Bella Luna, Aventura

I am British, based in the Cayman Islands, and I visit fine restaurants all over the world. I can be demanding about my food and its presentation. I have been a loyal customer of Bella Luna since it opened and it is without question my favourite restaurant ... especially lunchtime at the bar... great bar staff, excellent service and magnificent food. Their fully loaded bloody mary with celery and olives is fabulous, oven baked bread extra crusty .. to die for... soups magnifico, salmon carpaccio, seafood salad yum yum and so healthy... pastas superb ... never had a questionable dish. What more can one ask for from a great Italian restaurant ? Anyone with more than little personal gripes is being ignorant and completely out of order. Mike Howard

I love the food, the service and the management.I have been going to Bella Luna for years and there is no reason to stop.One if my fav. places in town.

I did not intend to write any reviews today, but after reading the negative comments other diners have listed here, I had to stop what I was doing and offer my experiences of Bella Luna. First, I spent five years waiting tables at some exceptional restaurants. Now, as a professional pilot, I enjoy a wide variety of restaurants throughout this country and abroad. I believe I am more particular about the quality of food and service than most, but also try to understand when minor things go wrong. I have now been a regular customer (3 times per week) at this restaurant for approximately three years. In that time, I have not had one bad meal. I do not believe I have ever sent anything back to the kitchen. In fact, the food is some of the best around, which is especially impressive given the fact most meals are in the $10-$20 range. As for the service, that begins at the hostess stand. They will greet you with a smile and seat you very quickly, even on busy nights when there does not appear to be an empty table in the entire restaurant. In hundreds of visits, I have only had one wait over five minutes! In that case, it was only 15 minutes. Recently, during the Miami Boat Show, waits at three other nearby restaurants were 2 1/2 hours. Since I was catching up with old friends from out of town anyway, I tolerated the wait in the bar of another restaurant. I wish we had gone to Bella Luna instead - I later found out the worst wait there was 15-20 minutes. After only a couple visits, the managers will have learned your name and will greet you by name with a handshake every time you visit afterwards. Each manager usually comes by as they are able during your meal to say hello and see how you are doing. I brought two groups of my family there (on separate occasions) during their recent visits. The managers noticed we had important guests dining with us and immediately came over to introduce themselves. They checked on us several times during the meal and, in both cases, brought an unexpected round of desert for the entire table - at no charge. Another extremely attractive fact is that the restaurant is open from 1130am to 11pm, every day of the week. The servers are very fast and knowledgeable, and I have never seen any attitude problems when asking for something unusual or difficult. This can be a very fast-paced restaurant (especially later in the day), and you may be forced to actually raise your hand to ask for something on occasion, but I can assure you that it generally gets very fast results if you do. While I am sure that the diners who left the negative posts experienced something out of the ordinary for Bella Luna, it is unfortunate that they have written off one of the best restaurants in South Florida so quickly. I would encourage them to give them another try. From what I have seen over the last several years, a repeat of their first experience is extremely unlikely.

I live in The Bahamas and whenever I go to South Florida, Bella Luna is one of my must go to restaurants. The food is consistently excellent and the service is always top notch. Every time that I have dined there, I have always enjoyed my dining experience. I have recommended Bella Luna to many family members, friends and business associates. All of them, without exception, have come away with the same experience as I have. I am and will remain a loyal customer.

Since my wife and I eat at Bell Luna often, we obviously enjoy our time there. We find the service excellent as well as the food. Wait-staff makes the extra effort to insure all patrons are comfortable and well served. Menu and special offrings are explained and modified if needed. Portion size is just right as are beverages. If a mistake is made with our order or if an item does not live up to expectation it is immediatly removed and substitutions offered without a hassle. We especially enjoy their shellfish. Shrimp are cooked to perfection. Sauces are used, but do not overpower the flavors of the dish. Mussles are fresh and plump as are the clams. Salads are always interesting and abundant. Italian dishes are exciting not mundane. One never has to ask for a beverage refill nor for an additional serving of their outstanding bread. One would never expect this high level of food and service at a mall. But Bella Luna is proof that it is indeed possible.

I had the misfortune of vistiting your restaurant Bella Luna in the Aventura Mall on 01/28/06. This was my first visit to Bella Luna so I was very excited. My boyfriend and I were seated at a table on the patio, after only a five minute wait. There was only 1 or 2 other tables seated at the time. The waiter (Guillermo) greeted us very quickly and asked for our drink order, when he came back with the drinks I gave him a appetizer order, and then as I told him I was ready to order he stumbled over a slight mention of the specials. Since they were not sold to me in an appealing manner they struck no interest to me. That would be the last time I would see my waiter for the remainder of the evening, not once did he check on us to see if we enjoyed our meals or perhaps we would like more drinks from the bar, although I did see him wait on the two tables that arrived after us. He explained the specials to them with details he even asked if they were all okay more than once and even though our table sat in between them he made no effort to even speak a single word to us. The only person who did take care of us at all was the buss boy who refilled our waters even got us dessert and coffee. So we had to ask him for the manager. I explained my evening to the manager describing that we enjoyed our food despite our service. He apologized, not genuinely, and said he knew that the food was good and service was important, I suppose to him he felt as if that was all he could do and that it would convince us to eat at that restaurant again. I left it at that and the waiter brought the bill and we waited and watched as our waiter brushed by us a few more times as we sat unhappy ready to make our payment. So I got up walked in the restaurant and gave the bill personally to the manager and told him yet again that our server was ignoring us and could he run our credit card to pay the bill. He took the credit card, ran it, and we left. My boyfriend extremely upset from the situation was not even able to make it home without having to pull over on the side of the road to threw up from having his stomach so upset from the way we were treated. Being a bar trainer and a server for five years I have always known that the service is just as or more important than the food quality to ensure that people have the optimal dining experience. I'm not sure what your customer service policies are but I know that my disapoint of the way I was treated will cause me to never have the desire to believe that I could trust Belle Luna to ever give me a wonderful dining experience.

As Aventura residents, we have been to Bella Luna before. This time, however, was disappointing. Although there were numerous empty tables, we were seated immediately - next to the bar, where waitstaff placed orders. Throughout our evening there - and it was an evening - I was continually joisted by waitstaff. We arrived at about 5:45 PM. When were we seated, we waited about 10 minutes before a waiter asked us if we wanted to order something to drink. We each ordered a glass of wine. The glasses - about a 10 oz glass - came about half full. For $7 a glass, that is very expensive. The prior time we were there, the glasses were full. We received bread with three small pats of butter. When we finally received the menu (around 6:10 PM), we asked for more butter. My husband and I are small eaters, so we ordered a salad, split, and a pasta dish, split, with extra sauce. At about 6:45, we received the salad. I again asked for more butter, and for pepper. The waiter disappeared. My husband stopped a waiter, and we again asked for more butter and pepper. This time a waiter appeared with pepper, and we again asked for butter - which we finally received. Our dinner finally appeared around 7:30 PM. During that time, no one asked if we wanted another glass of wine, apologized for the delay, or offered anything for the delay. When our dinner appeared, I noticed I had not received extra sauce. I once again asked for extra sauce. About 7:45, I received the extra sauce. The restaurant was not crowded when we arrived, so there was little reason for this poor service. I will not recommend this restaurant to my friends in the future. Patricia Rogers