Faith D.

Excellent service! Sat outside on a a Saturday afternoon and had a fantastic time. The coffee cake was incredible, loved the flaky finishing salt! We had white wine spritzers which were delicious & refreshing. My friend enjoyed the carbonara pasta & I had steak and eggs. The real star of my dish was the salad. Fresh dill & a lemony dressing really elevated the dish. I'm looking forward to coming back to try their dinner menu.

Tiffany L.

Superb flavors. Their ingredients were so fresh. We got a bunch of dishes, and everything was so on point, but the tomato sauce especially was truly a stand out in the meatballs and bucatini. The thyme on the focaccia was also very impressive - it was so earthy and minty. Their pastas were all cooked very fresh. We ordered 3 and I can't decide which one I liked the most because they were all so delicious.

Erin K.

(Would give it a 3.5-3.8) We ordered the chicken parmesan, bucatini, caesar salad, and tiramisu. The caesar salad was yummy! Liked the dressing, it was light and had a lot of parmesan on it. The bucatini was probably the worst thing we tried. Although the sauce was super good, I thought the noodles were a bit undercooked. The chicken parmesan was good, although it does not come with noodles (everything is ala carte). Also, the portion was a lot for one person but not enough for 2 people to share. The tiramisu was sooo good, I loved how it was a little salty and was not too sweet. But, I wish the portion was bigger since it is $14. (definitely the best thing we tried) The service was ok, our hostess was super nice but the hot food took awhile to come out so we were waiting after we had finished out salad. The layout of the restaurant is a little weird, you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the back. But the ambiance was good, we liked the songs playing as well. We also loved the photo booth in the back! Overall would go back to try the lasagna and the foccacia (saw other images and those looks good), and it is a super cute spot for a date night.

Irene B.

Great vibes with great food. Came here for Sunday brunch with my husband and we were seated immediately by the window bar area. We ordered the steak and eggs, Italian baked eggs, bucatini carbonara, lasagna, and coffee cake. My favorite was the Italian baked eggs-- I'm probably biased bc I really like shakshuka and this dish is basically an Italian version of that. It comes with focaccia and is the perfect bread for dipping. Steak and eggs is.. exactly what it sounds like, not bad but nothing particularly special. The bucatini carbonara also delicious but definitely on the heavy side. I like how they used lemon ricotta in the lasagna-- provided some depth of flavor. My husband and I really enjoyed the coffee cake. Overall I would recommend checking this place out. It's in a such a walkable, nice place in downtown sierra madre.

Angela K.

The service was great. Super friendly and accommodating. If you are really hungry this place is not it because of how small their portions are. However, this is a perfect place for a fancy night for just the vibes and some drinks. When you first enter the place it's quite small, but there is more seating in the back and outside. In the back there is also a cute photo booth which I really enjoyed! As for the food, their menu is kinda small and half the items are vegetarian and gluten free. So a plus for people who are vegetarian. I feel like they should try expanding their menu for more food options though. Foccacia - 6/10 Meatballs - 9/10 Super flavorful, the sauce and the meatballs tasted so good together Pesto Orecchiette - 7/10 Lacking the pesto flavor I was expecting, the walnuts were a nice touch.

Arda S.

The food was packed with flavor, staff were insanely attentive and had great energy, the ambiance was homey, cozy, curated with love and intent. There was something really whimsical about the layout and lighting. The hostess was so sweet and accommodating. Our server Erika is truly a professional. Chicken parm, Cesar, mushroom pasta dish, wine, key lime pie... & a Photo Booth!!??!?? BOOM!! The bessssss time at Bess xo

Flo R.

Happy I was able to make a Resy reservation on their website. The restaurant has a chic interior and had more seating in the back. From the hostess to the servers, everyone greeted us politely and very attentive. So charming that they have a photobooth which is located in the back. $5.55 for 2 strips (3 pictures per strip with pretty good lighting) which was a lot of fun! There were 5 of us and we opted to do family style to try more of the dishes. We ordered meatballs, broccolini, chicken Parmesan and lasagna. We underestimated our hunger so we ended up ordering another lasagna and chicken Parm. The meatballs were small but flavorful. I felt like it was more sauce than meatballs, I had to remove some sauce to taste the meat. The chicken Parmesan was a good portion, chicken was flavorful. I enjoyed the lasagna and broccolini. The house sauce was delicious but it was refreshing to have the freshness of the broccolini cut through the acid from the tomato sauce. Dessert didn't disappoint. The chocolate cake slice was surprisingly refreshing and light. It looks really dense by it had a beautiful orangey taste from the zest. The tiramisu had a great balance of boozy and espresso taste. Would definitely come back for that. Overall it was a beautiful dinner experience. They have a variety of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. I got a mocktail, the Phony Espresso Negronis which I highly recommend! It was lighter than I expected and had a beautiful espresso flavor.

Alison B.

Bess has great ambience and great service. The food is good but the serving sizes are small. We had the cesar salad, meatballs, bucatini, and mushroom cavatappi for dinner. The cesar salad was our favorite of the night. The vibe was nice for date night and we enjoyed taking pictures in the photo booth at the end of the night. Still felt like picking up mcdonald's chicken nuggets on the way home lol

Karen L.

Solid neighborhood spot for Italian. They are a wine bar but serve pretty solid food. Came in on a Friday night and they were gracious in offering a frozen sangria and seems like they are experimenting with frozen rose for Saturdays at the moment. Food-wise we had: + Tinned fish: The smoked trout was nice but I'm gonna put a pass for now. I didn't take off points for this because the concept and ingredients were solid, but I find it hard to share and eat with the thin crackers. I badly wished this was a dip rather than the way it was presented. + Bucatini: This was my favorite. I appreciate that they can offer you up a side of meatballs to add in here versus ordering the full 6 meatball dish. Flavorful and can't go wrong. + Pesto Orecchiette: Very earthy pesto and has a nice crunch with the walnuts. Tomatoes are very fresh. We were pretty stuffed so skipped dessert but it looked great on paper. Might be my reason to be back next time. Ample free parking in the lot near the back of this strip of businesses. Plus the neighbors are a pretty cool bookstore worth stopping by!

Marcela L.

Bess is a gem in Sierra Madre with great service and great food. I was able to verify that they use aged Parmesan which my lactose intolerant self can enjoy and let them go wild with it which made the food even tastier. I really enjoyed their meatballs and bucatini. They offer their Pinot Noir in 1/2 a liter which is great to share with three people when we each only want one glass. The ambiance is great in the front part of the restaurant. There's an old school Photo Booth in the back for $5! I highly suggest making a reservation as this place is small and does get busy.

Linda N.

I don't know where to start. The moment we walked in and experienced the best hospitality that I've had in a long while or the food that we ate. We had reservations at 5 and we were sat immediately. We ordered the meatballs and focaccia to start and those meatballs were soooooo good they melted in our mouths so we had to order another one. Ordered the Cesar, broccolini, two chicken Parm's and the lasagna. All were incredible. The chicken parm was soooooo good and delicate. It wasn't too heavy. The lasagna was decent but it was still pretty good. The service. I can't say anything bad about it and they made our evening holding our cake and bringing it out to us where most places would charge a cutting fee. I am definitely coming back. Thank you Bess for the food and most importantly the service. You guys made us feel like we were at Moms Restaurant.

Danielle G.

I thought the food was just ok. We got the caesar salad and mushroom cavatappi. The caesar salad was anchovy heavy for me and the mushroom pasta was ok. I would still go back because some of the other items looked delicious. I did get a rose Italian soda which was amazing! The ambiance is very cute. They have a front and back room. Don't forget their photo booth--it was a cute addition. The parking is great. There is street parking and also a huge lot behind the restaurant.

Linda S.

Came here on a Sunday night and had such an amazing time! I love the vibes atmosphere this place gives off! The Calabrian bean dip was okay - had a nice kick to it when you eat from the middle. I LOVED the Caesar salad! It had a bit of an anchovy taste to the dressing but it was delicious! I didn't leave any last bit on my plate and ate it all :) the lasagna was AMAZING!! It has a slight lemon taste but it was soooo good and tasted authentic! The pesto was great for someone who likes basil! The broccolini was pretty spicy so beware! The tiramisu was really good too and had a rum taste to it! James was wonderful and added so much fun and excitement to our dinner! We will definitely be back for more!