The Beach at Bella Vita at Bella Vita at the Marina: User Reviews

I had been to this place a few times and enjoyed the food and atmosphere. I decided to book my reception in the balcony and had visited and spoke with the owner, Shelly, may times on the phone and in person.

This evening my fiancee and I brought 3 friends to "show off" the place and to drop off our deposit check for the reception. We figured it might be busy, so we made a reservation for 7 pm. We arrived 3-4 minutes before 7 pm and waited for over 1 hr before we were seated! Now I know it is prom season, and the place was busy, but ONE HOUR after the reservation? Regardless, we waited and our hostess was very sympathetic and apologized several times. We told her we understood, that it was not her fault, and that we were just excited to eat!

We placed our order soon after being seated. The appetizers did not come until 1/2 hour after we placed them. Mind you, there was a total of 1 1/2 hrs from the time of our reservation and the time that we received our APPETIZER. By this time, our guests were starving! Again, we were patient and tried to tell ourselves that the place was just "busy" and perhaps Shelly would offer an apology and maybe some small discount/dessert as a small token to show our guests that the restaurant was busy and not completely inconsiderate and disorganized.

After dinner, my fiancee approached Shelly, reminded her that he is the groom of the bride who paid the deposit earlier in the evening, and that we had 3 friends come with us tonight to "show off" the place. He told Shelly that we waited 1 1/2 hrs to get our appetizers when we had a reservation and that we were a little bit concerned about making sure that there was not as long as a wait for our wedding reception. My fiancee is a very calm and sweet guy and was just hoping to express his concern with her. In no way did he disrespect her or raise his voice. Shelly then gave an excuse, refused to appologize and handed the check back to my fiancee. She told him that she had another couple who was interested in the date reserved and that she would "just call them to let them know the day was now open." She walked off before my fiancee could say anything else.

My overall thoughts: How could someone do this to a bride 4 months before the reception date? We brought our friends to show them how great the place was and instead we had an 1 hour wait past our reservation time and EVEN WORSE, the manager showed absolutely no remorse or apology for the poor service. I left the place disappointed, embarassed and in tears.

Not only was my evening ruined, but now I have to find another venue with only 4 months to go. My opinion- the hostess and some of the servers were great and very humble. The owner could really learn from them.

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