cucina bella

great food! the pizza is always perfect. authentic italian food in a small setting. great prices for the quality. greatplacefor a casual and delicious dinner or lunch.

wow. see also: yum. my first trip here and only sampled two menu items so i can't say everything is a home run but whoa - the pizza (the daily special) and the antipasto were both delicious. knowledgeable, friendly service and a nice-casual atmosphere to boot - and byob always makes me happy. i wouldn't consider this aplacefor romance (kind of loud and a little crowded) but if thisplacewere near my office i would want to get lunch there pretty much every day. i can't wait to go back and try more offerings! the only suggestion i might make is that the two-top tables are really small - if i had been there with my husband, i am pretty sure he'd have wanted to try two pies, and there's no way they'd have fit on the table.

dear mr. owner, my wife and i, who have enjoyed your fare many times, came in tonight about 7:15pm. we wanted to sit outside, as it was a beautiful evening. no, said your staff! even though many others were enjoying this beautiful night, we could not. they were toting the company line, but they were doing you no favors, mr. owner. yourplacewas mostly empty, but they refused our business. alas! you are not the only pizzeria in town. we found another that would seat is outside, and guess what? we liked it better. sowwy.

this past saturday, we decided to go to dinner at aplacewe have not been to in quite a while (2+ years, i think): cucina bella in bridgeville. as sp says, it's a "fancy pizza" place. one thing that has changed: they now have valet parking. i'm not sure why; they have a decent size lot although i do remember it filling up and overflow parking being on the street. another thing: it seems they now take reservations, at least for large groups. when we arrived around 5:30 pm, we were seated right away but noticed 2 large tables set up with a reserved sign and a couple smaller tables with reserved signs.

fresh ingredients.  good salads and pizza.  byob, which is great to have a few byob restaurants.  service is predictable and friendly.  if the weather is right, great to sit outside.  unfortunately, we were forced inside due to the weather.  still a niceplacebut it is noisy inside.  we split a salad that had goat cheese, and some fresh peaches with a very good wine vinaigrette.  just wish it had a few more slices of peaches, was expecting a few more slices.    our pizza had fresh mozzarella, homemade meatballs that were so good, a tasty sausage, parmigiana, san marzano tomato sauce and some olive oil.  it was mouth watering tasty.

the pizza here is by far the best in the south hills! they are byob with very reasonable cork fees. the staff is very friendly and helpful. somehow every time i'm here i get jesse as my waitress and she is just spectacular! i'm a giant fan of the bambino and 4 formaggi, just outstanding pizzas! if you ever get a chance give thisplacea try, you won't be dissapointed.

great food, but loud!!!. friends of ours told us how great thisplaceis and we decided to stop by on a friday night when it was only the two of us. we ended up coming to an early dinner - which turned out to be a good move on our part as theplaceis very popular and filled up while we were enjoying our dinner.

this restaurant specializes in pizza. all of the pizzas share the same thin but crispy crust and have many different combinations of toppings that you can choose from. they have about 25 different sets of combinations that you can choose from, but if your tastes are different, they give you the option of coming up with your own combinations. pizza is not the only thing on the menu as there are also salads, panini, calzones, and appetizers available. while this menu cries out for wine to be served with it, the restaurant is byob with a $5 corking fee.

one of the local radio personalities always raves about the place's meatballs, so we ordered them as an appetizer. we got six meatballs with six slices of bread that had a small drizzle of olive oil and some shaved parmesan on them. the center of the plate had a small puddle of tomato sauce to pull everything together. as a dish it worked great! each of the components was well seasoned and tasty, and when you put some of the meatball on the bread which was used to scoop us some sauce - yum!

we also got a salad which was a nice change. arugula combined with apple chunks, craisins, and chunks of smoked mozzarella worked very well together. unfortunately, this was were we were hit with the first snag of the evening. the menu described this particular salad as coming with a mustard-based dressing. once the dish was served and we were eating it, we noticed that we got an oil and vinegar dressing. when we asked our waitress about it, she apologized and ran to the kitchen to get the proper dressing only to return to let us know that they ran out of if, but did not tell her about it.

our pizza arrived and it was delicious. the combination that we ordered worked really well and the drizzled balsamic - fig reduction added just a touch of sweetness which pulled it all together in a wonderful way. the crust was crispy and not greasy which was nice to see, and the proportions were just right for us to share. about the only negative thing that we can say about the crust was that we would have preferred for it to have some herbs in it.

however, there were a few negative spots about our experience. as i mentioned above, theplacefilled out pretty quickly. once the room was more than half full, it became very hard to hear each other as the acoustics of the room were such that they magnified every sound. by the time the room was completely full, we felt like we were at the end of an airport runway with several airplanes getting ready to take off! we could not exchange any words without screaming at the top of our lungs.

the second problem was that they have almost no parking available. smartly, the restaurant offers valet parking, but with theplacebeing so full, negotiating the traffic in the immediate area of the restaurant was a chore.

we will definitely be going back again, but probably try to make it in the middle of the week to hopefully not have to deal with the noise and traffic issues.

what did you say?. i have been to cucina bella three times, twice in the last week, and my food has been wonderful each time but...the noise level in the evening is a little jarring. my first visit was for lunch with a friend and noise was not something i noticed as i enjoyed my delicious, thin-crust pizza. but theplacewas crowded during my last two visits, with christmas party season in full swing even on a week night, and the patrons seem to raise their voices to talk to each other consequently making an intimate conversation impossible.

i will go back for the food but if the noise issue could somehow be alleviated, it would be just about perfect.

could've been better. first visit last night after hearing rave reviews. theplacewas jammed tight, and the noise level extremely loud. there are definitely more tables crammed into the space than their web site shows in the photos. the service was excellent with a menu limited to pizza, sandwiches, salads, and appetizers. everything served looked great on other tables.

the stuffed figs were delicious. the cheese filing overwhelmed the taste of the figs, but the honey drizzled over was a nice touch. the caprese salad was not quite as good as home made, but definitely better than most places. the imported mozzarella seemed a bit old. they smashed it down between the halved cherry tomatoes and it was a little too firm to be fresh. our pizzas came separately, and the ingredients tasted all fresh. my only complaint was that they left almost 2 1/2" of bare crust all the way around the 12" pie. i would have preferred the fixings to go all the way up to the edge, or at least within 1" of it. having to eat that much dry crust was a waste, with nothing to dip it into in lieu of more fixins. $16+ for a pie should buy me a little more goodies.

it's byob and we brought our own wine. dinner for two pizzas, one salad, and one appetizer was over $70.

with too much empty crust and the really loud noise level, i'm only giving it 3 stars.

almost liked it. i really, really wanted to like thisplace- and i almost did but not enough to return nor would i recommend to others. the menu full of unique wood oven pizza options sounded so promising and the byob had me extra excited. i even gave them a 2nd chance as i was convinced my first time there must have been an "off" night; but no such luck so i'm moving on.

i started w/ an arugula salad topped w/ fresh peaches, pistachios & goat cheese. this might make me sound like a food snob but for $10 i expected a little more. for example, the peaches could have been grilled (vs. chopped raw) and pistachios toasted. instead it was just loaded w/ too much goat cheese which is a flavor i'm getting tired of anyways. my friends & i decided to split two pizzas; a margarita w/ extra basil & another red sauce option w/ roasted artichokes & mushrooms. this is where i explain why i "almost" liked it. the sauce, cheeses, veggies & herbs all tasted delicious and you can certainly tell they're using fresh, high quality ingredients. my issue is there was absolutely no doughiness to the crust - it was crispy to the point it cut up my mouth & took away flavor from everything else. this was my problem the 1st time i went but clearly a crunchy crust is their formula. if i could take everything on top & put on a little bit softer crust then we'd have a winging combination. others must like it though based on their ratings - i agree to disagree!

2nd visit and there will be more. this time we tried a couple of the apps, splitting a small antipasti/salumi plate and an order of banana peppers. the antipasti was easily enough for two on its own - enough salumi and cheese for two footlong subs. comes with a small loaf of freshly-baked bread on a plate with olive oil. the bread was airy and delicious. if we really wanted to be picky, it would be nice to have an assortment of olives instead of all kalamata, as there were a lot of olives. but it's hard to argue what you're getting for $13. the banana peppers were awesome, but again, there was probably too much for one person, so it's ideal for sharing. the bread slices served with the banana peppers was not as fresh as that served with the antipasti.

wife had the four seasons pizza (again) while i opted for the pizza anna, which was fabulous. as with the first visit, crusts were perfect, toppings fresh. i was mildly concerned the anna, with its "sauce" of balsamic/fig reduction might be a bit cloying, but it wasn't, and the sauce offered a nice counterpoint to the red onions and peppers. the quattro stagioni delivered again, as all the ingredients are impeccable.

as it's byo, we had to make a stop first and there was a nice $15 chianti in the chairman's selection at the plcb that went perfectly with the pizzas. love this place. we'll be back again soon.


-----06 jan, 2013-----

excellent. thisplacecan give il pizzaiola a run for best pizza, although i'd still give the nod to ron's pizza - although it's closer that i would've guessed. cucina bella far surpassed our expectations. the pizza crusts were remarkable - airy on the edges, dense in the thin crust body, flavorful throughout. the calzone shell is equally as tasty. toppings are high quality. prices reflect this, but it's really worth it. a pizza you savor instead of simply devour mindlessly.

wonderfully intimate dining. the food was exceptionally good. they have the best balsamic dressing in the area.
servers were very nice and extremely friendly and well versed on the menu. thus makng them very helpful.
it's a great littleplacewith extraodinary food. very unique and very tasty!

loud: not good for conversation. having a dinner group with 120 people in it, i went there with 10 friends to check it out tonight... a busy saturday night. the menu was very diverse (mainly with many pizza options) but i was surprised that they didn't have a basic pasta. after waiting 15 minutes for a clean glass to become available for my drink, i started with the wedding soup that was no bigger than a diner coffee cup for $4.99. it had 1 meatball in it and tasted like progresso. definitely would not recommend the soup. the salads were a very nice size and looked delicious... i should have went with one of those over the soup. next, i had one of the calzones that was a very good size and was excellent, although they ran out of red sauce for dipping (as well as silverware). based on the size of my soup, i expected the pizzas to be small, but they were a good size as well.

because it was a packed house, it was so loud that you couldn't hear yourself think, much less talk to the person that was sitting right next to you without screaming. every single person was screaming... i have never been in such a loud restaurant in my life... definitely not theplaceto go on the weekends if you want to talk to the people at your table. i left with such a headache from screaming and trying to hear. i was happy when our server didn't offer us any dessert because i just couldn't wait to get out of there. my ears are still ringing over an hour later.

if it weren't for quality and quantity of the calzones and pizza (at a fairly pricey cost though), it would have been the worst experience i've had at a restaurant. there are plenty of mom and pops pizza joints that are just as good for less cost.

service was unbelievably slow!!! the cooks were fooling around in the kitchen. you could hear them laughing and swearing. the waitress kept getting lost ( to where not sure) and theplacewas empty. there were like 3 tables seated. pizzas were cold. not sure what was going on but not impressed at all

service needs some work. we recently took relatives here for a special occasion. it was our first time and we had high hopes based on the reviews. we did sit near the kitchen which was a bit loud, on subsequent visits we asked to sit closer to the front. the food is quite good and a nice change for the south hills. although a bit on the pricey side, well worth it with reasonable bottle fees of $5 for wine bottle and $3 per beer drinker. the one thing that needs work is the experience of the staff. while friendly, they can be absent minded and slow. also timing from the kitchen is an issue. on both trips the main came out within minutes of starters, unacceptable. thisplacehas become quite the spot for the merc and b'mer crowd, let's hope they can improve service in spite of the great press. a mustplaceto eat with great food, just sit near the front. you won't be walking in to a table on sat nite at 6 anymore.