Trattoria Bella Roma, formally known as Bella Roma S.P.Q.R.
This place is absolutely fantastic. The way I grade restaurants is by food taste, service, and atmosphere.
Bella Roma easily is my favorite restaurant in southern California.
It used to be this quaint little restaurant around the corner from this bizarre kosher restaurant. Funny enough, Bella Roma is now in the place of said bizarre restaurant and revamped it into this cozy, romantic Italian restaurant that's worthy of it's great food. Although I do miss the charming quality that the old restaurant had but I'm not complaining. The new building has a wood oven that's cool to look at. Another thing I noticed is that they sell liquor. Props to the owner. Now, he can make even more money.
I can't complain about the food at all. Maybe it's just me but I think it actually got better. Of course, hunger is the best seasoning and it helped them that they were closed for 7 months or so. I digress... My personal favorite from the menu is the Alla checca. It's this mouthwatering pasta that's sauce is comprised of diced tomatoes, garlic and basil that has been soaking in high quality olive oil for at least twelve hours or so. When a customer orders this dish, all they need to do is boil the angel hair noodles and spoon some of the mixture on top, combined with bits of mozzarella scattered around. It sounds too simple to be good. I've had other dishes and they all have this wonderful homemade soulful taste. I love this aspect of Bella Roma.
At most Italian restaurants I've been to, I don't get nearly enough food for what I'm paying for it. Luckily, Bella Roma has a great price for the amount and quality of the food. I would throw money at this place if they made me food everyday. Of course, that's unlikely to happen and I don't want my cholesterol to spike but I think you get the point.
Now normally, another thing that's quite common in Italian restaurants is bad polenta. If you don't know what it is, Google it. Polenta looks more or less like couscous. In most restaurants, the polenta is overcooked and resembles overtly mushy oatmeal. Not too appealing right? I have to say, this place seems to have gotten it down. The polenta here is actually grilled. It sounds strange but it actually prevents the polenta from absorbing too much liquid. This allows for a nice little yellow block of heaven. The polenta actually made me go from average happy customer to near regular customer. I will keep coming back to this place as long as there is money in my wallet.
The service can be iffy at times but generally speaking it's very good. The staff is also extremely polite and funny. They also have great energy! I can tell that they genuinely value the customer's happiness and they have a great relationship with their customers. It's the sign of a good restaurant honestly. The only reason why the service is iffy is because they are very busy. They aren't always around to pick up the phone to write down a take out request. That's really bad on their part but it seems like they feel that they can afford to lose the take out business aspect. Oh well, that's their decision.
Aside from the slight service problems, the atmosphere and the food easily outweigh the negatives.
Food: 5/5
Service: 4.75/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
This place is absolutely fantastic. The way I grade restaurants is by food taste, service, and atmosphere.
Bella Roma easily is my favorite restaurant in southern California.
It used to be this quaint little restaurant around the corner from this bizarre kosher restaurant. Funny enough, Bella Roma is now in the place of said bizarre restaurant and revamped it into this cozy, romantic Italian restaurant that's worthy of it's great food. Although I do miss the charming quality that the old restaurant had but I'm not complaining. The new building has a wood oven that's cool to look at. Another thing I noticed is that they sell liquor. Props to the owner. Now, he can make even more money.
I can't complain about the food at all. Maybe it's just me but I think it actually got better. Of course, hunger is the best seasoning and it helped them that they were closed for 7 months or so. I digress... My personal favorite from the menu is the Alla checca. It's this mouthwatering pasta that's sauce is comprised of diced tomatoes, garlic and basil that has been soaking in high quality olive oil for at least twelve hours or so. When a customer orders this dish, all they need to do is boil the angel hair noodles and spoon some of the mixture on top, combined with bits of mozzarella scattered around. It sounds too simple to be good. I've had other dishes and they all have this wonderful homemade soulful taste. I love this aspect of Bella Roma.
At most Italian restaurants I've been to, I don't get nearly enough food for what I'm paying for it. Luckily, Bella Roma has a great price for the amount and quality of the food. I would throw money at this place if they made me food everyday. Of course, that's unlikely to happen and I don't want my cholesterol to spike but I think you get the point.
Now normally, another thing that's quite common in Italian restaurants is bad polenta. If you don't know what it is, Google it. Polenta looks more or less like couscous. In most restaurants, the polenta is overcooked and resembles overtly mushy oatmeal. Not too appealing right? I have to say, this place seems to have gotten it down. The polenta here is actually grilled. It sounds strange but it actually prevents the polenta from absorbing too much liquid. This allows for a nice little yellow block of heaven. The polenta actually made me go from average happy customer to near regular customer. I will keep coming back to this place as long as there is money in my wallet.
The service can be iffy at times but generally speaking it's very good. The staff is also extremely polite and funny. They also have great energy! I can tell that they genuinely value the customer's happiness and they have a great relationship with their customers. It's the sign of a good restaurant honestly. The only reason why the service is iffy is because they are very busy. They aren't always around to pick up the phone to write down a take out request. That's really bad on their part but it seems like they feel that they can afford to lose the take out business aspect. Oh well, that's their decision.
Aside from the slight service problems, the atmosphere and the food easily outweigh the negatives.
Food: 5/5
Service: 4.75/5
Atmosphere: 5/5
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