I have been going to to Bella Blue for about five to six times a year for the past five years. I was introduced to Bella Blue by a colleague of mine and at the time they seemed like a wonderful restaurant but quite frankly while their dishes were ok, I really only went there for a specific dish on their menu (the sauteed baby artichoke anti-pasta dish). For the most part the service was fine except for one time when I arrived on an early Friday evening alone and I was denied a table due to my being a "party of one" and I was offered a seat at the bar instead, since one had to be a "couple" in order to be allowed a seat at one of their two tops. While that was a major turn off to me since I think that one should be allowed to dine in a restaurant's dining room regardless of whether you have someone joining you or not, I begrudgingly decided to let it go and proceeded to return because of my love for the previously mentioned dish. Since then I had been back several times and the service had been fine, certainly not bad enough for me to stop giving them my patronage but not really enough to make up for their first faux pas. Flash forward to today 1/10/13. I decided to stop by for a quick lunch after having gotten my bicycle (a Brompton folding bike which folds up to nearly nothing ) repaired near by. I peered through their window before entering just to make sure that they would be able to seat me and the restaurant was relatively empty (less than half full, with several seats at the bar). I didn't even think twice about being turned away due to having said bike on hand, but sure enough I was. Upon entering, I noticed an empty space at the bar towards the door where I thought that I'd be able to sit and tuck my bike along the bottom half of the bar wall without causing any hinderance to any one passing by. I was first approached by a waiter who had served me many times before and who all of a sudden had a sharp quip for me, the likes of which were something to the effect of "Oh, well the next time I go out, I'll be sure to bring my Ferrari" (as if to imply that I was bringing in such a monstrosity as to obstruct business). I was then approached by the hostess who just came over to confirm where I was going to place my bike, and finally the Maitre 'D or Manager (not sure who he was but he was clearly someone with more authority than both the server and the hostess) stormed towards me insisting that I should place my bike in the vestibule where it would be watched by the hostess. Really??? The whole reason that I purchased the bike was to be able to bring it with me wherever I went so as to not take a chance on losing it or it being stolen. And further more, how closely was the hostess really going to watch it before getting swept up in her own duties and it's not like they would have replaced the bike had it actually been stolen. And besides that, the fact that I was surrounded by all three of them in a manner that felt like I was a smelly homeless person off the street asking to use their restroom and beg the patrons for money (no offense to the homeless, just trying to illustrate a point and also coupled with the fact that I had been there so many times before and spent so much money), I proceeded to tell him that I was not about to leave a $2000. bicycle in the vestibule and that I would just come back some other time at which point (in a very relieved manner ) the Maitre 'D / Manager said something to the effect of "Oh well that's probably a good idea". Well, sufficed it to say, I will never return there again. I couldn't believe that after years of going there and spending thousands of dollars there that they would make such a big deal about me sitting at a practically empty bar with a compact bike tucked away so as to not potentially disrupt their traffic that they would give me such a hard time about it all. I will however say that thanks to their poor service, they actually inspired me to google the recipe for the sauteed baby artichokes dish that I coveted so much and I can now walk away without any regrets of never being able to experience such a wonderful dish by only being subjected to crappy service and highly inflated prices. And by the way, it came out great and you all might want to consider googling favored recipes as they're a lot easier to accomplish than most might think. Best of luck to you all. read more

If you require a gluten free diet, this is a great place. They have GF pasta (corn based, and not the best GF pasta, but they can substitute it in any of their dishes). It was extremely crowded and loud. The wait staff was nice and helpful, but needed to be reminded multiple times to bring the Diet Coke, another fork, etc. Overall, it was very good and I will return next time I am in NYC. But it was too loud and crowded to be comfortable and enable conversation. read more

We showed up pretty early --7ish--on a Friday evening and had no problem getting seated outside. I ordered an off-menu spaghetti with shrimp and my husband had chicken parmesan, also off-menu. We also had the tropicale salad (avocado, corn, etc) and the artichoke salad. Everything was great and we appreciated being able to order off menu. Service was also good. The only downside was that the food was a little over-salted for my taste. Definitely a solid place to eat on the Upper East Side, which is notoriously bad for good food, and significantly cheaper than Sette Mezzo next door. read more

More than just a fabulous restaurant. A warm and welcoming authentic Italian place that will draw you back for the food and the atmosphere. The congenial and wonderful staff will make you feel at home from your first visit. read more

I'm eating the Tagliolini and it is absolutely delicious. Spicy tomato sauce with shrimp and crab. Very very good!

I thought the restaurant was nice and very attractive. The service is slow, and had to ask for a waiter, ask for a menu, ask to order, ask for the check, etc. The food was very good 4 star, the servcie 2 star...thus 3 star overall. read more

I love this place. Every time my boyfriend and I come here, we always get great service. The busboys and waiters are always very attentive and I just love their pizza. Will come again! read more

We have been eating at Bella Blu for 20+ years and have never had a problem. Always good experiences, the food is excellent and the staff extremely knowledgable and friendly. We ate dinner there on 1/16/16. Sauteed Calamari in spicy red sauce, Dover Sole, Seafood Risotto and a salad. Excellent as always and we will continue to dine there. read more

Bella Blu is a wonderful restaurant with authentic and fresh Italian food! I love the ambiance and appreciate the A Grade Rating, which is reflective of its quality and its dedication to excellence. read more

Just had dinner here last night and it was amazing! Loved the Bucatini all`Amatriciana, just like my grandmother made!

great brick oven pizza. local place. always crowded with locals. good place where you may find a familiar face. tables close together- good for a social night out. read more

I've been going to Bella Blu ever since i was a baby. I love the beautiful decor and the cute ambiance. The food is absolutely delicious and not one dish has disappointed me. I recommend the margarita pizza, alaskan king crab salad, tiramisu, and any one of the pastas. read more

Great fun/chic atmosphere with excellent food. We had guests in town and ended up dining there twice during their two week stay. Have fun!

I really liked this place. Food was outstanding and the vibe was great. The place was packed at 9pm on a Wednesday evening. Staff was very friendly and helpful. read more

I personally know Bella Blu Restaurant from almost 20 years and it's been my favorite place to eat and I always recommended to a lots of people.... Food , ambiance and service as been always good !!!!!!! read more

arrogant chump cant host for squat. 2 empty tables out front and he wouldnt seat us there. they dont take reservatons. said it was a 4 top when they clearly were set for two. told him i would leave and he pointed to the door. plenty of good italian on UES wout health violations. we took the door. read more

extremely overrated started with a very fishy calamari and a bland roasted vegetable salad. next we tried eggplant parmigian which turned out to be a few pencil thin strips of tasteless eggplant over a huge lump of mozzarella cheese. next was a medium octopus course. in desperation we asked for a simple dish of pasta with garlic and oil. I, who can't cook a lick, can make better. Nobody asked how we liked our food. tables were crammed elbow to elbow and decibel level was a conversation stopper. read more

I'm reserving judgment on this place. We'll try it one more time before we decide. Before I criticize it you should know that we have frequented several other places in the neighborhood for years and are particularly fussy about service since we've had such great service elsewhere. The food was good here and that's why I'm giving it four stars for now. I was willing to spend $18 on a salad because it had nice size lumps of crab in it. The Branzino with the mussels and clams was also very good. A nice flaky bass and very plump mussels with some small clams in a wonderful chardonnay sauce that was not overpowering. I can definitely recommend it. My husband's veal was also very good with some asparagus and wonderful potatoes au gratin. I am removing one star only because I am still debating the service. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the level to which I'm accustomed either. We dropped $200 on dinner with drinks and we had several problems with service. The first problem occurred before we got there when we first tried to make a reservation. We were shuffled around on the phone THREE times with each person passing us to someone else and wasted 20 minutes on the phone before we were finally disconnected by someone. I decided that maybe they were very busy so I tried again the next day. (They do seem busy, the place was packed. Prepare to be seated pretty much on top of the people at the neighboring tables). The next day Maurice answered the phone and was very professional and very courteous and did take the reservation very pleasantly with no problem. But the big problem occurred halfway through our meal. We were asked to move to a different table because they had another reservation coming in. (Mind you, it's not as if we were sitting there for hours...this was about an hour into a meal) Stuff happens and they offered to comp our desserts for moving. The problem was that they only comped ONE dessert after we had accomodated them. (there were only two of us) I found it REALLY TACKY to make it sound as if they'd comp US dessert if we moved in the middle of a meal only to comp only one dessert. Maybe I wouldn't have ordered a separate dessert. It's not the money....I've just never been asked to move in the middle of a meal before. At first I felt like I was being nice not to make a fuss but later it seemed we were being herded like cattle when it was only worth a dessert to them to have shuffled us in the middle of a meal. I guess we weren't important enough or 200 is considered a cheap meal here. We left a good tip (20%) anyway because we liked the food but I was originally going to leave the extra ten it cost us for dessert as part of the tip because it was Christmas day and decided against it because I don't like people playing me for a fool. It left a really bad taste in my mouth and ruined a good meal. I certainly would not recommend this place, in spite of the good food, to any of my firm's clients because of this. I'd be embarrassed if they came back and told me something like this. We made another reservation for next week just to give it a second chance because I did like the food but this is no way to treat customers. Many of the usual places I frequent would have bought after dinner drinks (and certainly BOTH desserts) if anything was amiss. I guess the benefit of being so crowded is that they don't care much about whether the customer returns or not. read more

Pretty nice little Italian place on UES but a bit pricey for the amount of food served. We were a party of five with 3 under 21 and two drivers so we didn't order drinks. We had the margherita pizza from the wood burning stove and seafood salad as starters to share. Pizza was thin crust and crispy and tasty, salad had calamari, shrimp and scallops over a bed of pea sprouts, zucchini and carrots and a very light vinaigrette dressing. For dinner, we had one each of the organic whole wheat pasta with vegetables, spinach ravioli, lobster ravioli, calamari and grilled salmon, all in very moderate portions and when all the plates were cleared, it was satisfying without being overwhelming, and we topped it off with gelato, a mango cream puff pastry and tiramisu for dessert. Overall nice experience, service was good and it was bustling on a Saturday night. We had early dinner reservations and were seated right away at a comfortable table near the back. Nice upbeat atmosphere. read more

I was also a victim of the food poisoning that the restaurant had recently dealt with. 6 of us ate there Sat night and 4 of us got sick. I called and told them what happened. The restaurant called me back the next day and explained that they had numerous sick complaints that are already listed here on Yelp. They knew of it, and had the Health Dept in to help them deal with it. This is all I ask. I don't believe they're out to hurt anyone and they had some bad luck. It was my first time there and the food was fine otherwise. The place is lovely but not really my 'scene' to begin with, but that's me, not them. I had the pasta but I have to say the guy at the next table devoured the bone in steak that looked delicious. I would still go back but it will just take a while. I'm sure the 3 weeks immediately following their little problem is the absolute best time to go. I'd really give it a 3.5/5 rating but I rounded up. read more