Bethlehem: Anna Bella Ristorante (October 2016)

I dined at Anna Bella Ristorante with two family members on a Sunday afternoon in early October 2016. The restaurant is located on the Bath Pike (Route 512) in Bethlehem’s Hanover Township, north of Route 22. Anna Bella is open daily for lunch and dinner. The Caiazzo family, who owns Anna Bella, also own Campus Pizza on Bethlehem’s South Side. They once operated Anna Mia Ristorante (also located on the South Side but now closed), as well as Molto Pazzo on Main Street in Downtown Bethlehem (in the previous Olio space).

The restaurant is located in a cream-colored stucco stand-alone building that offers plenty of complimentary parking. Inside, the interior's butter yellow walls are stenciled with a darker pattern. A terra-cotta tile floor; cherry chair rail, and marble-topped booths and tables offer various seating configurations. A private dining room can hold about 20 people comfortably. Anna Mia offers a full bar, which is not always the case for many Lehigh Valley Italian restaurants.

Anna Bella Ristorante offers Italian cuisine, both casual items such as brick-oven pizza, calzones, strombolis, subs, steak sandwiches, and burgers, as well as pastas dishes and more formal entrees like chicken, veal, and seafood. We ordered three pasta dishes (three Ps pasta of penne with parmesan, peas, prosciutto, tossed in a cream sauce, linguini with white clam sauce, and fettucini with sausage and spinach). Prior to our entrees, our server delivered crisp house salads (with romaine, cucumber, and red onion, and choice of dressing), and a basket of buttery garlic knots. Anna Bella also offers takeout and pizzas to go.

We enjoyed our dinner at Anna Mia; the food and service were good.