket with two types of bread — one a crusty French roll and the other and herbed focaccia. Both are amazing! You also get an herbed whipped butter and all of oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. I always start with a Bella Luna salad. It’s simplicity is what makes it great. It’s a dark green mix with Gorgonzola, roasted red peppers, figs, Parmesan cheese, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette on the side.
I love all of the ravioli dishes and all the sauces are great (lobster cream being my favorite). The lasagna is delicious and huge! My favorite dish lately though is the Three Cheese & Truffle Sacchetti. These are a very thin pasta stuffed with different types of cheese and truffle and topped with a Marsala mushroom sauce and asparagus. Sooo good!
The only reason I give it 4 stars is because of the lack of music, it’s priced too high and the desserts are slacking (Although, I’m not a bread pudding fan and that’s what they are all about). Despite those few things, we like it here and we will be back!

*THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE ‘SEVEN FISHES DINNER’ HELD EXCLUSIVELY EVERY YEAR ON DEC 23 & 24TH*
…ok…
1) (sorry for yelling)
2) On these dates, you are forced to get the buffet — the a la carte menu is all off the table. And the buffet tastes scraped from under the table…
3)…specifically, most dishes were kept at room temperature. For $ 35/​person, they had margins to higher the fire.
4) BUT I did overhear a family comment how they come every year, so maybe lukewarm is the new cool. I just don’t see the appeal of paying premium for seafood-​themed italian christmas food instead of enjoying homemade comfort versions like most people do around this time of year. This dinner is really only designed for couples who aren’t going home for christmas and don’t have time to scuba-​dive for their own fish.
5) They may have skimped on the heat but didn’t skimp on the christmas decorations — though with the already red-​painted walls, the extra decorations made the place feel like a homemade christmas sweater.
OUT WITH THE BAD AND IN WITH THE GOOD
6) Bread pudding deserves to be on the cover of Bread Pudding Weekly, especially for that butter sauce that I’m currently filling up in my bathtub.
7) To help wash it down, the waitress gave free milk (to me and the 3 yr old).
8) My reservation count changed a few times, and they were quick to accommodate, though they do require a reservation deposit to permanently glue any flakers’ chairs.
9) Busiest around 630pm, but dies down early (naturally, with the clientele being family and nappy)
10) was not the score here, even by corrupt russian figure skating standards

Reservations were for 8:30pm did not get seated until 9:10 pm. Service was great once we were seated, however kitchen was slow, orders did not come out until 50 minutes later. All dinners were pasta dishes, and the portion of the pasta was significantly different on each plate. Chicken was a bit tough, where it had been overcooked, but was good. Bread is excellent. Probably will not go again, even though the food was OK– the 40 minute wait to be
seated was a total disrespect of the customer’s time. Not to mention who wants to eat at 10:00pm? Additionally, prices are a bit excessive for the portions. Management should allow
for better scheduling times.

My family and I have eaten here exactly once, and it was a disaster — average quality food at gourmet quality prices in very small portions, and this experience was further by bolstered slow and disinterested service,
But I nonetheless recommend you do make a trip here, but for one thing and one thing ONLY
The bread pudding
Go somewhere else for dinner, and then order this for takeout or at the bar, and you will experience one of the best desserts to be found in the greater Cincinnati area. On the night we were there, they had their original version and 1 or 2 other versions — make sure you ask for the original version.
They key to this dessert is that they pour some sort of buttery syrup/​sauce over the top that gets absorbed by the pudding and just makes it an over-​the top decadent treat. If you get it to go, make sure they put this syrup/​sauce/​whatever on the side, so you can pour it on right before you eat it for the best possible experience.
The bread pudding is a 5 star item in a 1-​star establishment, so I went with 2 stars

The atmosphere and the food are amazing! Wonderful servers. Great wine… I really love the family atmosphere. I am really impressed that the owner makes a habit of stopping by your table to make sure that you’re enjoying. I can’t wait for the next time I get to go to dinner there!

Fantastic place near Lunken. Food was perfect. Tour of italy. A friend ordered off the menu when when the owner said he would make anything. The lasagna was amazing.
It is a hole in the wall, and a little noisy, but worth the trip.

A great little «hole in the wall» vibed place with good, homestyle italian with a flair for upgrading standards.
The Spinach Flan was awesome, definitely worth a shot.
I thought the Prime Rib Canneloni was ok, however, I didn’t really get the hype. I feel like it would have been a similar dish with any other kind of meat, and I didn’t find the Prime Rib to elevate the experience.
The Bread Pudding though… ho boy. That was good.
What’s holding back the 5^th star for me is the price. I thought that the price was very high for what we got. It was very good, don’t get me wrong, but I would’ve like the dishes to be $ 3 – 4 less.
Also, we got two americanos with our dessert, and the americanos alone were $ 13. $ 13! Sorry, that’s a bit too high for some espresso and water.
However, if my only gripe is the price, and paid it anyways, then they’re obviously doing something right.

Enjoyed my experience at Bella Luna. The owner dropped by to say hi at the beginning of the meal.
I ordered the chicken parmesean and my girlfriend ordered the prime rib canneloni. The food was on the high end of good but not great. There are two other Italian restaurants that I would place higher in the Cincinnati area.
The service was good, but drink refills seem to be a challenge.
I will try it again.

I have many a time had small bites from Bella Luna at area events and finally made it to the restaurant. It is a nice atmosphere with very friendly service. I couldn’t resist ordering the prime rib cannelloni that i’d had at Taste of Cincinnati and neither could the bf. The full portion was so much more satisfying. We also enjoyed the bread with garlic butter. I ordered a peach Italian soda to drink thanks to another review I had read (off menu item). For desert we tried the sampler which included a mini cannoli, bread pudding, and tiramisu. Surprisingly the bread pudding was my fave, and I do not normally like this dish. It is without raisins, creamy and delicious. My only disappointment is I feel it is expensive for what you get. Menu items are al la carte (dont come with salad, soup, or side).

The service was just awkward and not on point. We got sat in the lounge and there was a band playing, I would not recommend sitting in there when a band is playing, its way too small and thus way too loud.
The wine list was laid out strangely, it was ok, but I’d expect better for an Italian restaurant.
The food was definitely not impressive. No table bread and oil for your table? Lame. The $ 8 Caesar salad was overpriced. The mussels were disappointing.
The 2 dinners we got were the lobster ravioli — good pasta, not great sauce, good seafood flavor. And their Prime Rib Cannelloni (Winner of the «Best Damn Dish» at the Taste of Cincinnati — as their menu states) was seriously a miss. The pasta itself was so thin, it had dissolved under the mountain of melted cheese on top and the sauce on the bottom. There was way too much cheese on top on that thing. The short rib in it was dry. The red sauce was the best part, it was fresh.
So — if you are going there I would suggest getting the red sauce on a pasta.
I’ve tried Bella Luna and its failed me. Living in Columbia Tusculum, I had gone too long to have not have tried Bella Luna, but with 3.5 star Unilocal average, I just wasn’t in a hurry to get there, with so many other great restaurants in Cincinnati, and I should have just stuck with that notion.

Sat on the Bella Luna patio tonight for a beautiful meal with amazingly personal service. We commented over and over that it didn’t even feel like we were in Cincinnati, we had escaped to a private dream world with delicious food and endless wine. Our server Nicole was happy to answer our questions about the menu and offered prime suggestions for delicious dishes. Definitely check out the new menu items inspired by the owner’s recent trip to Italy — the octopus is to die for!
PS — happy hour prices apply on the patio!

We had a great Friday night out to dinner at Bella Luna. Service was great. Our server was very friendly and service was prompt. Everything we ordered was delicious. Bella bruschetta, the bread with herb butter, three cheese and truffle sacchetti, and the dessert trio were outstanding. The owner and manager both stopped by our table and were very friendly. We enjoyed the comfortable booth and eclectic décor. We will definitely be back! My only complaint would be the prices. They are high, but for the quality of what you get, it seems worth it.

On my birthday two friends took us here. Perfect evening, great food, welcoming staff– in a very
natural way. One of the owners came by with a handwritten gift card. The best place for a celebration dinner whether you have something to celebrate or not.

This was my second visit to Bella Luna. The first visit was definitely better. We were seated quickly and in a comfortable booth. After that, service was all over the place. Although our server was friendly, she seemed to disappear for long periods of time. My caprese salad and and my husband’s prime rib cannelloni were outstanding. However, my sirloin steak was awful. The quality of the steak was terrible and it was completely unseasoned. I should have sent it back and ordered something else. We split the dessert trio, which was nice. The bread pudding was especially yummy. Considering the prices at Bella Luna and my original experience there, I expected a much better.

Bella Luna is officially my favorite Italian restaurant in Cincinnati. They offer a fine-​dining experience with excellent, down to earth staff with the atmosphere of your Grandmother’s home. I say that because the interior is so colorful and has artwork and also pictures of the owner’s family and all their dishes are different from the salt and pepper shakers to the plates, making it feel like home!
They have an excellent happy hour at the bar that runs until 9pm that should definitely be visited. My boyfriend and I went to the bar a little before our dinner reservation to order $ 4 wine glasses and $ 5 apps. We had the fried lobster and crab ravioli. and that lobster sauce was out of this world! I could pour that over anything and be happy.
Since we wanted to try so many things on the menu and couldn’t decide, the waitress offered to serve us the short rib cannolini as a single piece appetizer to try and she even allowed me to substitute the marsala sauce in the cheese truffle suchetti for the lobster sauce because I loved it so much! That is what I call excellent service. they will literally cater anything to your own taste here if you’d like. ALL of the food was fantastic and had such rich flavor! Very fresh, too. Lastly, we decided to have the famous bread pudding for dessert. hands down, best I’ve ever had. This is a MUST. And I don’t even usually like bread pudding that much.
I usually try to keep my reviews simple and short, but Bella Luna deserves the Unilocal 5 stars and I will make it a point to come back here for my Italian food fix.
P. s. The outdoor patio seating would be lovely on a warm day or evening!

I ate dinner here recently with a large group of friends. We had reservations, and they put us in a private room which we thought was nice. However, it was a rainy night, and somehow (humidity?) the tile floors got very wet and SLIPPERY! Eventually the waitress used towels to try to wipe up some of the wetness, but not enough. We were very careful when we got up so luckily no one fell.
The acoustics in the room were horrible — all hard surfaces that the sounds of us talking bounced off of and eventually gave us headaches. It would have helped if they had brought us some bread or something to keep us from talking so much — but the bread didn’t arrive on the table for at least an hour — the butter /​oil arrived much later.
Our food started to be delivered about 70 – 90 minutes after we ordered. We got it randomly, with some of us being half done before the rest got our food. The food varied from great (a few) to good to OK (most of it) to poor (the wedding soup only had 1 small meatball & not much else according to 2 people). The prices were high for what we got. The plating wasn’t very attractive for this high end restaurant.
Some of us asked 1^st for our checks, yet we were the last of the whole group to get them. We were also the last to get our food even though we ordered first. The 2 waitresses seemed to be at the mercy of the kitchen — we will at least hope to believe that was the problem because they certainly must have dealt with large groups before. Some of our orders were messed up and took awhile to fix.
We were here for 3 hours, and most of us didn’t even get dessert because we needed to get home! We were tired of sitting for so long too.
Parking was hard to find — the lot was mostly full at 5:30pm even though Bella Luna was not busy inside. There are several entrances to the lot that take up parking spots.

My bf and I went here for Valentines day/​Birthday. We had a late reservation for 9pm. The place was still packed! The ambiance is intimate and casual. They had a complimentary coat rack which was nice. We were seated promptly to a corner booth. Which was great because there was limited space, and a lot of middle tables in between the booths. This way we were out of the way from the busy chaos of people walking around. There was even a live band playing around 9:30pm.
For the food, we ordered a antipasto plate for 2, that came with salami, capicola, mortadella, smoked mozzarella, parmesan, olives, balsamic tomatoes, and pickled mushrooms. The crusty bread, and garlic butter was also delicious. For our entrees, we got the prime rib cannelloni, and saltimbocca. The cannelloni came with two light pasta sheets wrapped around with a little dry prime rib, covered in cheese and tomato sauce. The saltimbocca came with many pieces of thinly pounded veal stuffed with mozzarella. We also chose a trio of desserts that had tiramisu, cannoli, and bread pudding. The bread pudding was warm and rich, while the tiramisu was drizzled with dark chocolate syrup, and the cannoli had a crisp chocolate shell the mousse was a little overpowered by cinnamon.
Pros: Our server was awesome, great traditional Italian, great date spot, ample parking, great happy hour (we’re coming back), small but great draft beer list, large wine selection
Cons: prime rib was shredded so it came out a little dry
Overall, a great experience, for the most part the food exceed expectations besides a bit of nit-​picky cons. P. S. it was my boyfriend’s birthday and the owners hand wrote a thank you card to him, which was very nice, THANK YOU Stephens family!
Wifi password is their phone number with area code 513

Not being a Cincinnati native, I rely on my in-​laws for good restaurant recommendations, and this is one of the goldmines that they pointed me toward. If you’re looking for delicious home-​cooked-​style Italian, look no further! Many of the recipes are classic family recipes, and I’ve never had anything bad here. I often get the veal parmesan, which is great. The beef short rib ravioli is killer too. Honestly, just order the whole menu!
Bar is great, others have commented on the live music, and I couldn’t agree more, they’re very talented, and it’s a nice touch on a Friday night. Service is fast and friendly; they make great recommendations.
I would highly recommend reservations unless you want to wait a long time. And when you’re done with dinner you MUST try the bread pudding… it is swimming in the most delicious amaretto sauce you’ve ever tasted in your life. My wife likes the cannoli, and I also enjoy the tiramisu. But the bread pudding is the star, no doubt.