Bella Vista

Save yourself the time and aggravation and go to a different Mt. Washington restaurant if the view is what you want because you will not be happy here! Even if you dont read my review, stop and redirect youself to another restaurant!
You think oh italian food, Mt washington=excellent service and exceptional food… WRONG.
Slow, discombobulated service, thee rudest restaurant owners in Pittsburgh, cramped seating, disgusting food
This review doesnt even do it justice on how bad our night was… and it was slow!
Cant even put the entire nights events into 1 review.
Ive never been here before but I made reservations for my boyfriends birthday for us and 12 other people. We arrived on a Friday, wasnt busy. We waited 10 minutes at the door for someone to even acknowledge all of us.
Finally got seated, took 40 minutes (yes 40 min!) to get menus. Drinks took forever. The waitress brought bread but only on 2 sides of the table and it wasnt even enough for all of us… took forever to get more. The sangria was way over priced and tasted like feet. We frequently dine at restaurants all over the city and we dont mind at all paying for top notch food but this place WAYY overcharges for subpar food. Id rather eat chef boyardee and I am 100% italian and my Nuna would turn in her grave if she saw me eating that. The whole time my table was talking about how disgusted we were. Another review thats also on Unilocal,was another couple that mistakenly got seated at a prime view spot. After being there for some time the owner tells them they have to move and starts arguing with them in fronts of everyone. She walks away midfight and says outloud «this is bullshit» 3 times. So then my table told them to leave because it will only get worse given our experience. They got up and left they were so mad and the owner starts arguing with them at the entrance!
2 hours later we got our dinners. They were subpar. We all wanted to get up and leave but at the time I didnt know I was getting proposed to that night.
Before the arguing took place I saw on the menu that for parties (of I think it said 6 or 8) the bills will not be split. So I approached the 2 owners (2 women) and asked if there was any way they could split the bills because everyone was ordering drinks and appetizers etc. And the one replied «have you ever been to a nice restaurant? All restaurants do that» and I replied that yes I have and so far only Andrews steakhouse at the casino does that. And the other rudely said it was taken care of by someone else. All they had to say to be nice owners was something along the lines of «yes hun we will do that, its been taken care of». I was so infuriated after this.
The owners never stepped up to help our waitress when she was clearly drowning. Im not sure how though I am pretty sure we were her only table.
Leaving, the owner had the audacity to pull me aside and say to keep them in mind for my bridal shower and rehersal dinner… hahahahahahahaahahaha
For my bill that included 4 people it came to about $ 700. 4 meals, 4 appetizers, 2 glasses of sangria, and champagne and tip that I didnt want my fiancé to give.
The only time the waitress apologized was when the owner was arguing with the other couple, not once for the terrible service.
Seriously please do not go here, give your business to people that truly care

They were very busy so we made a reservation for 2 at 8 PM Saturday night, even though we wanted 7:30. Still busy when we arrived so we had a drink at the bar ($ 20 for 2 glasses of wine!) and were seated at about 20 after. The staff was very friendly but they seemed a bit discombobulated. We still had our menus when our appetizer was dropped and this was also before our water was even poured. We had to ask for bread. But, the staff was very warm, friendly, and knowledge about the menu.
The bread came with a homemade dipping sauce that was a bit sweet and a welcome change from your typical olive oil mixture. Shrimp bruschetta was delicious for our appetizer even if the bread was a bit hard. I had salmon over risotto and my friend had steak with mashed potatoes. Each came with house salad to start-​I asked for crumbly bleu on mine and incurred a $ 2.50 upcharge-​I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that before at an Italian place. Cheesecake for dessert with raspberry topping, excellent. Despite the busyness all the food came out very quickly.
As the restaurant cleared out we asked a busser if we could move to a table right next to the window to take advantage of the gorgeous views and she happily obliged. The atmosphere, quality of food, and one of a kind views certainly made up for any small mishaps in the service.

Likely the worst restaurant in this price range I have ever been to anywhere in the world. Million dollar views. Just spectacular view of the beautiful city of Pittsburgh. But seriously substandard food. I expect overpriced wine, but a $ 15 bottle of wine for $ 98 is a stretch. There really wasn’t anything noteworthy about the meal. Chewy calamari, average salad. I had a $ 40 strip steak for my entrée that I would honestly say was Golden Corral quality. Chewy. Very chewy. Not flavorful. My guess is frozen and likely a substandard commercial cut. Ok, my bad. I should have instead had $ 30 spaghetti. But, objectively, this place wouldn’t be in business if not for the view.
I walked out wondering if every restaurant on that hill was this bad, or if we just happened to be unlucky.
Fortunately, I was with terrific friends and we enjoyed the views.

I went here for a special occasion with a date. The reviews had me a bit skeptical, not to mention the not-​very-​friendly-​guy-​on-​the-​phone, through whom I made the reservation. But I’m happy to say we not only loved the view, the lady who served our table was particularly friendly, and the food was quite good; though a bit low quality for the price. The one complaint I have is that our table was frustratingly close to a fairly loud family, but this kind of tight seating certainly isn’t unique to this establishment. All in all, not the best meal I’ve ever had, but I’d call it a solid spot for a romantic or special occasion.

This was my first time here. I really wanted to like it. The service was horribly slow. Ordered the Soprano’s pasta but was informed they were out. Ordered the filet mignon. Just before serving it I was informed they were out of baked potatoes but would substitute pasta. I said ok but can I get Alfredo sauce. Was told only if I pay the upcharge. I declined. The bread in the basket was stale. I arrived here at 8:15pm as of 9:20 I still have not received my entrée. I will never eat here again.

We didn’t have food. We just had a drink there before dinner. Prices are reasonable for such a wonderful view. Definitely recommend.

The views can’t be beat, the food was Amazing & the triple Chocolate cake best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. Service was prompt zero complaints.

To start off the view is amazing. The problem is the price. Their website lies to you as most of their dishes are up about another $ 8-​$ 10 dollars. That’s a huge difference. I find it offensive to charge someone $ 34 for a chicken parm. They also explain on the website menu the steak sizes are 10ozs when they are really smaller on the restaurant menu. I don’t like being mislead due to laziness by the owner/​manager/​or staff to update.
I knew going into the restaurant it was expensive but these are simple Italian dishes with average execution priced way above reasonable which give this restaurant a lower ranking.
Service was good but the food was just average. Started the night out being told they were already out of dishes and after we ordered a dish off the menu a few minutes before it was served was told they actually did not have that pasta.
We ordered the mussels and calamari which was good. Asked it to be spicy but only got 4 rings of banana peppers in it so really no spice to the sauce.
Ordered the sopressa fillet, fillet stuffed with prosc and cheese in a Marsala sauce. Very misleading, this I can tell you was no fillet. It was pounded so thin that if it was a fillet it removed all of the flavor. At $ 40 it was grossly overcharged also.
We also ordered soprano pasta which is fillet with mush, gorg and mufalda pasta on a cream sauce. I again do not believe this was fillet as the steak was chopped in dices and then cooked which kills the flavor and the sauce was extremely watery. Cook the fillet whole and then slice, keeps the integrity of the steak. I’m not a cream sauce guy to begin with but it should be creamy not watery. My GF ordered this dish but I had to eat it since she did not like it.
All in all I will try another restaurant simply due to the low quality of food and the extreme price. 1 martini, 1 soda, 1 app, 2 dinners $ 120 for 2 people not including tip we should receive high quality food but we did not.
Sorry I will spend my money elsewhere, the view is not worth that.

Went here with friends from New York with the expectation of a good meal with a great view of Pittsburgh. I called to make reservations, requesting a window seat, all of that went fine. We arrived and were seated as we asked, and this is about the only thing we enjoyed. We should have been Leary that the place was empty.
We had reviewed the menu online and knew what we wanted, but the menu we were given did not match the food selection and most importantly the prices. We were expecting to pay more but not $ 8 or more per item between the menus. This important because most dinner times were about $ 40.
Our appetizers were not that good and served warm. We ordered meatballs and they gave us two small meatballs fro $ 12, ridiculous and not that good. The beer selection were simple bud light or coors, that’s odd for a place of this class.
The main meals were going to be the saving grace, nope. I am quoting my wife and friends. This tastes like cafeteria chicken parm. I didn’t finish my meal it was not good at all. We could have went to outback or a local Italian place and saved over $ 200 and had better food and service. 4 people, 3 each with two drinks, we had two appetizers for a bill total of $ 262, that’s without a tip.
The view is the only thing worth or time up here and you are better off walking along the street to se the city instead of a bad meal with bad service. Stay away everyone.

Amazing views and food. The service was great on a busy Saturday evening. I had the Chicken Rockefeller and my date had the Chicken Parmesan. Delish. The atmosphere is lovely, and intimate. I’d highly recommend this. We drove over from Cleveland. Totally worth the trip.

This restaurant is as if Olive Garden opened on Mt Washington and started charging $ 40 a plate for food. If you want to overpay for food to have a nice view, there are better options on Mt Washington.

Like many other Mt. Washington restaurants, Bella Vista presents itself as a sophisticated dining establishment, while serving average food at high prices. While not terrible, the food selection and quality is indistinguishable from the dozens of other shrimp scampi and chicken piccata type Italian joints throughout the Pittsburgh region that charge half as much for a meal. There are far better selections for Italian food within and around Pittsburgh, but this isn’t one of them. The décor of this place is tired, and the service is subpar. It’s unfortunate that visitors to our city go to a place like this and leave with the impression that this is the best that we can do.

Obviously a great view if you’re near the windows! The seating area is extremely cramped so I hope you want to hear everyone’s dinner conversations.
The most disappointing part was that my husband made a reservation but the person at the door didn’t even seem to have a list of reservations… Not sure what that was about. We had to sit in an even more cramped bar area with huge chairs that did not fit the space at all while we waited for a table.
The waiter was very nice. Busy, but a good waiter so that is one positive. Just an overall lousy experience to have to pay $ 150 for two people to have dinner and a couple drinks. I would expect a more professional staff and a more comfortable dining area.

Excellent view, a bit dated and a little cramped though. Still, Id go back just for the view. Staff is very casual but attentive. Beef Wellington (almost always available as a special) for $ 42 was very good but even so I’m not sure it’s worth the money. Cannoli for dessert was good too. In all a satisfying experience. But no valet means $ 10 for the lot or park far away on a side street.

View is amazing. Service was 4 star and food and pricing were 2 star. We had angel hair pesto with chicken for $ 28.00 and pasta was overlooked and just ok. Service was great though so overall with the view was nice

Make reservations unless you’re going to show up at 4 pm like we did.
Gorgeous view of the three rivers, the point, downtown, and the stadiums.
We went here for a special occasion. Expect to throw down some cash but is the view worth it? yes. Does the food live up to the expectation and the view? yes. Really this was the best food I have eaten in quite some time. I was very happy.

I took my dad there for his 79^th birthday and it was wonderful. We were seated right near the window for a view that was breathtaking. The food was exquisite. It is very pricey but was so worth the experience

Came here for a large party and it was a nice place with a great view, hence the name. Food was average, nothing fancy. The veal was not very tasty and the chicken parm was good, but neither were worth the price.
Chocolate lava cake was too dry, but the strawberry cheesecake was great.
Just not worth the price for what one gets.

My boyfriend and I are new to the neighborhood and like to go to a nice dinner. We made a reservation for 830. They called back about 2 hours later and said they needed us to come in at 8. Well I’m a hairstylist, so that didn’t work with my schedule. Hence the reason we made the reservation for 830. After being told we simply could not come at 830, I said we could come later. That wasn’t an option either so I asked why?
They are getting ready for a busy weekend so they need to close the kitchen early, and they really don’t have any other reservations so they are just going to close early.
Let me guess why you don’t have any business on a Friday night… Probably because you are running off what little business you have. I can’t even pass judgement on the food. But they are going to be busy tomorrow, so don’t worry about the reservations for today! Let’s close at 7! Pathetic

As a lot of the reviews suggest, this is a spot for a special occasion. I had my graduation dinner here and it is probably one of the most memorable meals I have eaten in my 23 years of life so far. The décor was cute, sort of a little dated, but in an endearing way. It was still really nice inside and the view I mean… come on.
I got here early with my mom while we waited for the rest of my family and had a super good espresso martini. Then as my family arrived we were seated and began dinner. The waitress was awesome, just attentive enough and was really accommodating. We had such good food, I got 3 lobster tails and they were perfectly prepared.
I could not think of anything I would change about the time I dined here, and I can’t wait to go back when my little brother graduates from college just to eat here again! So props to Bella Vista.