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644 Notre Dame, Repentigny
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BYOB. Good wheelchair access. Tel.: 470-1391
 There is plenty of room in the Montreal restaurant scene for a big-hearted family place that doesn't feel like a chain; a BYOW with easy in-and-out for about $20-$25 a person.
Bella Sera has only been open a month or so. It is Claudio Vezina's place. His first. Claudio is a large, friendly guy in his young thirties. He comes from a family with cooking in their blood, more specifically the long established Tre Marie in Little Italy. Bella Sera was a dump when he bought it, a restaurant ravaged by fire. Today it looks like a refurbished loft from Old Montreal. Brick walls, stylised tin-plate ceilings, deeply stained varnished floors which Claudio worked, no mean feat when this is a place that comfortably seats 200 people ("someone wanted $20,000 to do the floors. I worked a dozen hours a day to do it myself").
A caveat - Claudio knows me. I had met him once briefly at Tre Marie and he was cordial then as we talked about food. At Bella Sera, we went with my brother and his friend who knows Claudio from when they were both teenagers. We had forgotten that this place was a BYOW and arrived without any wine. Claudio sent over a bottle. So, despite the fact that I have a Visa receipt for the bill, I cannot say that I enjoyed the meal without being under the influence.
That noted - here goes:
 Bella Sera is a large boisterous room and should be great for groups. There is a less imposing section for romantic tête-à-têtes on the side near the serving bar. The place is so large that it appears a little vacant and needs more decorating. This will change as Claudio and his mate, Anne, spend their free time hunting for decorative odds and ends at flea markets and antique stores. Think of this as a new shoe that should wear well with time.
Service is great, lots of young eager staff with about 6 more in the kitchen.
The food is generic Italian moving towards a slightly better level in some unusual ways. It is a menu that hits a strong middle chord - large portions, pizzas, pastas, veal, chicken and fish. Nothing exceptional. Only, and here is where there is an indication of some imagination, the spicy tomato sauce served with the calamari was superb and worked great on the bread as a kind of warm bruschetta. The same sauce was served with the pasta side dishes that accompanied the mains. The calamari were served on a bed of chopped red cabbage. While pretty, the cabbage added much to the taste but also made the small pieces of warm squid cool very quickly.
The veal scaloppini was thick and tough and the sauce overpowering. There needs to be a sense of the subtle with this dish: the meat pounded thin and the sauce balanced with just enough lemon to offset the fat in which the veal is fried.
On the other hand, the pasta dishes are made here and the cheese ravioli with spinach was excellent. The lasagne was good but I found the noodles too thick and the meat sauce sparing with not enough tomato flavour. Similarly, the sliced veal in a reduced wine sauce was tasty but overcooked.
Portions are huge and mains come with a choice of soup or salad. The night we were there the soup was a decent minestrone and the salad, a simple dish of greens. Nothing to complain about.
We were too full for separate desserts and decided to share a tiramisu from the limited selection that came with the meals. It was sumptuous, rich and tasty - a knockout, a great bookend to the superb tomato sauce that started off the meal. —Reviewed by Barry Lazar
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