Six of us went there for dinner the other night. The restaurant itself was attractive. The server was very attentive. The problem was the food. Three of us did not like our dinner at all. Unfortunately, we didn't talk about it during the dinner and therefore nobody sent anything back. I had blackened swordfish and I asked for a switch of vegetable from spinach to broccoli Rabe. The swordfish was cut very thinly overcooked and the blackening used was not good at all. Spinach is what I got instead of the broccoli Rabe. even the cappuccino at the end of the meal was just meh. I can certainly say that I will be not going there for dinner in the near future or maybe even the far future. read more

This cute little restaurant in Shelton is definitely a gem to explore. The service was so welcoming. The cocktails were delicious. The food was very tasty. Would definitely be back to check this place out again. It's definitely worth the visit. read more

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This place is beautiful, providing an amazing ambiance. The staff are always friendly and helpful. And the food never disappoints! Last night was no exception. We were there celebrating my husband's last chemo infusion today. We appreciate the fabulous evening!!! read more

Ari Bella - Ringing the bell! - Italian Near Me - Shelton, Connecticut

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PROS: The ambiance is fantastic. The decor and warmth is charming and inviting. It's a lively atmosphere but can be quiet depending on the time of evening. Our server was very friendly and knowledgeable. We ordered apps, entrees and desserts. Everything was very good, zero complaints about almost everything we ate. CONS: From the moment we got there we noticed that half the place was full. 70% of those there had no food. The staff was overwhelmed. Every order took forever to get. Our server, was no where to be found all meal. (as stated, she was sweet so we didn't complain). The one real issue I had though, I ordered a special and when I received it, the presentation was such that it appeared a last minute thought. Like they had forgotten about it and tossed it together quickly. There was sauce all over the plate the pasta was dumped in the bowl and the fish was overcooked and almost rubbery. I would have sent it back but as said, couldn't find a server. So I ate the pasta, which tasted great, and saved the fish for my dog. I will definitely go back, but maybe during a weeknight when they can handle a smaller crowd. BTW, the grilled romaine salad was one of the best I ever eaten! read more

The food is excellent and the staff and management are very friendly. Great location in Huntington Center with ample parking

I have only attended this place for a Christmas event and can only review them based on holding and event. The staff is very nice and very attentive refilling waters as soon as you finish it and making sure everyone is happy. The appetizers were hot and delicious with things like meatballs, lasagna, cheese, crackers, salad and veggies with dip. The food read more

Enjoyed the atmosphere, food was rich and filling but not too salty. It's a hidden gem in Shelton that I'd recommend for a date night sort of situation. Will come back. read more

Fourth time we've been here and always a good meal. Tonight we had the grilled Romaine salad. Whoever came up with this one has a winner. Char marks and slightly wilted romaine with a delicious vinaigrette with a little bit of blue cheese, sliced red onion, sliced avocado, a couple cherry tomatoes and a couple pieces of bacon on top. They serve bread with a fruity olive oil. For main courses, I had the Penne in a vodka sauce with prosciutto and peas, with sliced grilled chicken on top. Loved the sauce. Pasta al dente. Perfect. My dining companion had the pork osso buco with a saffron rice in a flavorful sauce. Excellent. They have a nice variety of wines. Service was very good and friendly and attentive staff. read more

Ari Bella has become our favorite Shelton area restaurant. Dino, his sons, wife and staff really make you feel welcome. The food, cocktails, and ambiance are all excellent. They pay attention to the little details, which makes the experience worthwhile. We come quite often and have yet to have a bad experience. You may notice some mediocre reviews on this site but please know that Dino has only owned the restaurant for the past several years. It's a whole new operation. Give it a try - you won't be disappointed! read more

Thank goodness for GPS, otherwise I might have missed my early Valentine's dinner and not have found this gem located, unassumingly, on Huntington Street near the green and cemetery. First, I have to say the staff is super friendly and attentive from the moment you walk in the door. And it's genuine. There's nothing put up or false about it. They really want you to feel like you are home. It's an art that, sadly, has been lost at many establishments, but not here. Ari Bella revives it. Staff come over and talk to you, and ask you if you need anything, whether they're waiting on you or not. They hold a conversation with you, about pretty much anything. Some people don't like that, but I do. The owner was particularly wonderful, telling his story of his move up to Shelton from Manhattan. I ordered the salmon, which was pan-roasted, well-seasoned, drizzled with a delectable orange ginger glaze, and served with roasted potatoes and mixed vegetables, including wilted spinach with garlic. Delish! Paired with a glass of pinot grigio, it was heaven. The dessert, however, didn't do it for me. They put coconut in the custard part of their crème brûlée (to me, that's the equivalent of putting tapioca in pudding, which I find annoying to try to eat, but I digress). The coconut in Ari Bella's crème brûlée actually has a chemical effect on the crispy, sugary crust we all know and love with this dessert--it makes the coating slightly chewy and thicker, the entirely wrong consistency, and for $13, I want the crisp, thin coating I know, expect, and love. The overall ambiance of the place is quaint--semi-rustic mixed with Italian stucco and such. The furnishings are modern. There is an outdoor patio (with lights) which promises to be delightful in good weather. I look forward to future visits. I already know some gal pals who will love it and will be back with them. read more

Ari Bella - Salmon - Italian Near Me - Shelton, Connecticut

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The owner is rude and doesn't want any business. The place is very local and low-grade, hard to find. The whole area is under construction. I don't understand how a place like this is promoted by Resy... read more

The service was the worst. Although the waitress, was nice, we waited over an hour for salty salads, fair at best risotto and my father's crab cakes were bland. Awful. Don't bother. read more

Busy Saturday night. Was able to get in without a reservation and eat in the bar area. Had octopus special app - it was on top of butternut squash - thought that was unique. We got grilled romaine salad, I was not a fan (reminded me of left over salad)... the chicken parm and chicken scarpello was standard. Service was okay, had to ask for additional water at the time of meal and they didn't ask if we wanted dessert, but just brought the check over....we would have ordered it if offered. read more

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We doordashed from Ari Bella and was delicious pasta dishes. Restaurant forgot to include butter for the bread and cutlery for our hotel room - but the food was scrumptious. read more

This place is inconsistent. Sometimes the food and service is good, other times not so much. Tonight is was just bad. We waited an hour for our food even though the restaurant was not even half full. The $10 charge for switching from ziti to linguine is an absolute joke. The portions of chicken parmigiana are half what they used to be. It's time to take this one out of the rotation. It's not worth the hassle or the spend. read more

Nice quiet atmosphere. Service was minimal and extremely slow. Food was good but nothing special. Two of us ordered the salmon which was good. The veal piccata was okay but nothing to rave about. read more

This place has to have new owners. It's gotten so awful. I ordered food recently - eggplant rollatini (which used to be the best around) and mashed potatoes. The eggplant rollatini was so bad. Super salty, cut very thick, not in love with the sauce. That wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that there was a very very long piece of PLASTIC BAG IN THE MASHED POTATOES. I didn't see it before putting it in my mouth, I felt it once it was too late and I almost choked. I had to pull it out of my throat!! They also tasted very sour. Do you use lemon on them with the dairy? This incident happened one week ago and I haven't been able to write the review until now because I have been gagging at the thought of it since. I'm actually sorry to write this, it could have been an accident & I don't want to jeopardize someone's business, but come on. I would have called to have this conversation 1:1 to avoid sharing it publicly but I still can't even talk about what happened that night without gagging. Writing this is painful. Please be more careful. read more

We discovered this place recently but fell in love with it immediately. This restaurant has great food and atmosphere. Salads are excellent, soooo tasty, and one of our favorites is Mare Caldo (seafood) in red sauce. Octopus is also fantastic. I would recommend this place to anyone who appreciates good food and a classy environment. read more

Absolutely fantastic. Going back again soon. From scratch pretty much everything. Simple menu but everything I've had has been simply amazing. Hidden gem read more

I'm always on the search for the best penne ala vodka around, and Ari Bella in Shelton is for sure in my top 5. All the other food I've ever had here is phenomenal, but their penne is hard to beat! read more

Ari Bella - Italian Near Me - Shelton, Connecticut

My wife and I were looking to try a new place for her birthday. We came across this restaurant and saw that it had good reviews so we decided to give it a try. PARKING- There is a decent amount of parking spaces for this establishment but the parking lot is very tight. AMBIANCE- The ambiance is nice. We we're advised this restaurant has been opened for about 17 years and recently they added a main dining room to it. The restaurant offers indoor and outdoor seating. SERVICE - The service we had was good. In the beginning the waitress was very attentive and had a great personality. As the dinner progressed, she seemed to get busy as we had to ask the bus boy for another round of drinks. MENU - The menu is has a lot of good Italian options. On top of the normal menu, they offer a lot of nightly specials. There were approximately 3 special apps offered, 2 salads, and 3 dinners. FOOD - We started off with the calamari which was a decent portion. The calamari was lightly fried and tasted fishy. The sauce that it came with was very good. For dinners we ordered the Pappardelle Amantea (pasta with mixed seafood) & Seared Sea Scallops. Both dinners were very good. The pasta appeared to be homemade and all of the seafood in the pappardelle tasted fresh. For the Seared Sea Scallops, the scallops were cooked to perfection. PRICES - The prices at the establishment for everything we ordered were very good. OVERALL - I would return to this restaurant and recommend it. I would have preferred to be seated inside the restaurant. We made prior reservations and were advised there were no indoor seats available with due to other reservations. However, we heard people talking about how they hoped to be able to get in as the restaurant looked busy and they had no reservations. That group of people were able to find a table inside the main dining area. read more

We had a fantastic lunch. The food is so flavorful and the service was impeccable. Worth the money.

Nice little Italian restaurant. We came across it after visiting a local winery. Sat outside on a beautiful November day. Appetizer of filet mignon crostini with Gorgonzola was very good. I had homemade fettuccine with bolognese sauce which was very good. My wife had the short rib with Pappardelle which she found tremendous. Definitely will stop back again when back this way. read more

Very disappointing experience at best!!! Reservation made for 530pm this past Saturday to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary . We Arrived at 525pm and were promptly seated. The DR had very few diners on arrival but a large party was then seated. We Placed our order along with 2 cocktails shortly after reviewing the menu. Approx 25!mins later we were told by our waitress our dinners would be out shortly. We patiently waited but after 45 mins we signaled our waitress to complain about the long wait and the fact we were attending a show at 730pm. Our dinners arrived a few minutes later but my husbands dinner was cold. We advised the wait staff of this, asked them to take the dinner back and cancel that order as we did not have enough time to wait for another meal. Even though we cancelled the order A second meal was brought out within minutes ( we were told it had just been prepared for another diner ). Unfortunately there really was not enough time at this point to eat or enjoy our meals so we took them home. To add insult to injury the bill came and besides paying for a dinner we could not enjoy due to the "kitchen being understaffed" , We were charged $18 for a Kettle One martini and a Crown Royal Manhattan an "up charge based on premium brand and being served up". We also unfortunately arrived 15 mins late to our show and had to wait to be seated. All in all a pretty miserable evening for a special occasion. I feel the restaurant should avoid booking/seating large parties if the staffing is not adequate and should have made an effort to improve our experience so we might want to return in the future! read more

Great food, stiff drinks, great staff. Had the grilled romaine salad with Breaded chicken breast, wife had beef tips over polenta. Delicious. read more

This restaurant is one of the best in the area. Never a bad experience. From great service to great dishes, our family enjoys our dinners here. They no longer do lunches but maybe should reconsider! Parking could be tight and location could be tough to find if you've never been but it's beautiful inside, great atmosphere! read more

I went there last night with my wife and my daughter. We have not been there in awhile due to the pandemic. I was not disappointed, service was great, the filet special was very good and the wine was chilled. They have a nice patio and the tables were nicely spaced out. The hostess was friendly and welcomed us back. I am looking forward to my next visit. read more

I would rate this place 2.5 to 3 stars. The food was okay, nothing extraordinary, but the portion was very small and the price was way high. The place was packed on a Saturday night so we sat at a high table in the bar. Out waitress was good, but the appetizer we ordered took so long to come. She kept apologizing, but it seemed the kitchen was backed up. Our app was butternut squash gnocchi which was very small. Our entrees were good, but again nothing really stood out about the flavors. The drinks were absolutely terrible. I had a margarita that tasted like straight tequila. No good. My husband didn't like his drink either. The waitress comped the appetizer and a dessert that we took to go because we headed to another spot for a decent drink. Even with the free app and dessert our bill came out to $97. After tip it was $115. I wasn't impressed at all. read more

Ari Bella - Lamb chops - Italian Near Me - Shelton, Connecticut

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Extremely disappointing. Missing multiple menu items. Calamari was extremely salty. Got multiple orders wrong. Hostess was incredibly rude and unapologetic. Cold food served as well. Must be the only local place no idea why anyone would go there. Half the tables were empty and they acted like we came without a reservation. Across from a cemetery for a reason. read more

Poor service. Seated and then waited 20 minutes while no waiter approached our table, but served and brought drinks over for another table that the manager appeared to know. Left without ordering. read more

I've eaten here many times and taken a variety of people and I can't believe there's not more love for this place here on Yelp. It's small and could be tricky to find if you don't know exactly where it is. It's mostly inhabited by locals (like my parents). It's cute and not over-the-top a la Il Palio nearby but could be a little noisy when it's busy. The food is pretty much always excellent. I always get the bruschetta because its my favorite. The basic salad is also a good choice. If any specials catch your eye try them because you may not find it on the menu again. I've had a number of different entrees. The pasta with seafood is good as is the chicken parm. The menu is a little more adventurous than your local Italian place but everyone should be able to find something they like. Not a lot of red meat though so if you're in a steak mood this probably isn't the place for you. It does suffer from overuse of pancetta. Seems like they put it in everything and I'm not a fan. However last visit she had penne vodka that had pancetta and she's still talking about how good it was a week later so I guess that says something. If the gods are smiling upon you for dessert they will have panna cotta or pannatone bread pudding on the menu. Both are excellent. Wine list is limited as its a pretty small place but ask the waitstaff and they'll usually hook you up with something good and not too expensive. Service is definitely a weak spot, at least recently. Something changed maybe a year and half or two years ago and it became very slow. On our most recent visit we tried to analyze the situation (god knows we had plenty of time) and the problem seems to reside with the kitchen and not the waitstaff. I wish I didn't have to say this but you might not want to come here in you're in a hurry. Also Ari Bella isn't cheap. It's not your local pizza joint (though I believe they have pizza). Expect $75+/person with apps, wine, entree & dessert. At the end of the day it's worth the money and fairly priced for the quality of the food you get. I really like this place despite a couple small weaknesses. read more

My husband and I had our Valentines Dinner here. It was also our very first time going to Ari Bella. We were a little early for our reservation but they were able to accommodate us and sat us right away. It was a very busy night! The service was good. Multiple people checked on us to make sure we were satisfied and not in an overbearing way. The food was delicious!!!!!! I had the crab cakes, my husband had the mista salad. Both items came out very quickly and were so good. For our main course I got the spinach ravioli and my husband got the chicken parm. We both ate our dishes entirely. We were pretty full but saw a lot of tables ordering a particular dessert (Fried Banana Cheesecake) we decided to go for it! And oh my goodness! We will definitely be back. read more

Ari Bella - Italian Near Me - Shelton, Connecticut

This will have to be done with bullet points. 1. My date and I each ordered Chicken Francaise, they apparently have no idea how it is made and it more closely resembled marsala but it was truly awful. 2. They added an additional amount on to my already signed bill, even after I left a good tip - unnerving to say the least. 3. Bathrooms were disgusting read more

The food was average last night been here a handful of times and this was not a good experience. Service was terrible and waitress kept making excuses about her service. Very disappointed will not be returning. read more

I'm being a little generous at three stars. I've read some other reviews from raves to one stars and to be fair, it's somewhere in between. I really like the meatballs but the sauce failed. I really liked the gnocchi but the sauce failed. The lobster ravioli failed and was fishy? The calamari was a little disappointing as the old cooking oil flavor was apparent. The service and everyone working there were great. I would suggest changing some recipes and use a better brand of canned tomatoes for the sauces. read more

We had our company Christmas lunch here and everyone enjoyed the food, ambience and service. They accommodated our dietary restrictions and were reasonably priced. read more

Extremely bad. Service is some of the worst I've ever seen. And to top it off the food isn't anything to write home about. I came in at 7:00 one night, no where near full capacity, maybe 1/4 of the way full, I ordered food at 7:30 and didn't get my food until 9:30. 2 hours of waiting time for subpar food is pathetic. Waiters and waitresses were fine and obviously it's not their fault the food took a couple hours to come out, but the excuses were just kept rolling. "Sorry we're really busy tonight", "sorry the kitchen is a little behind". A little? Two hours isn't a little behind that's just not cooking the food at all. Where did the chefs go? Out doing who knows what. Honestly I've only got one word to describe my experience. Pathetic. Do not dine here it's not worth it. read more

I've never written any review of a restaurant, but tonight was ridiculous. Food was mediocre at best. the special was 5 ravioli for $24.00 and they charged $27! Food took over 40 minutes (pasta dishes). Definitely off the rotation. read more

I really have a tough time agreeing with the bad reviews here. We've been coming here for 10 years. We have ALWAYS had a great dining experience. Our apps, salads and entrees have been so delicious. The wait staff have always been very pleasant and prompt with service. My wife and I can get a fantastic dinner (best in the area) with 2 glasses of wine and dessert for just over $100. I would definitely recommend Ari Bella! Well worth it. read more

In the last few weeks I've had several friends rave about this restaurant so I had to check it out - my husband and I were not disappointed. The service was excellent - plenty of waitstaff and a very attentive waitress. Really good menu - nice variety. The fig, prosciutto and blue cheese appetizer special was amazing! Pleasant dining area that had good acoustics - it was not loud as some restaurants tend to be. I started with the goat cheese salad which was very fresh and had great flavor; my one criticism would be that there was not a lot of goat cheese (only a couple of bites). My main course was the gnocchi genovese which was a delicious basil sauce with sun dried tomatoes. The gnocchi dinner was also excellent although the gnocchi was slightly soft versus al dente. These are very minor critiques but these were the reasons for my 4-star relating. However overall it was a wonderful dining experience and my husband is already planning our next dinner at Ari Bella! read more