Trattoria Bella

Absolutely wonderful authentic Italian food and hospitality!! We loved our meal. My husband had the special (prosciutto, speck, mascarpone and ricotta stuffed ravioli) and I got the baked rigatoni with Italian sausage and beef. For dessert we shared the limoncello cake. I also had the Bellinii cocktail. All were amazing!

In Italy, restaurants are put into three categories. An ostería is a wine bar with limited food options. A ristorante is a nice upscale restaurant with a full wait staff, typically with a sommelier. A trattoria, however, is something in between. It's typically a family owned place with traditional local food from that region. Trattoria Bella is a great example of a trattoria! We had an excellent experience here. The staff was extremely friendly, and unlike the slow service in Italy, they were very attentive and quick. We ordered the braised shirt ribs, shrimp & pesto, and the truffle fries. Everything was very good, and the presentation was a notch above what you might be used to which was very fun. If you're into Italian wine, they had a great DOCG chianti (Chianti Reserva) for a pretty reasonable price. I would love to see them offer more beer options than Peroni. Italy is certainly not known for their beer, but we actually get quite a nice selection of Italian beers in Melbourn...

Very intimate seating, but with great atmosphere. My only critique is the time it took for our food to come, but I assume that was due to what was ordered. Excellent food, ordered the bruchetta and got all 3 varieties (pictured). Excellent choice, but I regret not going with the "Italian Street Food" for the appetizer. We kept seeing it go out to tables and wanted some for ourselves! We ordered for entree the "Braised Short Ribs" (pictured) and the "Potato & Mascarpone" (pictured) dishes. Fantastic. The serving size was on point for both the short ribs and pasta. However, I wished there was more balsamic to help cut the sweetness of the mascarpone. Overall, excellent. For desert we ordered the Panacatta (pictured) and the Affogato (pictured... i neglected to get the phone out to take a picture of them pouring the espresso...so my picture does not do it justice). The panacatta was light and a little sweet. Perfect to finish off the savory Braised Short Ribs, and the affogato was ...