Stella Artisan Italian

Service needs improvement. Inexperienced, young, and poorly trained waitstaff. Robotic looking inattentive hostess. No management or owner in sight to voice concerns to. Food quality was mediocre. Really want to like this place, it can be so much more than it is.

Heard good things about this restaurant so wanted to try but everything about this place was not good. We were seated and it took 20 minutes for someone to come over and when the waitress did she asked if we were ready to order. We hadn't even received water or had she opened our bottle of wine. Once we did order the food, it took an hour to get it. We actually thought the waitress forgot about it and was about to just pay for our appetizer when the food finally arrived. The food was not worth an hour wait at all. The spicy rigatoni was not spicy and tasted like Chef Boyardee and we have had better Chicken Piccata at the local pizza place. Not worth a trip.

We have always loved Stella but our last two experiences were terrible and we won't be back. When we arrived our table was set up missing one person from the reservationn and they had to bring over another table which took some time and inconvenienced other patrons. Our server was clearly overextended, they didn't have enough menus for us and it took a long time just to get water. The appetizers were served in stages so we were not able to eat them at the same time - this also happened last month when we were there. Same with our dinner, and unfortunately one of the dinners didn't come out until we were all done eating. Even more frustrating, there were no updates on what happened and after asking multiple times we were told that the dinner went to someone else. With our last experience, this happened too AND 3 of our 4 dinners came out on top of our appetizers which we had barely started! The quality of the food was inconsistent which was never the case in the past. Something has changed and unfortunately their service and quality have slipped materially.

First time dining at Stella Artisan in Ridgewood, NJ. Parking was convenient with the public parking garage right across the street. The dining room is small so make sure you make reservations. Service was very good. We started off sharing a Cesar salad served chopped, shaved parm with a small amount of croutons...very good! I had the Spaghetti Alla Vodka...unimpressed. My husband had the Garganelli...very good. Prices were reasonable. Overall, I would say it's worth the visit. It's a BYOB so don't forget to bring the wine! 🍷

Can't give a restaurant a good review when the main meal comes out one minute after the appetizer. “Sorry the kitchen is busy” is not an acceptable excuse.

What a little gem food was impressive and tasty. Service was outstanding. Look forward to going again

Valentine's Day date. Try a new restaurant as we are always out and about trying different places. The place was okay. Definitely not bad. Cool chill small spot. BYOB. Food was okay I love the town the restaurant is in. Back to the food. Good amount taste was 7/10. I left happy will I go back not sure . Servers were great and helpful

Went for Valentine's Day and was pleasantly surprised that there was a special menu but also regular menu was also available. We chose the special menu which was very reasonably priced at $90 for two with options for each course. Started with burrata caprese. Nice size portion and cheese very good but tomatoes were not that flavorful. (Other option was fried zucchini) Next was Caesar salad- tasty and not overdressed (other option was garden salad) Next was main dish. I had Branzino with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Delicious and enough for 2 meals. Husband had scallops with risotto which he enjoyed. There were 4 choices for entrees. Dessert was a medley of sweets. The churro was the best of the group. Coffee was included. Atmosphere was nice. Servers very pleasant. We had an 8 pm reservation and were seated immediately and were not rushed. Nice amount of time between courses Overall an excellent meal.

The food was good. The service was not. We had to wait 15+ minutes for a waitress to come to us and that was after asking for a wine opener. We then waited for bread after we asked for it and it came in the middle of our dinner. Overall the service was lackluster

The food was very good as always. However the service was definitely lacking this time. They mentioned that they were overbooked. There were 2 very large parties. There wasn't enough staff to attend to the number of parties. Many diners sat for quite a while waiting for their plates to be cleared. I noticed that with one party of 4 two diners received their dinners while it took quite a while for the other 2 diners to get their orders. There was quite a gap in between courses and removing dirty plates. I will go back again because of the food but if service continues like this I would probably not return.

Food was very good overall but: 1-an appetizer presented very differently than how it was described on the menu; 2-we made one slight change to an entree when ordered but it wasn't prepared as requested, order had to be redone, and I was practically done with my entree by the time my husband's came out. 3-service was slow but they were very busy so that can be overlooked.

Terrific place for traditional Italian fare with reasonable prices. Everyone at our table loved their food. Our server was very attentive. The decor of the place is charming. Place was pretty empty for a Saturday night; not sure why. It's not gonna set the culinary world on fire, but delicious Italian food that's not exorbitantly priced is a rarity these days.

food was amazing from the appetizers, salad, dinners and dessert. the restaurant was not crowded but the service was average at best. had to ask for water, refills, cheese for the pasta. not something I would expect for a restaurant at this price point. not sure if they were short staff or this is normal.

Overall, had a great time. The service was great. The food was I think over seasoned in my opinion places kind of tiny, but the seats are spread apart enough where you don't feel crammed. We had a calamari spicy rigatoni, eggplant, Parm, chicken, Parm, and a few other dishes, which were okay but nothing to write home about. 

First time here. This night was pretty young crowd. Maybe because it's relatively inexpensive. But where you win on cost you lose on service and food quality. If this evening was any indication, get ready for excruciatingly slow service. And then the food finally gets to you, it's only so-so. Ridgewood has a number of really good restaurants. This one is middling at best, based on out one visit. Unfortunately, we have no motivation to return.