Bella Verona Salem, Ma

Tucked away on Essex Street, is a very small quaint Italian restaurant with 14 tables at most. Bella Verona is a piece of Italy in Massachusetts and if you love Italian food as much as I do, you will absolutely adore this place. The inside of the restaurant is very cozy, and the waitresses are always very nice. It has a nice candlelit kind of lighting, that makes it perfect for so many different kinds of occasions. Being as small as it is, they make it a more one on one experience by having a special board that they bring to your table. Oh, and I almost forgot, the wine bottles. The walls are lined with so many varieties of empty wine bottles, and some Italian masks that give it that extra Italian touch. The very first time I went to visit this place I fell in love. Just stepping into the restaurant gives me warm feelings and I haven’t even told you about the food yet. While the décor and atmosphere are enough to make me like it, the food is what skyrocketed this restaurant to my #1 favorite restaurant, Italian or not. They serve you immediately with freshly toasted bread and a black olive tapenade. The bread has a nice crunch and soft inside. As for the tapenade, I’m not as much a fan, not because it tastes bad, but because tapenade is not really my favorite. (Tapenade is a ground-up paste made of olives.)

Spaghetti Bolognese

Now for the main course: just thinking about this dish makes my mouth water. The Spaghetti Bolognese. I have tried a fair share of this dish, and they all pale in comparison. First, let’s talk about the serving size; whereas other restaurants serve much smaller portions for a decent amount more, Bella Verona gives you a hearty portion that leaves you full, but not overwhelming. I am floored as to how they create a dish quite as perfect as this. As I have mentioned before, I am picky about some of the foods I eat including chunks of tomatoes. In this dish, I couldn’t care less as the tomatoes are nice and soft and almost unnoticeable to eat. The pasta is cooked perfectly, and the sauce doesn’t overwhelm the entire dish but compliments it nicely. To wit, I will do my best to clean the sauce off the plate it tastes so delicious. It’s always just one more bit of the sauce until they bring out the dessert menu and then my focus is swiftly turned. I have tried a few of the dessert dishes on the menu, but my favorite is the Profiteroles. The dish comes with two cream puffs coated in a light sort of chocolate mousse and covered with whipped cream. The dish is very light, with a good level of chocolate flavor that is not too overwhelming but still lets you know that it is boss. The inside is creamy and the whipped cream itself is to die for.

Profiteroles

While I was there at the beginning of March, I also tried one of their specials, onion soup, and the Straciatella Alla Romana soup. To let you know I am a big fan of onion soup, especially the French onion variety with the gooey cheese floating on a piece of bread that has soaked up the delicious broth. However, this variety was a little different, missing the melted cheese on top. I can’t say that I didn’t miss it, but as it was an onion soup it was exactly as described, an onion soup. The broth, aka my favorite part, was light and not too overwhelming of an onion flavor. The onions themselves were soft and tender. They did include the bread in the soup as well, which was soft and full of the broth’s flavor.

Onion Soup

As for the Straciatella Alla Romana, which they described as a chicken broth with eggs, cheese, and parsley. I was intrigued to have an egg drop soup as I learned it was after I looked it up while waiting for it. Now I have never tried an egg drop soup, so I didn’t know what to expect, so when it arrived, I saw the broth and broken up egg pieces. I like eggs and soup I thought to myself, but I haven’t ever really had them both together. I tried the broth first to get myself, ready for the egg part. The Broth itself was phenomenal. It’s not just any old chicken broth, it has so much flavor packed into each spoonful, I couldn’t stop eating the broth. So, I decided to try an egg piece with the delectable broth, and I will be honest I didn’t know how to feel about it. The eggs themselves had the texture of a softer scrambled egg which was really weird to me and I wasn’t really fond of it. I just didn’t feel like eggs and soup went together well for me, but that is just my opinion. Separately, they are both great but together it just wasn’t for me.

Straciatella Alla Romana

Overall, I look forward to trying so many more dishes on their menu, and I hope next time you visit Salem, Massachusetts that you will check out Bella Verona.

(This is not a paid advertisement of the business. I received no compensation for this review.)

(This visit was early march before the quarantine.)