Cucina Bella

Excellent service & great atmosphere. Try their risotto. The portions are very generous so you’ll have plenty for leftovers. Good drinks too!

Hope you like waiting around! We tried twice, and both times waited 20 minutes past our reservation time just to get a table, and 30 minutes after that before we saw our food! Decent food, but expensive and NOT worth that wait. Staff is rude and just doesn’t care. I wonder if people are coming for the atmosphere more than anything. Avoid.

We had a family members bridal shower at Cucina Bella. Brian and Melinda were the ones who take care of us on the day of our event. Everything was handled with professionalism and ease. The atmosphere was great and the food was amazing! All of our friends and family had a great time! We will for contact them for any future events and will be back on a regular night for dinner! Thank you!

Amazing calamari. Went with friends and thoroughly enjoyed this well prepared appetizer. The staff was friendly, professional, and efficient. My wife’s chicken piccatta was delicious and well portioned. My chicken milanese was quite good. NOTE: Long on peppers. Ask the kitchen to lighten up on the sauteed green peppers.
Our friends ordered the braciola and were extremely pleased. We are looking forward to our next visit

From start to finish… Just professional. Greeted right away when we walked in. I actually called be fore cause I had to move our reservation back half an hour. But it wasn’t a problem, and that was on a Saturday night. The food was amazing, the portions were huge. And every single bit of service was with a smile. That was my first of many Visits.

Friends have recommended for years… Now I know why! Great service, bar and food! HUGE portions! We split our dinner and still had a doggie bag! Melinda is an awesome waitress, even on a busy evening!

This is the best kept secret in Algonquin. I also recommend buying their sauces from the store. Great service, atmosphere and quality food. I can’t rave more about this place.

LOVE this place. I have been going here for years, and frankly I can’t believe I haven’t written a review previously. First of all– they’ve been here for a while– and family owned. One of my favorite things is the décor– brick walls, great art on the wall, just a great vibe. Fantastic wine selection and friendly bartenders that know how to make lovely cocktails. The food is epic. That’s all I have to say. I could write novels about their gnocchi, their vodka sauce, pretty much everything. Go here, and go here again and again. Thank me later.

Food is always great. This is one of our favorite date night spots!

Great food. We were seated way past our reservation time, but the manager made up for it with drinks & an appetizer at no charge. He apologized & checked in with us to make sure our meals were good. Class act!

A nice dinner out with good service.
We stopped in on Monday night, not very busy at all. Our experience had been that they seemed very busy on the weekends, but this was not an issue on a weeknight. There were a couple of tables in there when we went in, and a family birthday party arrived while we were ordering. Pleasant, old downtown building. Lots of brick, low light, and standards played at a volume that was conducive to conversation. I was able to see that they get some regular traffic in the bar, as a couple of people came in who were greeted by name.
The bread was very good, and I liked that they had a local beer on the menu. My wife had the chicken picatta, which she said was very good. She commented that the capers were not at all salty, which she liked. I had the veal saltimbocca, which was tender and delicious. There seemed to have been a bit too much of the sauce on the plate, but that may just be a personal preference. The pasta that accompanied our meals was good, but the marinara sauce was a bit pedestrian.
We’re looking forward to going back and sampling some of the other items on the menu.

This place has the best sauce in the world with there mussels appetizer. I’ve had it as an entire before. The feel is unique with exposed brick and spaced out table settings. The staff is friendly and on-​point. Overall one of the few restaurants in down town Algonquin and in my opinion the best.

Absolutely my favorite place to go… I think the staff must think I live here! Date night, family night, even holidays… Never had a bad experience. They are great when my young children come along as well which is refreshing, we really enjoy going out all together!
The food is always full of flavor and the portions are great. I love that your entrée includes soup/​salad selection. Hard to save room for dessert, but definitely worth it here. Carrot cake is HUGE and delicious! More than enough to share for 2 – 4 people easily!
I’ve been in at opening hours, at closing hours, and mid-​shift but never received less than satisfactory service. They make sure you’re comfortable and don’t push you to rush…
I’ve only tried their cocktails once and wasn’t blown away. Wine is always a great selection and they have a lot to chose from.
Already looking forward to go back… :)

I’ve been to Cucina Bella several times during the week having excellent service without reservations. This past Saturday’s 7 pm reservation turned into a 50-​min. wait! I checked in with the hostess several times to get an update on the wait time (remember the Chinese restaurant Seinfeld episode?) No apologies when we were finally seated (no napkins or utensils either). Mentioning the wait time to the server in passing, she replied, «Well, you’re sitting down now!» Hmm…
Several reviews highlight similar difficulties with service and wait times. Speaking to the manager at the end of the evening revealed «that’s just the way it is» I quipped that a reservation must be a loosely structured concept and he agreed. Unfortunately they accept more reservations than they can accommodate.
On the plus side, the food is delicious. If it’s a weekend, do yourself a favor and get takeout!

Love their food. Fresh, authentic italian. Great place for a special occasion. Nice wine list.
Downtown Algonquin has a lot to offer and Cucina Bella is one.
It is nice to have the quaint, rustic restaurant atmosphere.

Headed in for dinner on a cold snowy day! Decided to give the Bella pasta a try it was a great choice on the special menu, there were jumbo shrimp in the pasta which made it taste even better. For desert I tried there Tiramisu, if you have enough space for desert give it a try. The waiter was good except he forgot that we ordered stuff clams as did I, I realized when I was headed back home that I didn’t get my stuffed clams. Overall it was a good experience.

Yesterday was our first time at Cucina Bella and it was wonderful. While we have lived in the area for 12 years, this was the first time we ventured to downtown Algonquin to eat. They do take reservations, but on a Monday night at 5pm we were able to walk right in and get a table. Initially, they wanted to place is nearer the kitchen, but we requested a table near the window and they happily obliged.
The atmosphere was warm and quaint. Cucina Bella has almost a Boston feel. Our waitress was kind and chatty, but not overbearing. The noise level was quiet initially with only a few tables being occupied. Over the hour and a half we were there it filled up and the noise level rose, but not horribly. It was easy to have a conversation even with the restaurant almost filled.
Dinner was fantastic. It is traditional Italian with many homemade sauces. We highly recommend the chicken vesuvio and the risotto of the day. Both were fantastic and the portions are huge. We capped it off the a carrot cake… They may say it is a piece of carrot cake, but the cake is 4 layers and enormous. All of the servings are definitely shareable for 2.
In all it was a wonderful place for a date night. We will definitely be going back.

Came here for the Chicago company Christmas party. The service was great and the atmosphere was very rustic. Since it was a Christmas party, we got a little loud, but luckily there were some other Christmas parties taking place. The table bread was too hard for my liking, but the calamari was excellent. Just a note: almost all the portions are very generous. Might consider sharing plates because everybody took their food to go due to the generous portions.
I would say it is a great place for a romantic date with a loved one.

Ok, so this is my third try at this restaurant since it opened. Still same BS. Got seated (not near kitchen, so that’s a step in the right direction!). Took 26 minutes to get first cocktail. Another 35 minutes for second. Salads showed up at minute 48. I thought it was my meal, I had forgotten about the salad course. I am so ready to go, tired of such bad service.
How does this place stay open? Or does this just happen to me every time I come here?
Done. Not coming back.

Tuesday night is our date night. We chose this place because we had been here a long time ago and couldn’t remember if we liked the food or not! We did remember that the service was slow and inattentive… but thankfully, not this time!
Our service this time was actually engaging and personal, partly because we were one of four tables at 8pm on a Tuesday.
The food was excellent, and I think one of the best grilled calamari I have ever eaten (in the US). The eggplant parmesan was lightly breaded and seasoned perfectly and the linguine con cozze was savory and huge! I also had to take advantage of the Tuesday $ 2 bottle of wine, which tasted like a $ 2 bottle of wine, but it was worth every last cent!
The ambience is dark and romantic, but able to accommodate large groups as well.
We’ll be back soon, and I will be sure to order the linguine again, so I can try it with the red sauce!