Bella Vita

Last week I had the pleasure of going to dinner with two of my friends from high school.  We are from a small town in Indiana, but have all ended up just a few miles from one another in Indy, so we try to schedule dinners every few months.

My friend Emily suggested we try Bella Vita at the Marina (on Geist Reservoir), as neither Lynn nor I had been there, and we agreed.  We were seated in what seemed to be an enclosed patio space.  Unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad that evening--it was sleeting and very windy--so it wasn't the ideal time of year to enjoy the what I can only assume to be amazing view of the reservoir. It was also a bit chilly, especially at foot-level--there were various lovely fire pits blazing, but we weren't near any of them. 

Tortellini Michelangelo

As we decided what to order, our waitress brought us bread and a sun-dried tomato infused olive oil for dipping.  Both were really tasty.  The menu has a variety of classically Italian dishes (pasta) and seafood/steaks, so there a fairly wide variety of things to choose from.  Not being in the mood for pasta, I opted to start with an "Italian wedge" salad ($8.99) and then have the Ahi Tuna Sliders ($10.99--possibly a strange choice for an Italian restaurant, but it sounded good).  Emily got the Tortellini Michelangelo and Lynn got the Penne Rustica. (Let me apologize in advance for the quality of the pictures--it was so dark in our corner that I had to use the flash, which rendered everything unappetizing looking.  They looked much better in real life!)

Penne Rustica

The Tortellini Michelangelo ($15.99) was cheese stuffed tortellini tossed with pancetta, onions, and mushrooms in a creamy tomato sauce.  It was very, very good.  Emily said it's what she usually gets, and I can certainly see why!  The Penne Rustica ($14.99) was spicy marinara with sliced Italian sausage, red peppers, and onions, and was topped with cheese that was then baked.  I don't normally like Italian sausage, but it gave a nice flavor to the sauce.  And, who doesn't love something topped with cheese?  I give it a thumbs up.

Italian Wedge

My wedge salad left something to be desired.  It was plentiful, and there was a good amount of pancetta, tomatoes, candied pine nuts, and bleu cheese, but the flavors of all of the above were drowned by the extremely acidic (and also plentiful) balsamic dressing that topped it.  The sharp bite of the dressing meant that I couldn't taste any of the ingredients that usually make a wedge so great.  If I ever ordered it again, I'd request bleu cheese dressing, or the balsamic on the side.

Ahi Tuna sliders

The tuna sliders hit the spot.  There was seared cajun ahi tuna on there, along with a wasabi mayo slaw.  The downside was that each slider only had about 3 thin slices of tuna, and they were overcooked.  The waitress asked if I wanted them medium, and I said sure, but they were definitely cooked all the way through--no visible pink at all.  I'm actually okay with that, but was less okay with the very small portions of tuna.  I mostly tasted the wasabi mayo slaw--which was, luckily, creamy and delicious.  The sliders came with waffle fries, which I normally love, but these were a bit limp.  All of this sounds pretty negative, but in actuality I did enjoy the sandwiches.

Because it was the holidays, we decided to live on the wild side and split a dessert.  We went with the Chocolate Volcano Cake (or something like that--the dessert menu isn't online and I've slept a few times since then).  It was really just a brownie-ish chocolate cake topped with ice cream.  Delish, but not really what we expected from the description (which made us think it might be like a molten cake, with liquid chocolate inside).

The offending water

Oh--one last note about the service.  About halfway through her glass of water, Emily realized that it had a bleachy flavor.  Lynn and I compared it to our own and verified that hers was the only one that tasted that way.  So, Emily told the waitress, who didn't act surprised AT ALL to hear that, and did not apologize--she just said, "You want a new one?" to which Emily naturally replied, "Um, yes please!"  So strange.  

In summation...I'd probably recommend only going here during the warm months, when you can enjoy the beautiful view you're paying for.  The food was pretty good, but not better than a lot of other Italian places in town, and everything was about $2-3 more expensive than it should have been (you are definitely paying for the location).  I'd love to try it again when I can sit on the open air patio with a summery drink.  But on this trip, at least the company of my amigas made up for the drawbacks!