Bella Luna Restaurant & The Milky Way Lounge

My cousins came here last night for the Erotic spoken word event. We got there early so that we could eat, but the table was so close that we didn’t even need to pay the cover to get into the back area, we could hear them from our table (the coordinator put the event on the big screen TV near us so we could watch from our seats). so that was a big plus.
The drink options looked great, and so did the desserts. I had to be at work early this morning, so I wasn’t able to try any of the drinks. So I decided to get the chocolate lava cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I put in my order and our waiter comes back to tell us that they are out of vanilla… The only other ice cream options were chocolate or coconut sorbet, and neither of those sound like they pair well with chocolate cake, so I declined.
I decided to order the pork nachos ($ 13) and split them with another person while we tried to listen to the show. The food came out relatively quickly… but the nachos were not good. The meat lacked flavor, the coleslaw was so mild, and there was barely any salsa. It was just not good. I went to talk to the waiter and I told him how I really didn’t like them. Since the kitchen was closed (at 10pm!!), all he could offer was a discount, which is fair.
I think I will come back for another event when I am in the mood for drinks and when they have vanilla ice-​cream in stock. So just for the ambiance, I will give it 3 stars. The show was cool!

Haiku Review:
This place went down hill.
Dry fish, kitchen closed early.
Bad food and service.
Sat and ignored in corner. specials menu yanked off table. finally got very overcooked dry salmon. was told no dessert because the kitchen closed early. Not impressed.

A fun neighborhood spot! Service is always friendly, and the food is great! Best Pizza in JP!

I would be very careful at this bar. A few months ago someone put something in my drink; I woke up in the emergency room the next morning with absolutely no recollection of the night. It was very crowded and there was little to no security the night the incident occurred. I do not feel the management takes steps to ensure the safety of their patrons. I have attempted to contact the manager about the situation but it appears she does not feel like it is worth her time.
I am sharing my story in the hopes that future patrons will be more cautious if they decide to drink at this bar. However, if I were you I would steer clear. I know I will forever regret that night; I hope no one else will have to feel the same regret.

What a surprise. My wife brought me here when it was over crowded due to some party going on. Looking at the food and considering a 45min wait, it didn’t look appetizing; so we left. 2^nd time around my wife wanted to come back to this place to try. We had a pizza and a burger. The pizza was good but nothing to rave about. However, their burger was on point! Will definitely come back for a burger and beer again. Server was friendly and was helpful with the menu. Overall, it was a pleasant dinning experience.

A few weeks ago I came for an event that was canceled and replaced by a private event.
Their cover charge starts way before their events, which is misleading.
What I’m saying is don’t really read their website because it’s sort of just inaccurate.

Friendly people, small dancing area, nice bartenders. Didn’t try out the food so I would have to sometime!

This place has a great atmosphere. While the food was pretty good, the cocktail selection is very intriguing. My friend had the cardamom drink (can’t remember the name), and it was well-​balanced and refreshing. I had the Scarlet Witch (lime, blood orange, and tequila) and this drink was strong, but good. Overall, I would revisit, but mainly for their drink selection.
Also, ample parking in the lot.

We sat out on the patio here. I LOVE THE PATIO HERE. It was a beautiful waning summer night with great friends. The atmosphere here is so cool– a real great place to hang out. If only the food and the service matched the ambiance. Our waitress, Noelle just wasn’t having it with us. Either she was overwhelmed with all her tables (although there seemed to be an abundance of staff) or she just didn’t like us! I dont know. It took a solid ten minutes before we even saw her and then another 10 minutes to get our beers. 5/6’s of our drinks came and then we waited another 5 minutes for our last friends drink to arrive. When she came to bring our lost friends drink, she stopped at another table first to drop off theirs. That just doesn’t make sense to me.
We ordered poutine and nachos for the table. The poutine, while not traditional poutine (I’ve been told) was good but the nachos were subpar honestly. A generous helping but they were dry, overcooked, slopped together. I ordered the chicken sandwich for my entrée. Half of it was REALLY delicious, the other half of it was dry and really hard. Very confusing. I know I will be back here again because I loved the patio THAT much. I really hope my experience will be better so that I can change it and make it the ⁴⁄₅ start review that I hope this place is!

It’s the bar you come to after you visit the Sam Adam’s brewery for some actual food. The place is nice and pleasant, the bar staff helpful and makes a pretty strong drink.
Ordered the poutine which was delicious. The dish was served in a cauldron, which I loved, and had just the right amount of aioli to tame my carb hungry beast. In general, Bella Luna was a lovely selection of appetizers which you can stumble your way through as you sip more on Sam Adams with your friends. Being closer to Canada definitely helps with creating a better quality product because this was very good.
Additionally, Bella Luna during the summer has a good set of live performers in order to make your travel down the orange line a worth while experience. Do come back.

VEGANS! There are things you can eat here, although not as many or as creative as you might expect from a JP restaurant. In addition to the normal salads and side dishes, you can get vegan pizza, and they also usually have one other (~$ 20) vegan dish.
I have to say something regarding the vegan pizza, though. Omnivores preparing vegan food need to understand that a little Daiya tricks your brain into thinking «Mm! This tastes kind of like cheese, well not exactly, but it’s a nice addition to the other flavors.» Giant fistfuls of Daiya makes your brain think, «Ew, an unappetizing pile of chemical glop that’s all I can taste.» Go easy on that stuff.
Cocktails are usually good. Atmosphere is nice. Their New Year’s Eve party is a fun alternative to fighting the crowds downtown. I just sometimes feel that I don’t get my money’s worth here and I’m never wowed by the quality or quantity of the food.

My favorite bartender is back. He’s been away for a while, since Bella Luna was on Center Street, but he’s back. So happy. I will definitely be coming back for more. Thanks Dave!
By the way, Mondays is trivia night and $.75 wings!

New Review:
Second time around and Still wasnt able to seat outside becuase it was a cooler night (damn, i might try to come back to this place until im able to get a seat at their patio, Im not a quiter). Now let me tell you something… I ordered a salad to share with my date becuase it was the most suitable item in the menu for both of us and two months after I’m still eating the same salad everyday for dinner. I memorized all the ingridients and went to the store the next day and been making it myself since then. BEST SALAD UP TO THIS DAY! This spot always has good music and such a cool vibe. The bar is pretty large, i loved it!

Went here for bro’s post graduation dinner from Harvard.
I reccommend the calamari. Crisp and tossed in a slightly spicy Chile aioli.
We ordered two pizzas for our table. One plain (Simple Simon) and one custom with smoked mozzarella, bacon, spinach, and onions.
The pizza tasted fresh. Sauce is good. Dough is good, stretched into a thin crust.
However, we were extremely dissappointed to find the kitchen forgot one of our requested toppings… onions. Which would’ve taken that pizza to the next level.
The atmosphere is charming and the workers are nice. But to be honest, this experience will probably go on the forgettable list.

It’s really a shame that this place has such bad food. What a cool area and atmosphere it has, and the dancing at Bella Luna is pretty fun. Very interesting music and fun people. But, wow, they really need to improve their food. C’mon people! Do you know how great this place could be?
We ordered the Calamari. Which was obviously frozen. It has a weird color and was greasy and far from crispy. The Kale Cesar salad was just fresh kale dusted with parmesan cheese. The «Cesar» dressing was very strange and unappetizing.
We created our own pizza with onions and ham. The pizza left a really bad taste in the mouth and the onions were again, a very strange taste, color and texture. What are they doing back there in the kitchen? Fix it!

Service was great but my mushroom linguine was bland. SO BLAND. I wanted to love it and asked for some parmesan cheese to try to make it taste better but that didn’t help much since it was also drenched in oil, ugh. The cups used to serve water appeared to be dirty too so I didn’t drink out of them.
Also, hipster paradise. No thanks.

Living in Boston and working in Jamaica Plain I have never had the opportunity to eat here until last night and fortunately for us it was Taco Tuesday and we got there before the crowd arrived. It was surprisingly busy for a Tuesday night which is good to see. A few of us went for drinks at the bar which is small but the bartender accomodated all of us and was friendly and talkative. Drinks came out quick and tasted good. Once we had several drinks we opted for a large table for 8 of us. Spur of the moment seating and they were able to accomodate us by just pulling a few tables together.
As I said it was Taco Tuesday so a few of us ordered the calamari tacos and pulled pork tacos which I heard were very good. $ 4 tacos… so a few ordered two and after only two they were full. Topping were $.50 extra but they pilled on the toppings. We also ordered the pulled pork nachos which were again a large portion covered with the goods. The bella burger I heard was good, a large meat patty cooked medium came out as ordered. The Broccoli Rabetelli looked really good and I was a little jealous I didnt end up getting that. I struggled to decide what to get so therefore I asked the waitress. She was awesome! She walked me through some favorities and recommendations. I ultimately decided on the Pizza Menino with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, pepper and onions. Quite tasty indeed, great recommendation!
I think the prices are reasonable especially for the portions you receive. I must say our waitress was amazing, she was friendly and patient dealing with our semi-​crazy group. She was helpful with the menu and checked in on us. A nice cozy atmosphere where locals seem to flock. I hope to return soon!

It was a long wait. We should have made reservations, so that is not their fault per se. My fiancée and I just got drinks by the bar. Well, she got a drink (pictured below). It was nice; small but strong, and kind of fruity, which is how I like it. We waited quite a long time (probably over an hour from the moment we stepped into the restaurant).
Location: It’s in JP, which is a decently nice area. The surrounding location is kind of nice, actually, since it’s near the Southwest Corridor, but at night it looks a little sketchy. Inside the restaurant it was very decorated with lots of odd things. Very dim lighting. Fairly loud.
Service: Not as bad as we expected, given the reviews we read. The maitre d was very friendly and said she felt bad about the long wait, but was kind, which was good. Our own table server was also quite nice.
Food: We ordered two pizzas: a mashed potatoes one and a pulled pork one. This is where the points came off the review. We waited a fairly long time for the pizzas to come out. The mashed potato one, honestly, was not that bad taste-​wise, but there just wasn’t a lot of substance. At some point, it just tasted like you were eating bread/​dough because there wasn’t any sauce (intentional) and because the bacon bits were so itsy bitsy. The pulled pork one may as well have been a misnomer because there were maybe 4 pieces of meat, and they didn’t even look like pulled pork. It tasted good because of the sauce, but it was also not very substantial. The only plus is that there is more than enough food, though it was quite pricey — $ 26 for 2 personal pizzas, and $ 11 for the drink.
I came here because I won a gift card to this restaurant and wanted to try it out despite the negative reviews here on Unilocal,but I will likely not return.
Verdict: Make a reservation or wait a very long time. Low lighting and loud ambiance. Decent pizzas, but nothing to email home about. I will likely not come back.

BBQ pulled pork pizza was some really good business. every one else’s dishes were fine but nothing special. if I am ever nearby though, I am going back for that pizza. first server was wonderful, great advice and we had fun discussing the artwork on all of their novelty dinner plates. second server was neglectful and less eager to be there.
great place to make sure you don’t brew tour on an empty stomache. overall much better food option than doyle’s but you won’t get a free pint glass here.
unique artsy atmosphere. check it out.

Bella L is that one friend that may be a little eccentric and flaky at times, but you know that she’s ultimately reliable and good at heart.
On a warm Tuesday evening around 8 PM, our group of 6 hungry diners found ourselves at Bella’s abode, not knowing where else to go in the area (JP is another world!). Unfortunately there was a 45 minute wait for an outdoor table, as the hostess explained that they would have to combine 2 smaller tables to accomodate us, so we opted for one of the large tables indoors. The interior of the space is dark with a variety of lights and decorations including rainbow-​colored hanging lights, star lanterns, and one of those electric orb lamps. Bella’s interior decorator must have hit up Spencer’s in a suburban mall for inspiration. Such a middle school throwback. I dig it.
But I really just want to dig in! From creative cocktails to seasonal beers, the drink menu can be a bit overwhelming. As is the food one! There are specials, apps, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, oh my. And it may just be that we’re starving, but everything sounds crave-​worthy.
And just our luck! It’s Taco Tuesday, so there’s even a little menu boasting these options (fried calamari, al pastor, and cauliflower) at $ 4 a pop. Our table starts out with the sweet pea and arugula flatbread to share, and I thoroughly enjoy my Cat on a Hot Tin Roof drink. I’m a huge Dark and Stormy fan, and this baby just cries a little louder by adding pineapple to the rum and ginger mix. Muy tropical!
Let’s stay on this pineapple train! I order the taco al pastor which features ground pork, pineapple chunks (though I could have used more!), guacamole, slaw, and salsa on the side. The waitress said it was a small portion, but they really loaded up the toppings! I could have made this my meal if I wanted to. But I obviously didn’t.
I ordered the Margarita Mussels as my entrée, which was a very good portion for me. This is a different take on the shellfish dish, as the sauce is slightly boozy and acidic with sweet kernels of corn and salty chorizo. It’s served with a few housemade chips which adds a delightful crunch.
The rest of my party was all satisfied with their meals which included the other 2 taco offerings, salads, and burgers. Bella is also very veg-​friendly, as she shows off a variety of veggie pizzas and a black bean burger.
Bella Luna’s crib is a great option for the area, especially if you’re looking for a more casual spot with drinks and lots of variety. She’s good with groups and seems to host a variety of events and activities in her quarters, as a group was engaging in some sort of dance lesson in a room off to the side as we ate (Tuesday night line dancing = free entertainment!).
The main downsides of our experience were the slow and inattentive service, as the dishes took a while to be served, one of the burgers was not prepared correctly (although she asked to have it exactly like the other one ordered), and the waitress would disappear at inopportune times (such as when we were trying to peace out but couldn’t get the check). The price point could be lower considering the type of environment and fare served. For example, cocktails, albeit tasty, are all $ 11, and most beers hover around $ 6.50 or $ 7.
But whatever. Bella does what she wants. You can’t get too mad at her.