Food & Drink

Mia Bella Restaurant: Cleveland's 25 Best Restaurants

This Little Italy corner restaurant offers old-school with modern pasta dishes.

by Dillon Stewart | Apr. 28, 2022 | 12:00 PM

Mia Bella Restaurant

Mia Bella Restaurant

In a world of food made to be Instagrammed, Mia Bella is an old-school hold out in Little Italy. It’s not that the food isn’t worthy of the post. The spicy cheese tortellini ($21.95) is gorgeous, piled up in a luxuriously rich sauce and adorned with green peas and fresh herbs. You are simply not allowed.

Just ask my wife, who was eviscerated by owner Emigert Memeti for taking a Snapchat video of the dining room. Something about a hypothetical customer being there with a mistress. After cooling off with a hot plate of eggplant parmesan ($10.95), perhaps Mia Bella's most beloved dish with the thinly sliced veggie topped with ricotta and served in marinara, we laughed about how her grandfather would've reacted similarly to phones at the dinner table.

Just like at grandpa’s, we’re happy to put our phones down and soak up the charm found along Mayfield Road. mblittleitaly.com

Our full list of 25 Best Restaurants, 10 Best New Restaurants and reader-voted Silver Spoon Awards is your guide to Cleveland’s best bites.

Dillon Stewart

Dillon Stewart is the editor of Cleveland Magazine. He studied web and magazine writing at Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and got his start as a Cleveland Magazine intern. His mission is to bring the storytelling, voice, beauty and quality of legacy print magazines into the digital age. He's always hungry for a great story about life in Northeast Ohio and beyond.

Get the Latest in Your Inbox

Whether you're looking for daily news bites, the latest bites or bite-sized adventures, the Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter experiences have something for everyone.