I've been here twice and gotta say, the place is always busy and they got nice ambience. Having said that, both times I found the service to be slow. You really need patience to eat here. This is not a fast serve restaurant. First we got the Branzino which was pretty good and tender. Then we got a pasta dish which had no flavour and was blend so probably wouldn't order again. We also got the ribeye which was pretty good. For dessert, we had the apple blossom with gelato and toffee and it was delicious. They also had lots of mocktails options which we appreciate. Overall, this is a decent choice for Italian when you're in the Whitby area but pack lots of patience and you'll be fine. read more

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I've e been to Bella Notte several times, including hosting 3 large events. The food is good. However the main section of the restaurant has now became less enjoyable because they crammed in more tables forgetting they are catering to adults not children or midgets. I just came back arriving early The restaurant was substantially full. We were seated at a table with only 16 inches of space between the back of the chair and table. We tried sliding the heavy table but there was no were to slide it too as the other chairs were backed into another customer.3 rolls were put at the end of the table so when an attempt to use your arms in this small space a large drink was toppled over. Soda all over an entire outfit dripping down the leg from the crotch and breast. BECAUSE IF SITTING IN WET...THE MEAL COULD NOT BE ENJOYED....because it was difficult to use your arms and being drenched. THIS IS NOT AN ENJOYABLE PLACE TO DINE...unless you are lucky to get a table when there are few clients. Although the food is good...it's not a place to entertain friends or heaven forbid a date nite. I know why they're busy...it's because Whitby really lacks fine dining restaurants. Will I return ? I purchased a seizable gift certificate...so possibly use for take out. Without the gift certificate..the answer would be no. I would rather drive further so that a dinner nite out could be enjoyed TOO BAD WHEN GREED RELINQUISHES TO SERVICE read more

I wish you could give half stars...because this is a 3.5/5. Service was great, food was tasty but nothing specials but really good value for your money. Started with the oysters and beet salad. Massive portion size for the salad...and it was tasty but the oysters had small pieces of shells that was a bit annoying. Wife had the gnocchi and I had the seafood fettuccini. Again really good food but not excellent 4/5 or memorable 5/5. Sure we will come back because it is close to home and for what we paid if was really good value. Also- service was fantastic from the wait staff to the staff that cleared the table ...they were really good but when I rate..I put a high percentage on the taste of the food because that is the most important. read more

Bella Notte Ristorante - Massive beet salad - Italian Near Me - Whitby, Ontario

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Booked a table for two on a Friday night. Would recommend a reservation as there were lots of people waiting in line outside. I felt like the interior of the restaurant needed something more. Most walls were pretty plain. You could tell the staff were super busy, it took them about 10 mins for anyone to greet us. The staff were pleasant and had fast service once seated. They brought complimentary bread accompanied by an olive tapenade, it was warm and nice starter for the meal. Oysters Rockefeller (3.25/per oyster). I'm not a huge oyster person, they were good, but there was so much cheese it didn't really feel like you were eating oysters. Lobster Fettuccine. I don't love lobster so I subbed it with shrimp - it was really great! Loved the sauce and all cooked perfectly. Topped it with some Parmesan cheese - excellent Seafood Fettuccine. I tried my companion's dish, but wasn't thrilled with it. He said he had wished he got what I ordered. The tomato sauce felt like it was missing something - a bit plain. Overall a good experience, would recommend:) read more

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Customer Service: The staff was amazing. We were celebrating my friend's birthday and the staff welcomed us with a small gift for him. Our waiter consistently checked if we needed anything and answered all our questions. Food: My friend and I were both craving Italian and this was the place to go! I ordered a meat lasagna and he got spaghetti. We also got oysters which tasted fresh, bread with butter and wine. The dishes were all flavourful and filling. It tasted authentic and rich read more

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Another day another review, wanted to try out local Italian spots instead of going downtown to try. This restaurant is really good, and I tried risotto for the first time and I definitely enjoyed it! I also had the fresh oysters !! The servers were helpful and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal over all so I would highly recommend it for those in the Durham area ! read more

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The service was absolutely superb. There was six of us all having a variety of items and everything was terrific. They had run out of a dessert my granddaughter ordered. The owner appeared and offered something they prepared just for her. It to was terrific. It was a Saturday night I would recommend you reserve first. read more

The staff team were very welcoming. The food was even better I would recommend this restaurant to someone wanting authentic Italian food. read more

I had the seafood Fettuccini and it was delicious. The puttanesca tomato sauce pulls together all elements of this dish. Huge shrimp, calamari, and mussels. You cannot go wrong. If you love seafood this is the dish for you. SEAFOOD FETTUCCINI With shrimp, octopus and mussels in a black olive and caper Puttanesca tomato sauce read more

Went with a large group from our Retirement community. Lovely interior. Food was delicious. Very attentive and responsive waiter, especially for such a large group. My only complaint would be the very tiny overpriced fresh oysters, would not order them again. Everyone in our group agreed that we would not hesitate to return. read more

First, let me say... Bella Notte is fantastic. I've lived in Whitby almost my whole life and I've never stepped inside this building. We were brought bread with olive tapenade, but we were also immediately brought oil and vinegar to our table. Fantastic. Then, my father ordered oysters rockafeller, which were amazing. My girlfriend and I split the crab cakes, which had a very nice spicy hit along with being crispy and delicious. I found the portions of sides relatively small, although the meat was large. For example, my dad had the veal chop and it came with a tiny bit of pasta, and I had the lamb and it came with a tiny bit of potatoes. The stand alone pasta portions themselves were quite large. Dessert was biscotti, tiramisu and apple tarts. We kind of all shared it, and it was wonderful. The biscotti in particular was great (a little bias because I love biscotti) The reason I'm giving the restaurant a 5 star rating is because the food was incredible, and the wait staff was attentive and charming. Definitely recommend. read more

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While on this food tour in Canada I stopped here because a friend recommended the oysters. While we only came for oysters we were drawn to their amazing menu. We ordered raw oysters, oyster rockefeller, crab cakes, beet salad, ceasar salad, grilled octopus, penne with sausage, mushroom ravoli and bread with olive tapenade. read more

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Daddy-Daughter Day was upon us and my father picked me up for dinner. It was a Saturday night and we did not have reservations. We stopped at a few places and ended up at Bella Notte. A classy, Italian spot that we were fortunate to snag a table at. The décor and servers had all of the trimmings of a traditional Italian restaurant. My Dad ordered half a dozen, fresh oysters. They were served cold with a lemon dressing and lemon wedges. It was my first time eating oysters. The texture was interesting, but not unpleasant. The lemon complimented their natural, briny flavour. What's an Italian restaurant without pasta? My Dad chose his usual, Pasta Primavera, and I went with the Spaghetti Carbonara. The dishes arrived piping hot and piled high. While I snapped a few photos and ate with my eyes.....when I realized I had penne noodles. Not a big deal, but it's called Spaghetti Carbonara. I expected long, difficult to eat noodles....especially since they brought me a spoon. Puzzled and hungry, our dishes didn't last. 90% of the time, I end up with a doggy bag when it comes to pasta. Not today. It was delicious. Smothered in a mellow cream sauce, full of fresh peas and pancetta. The pancetta was ok; sometimes crunchy, but very salty. My Dad was pleased and he too cleaned his plate. He uses the primavera as a test for any restaurant that serves it. He said it was pretty up there on the list! The dessert menu looked AMAZING and I wanted it so bad, but we were far too full. I will save that for another day. There WILL be another day. This is a great place for dates or large groups and the service is fantastic and very professional. I can't wait to go back! read more

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I celebrated valentines dinner at Bella Notte and was quite impressed with the food. Understandably they were very busy but I did not expect the service to be so slow. We had to wait to place our order, wait for our drinks to arrive, remind the staff when we got our appetizers that we were not served any bread. When they did finally bring the bread they only brought 2 small pieces (one per person) which I thought was a bit ridiculous. Our server had to be reminded that we had ordered our dessert. Had we not, we would have been sitting there for much longer. I would rate the food 3.5 out of 5 stars I would rate the service 1.5 out of 5 stars I understand it was a very busy evening but with 8 servers I thought they should have been able to manage the service levels. I will certainly go back again for the food and can only hope I get better service next time. read more

Bella Notte Ristorante - Gnocchi - Italian Near Me - Whitby, Ontario

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My wife and I dined at Bella Notte last weekend. It was our 11th wedding anniversary and one where we opted to stay local and enjoy the Durham scene. I trust Yelp so I was keen to try the place out based on other reviews. First impressions were a bit disappointing. I specifically indicated in my reservation that we would be celebrating an anniversary. Unfortunately, the staff seemed uninterested when we walked in. It took a few minutes before we felt acknowledged and the gentleman working the front seemed to have trouble figuring out where to seat us. The service throughout the night was forgettable. Nothing impressive but not terrible. The atmosphere is a bit too light. The restaurant is located at the end of a modern strip mall so you almost wonder if you're at the right place when you arrive. This sense of being "out of place" kind of lingers throughout the entire experience. The room is loud and busy. It's fairly small as well so it felt a bit crowded even though it wasn't full. The element that saves the day at Bella Notte is the food. Everything we ordered was cooked perfectly and delicious. For our mains, my wife and I split the gnocchi and the veal marsala. My only regret is that I didn't order more to go. Compliments to the chef. All in all, this place has massive potential in a fairly unsaturated market. Food wise, 8/10. However, they need to work harder on creating an experience that will make people want to come back. read more

Love Bella Notte. The food is awesome as is the staff. Michael is friendly and approachable and a great host. Love the classy renovations too. read more

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We just had the family meal to go tonight. It was 60.00 for quite a bit of food. We are a family of three and it easily fed us tonight, and a lot leftovers for another meal. We had the caesar salad, with homemade dressing which was delicious.I'm a caesar salad snob and it was some of the best I have had. The pasta and chicken parmesan was yummy. It was a little cold when we got it home, but a quick zap in the microwave fixed that. There was also fresh bread to eat with it, which rounded out the meal. Dessert was little doughnuts filled with chocolate, ummm can I have a few more dozen of those? Overall, great value for the money and I would totally recommend. It also helps a local business during Covid 19. Thanks Bella Notte, we will be back! read more

I was in town for the holidays visiting family and Bella Notte came highly recommended. The food was reasonable, they do tend to go very heavy on the garlic though. When the server brought my meal to the table she wasn't paying attention and accidentally spilt hot sauce over the table and and covered my pants. Slightly burning my leg and staining my pants. About 30 min later when the owner finally came around and ask how the meal was I made note to him about being spilt on. He was rather nonchalant about it and told me "it happens". I was very put off by the attitude and lack of even an apology. I don't believe that I will returning as they are many other places that deserve my money. read more

This place is great. I was in there last week with a friend to celebrate my birthday. The service was attentive without being intrusive. Our server was also very polite. The food was amazing. I could not have asked for a better time. read more

Great Italian resto in Whitby. There are not many good places to eat in Oshawa and Whitby- this is one of the few! Genuine Italian meals prepared from scratch. Good wine list and room for groups. Everything we tried was fantastic - no wonder it has been around for so many years- thanks to the kind owner and staff. read more

I've created an account to rate this restaurant. And after watching Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsey I have seen a few others do the same for these so called "nightmares" of a restaurant. Myself, and a group of 8 others had made reservations to go to Bella Notte in Whitby for my lovely girlfriend's father's birthday party. Traditional Italian family with a flare for food, reservations had been made and we had shown up on time and seated promptly. After hearing their specials from one of the waiters the owner came out to question us about a bottle of wine my girlfriend's brother had bought for the occasion. The owner informed us the corking fee for this bottle of wine was $35 CAD which we said we were fine with. Dinner was had, and although there was a few problems (calamari was very undercooked and rubbery, other elements of dinner were not al dente or soggy) we didn't really complain and continued on. As the rather large bill for 9 guests came to the table, the brother (whom was paying for the meal) noticed the owner had silently increased the corking fee to $50 CAD. We decided to question him about this, which began this restaurants downfall. The owner quickly danced around the question of the increase in price and decided to take us on a business lesson of his margins, and how if we had purchased this "rather generic" bottle of wine at his restaurant he would've made more money - and thus, should punish us for bringing it by increasing the corking fee, even though he had simply stated earlier it was $35 as he picked the bottle up. The owner began to tell us the bottle was larger than he expected, and this was the reason for the increase. I can assume the owner who had quite a good wine selection on the other side of the restaurant had seen a bottle of this size before, and upon grabbing it could tell it was larger and thus inform us of the increase, but he decided to sneak it onto our bill. After a few exchanges, excuses, and rude comments in regards to giving us a measly $15 refund, he came back with a $15 gift card and threw it on the table. At this point, he might as well have given us a blank piece of paper as we weren't coming back to this restaurant ever. As a small business owner myself, there's a larger lesson here - if you make a mistake and tell a customer something, suck it up and make it right. $15 is nothing in this transaction where he probably had made hundreds of dollars in profit on us that night, and to satisfy a customer (and have a repeat visit), as well as accept you made a mistake it would've been no problem for him. We had left upset, and angry at the fact the owner would not accept he made a mistake, and charged us for it. I would seriously consider not visiting Bella Notte any time soon if you are interested in going. If the owner is not willing to bend a bit for customer satisfaction, it shows a much larger problem trickling down from top, to your plate. read more

Very noisy and busy - so noisy it was hard to carry on a conversation. Mediocre Cesar salad was $10. Lobster Mac and cheese was watery. Wife's salmon was good. A second round of wine for some ladies arrived without being ordered and of course they didn't want to make a fuss so drank only half. Prices were out of kilter with the quality. But service was good. No rush to return. read more

We were here for a wedding and it was a beautiful setting for a simple wedding. The food was good - not a fan of the veal as I found it over cooked but the mini quiches, bruschetta, pasta and desserts were amazing! Odd thing the bathrooms were not AC and we all thought we would have heat stroke in there! The service was wonderful and super attentive. I would go to try as a couple! read more

We received an email regarding Thanksgiving dinner because we have been there a lot over the years. Decided to try it ,there were 5 of us . The dinner was a set menu and u could also order off the regular menu, and am I glad we could !!! I was the only one to go for the special turkey dinner, without a doubt one of the worst restaurant dinners I have ever had(maybe THE worst!!) and we eat out extensively , I will mention that our waitress was great. I don't know if I will ever come back after this experience ,the dark meat was not edible , the white meat was 2 tiny pieces that looked and tasted like it was off a turkey roll read more

We have loved this place over the years but last night was not good. Horrible waitress who was unfriendly and just bad. We had to ask for everything and had to top up our own wine glasses. Empty plates sat on our table for ages. Food was just OK. Taste of summer menu. read more

Lovely spot. Food was very good and well presented. Nice wine selection. Service very good and attentive. Just the right size for a cozy feel. read more

This is a very good Italian restaurant. I would actually have given them 5 stars but the dish I had could have used just a little more flavour in my opinion. Bet the I am one who prefers bold flavours. The app my son and I shared was the Prosciutto Wrapped Sea Scallops and it was truly a 10/10. I had the Linguini Lobster as my main, and like I said it could have had a little more pizzaz, but it was still quite delicious. The lobster was really well seasoned, but the sauce for the pasta was a little milder than I prefer. My son had the Veal Scaloppini Napolitano, which I tasted and was very impressed with. The olive/caper mix was really delicious. The Limoncello Cheesecake for desert was absolutely to die for. Over all the experience was excellent, the food is really good, the service is spot on, and the decor is warm and inviting. I will repeat. read more

Been here for two large celebrations (graduations) and a couple of time just with family. They were exceptional with our groups, super attentive and the food was great. The manager went above and beyond. Good Italian food. read more

If I could give this place a zero I would. I had a party of 20 for NYE. They split us up at two different tables, side by side. We were all sitting in plastic lawn chairs. When we arrived, our second table of 10 was still occupied with guests from the previous party; our entire party wasn't able to sit down until 8pm (the reservation was for 7:30pm). From the very beginning our waiter was extremely overwhelmed. He dealt with our party of 20 plus other tables and could not keep his composure. The restaurant was certainly understaffed. Once we ordered our meals, the sever did not bring out our main courses, but the bus boys/girls. They arrived at our table with plates not knowing who ordered what. When they place a meal in front of us and said "Who got this?" we asked "Well, what is it?" (seeing as it was our first time at the venue) and the bus boys/girls simple stated "I don't know, we aren't servers, we were just told to bring this out". After a lot of confusion and switching plates, we finally all had our meals. Several of us ordered the lobster linguine ($29) and we were less than satisfied with our meals. There was little to no lobster in each of our dishes, we were all still hungry after our meals. No one came to see how our meals tasted, we were offered ground pepper or Parmesan cheese. It was extremely unorganized; I have no idea how this place is classified as 'fine dining'. This was the worst NYE experience I've had and I will never be returning to this venue; neither will the 19 others I came with. read more

rubbery calamari, well done meat instead of medium rare as ordered, and very salty risotto; plates left on table, empty drink's glasses, wait for check - need I say more? read more