Bella's Cafe - New Haven

I love the cardamom latte and the GF macaroons. The atmosphere is super cute. On Saturdays, only half of the cafe is open seating until 5pm. The other half is for brunch and dining.Dietary restrictions: Gluten free options available, but limited.

The positives: great ambiance and decor ,both the downtown Howe Street and Westville cafes have a coffee shop sitting area and a dining room filled with French baroque MiddleEastern details. it's colorful and comfortable,well designed and feels special. The owner is an architect artist and it shows. A great place to go to talk with a friend over a meal and not be rushed. The menu is also lively and the food visually appealing: pastries and coffees and teas , and entrees, sandwiches tartines ,salads reflecting the blend of cultures . The prices are on the high side for what they offer but it is prepared and served very nicely. The flavors and ingredients are excellent. The not so positive: it's pricey for a New Haven lunch. it's understandable for the coffee shop side to do no refills however, ordering two lunch plates in the dining room a 17$ date salad and a similarly priced green olive tartine plate) plus two teas at 3.70 each is not an inexpensive lunch. When asking for more hot water in our teas, we were served new cups of tea and charge an additional 3.70 each so our lunch was 50$ total, of it almost $15 was for tea. tea bag in a cup teas nothing with steamed milk or special service).

We stopped in one night for coffee and dessert after dinner and what a pleasant surprise! This cafe is soooo cute and unique! The vibe is chill and screams IG posts. The entire place has various different backdrops for cute photos all around. The coffee and tea were just what we needed and the main attraction the pistachio cake was incredible! I've never had something so delicious!! Can't wait to go back and try brunch!

I went in on a Sunday about 1:30 p.m. with my three-year-old daughter. It was fairly busy, but we got a table. We heard the table next to us complaining to the waitress that they were waiting over an hour for their food. The apologized and offered them free baklava. I looked around and it appeared that everyone had free baklava on the table. We waited about 30 minutes and I asked my daughter if she wanted to stay. She did so we waited it out.It was between 45 minutes and an hour to get our food, which was a salad, grilled cheese, and a side of pita and hummus. The wait was one thing, but the food was just flavorless, unremarkable, and poorly prepared. The figs in the salad had bits of stem in about half of them, which could have broken a tooth.Bummer, this place looks nice, but is just not very good.

Super duper disappointed with the service, the FOOD..the coffee wasnt done right even with instructions. The wait was awful. We waited MORE than an hour and food came out COLD. So upset, because instagram hyped it up with videos and photos and nothing was pleasing or appetizing about this place. Im not the only one to say it. Place needs help because it has so much potential..but the staff is slow and they must have 1 chef. Wouldnt come back not even for tea. Huge thumbs down. This place was so bad i had to edit my review to add more to it. Mc Donald’s has better coffee!!!! And thats a shameeee. The omlet was whack. Like im so annoyed with the place overall. And i just feel bad because our server and she was lost but so nice.